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Reddit Threatens to Remove Moderators From Subreddits Continuing Apollo-Related Blackouts (www.macrumors.com)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by bird@beehaw.org to c/technology@beehaw.org
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As some subreddits continue blackouts to protest Reddit's plans to charge high prices for its API, Reddit has informed the moderators of those subreddits that it has plans to replace resistant moderation teams to keep spaces "open and accessible to users."

Edit, there seems to be conflicting reporting on this issue:

While the company does “respect the community’s right to protest” and pledges that it won’t force communities to reopen, Reddit also suggests there’s no need for that.

Source: https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/15/23762501/reddit-ceo-steve-huffman-interview-protests-blackout

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[-] Plume@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

...and the subreddit rebellion has been foiled. The remaining locked subreddits will be hunted down and defeated!

The attempt on my credibility by the Apollo dev has left me scarred, and deformed. But I assure you: My resolve... has never been stronger!

In order to ensure the profitability and continuing advertising...

REDDIT, WILL BE REORGINIZED...

INTO THE FIRST...

GALACTIC ADVERTISING PLATFORM!

FOR A SAFE, AND PROFITABLE WEBSITE.

— u/spez to potential investors. Maybe. Probably. Might be slightly paraphrased.

[-] SomeGuyNamedPaul@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

This is too emotionally intelligent to be u/spez

[-] ElysiumXII@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago

Glad I left Reddit tbh, so far Lemmy/the Fediverse seems to be way better.

[-] bouncing@partizle.com 2 points 1 year ago

I'm tempted to say it's better, but, unfortunately, in many ways it's not.

What Reddit had, most of the time, was semi-canonical communities. There was /r/python, /r/linux, /r/privacy, etc. The diaspora of Lemmy is a shadow of all of that. Surely, there are a dozen or so (at least) /c/python communities on Lemmy, but is there a single one that's anywhere near as active as the Reddit one? No. Not so far, at least.

And unfortunately, I can say as an instance admin, the lemmy moderation tools are just flat bad. We had to turn off open registration and enable email verification, not because we would otherwise need it, but the Lemmy moderation tools are 100% reactive and only operate on a 1-by-1 basis. If a spambot signs up 100 fake accounts, I have to go and individually ban each and every one of them. There's no shift+select, ban.

Don't get me wrong. I'm glad to be here, and Lemmy's great, and there's far less toxicity (so far). All I'm saying is, (1) there's work to do, (2) don't gloat.

[-] Thief@lemmy.one 2 points 1 year ago

Everyone needs to realise it doesnt matter. Enough people already came to lemmy for us to carry on without reddit. Now we just do the normal long haul work - help users who need help so people start searching lemmy for tech solutions, post our normal content here so there is a reason to stay, upvote and comment others work so there is engagement. The rest will follow as this grows and grows. We have already won. Lemmy is no longer a fringe interest.

[-] Dymonika@beehaw.org 0 points 1 year ago

help users who need help so people start searching lemmy for tech solutions

For a moment, I misread this as "tech positions" and got excited about a job board on here.

[-] SkepticElliptic@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

Community idea: we develop a fake company that we all "work" at so that we can vouch for each other and use our "experience" on our resumes.

[-] GadgeteerZA@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

Yes, I got the "message" from the Reddit CEO, and decided to pre-empt that, and I spent a few hours today manually deleting each and every post I made in my subreddit. The content is already anyway on my blog, on The Internet Archive, and on the Fediverse. So my subreddit now looks like this (he is welcome to let someone else take it now):

[-] storksforlegs@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

Its probably going to end up like facebook.
A big lumbering thing, still heavily populated but ad choked and overrun by bots and bad actors, indoctrinating unsuspecting users. Even if it stays big, hopefully its reputation will suffer enough to keep most new users away.

[-] SlamDrag@beehaw.org 0 points 1 year ago

Getting into fediverse platforms has been a godsend. Talking to real people and not dealing with the high percentage of bots is incredible.

[-] heliodorh@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

I literally forgot what it was like to browse content without sponsored ads strangling my feed.

[-] AmScream@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

How many people think any such "election" Reddit holds will be a sham?

[-] entropicdrift@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 1 year ago

Good luck with that! I'm excited to see the fireworks as their brand-new mod teams use their brand-new mod tools right as they go public. Should be quite a show.

[-] DylanMc6@beehaw.org 0 points 1 year ago

Steve Huffman should resign.

[-] copylefty@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

CEO is beholden to shareholders. He would be replaced with someone tasked with doing the same thing.

Capitalism

[-] FrostBolt@kbin.social 0 points 1 year ago

They can’t keep their story straight. First the protest is “noise” that will “blow over”. Now they’re forcing subs to re-open.

Look, even if the protest “fails”, they stick to the API pricing, and forcefully re-open subs, some things will be obvious and for everyone to see that weren’t before:

  • spez is lying and isn’t trustworthy
  • reddit cares more about IPO positioning and money than the health of the community
  • people are willing to explore alternatives like this fediverse
[-] AnonymousLlama@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

Their handling of this situation has been piss poor. It feels like every step along the way, from the initial announcement about API pricing to his awful Reddit AMA where he replied 12 times and then fled, it's been a terrible look.

I'm hoping more people see alternates like kbin and give them a go.

[-] SamC@lemmy.nz 0 points 1 year ago

The cops are moving in with tear gas and rubber bullets...

[-] pootriarch@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 1 points 1 year ago

against which kitchen pots have proven surprisingly useful elsewhere. against all odds

[-] Pekka@feddit.nl 0 points 1 year ago

Simply replacing all the mods sound like a good way to kill a subreddit, Reddit probably has no way to pick good mods... Mods will need some connection with the topic, and you don't want to pick random users with no experience for large subreddits.

[-] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 0 points 1 year ago

get ready for sudden and radical rule changes, non enforcement of rules, nsfw, bots, spam, all kinds of fun crazy shit in the subs with mods removed. I'm sure a percentage of subs would stay the same, but I don't think that percentage is very high.

[-] Hyperz@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

I can already hear the CPA/affiliate marketing bots spinning up lol.

this post was submitted on 15 Jun 2023
27 points (100.0% liked)

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