Is how easily mods have caved in once the admins threatened to remove them. I had thought we’d see quite a few cases where Reddit would have to step in an replace entire mod teams (effectively killing the community). But it seems like that hasn’t happened at all - the closest we’ve got is mods being reordered.
I guess I didn’t appreciate how much moderating means to some people, especially people who are marginalised or otherwise have shitty lives… (which makes Reddit’s behaviour even more abhorrent! Exploiting the most vulnerable in society to provide free labour they are making huge profits off).
That said, it seems like Reddit has crossed the Rubicon now. They have now forced mods to run their subreddits in a certain way. Mods now know they are operating in some tight boundaries, and the admins can - on a whim - change the rules and force them to comply. i.e. any illusion of the power they had is now massively reduced. I’m sure a lot of them will be in denial, but this more than likely won’t be the last time we see this happen.
I am not surprised that the mods gave in, not only because of egolatry, but because I don’t think anyone wants to see the fruit of their efforts taken away and in the hands of anyone. I have been more surprised by the users.
A little over a week ago people were voting massively everywhere in favor of the protest, but nowadays everywhere I go, I only see people saying how stupid the protest is, that this is a whim that the mods are forcing on the users, that the mods are doing it for their selfish interests, and that the whole thing makes no sense.
The worst thing is that the mods, instead of toning it down and settling for effective measures that don’t generate as much opposition, like shutting down one day a week (that should have been the initial and permanent proposal), they keep pushing to vote proposals that no one wants like restricting everything but silly pictures.
Users against mods while admins rub their hands together, and the only alternative is a couple of platforms in too early development with hardly any users. Reddit handled this extremely poorly, but will come out winning :-/
I’m not surprised.
Many mods are hugely invested. I was a reddit mod of a long standing sub until Tuesday when I de-modded myself and abandoned it after reading Apollo’s creator’s rebuttal. I was apalled by Spezz’s behaviour and simply could not stand being associated with Reddit’s management any longer. I walked away.
But my sub was low traffic, I hadn’t had it for that long, I hadn’t invested a lot of life into it. Being in that position is large part of your day, your routine. Stopping leaves a void. Many mods have invested years into Reddit and they genuinely care what happens to it. I understand and cannot blame any mod for wanting to stick with it, even through this insanity. Reddit knows that, of course, and even bad mods save them a lot of work. They know they can push them around, bully them into line and most will suck it up and take it.
As for users - the vast majority don’t feel ownership, or even particular involvement, and don’t want to. They just want to browse stuff and move on with their life. Spectators, and that’s fine.
Sorry to be negative, but for myself, I just want to be much less involved. I’ve always used aggressive adblockers everywhere and probably earn Reddit very little money, but I’ve generated a lot of content and done much volunteer work for them. I’m not interested in fighting them, only in distancing myself and finding other ways to spend my time. I do find it more than a little sad, however.