Technology

Absolutely wild. I used to moderate a local-area subreddit with around 39K members and decided to just cut my losses. Deleted my account and never looked back! I was happy to see that the remaining mods stuck with our 2-day blackout plan.

Honestly though, it was such a miserable job. Constant bad-faith arguments from folks trying to post heinous comments about asylum seekers, LGBTQ+ folks, etc. It really makes you lose faith in your fellow man. I'm very happy to have given it up. I guess this is why Facebook spends millions of dollars on content moderation -- it's very taxing.

Apparently, those subreddits are now not only open, but completely unmoderated. Reddit's solution was to remove the mods and put nobody else in charge. I'm sure that won't backfire in any way whatsoever! /s

For a public spokesperson, this is such a hostile and condescending response:

Asked if Reddit could confirm the reinstatement, Rathschmidt declined, saying, “I’m not going to set a precedent of confirming with The Verge every action we do or don’t take to ensure users can access their communities.”

Seems reddit admins have taken a “get in line or get lost” approach to their volunteer mods. Let’s see how that works out for them.

Even if you wanted to stay as a mod you'd have to have taken a shot to the heart after all of Reddits shinanigans lately. Years of free effort and this is the thanks you get. Absolutely disgusting betrayal of people who have done a mostly fantastic job keeping the wheels on the beast all these years and I'm absolutely stunned they did it.

RIP Reddit as we currently know it.

Lol how dare he frame this like he's firing employees for not doing their jobs. This isn't a job dipshit, it's unpaid volunteer labor that for some dumbass reason you think you're entitled to just for offering an empty room for people to walk in, decorate, and create community in. Honestly what a POS.

CEO Steve Huffman told me in an interview last week, “90-plus percent of Reddit users are on our platform, contributing, and are monetized either through ads or Reddit Premium. Why would we subsidize this small group? Why would we effectively pay them to use Reddit but not everybody else who also contributes to Reddit?”

It's called a "loss leader," Steve.

Dude's sounding like the kind of guy that cuts IT, security, and janitorial because they don't bring in revenue. But then, he did say he's following the Musk model. Which is, basically, that.

It's honestly crazy how poorly this whole thing is being handled. Reddit admins are really showing their true colors and keep doubling down on everything, making themselves look like absolute fools. They realized they don't have as much power as they wanted and are acting like grumpy children throwing a temper tantrum

“90-plus percent of Reddit users are on our platform, contributing, and are monetized either through ads or Reddit Premium. Why would we subsidize this small group? Why would we effectively pay them to use Reddit but not everybody else who also contributes to Reddit?”

If I'm reading this correctly, this is blatantly assuming that he would rather loose those 10% of users who use third-party apps, than letting them use Reddit for free. He even calls it "subsidizing" them. The tricky part for the CEO-wannabe spez is to know how much of those 10% are content creators. Are users who use third-party apps more prone to post the kind of stuff which makes Reddit unique or not? Because let's face it, if he's betting on having a thriving social network trying to mimic tiktok, instagram, etc... he's light years behind. Reddit will never be the choice of shitty influencers and people mimicking each others dances. It's just too complicated of a network for such a basic user-base.

OR...he just wants to prep things up to sell and disappear. From everything I read, his Eloncrush is the most worrying part of it all.

“Moderators who changed subreddits to label them “Not Safe for Work” (and not available for advertisers) have been suspended by Reddit.” - The Verge

Crazy.

Not surprised but the look just gets worse and worse.

Those fools. I'm not sure anything can save Reddit (from its admins & CEO) at this point.

We need to strike back with a coup