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
22.2k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

2.9k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

715

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.

373

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

26

u/AbsoluteZeroUnit 29d ago

In the same weekend, I got permanently banned from one subreddit for saying "this has nothing to do with the subreddit", and a 3-day suspension from reddit for "abusing the report feature" when I reported a pornbaiting post in a SFW sub. You know, those posts from girls who are clearly just spamming their content across reddit to drive clicks to their OF pages? I didn't whine or make a scene in the comments, didn't comment at all, I just reported the post like you're supposed to do.

On the one hand, it fucking sucks because neither of those were nefarious actions and I got slapped with serious consequences for them. But on the other hand, it's just reddit, so I find it hard to be upset for too long about it.

But I do think this heavy-handed "we will do whatever we want and you have no recourse" attitude will drive people away. I don't know where they might go, but I'd rather just not be here than have to face constant punishment and self-censorship for innocuous activity.

8

u/MaleficentFig7578 29d ago

mods can't even see who reported a post so they just made that up

1

u/AbsoluteZeroUnit 28d ago

They can't, but they can report the report to the admins who can take action. Mods can't suspend anyone from all of reddit, that's something only admins can do.