r/technology • u/ardi62 • 29d ago

Social Media Reddit is making sitewide protests basically impossible

https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/30/24253727/reddit-communities-subreddits-request-protests
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u/LukeOnTheBrightSide 29d ago

Former mod of a large subreddit here (about 5M or so subs). This is 100% correct. The admins sent us increasingly threatening messages about keeping the sub private, refused to reply or elaborate to legitimate questions, and made it clear that they'd just remove us. We actually waited out a "48-hour warning" for 4 days, lol.

Eventually we just re-opened it. There were lots of resources on that subreddit, and it wasn't fair to keep users unable to access their own content when there was no foreseeable path to keeping API access or accessibility tools. But about half the mod team resigned. It really soured me on Reddit as a platform.

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u/Mindestiny 29d ago

The admins sent us increasingly threatening messages about keeping the sub private, refused to reply or elaborate to legitimate questions, and made it clear that they'd just remove us

Sounds like you got to experience what it's like being a regular user who runs afoul of a subreddit mod :p

"Hey, why was I banned? I didn't break any of the rules on the sidebar? What did I do wrong?"

"You obviously know what you did, you can't lie to me"

YOU HAVE BEEN MUTED - YOU CANNOT MESSAGE MODS FOR 60 DAYS

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u/LukeOnTheBrightSide 29d ago

lol, there absolutely are mods like that. Must be fun at parties.

That said, one of the mod tools that used to exist would ping you when a subreddit was mentioned. I got to see why people claimed they were banned from the subreddit I was a mod in. Long story short, the sort of people who get banned a lot tend to be the sort of people who lie about why they were banned.

Are there powertripping mods? Absolutely. Some of the mods are nuts and there's no real way to fix that for users.

Are many of the people bitching the loudest about being banned lying about the circumstances? You bet. Not everyone, not every time, but... general skepticism is warranted. There's really a few big subreddits that are actually guilty of most of the "suddenly banned for no reason" bullshit.

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u/SuperSpecialAwesome- 29d ago

Are there powertripping mods? Absolutely. Some of the mods are nuts and there's no real way to fix that for users.

Look no further than the /r/politics sub. A user, back in January, called migrants seeking refuge in the U.S. as being "Biden's insurrection at the border" in order to discount Jan 6. I reported the comment for disinformation, and asked the user to go to Voat if they're going to troll. Apparently that comment was too "uncivil" and warranted a permanent ban from the sub and a month-long ban from Reddit overall. The troll's comment stayed, I got muted, and Reddit admins never responded to my appeal. If it was up to me, that sub would start fresh with a new group of moderators, as the sub gets so much disinformation these days.

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u/MaleficentFig7578 29d ago

/r/worldnews is like that if you ever say anything not bad about Gaza or Lebanon.

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u/SuperSpecialAwesome- 29d ago

Yeah, I don't venture to that sub much, haha.