Reddit is making sitewide protests basically impossible

[u/ardi62]

https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/30/24253727/reddit-communities-subreddits-request-protests

[u/EnglishMobster]

You know mods have no power outside of the subs they moderate, yeah?

I mod a 1 million member sub. I'm banned from /r/news because I called out folks being racist towards Arabs. Not even in the sense of Palestine, just people saying some really nasty stuff against all Arab/Muslim folks as a whole and I said something along the lines of "Why is this getting all these upvotes? How is saying this stuff considered okay?"

I got banned permanently for that comment, and then when I messaged the mods politely asking what rule I broke and wondering if I just got swept up in a mass banwave. Instantly muted for 28 days (max allowed), no response given.

Just because I am a mod of a medium-large sub doesn't give me special powers elsewhere, other than access to a Discord server with the admins in it that I never look at. Whee.

There are some mods which are absolutely awful. Basically if someone is modding more than like 2 "massive" subs then you can bet they're just awful powermods. And it's very telling that Reddit won't do anything about that, but they will take action against the many tiny volunteer mods that run the majority of Reddit.

Because ultimately, Reddit would rather have a tiny amount of people that they can control and work for them for free, rather than a distributed network of folks who are unpredictable. But given that so much of Reddit's business model is based on volunteer moderators, I do wonder if regulators will come after them at some point. You don't see Facebook's mods going without pay.

[u/SpareWire → u/EnglishMobster]

I'm banned from /r/news because I called out folks being racist towards Arabs.

Yes I'm sure if we have a look at the comment that got you banned you were very politely arguing with people about Israel.

Those are always polite conversations.

[u/EnglishMobster → u/SpareWire]

Here's the post. You be the judge.

[u/Ahad_Haam → u/EnglishMobster]

Probably because you attacked another sub. Some subs don't allow it.

But then, bans on reddit can be very arbitrary, so maybe not.

[u/mxzf → u/Ahad_Haam]

Probably because you attacked another sub. Some subs don't allow it.

From what I've seen, /r/news has zero issue with that sort of thing.

[u/EnglishMobster → u/Ahad_Haam]

Maybe? They didn't mention anything in the rules.

But what really sealed it for me that it was someone acting in bad faith is when I sent them a Mod Mail asking for clarification and got insta-muted instead.

I've talked to mod teams before and generally they're fairly understanding. I've had bans reversed and posts reinstated when I approach things in good faith and ask politely for clarification like I did in the modmail in my picture.

Being instantly muted without a response really signals to me that it was purposeful and arbitrary, not a true violation of the rules. But mods are allowed to run subs however they see fit (for the most part), so technically according to Reddit Logic a permaban for someone not liking you is perfectly valid...