A ton of moderators have been making changes to their subreddits’ rules (e.g., only allowing certain posts, going NSFW, loosening rules a ton) to protest without getting kicked out. Do you think this strategy of turning a subreddit into shitposts is effective or not?
I’m curious to see what the people in this community think, so please share your thoughts.
My opinion is that these forms of protest, while fun, don’t actually help. Most bring more attention and activity to the sub if anything, giving Reddit more ad revenue (which is really all they care about). And the few that are actually harmful (e.g., allowing NSFW content) are being shut down by Reddit.
It’s been made clear that Reddit doesn’t care about what its users want and is willing to reorder, remove, and shadowban moderators to protect profits, so I’d like to see more people moving away from the platform. Even if the alternatives still need development and are missing important features, mods should start making plans to establish communities outside of Reddit.
I’m sure the protests keep Reddit admins busy, but it’s clearly not moving the company’s stance on the changes.
I feel horrible for the mods. So much of this impacts them. Years of unpaid work, not to mention their love and passion for their communities, all going down the drain. Future mods should note well how Reddit treats their unpaid help.
As for u/spez, he’s either drank the hypercapitalist Kool-Aid, or he was given an ultimatum by his board. I lean towards the latter.