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’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.