Reddit is telling protesting mods their communities ‘will not’ stay private

dvdnet90@lemmy.world to Reddit@lemmy.ml – 217 points –
Reddit is telling protesting mods their communities ‘will not’ stay private
theverge.com
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These actions are further diminishing the public's trust in them.

Im betting they are counting on most users just not being involved or caring.

They're probably right, depressingly.

I can't make anyone else leave, but I did what I could by leaving personally. I am generally enjoying the experience over here more anyway, so I am not missing a whole lot. Maybe a couple niche subs, but I was considering working on launching equivalent communities over here.

That a Welsh username by chance?

And yea, thoroughly depressing.... I find the situation similar to the old micro transaction / shit game port situation where the masses couldn't care less and the small minority rebel and have little to no effect.

Sadly those that care about these things are generally grossly outweighed by those that couldn't give a toss. I haven't been back to Reddit for 4-5 weeks now and as a very early Reddit adopter I thought the break would be harder than what it has been. I have mentioned in a few posts here that the most surprisong thing to me is how often I was being served subtle ads guised in the form of content on Reddit. In 4 weeks or more I don't think I have seen a brand as such mentioned on Lemmy yet with Reddit it was legit every dozen posts. I knew this went on, but it took a week or so on Lemmy for me to realise the actual extent of it.....

Good riddance to the place, Lemmy feels like the early doors of the internet and I'm quite comfortable here :)

  • post

  • actual ad

  • post

  • weekly repost of video from Youtuber who's been pushing their content to the front page every week for several months

  • post

  • actual ad

  • random PR post from some Hollywood star's agency: nobody knows about their secret charity work that we've told millions of people about every month!

  • post

  • comedian advertising their standup show on reddit

  • actual ad

  • wow look at this tshirt/gadget/macguffin that I absolutely must have! If only I knew where to find it...

This is almost certainly true. But what I can't figure out is that Reddit needs Mods for the subs. And surely mods, and potential mods, are more engaged and informed.

There's always been this implicit understanding that Reddit gets free moderation across the whole site, something other SM sites spend millions if not billions on each year, in exchange for those mods having autonomy, control, and a sense of ownership of the subs they mod. That social contract has completely broken down.

I'd guess mods get into modding for one of two reasons. One is power/influence, which is now seriously diminished, and the other is because they care about the community, and they must now be wondering whether Reddit Inc is the best place to host such a community when it appears to be so hostile to users.