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this post was submitted on 21 Mar 2024
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At the end of the day, the reddit mods had all the opportunities to once again, protest their working conditions and leave reddit today. But I see no evidence that an organized effort took place.
It's unfair, and spez isn't thinking any further than the moment he can sell his comp and move on. But they have all the stakes in this matter and nothing is happening. I know there are efforts on reddit's part to squelch the moderators, but at some point they have to make clear this isn't going to work the way it is.
Reddit blackout protest clearly made us understand that if we do any sort of resistance against them they don't think twice replacing the current mods with new ones even if that can affect the subreddit. At this point, they see Reddit as a cash cow and not a people's forum. If they didn't, we wouldn't be speaking here in lemmy.
That's the same problem that workers in Victorian factories faced. We can call them "scabs", but they're people who aren't conscious about their role in an economic scenario or they simply side with the employer out of habit, conditioning or alleged self-interest.
idt they are similar. idt mods should be paid. bringing monetary benefits might be nice but i think it will turn moderating as a means of income. people moderate subreddits out of their passion or that subreddit theme might be their hobby and making it monetary will be a disaster.
Only if they are paid enough to make it an income.
If they are paid, for example, an annual stipend which reflects their work but isn't enough to make it a daily job, that would be a huge step in the right direction. You could even make it depend on the size of the subreddit since bigger ones take a lot more work than smaller ones... but never enough to actually live on.
I think a lot of moderators would be very happy to get a couple of thousand dollars a year for their work.
Spez could have swallowed his pride and like gig-economified (If that's not a word yet, I stake my claim lmao) mods, could have probably gotten away with paying pennies on the dollar with the right scheme (ala Amazon turk). I could see the headlines now "Reddit making waves PAYING moderators", "Make 500 bajilion Dollars JUST moderating for Reddit!" and people would have flocked to it lolol
The problem is that allowing mod discretion allows for marginalized people to participate in their own communities, and gig economy workers are, at best, only going to remove the most egregious harassment (I used to do something similar for another big social media site, it was an eye opening and horrifying experience - and I didn't even see the "call the cops" level shit).
I think you're right that the tech bros would love that move, though.