Has anyone noticed any parallels between this Reddit situation and what the Wizards of the Coast tried to do with their Dungeons and Dragons franchise? In both cases, a lot of the value to the business is brought about by community contributions. In both cases, the companies try to spring surprise charges on other businesses working within the ecosystem with a ridiculous fee structure couched in very strong language, making those businesses completely non-viable. In both cases, the user base ends up revolting and moving towards alternative "platforms". How did it work out for WoTC in the end?
Unfortuanately, we are going to see this happening to a lot of businesses. Covid caused a massive disruption, which led to a bunch of inflation, which has led to world banks raising interest rates on debt. It ends up a lot of companies (especially holding companies) were relying on cheap debt to leverage doing very little actual work into paying the bills, and now that it is harder to get a loan, they are going to have to be more profitable.
It will be up to companies to do this through doing their job, increasing the value they offer their customers, and make more profit in good faith. But, of course, many are trying to chisel more money out of their existing customer base. It's their right to do what they feel they have to do to protect their business. But generally, things have a way of working out - when you make your product worse and charge more for it, things don't really go in your favor, and your once loyal customers will start doing something else with their time and money. Life finds a way.
I’d encourage every mod to take the risk. If Reddit thinks so little of that freely provided labor, don’t do it.
The message to mods is clear - just quit. Delete the sub if you want to add a bit of trouble but there’s no way they can, at scale, replace many mods across many subreddits. Call their bluff.
If they decide to remove mods to reopen subreddits, they will have an issue of no mods to run it. So they will ask for volunteers. The ones that do come forward after all that happened are likely not the ones you want as mods.
They have neither time or resources to vet people. You think its a shitshow now, wait.
I took a torch to my 10+ year old account and replaced every post and comment with giberish so it is of no value to them before I left. Not going back.
Cheers
This is really not looking good for Reddit at all
Maybe remaining mods could talk to each other; if they all want out, agree to privately sell out to advertisers instead of publicly committing suicide.
Sticky a post that private parties can message them to discuss "changes to the subreddit policy on sticky posts". Basically selling out in the same way Reddit management is doing. This seems like the real way to kill a sub, and get paid while doing it.
I would be less than surprised if this happened. Half of Reddit is already run by a select few moderators that toe the line. I bet execs would love to make that half closer to 100%.
Let him do it.
That was the last straw for me. I was considering buying premium so I could see Reddit ad-free without Apollo. I’m not totally unsympathetic to the reality that the user-bubble has burst and Reddit wants to make a profit. But giving money to a company run by spez felt bad. And if they actually go through with this plan then it won’t be Reddit anymore. At least not in the ways that matter to me. Now there’s no chance I’m going back.
Can the mods out right delete the subs? I don't understand that aspect of Reddit.
Mods can leave a community private. Reddit can replace mods. But replacing mods is not a trivial process - you either have to pay them, or they have to be interested in doing that.
At long last, if agreement cannot be reached and Reddit decides to show their kingly status (referring to their naming mods as landed gentry :P ), Reddit might establish a standard way of mods being elected.
Alas, most subreddits aren't invested enough in the process of delegating power to hold regular mod elections, and even those that do (r/anarchism comes to mind), require proof (of work / effort / participation) to qualify. Reddit would have to provide a mechanism.
Since they obviously won't, apparently they just threaten protesting subreddits with administrative takeover. A great way to ram the platform into ground. :o
This is correct, but I think it leaves out that the proper way to protest mods is to create an alternative sub. So mod elections aren't really needed - if users disagree with a mod's actions, they can just go to another sub. If one doesn't exist, that means not enough people care for the original mods.
Replacing mods by force undermines the whole system - what is even the point a mod if you have no say in what your subreddit is like? That is also what makes federation so enticing - by self hosting, you have the ultimate say in what your server does, and people can either choose to federate with you or de-fed if they disagree with your actions. That's a much fairer system.
Well, of course, but he can just restore it, you know
Nah its likely a threat
Can't see the image, returns an HTTP ERROR 404
"Reddit threatens to remove moderators from subreddits continuing Apollo-related blackouts"
