this post was submitted on 12 Jun 2023
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Technology
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If the volunteer mods hold their ground and force Reddit corporate to oust them, Reddit would need to step in to fill the void.
They'll find some people.
The reality is, not having (good enough) mods will take a while to really hurt the bottom line. Subs will slowly deteriorate.
But I'm 100% sure, within a few weeks you can establish a new order of more servile mods.
People on Reddit complain about the mods enough as it is. (And I include myself in that. I've had some less than stellar mod encounters in the past.) However, if Reddit were to force out existing mods and replace them with mods willing to toe the company line (and possibly ban people for mentioning the blackout, complaining about Reddit, or mentioning alternatives), it would just result in more user dissatisfaction.
Reddit won't go out overnight. There are too many people who post there. However, this could turn into a snowball effect. Rebelling mods are replaced by bootlickers. Dissent is crushed in order to make it seem like everything is hunky dory before the IPO. Power users flee to alternatives like Lemmy. Slowly, normal users hear that some of their favorite content is on this new service and sign up. Reddit usage drops little by little until it's limping around as a shell of its former self.
Yeah, I think a slow collapse is a more likely scenario. But the main thing is, it's still an inevitable collapse. The only question is how much blood can Spez et al wring out of this stone in the meantime.