It would be better if the mods stopped moderating, without removing themselves. Just let the communities become overwhelming cesspits, making it that much more difficult for the admins to scrub. That is the nuclear option, though, and it seems that the mods actually have hope for Reddit to compromise.
That was basically what the various NSFW sub protests was. “We are only going to do the bare minimum to follow reddit’s site rules”
Much like with the blackouts: the users lost their god damned mind and got even angrier at the mods.
And much like with the blackouts: Reddit Admins said “Either do your unpaid job or we will have someone else do it for you” and the vast majority of mods rolled over instantly. Because… humiliation kink?
Which kind of sums this all up. Going on strike doesn’t work because this is a luxury. REALLY disheartening, but not surprising, to see even a lot of the “leftist” communities saying the equivalent of “Ugh, we didn’t ask the Starbucks employees to go on strike. If they have a problem they should just leave and let me get my shitpost latte”.
And when push came to shove, the mods largely made it clear that they aren’t willing to walk. Which means Reddit staff has all the power.
I think what they’re doing is the most impactful. If the mods just stop, then under ToS they can be legitimately removed as inactive. If they’re active and following the clearly-expressed will of the community as determined by voting (you know, that core principle that all of Reddit is built on) then any action taken to remove them is an obvious and egregious violation of Reddit’s stated policies. If the community will just happens to be something that makes the website less programme l monetisable… well, that’s a shame, but nothing in Reddit’s user ToS says "you must work towards helping us profit from your interactions with the site ".
Plus, many of these communities are voting to do things that accelerate the transformation of their subreddits into hard-to-clean-up cesspits.
It would be better if the mods stopped moderating, without removing themselves. Just let the communities become overwhelming cesspits, making it that much more difficult for the admins to scrub. That is the nuclear option, though, and it seems that the mods actually have hope for Reddit to compromise.
That was basically what the various NSFW sub protests was. “We are only going to do the bare minimum to follow reddit’s site rules”
Much like with the blackouts: the users lost their god damned mind and got even angrier at the mods.
And much like with the blackouts: Reddit Admins said “Either do your unpaid job or we will have someone else do it for you” and the vast majority of mods rolled over instantly. Because… humiliation kink?
Which kind of sums this all up. Going on strike doesn’t work because this is a luxury. REALLY disheartening, but not surprising, to see even a lot of the “leftist” communities saying the equivalent of “Ugh, we didn’t ask the Starbucks employees to go on strike. If they have a problem they should just leave and let me get my shitpost latte”. And when push came to shove, the mods largely made it clear that they aren’t willing to walk. Which means Reddit staff has all the power.
I think what they’re doing is the most impactful. If the mods just stop, then under ToS they can be legitimately removed as inactive. If they’re active and following the clearly-expressed will of the community as determined by voting (you know, that core principle that all of Reddit is built on) then any action taken to remove them is an obvious and egregious violation of Reddit’s stated policies. If the community will just happens to be something that makes the website less programme l monetisable… well, that’s a shame, but nothing in Reddit’s user ToS says "you must work towards helping us profit from your interactions with the site ".
Plus, many of these communities are voting to do things that accelerate the transformation of their subreddits into hard-to-clean-up cesspits.