It’s not like they couldn’t put a stop to blackouts before, as seen with the third-party app fiasco, but Reddit has now made that tactic entirely impossible. Mods will now need to get permission from Reddit admins before they can make a sub private. Makes me wonder if they’re about to do something controversial again soon.

  • garrett@infosec.pub
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    2 days ago

    I truly don’t understand how anyone does the free work for a corporation to moderate a subreddit. Steps like this seem to treat them like employees and they’ll largely just chug along with it for… what? Notoriety?

    • Swallowtail@beehaw.org
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      23 hours ago

      I remember wanting to be a forum mod when I was like 15 and thought that it would make me cool on the forum. As a grown adult… no way. I am so busy between work, grad school, and my personal life, I have no time for such silliness. I have a lot of respect for mods that donate their own time to run communities.

  • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech
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    2 days ago

    We have a responsibility to protect Reddit and ensure its long-term health, and we cannot allow actions that deliberately cause harm.

    Truly, a harm for the platform when the moderators of /r/assesgonewild take their subreddit private for a week in protest. So far up their asses.

    Read: “Our users got so pissed at us that it jeopardized our IPO. Now it could actually effect something like our stock price, so fuck 'em”. Seriously people, just leave

  • rhys@lemmy.rhys.wtf
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    2 days ago

    Reddit’s decline through enshittification has been fascinating to watch.

    This new stage appears to be utterly remarkable — an aggressive and hostile approach to its userbase and volunteer mod community on which the company is entirely reliant.

    I think the harm reddit did in consolidating web discussion into a single platform that fostered a horrible, reductive culture online is immeasurable but deeply regrettable.

  • Suppoze@beehaw.org
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    2 days ago

    What remains as methods of protest after this? I wonder what would happen to a subreddit if it’s moderators would simply stop moderating all together…

    But I guess admins could always make someone a moderator, there’s always someone willing to have a power trip.

    • davehtaylor@beehaw.org
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      What remains as methods of protest after this?

      Deleting your account and leaving the site. Reddit clearly doesn’t care about the users, and hasn’t for a very, very long time. Remaining there justifies their actions.

      • Lad@reddthat.com
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        2 days ago

        I remember a couple of people on Reddit smugly saying I’d be back soon after I talked about leaving during the third party app shitshow.

        I’ve never went back, so eat a bag of dicks random Reddit users!

        • Megaman_EXE@beehaw.org
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          Same. There’s been a few times I’ve needed info from reddit subs, but I’ve never interacted since. I miss some of the activity in the more niche subreddits, but I’m more productive with my time now so I guess that’s good lol

    • Megaman_EXE@beehaw.org
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      2 days ago

      If I’m recalling correctly, a couple of the larger subs had mods stop completely, and reddit just replaced them with power mods

      • Norah - She/They
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        6 hours ago

        That wasn’t just larger subs. They changed the rules for requesting a takeover of a sub, and there are hundreds of subs it affected. There are even cases of it being really dangerous, there’s a shroom hunting sub that is poorly moderated and has had life-threatening advice left up.

  • TehPers@beehaw.org
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    2 days ago

    Reddit makes an anti-user change. In other news, grass is green.

    I haven’t been on the site in over a year and nothing since then has convinced me to go back. Maybe I’m lucky that I’m not in any Reddit-only communities, but it could also just be that I treat those communities as though they don’t exist and never had a reason to join one as a result.

    • thingsiplay@beehaw.org
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      In other news, grass is green.

      I didn’t saw this news. My news only tell me that the rice bag fall over. It happens over and over again. Predictable, like Reddit.

  • araneae@beehaw.org
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    2 days ago

    Oh so its now completely impossible to stop a brigade by shuttering a subreddit for a day or two without begging some pea brain Reddit stooge. That won’t lead to anything putrid happening to small and medium subreddits on a regular basis I hope.

  • tias@discuss.tchncs.de
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    You know what? I don’t care and I stopped reading this article after one paragraph because I found that I couldn’t be bothered to go on. During the reddit exodus I was pissed off about how they would ruin something good, but I’ve long since lost interest in what happens on that site. Honestly I was a tiny bit surprised that it still exists. Like who the heck goes there still?

  • thingsiplay@beehaw.org
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    Reddit is giving its staff a lot more power over the communities on its platform. Starting today, Reddit moderators will not be able to change if their subreddit is public or private without first submitting a request to a Reddit admin.

    More power by having less power. I stopped reading here. Yeah, The Verge never disappoints. Edit: My bad. The Verge was correct this time. Guess if I read the article then I would understand.

    • duramu@beehaw.org
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      Community mods are not the same thing as reddit staff (admin)… I mean probably sometimes they can be the same person, but not normally.

      • thingsiplay@beehaw.org
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        I see. Well then my bad for misunderstanding this. To me moderators are Reddit staff working for free. But I see that the word “staff” was used literally.

        See you in the oblivion. xD

    • LedgeDrop@lemm.ee
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      Welp, I guess this means something bad is gonna happen and Spez is trying to get in front of the inevitable protests.

      I wonder what it could be…

    • rhys@lemmy.rhys.wtf
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      I think you might have misinterpreted that. Moderators are volunteer users, not reddit staff.