Anyone got the scoop on /r/pics protest? Looks like it got reverted to the old rules/sidebar today

Harriet_Porber@lemmy.world to Reddit@lemmy.world – 76 points –

I just want to grab popcorn and hear if anyone knows what happened. I'm assuming the admins finally took control?

Happened between these 2 archives this morning:

Still protesting

Reverted to old sidebar

15

Reddit Admins seem to be pushing back. I honestly can't see anyone wanting to become a Mod at this point after spez's "landed gentry" statement. He literally implied that they are peasants with unpaid responsibilities. Why the fuck would anyone ever volunteer to want to do that again?

Because new scabs don't know what's involved. They literally have NO idea that it's a fuckton more work than arbitrarily swinging a banhammer and letting posts roll in.

I had a look at r/ModSupport the other day and was laughing my ass off because it was mostly new scabs complaining about appearance changes and CSS help ("how can I change this sub's skin," lol) and older mods of established subs begging for help (literally begging, not kidding) because they are overrun with bots and all the shit they used to keep at bay with 3PA developed API-based tools.

This is an example of a begging post I pulled at the time (see the last line of the post - also change teddit.hostux.net to old.reddit.com or another Reddit redirector if teddix is down) :

https://teddit.hostux.net/r/ModSupport/comments/154bp7n/friends_we_are_far_beyond_drowning_in_bots_please/

It's a madhouse. I was very pleased to see it. :D

Jesus. You weren't joking. Why would anyone want to deal with that?

Sincerely, cut and run already, Reddit mods. I used Reddit for over a decade, modded and built up a formerly dead rafting sub for a few years, and jumped ship as easily as swapping my toothbrush. I can’t imagine making a website part of my identity, especially a hostile one.

I just saw this but the answer is power and control. These mods feel they need it because they are like “gods”. Why do you think the subs said a 2 day blackout? Had they said indefinite they would risk losing the only power they’ve ever had in order to feel whole

Guys, this was always going to happen. There's no world where the admins roll over and cave to mods' demands. The point was to last as long as possible and get as noticed as possible in the process. To that end, and with regards to the fact that reddit is fumbling its efforts to find new mods, this whole thing was a success.

I salute those mods for giving up on years of a cultivated community to send a powerful message, and I genuinely hope they end up here.

No doubt but I find it strange there was no acknowledgment of their protest ending. They were very vocal and one of the biggest sub hold outs but now they just flipped the switch with no communication.

Mods could have forced reddits hand. If they had all striked and stopped modding at the same time. Leave it open, leave it up. But every single mod just walk away and watch reddit try desperately to backfill thousands of mod teams. But they played games instead cause they didn't want to lose power or thought their little subreddit was important.

The only issue this would truly cause in the long run is a bit of admin work. There are and were plenty of scabs willing to take over unmoderated subs. Sure, the quality of those subs would have suffered, but Reddit never cared about that beyond what essentially boiled down to “don’t let “bad” content stay up.” Beyond that, mods could do whatever they wanted for the most part.

How would you propose getting every mod in Reddit to follow you plan? You’re talking about something in the range of 40,000 people or more.

Yeah I just checked as well and was about to post here about it. The pinned post that had been up for 20+ days is completely gone. Seems like things have been quietly shifted back to normal…