“If a moderator team unanimously decides to stop moderating, we will invite new, active moderators[…]. If […] at least one mod wants to keep the community going, we will respect their decisions and remove those who no longer want to moderate from the mod team.”
Not only the protesting mods will not return back, but those strikebreakers will end up with crappy tools and consumers with a terrible app increasing spam and reducing engagement.
Their application of the "Moderator Code of Conduct" is shoddy and slapdash to say the least.
I was a mod for /r/Edinburgh and after a post about people handing out anti-semitic leaflets (and the subsequent fascist-baiting and ban-hammering) I started getting reported by butthurt nazi supporters for abusing them in the thread, Modmail and DM's, but I'm the one that got a permanent account suspension (even though according to the CoC that shouldn't have happened), the UK mod-relations admin and other admin just ghosted me and another mod who tried to get involved and help.
To put a festering cherry on the shit-sundae, some of those pro-fascist scumbags are still active and commenting.
Seems like something that a scumball could reconcile easily enough; "we're not overruling mods or forcing a subreddit back open. We're just removing voluntarily inactive mods, and if whoever happens to step in after we do that wants to reopen the subreddit then that's entirely their decision."
Reddit will survive this. It'll be a worse Reddit, with slightly more reposts, slightly less OC. Some percentage will move on, and a percentage of that percentage will move here.
If we manage to build communities that have enough people to be engaging, that is a win. We will not kill Reddit, and anyone who believes that needs to readjust their expectations.
I wholeheartedly agree with your statement. But I believe in small steps. I haven’t been on Reddit since the API announcement on /r/Apollo. I won’t be back, I absolutely love the idea of a platform that isn’t owned by someone - in the same way I love an open source project.
Personally, I don't think we can "destroy" reddit, nor do I care if we do.
It'll be worse in a lot of ways, and if twatter is any indication, reddit seems to be going the same way and might be full of fascists out and proud soon.