A post from r/apple explaining why they were forced to reopen their subreddit after planning to close indefinitely.
Quotes from the r/apple announcement:
Reddit’s asshole CEO u/spez made it clear that Reddit was not backing down on their changes but assured users that apps or tools meant for accessibility will be unharmed along with most moderation tools and bots. While this was great to hear, it still wasn’t enough. So along with hundreds of other subreddits including our friends over at r/iPhone, r/iOS, r/AppleWatch, and r/Jailbreak, we decided to stay private indefinitely until Reddit changed course by giving third-party apps a fair price for API access.
Now you must be wondering, “I’m seeing this post, does that mean they budged?” Unfortunately, the answer is no. You are seeing this post because Reddit has threatened to open subreddits regardless of mod action and replace entire teams that otherwise refuse. We want the best for this community and have no choice but to open it back up — or have it opened for us.
NOTE: The URL linked to this post is a web.archive.org archive linked to a Libreddit instance to prevent Reddit from taking down that post from the internet + prevent giving Reddit direct traffic. Other links linked here go straight to Libreddit urls or to news articles. No links here lead directly to Reddit.
Libreddit is a third-party web client hosted by third-party servers.
EDIT: fixed grammar.
Spez also apparently called the mods “landed gentry” which is hilarious coming from a rich fuck behaving like a king towards some people who work for him for free!
Honestly, they should just force Reddit to replace them. Let’s see how long Reddit lasts without experienced moderators.
This is what I said to another person:
I’m assuming just current reddit admins are going to take over or getting some certain moderators from subreddits (that aren’t even of high ranking) to take over and remove the higher rankings from power, which then they will be the ones reopening the subreddits.
Now that I read it this sounds like a coup d’état
where I got the idea from: https://lemmy.world/post/101237
It is similar to a coup but from the top, so it‘s more like “consolidating power” phase which dictatorships do go through. Dissenters get removed and replaced by willing servants until the platform is more spez and less “The People”. Meanwhile he pretends like somehow the mods are the actual dictators or some shit to make all this palatable to those that still use Reddit, which in my cynical view they will eat up. Reddit is dead and done for anyone who values actual community over ads.
If reddit employees start engaging in actual content moderation, reddit will run up against the DMCA’s safe harbor protections, which means reddit becomes responsible, as a company, for all the content on the site. Or, at least, in those subreddits.
Ain’t no way the legal team is going to let an employee do the actual moderation work. But you’re right, they’ll find someone who will do it for the power.
It’s crazy that some people in these enormous subs pretty much run moderation as a full time job for nothing. Like I totally understand hobbies or contributing to something for the greater good, even I contribute where I can in the open source arena! But to religiously undertake a role like this daily just for the title of MOD is insane to me…
u/spez said:
We, even in disagreement, we appreciate that users can care enough to protest on Reddit, can protest on Reddit, and then our platform is really resilient enough to survive these things.
Wtf reddit
spez is a proven liar, again and again
Spez is now being outwardly hostile toward the community. His plan isn’t working and he is afraid. From a strategy perspective, he should negotiate and for moderators, they should continue until he negotiates.
This doubling down by the moderators will work. The doubling down from Spez will only damage Reddit further.
When they IPO (assuming it is more than 50% equity) we could probably buy enough shares to force him and the board to resign.He’ll still get his golden parachute, which is all he cares about
To me its the same as people who removed about Elon on twitter.
You hate the guy? Thats fine.
But why are you still using his product? Stop paying him.
So what would happen if the mods refused to moderate and let anybody post anything they want? It’s not like they are getting paid and reddit isn’t going to pay anybody to moderate.
That’s easy - Reddit would simply remove the mods who were refusing to moderate. That’s long been against reddit’s terms and conditions.
Of course that just brings the conversation right back to how Reddit thinks its subs will cope run by brand new inexperienced moderators.
Reddit would overthrow them.
But I would assume eventually Reddit would run our of mods to replace the mods.
Ideally they moderate enough to not be removed but gradually and subtly use moderation as a way to drive people away.
They should just leave then, along with all the users supporting the blackout. Not bending for that lying piece of shit is the best thing you can do for the community. Doing what he wants and reopening the subreddit only empowers him to continue ignoring and abusing the community. If reddit thinks they can forcefully open up hundreds and thousands of subreddits and figure out the moderation for all of them, so be it, I don’t even want to know how it goes. If you genuinely don’t like what spez is doing, delete your reddit account now and stop visiting the site, otherwise you’re supporting him and his actions.
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I have a few loose ends to tie up before walking away from the explosion as outlined in this comment from a similar thread but at this point, nothing short of the entire chain of decisions that started the API debacle being reversed and anyone involved in the mess, spez included, stepping down and being replaced by competent people would even begin to make me reconsider leaving. Of course, I might as well wish for a meteorite made of solid gold to land into my yard.
Besides, this doesn’t fix the underlying issue that led us here in the first place, and the Fediverse might just be the answer to that one.
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That dude seems to been an even bigger idiot than Musk.
Honestly I kind of wonder if this is all some kind of coordinated power grab to crack down on public spaces in the build up to 2024 elections.
bruh, that’s been happening. it’s part of why the discussion quality on reddit is in such accelerated decline.
Did we really expect this to go any other way?
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I had hoped that the leader of a community website would be willing to talk to their community.
