The subreddit r/steam, about the digital game storefront, received as many other subreddits a notice to open the community again, or else the mods would be replaced by those who abide.

The mods followed suit posting the following automod message under every new post:

As ya’ll likely know, we’ve been dark to support the blackout against reddit’s antagonistic behavior towards its own userbase. The admins sent us a message today saying we must open or get removed, so here we are.

For those of you browsing this subreddit on non-official apps (Reddit is Fun, Apollo, Sync, Boost, etc), they will break on July 1st due to reddit’s new policies. We’re opening back up but will leave permanent stickies in the subreddit and threads to keep folks in the know.

Our Discord [contains link to https://discord.gg/steam] server is active, don’t forget to check it out.

Good luck and god speed.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

On visit, you quickly notice there is a community wide effort to focus on the literal topic of the given name and post about vapors, steam trains, and kitchen appliances. While posts about the gaming platform get downvoted.

  • LinkOpensChest.wav@lemmy.oneEnglish
    2051·
    2 years ago

    This blackout has really shown which subs have actual in-touch moderators, and which ones are just the admins’ puppy dogs

    A while ago, I had a comment auto-removed on WPT and got a message it was because my account was “not in good standing.” When I messaged the WPT mods, they explained that they were test piloting a new tool the admins plan to use. For example, if you have a throwaway email address, no email address, or are connecting via VPN, you may be “not in good standing.”

    With things like that on the horizon, even if they roll back on what they’re doing now, we’re still not likely to have a very good time on that site.

    I can’t blame the mods who are trying to make change through protest (and who may not even be aware of the “not in good standing” BS), but I don’t plan to stick around, and I don’t foresee a very bright future for reddit at all.

      • Queen HawlSera@lemm.eeEnglish
        3·
        8 months ago

        That explains why I got banned a while back and was told I violeted the TOS, but the crime they listed (Abusing the report button) was neither in the TOS nor something I actually did.

    • Cynosure@lemmy.worldEnglish
      51·
      2 years ago

      Honesty I think the big political subs are incredibly bot infested. Political content is an amazing way to make people mad and get them to spend more time on a platform, increasing engagement and letting reddit deliver more ads. It’s not like it would be the first time they used bots to drive engagement and make communities look bigger.

      • LinkOpensChest.wav@lemmy.oneEnglish
        32·
        2 years ago

        The whole site is bot infested! Especially the large subs, but I’ve personally had scambots pop into my posts even on smaller subreddits.

        People who say they won’t leave reddit because “there’s no good alternative” really have their head in the sand about how bad it really is. Nearly every alternative I’ve seen suggested is at least better than reddit (except for the really far-right ones like voat).

        • enragedchowder@lemmy.caEnglish
          17·
          2 years ago

          Pretty much any big sub is totally unusable. The only reason to be on Reddit is for the niche hobby subs

            • Reoru@lemmy.worldEnglish
              4·
              2 years ago

              I absolutely resonate with both your comments, it’s the best function reddit served imo. The big mainstream subs were just content factories to create posts to doomscroll through.

        • Cynosure@lemmy.worldEnglish
          6·
          2 years ago

          The bot problem is probably domestic. Reddit has much more to gain from artificially driving engagement than any “foreign adversary”.

      • TWeaK@lemm.eeEnglish
        251·
        2 years ago

        Don’t forget that for many years reddit was the home of the most inciteful Donald Trump propaganda platform with r/t_d.

        • goatEnglish
          213·
          2 years ago

          and dont forget reddit is also the home of the most inciteful Chinese propaganda platform with /r/sino

    • zalack@kbin.social
      14·
      2 years ago

      To try and be charitable to the WPT mods: that sub is a magnet for bots and bad actors. All those measures sound like a shotgun approach to combating spam to me.

      I really don’t envy having to moderate a large politically oriented sub like that. I imagine it burns you out fast to being open and fair-minded in how you approach moderation due to the sheer avalanche of bullshit you’re confronted with cleaning up.

      • LinkOpensChest.wav@lemmy.one
        18·
        2 years ago

        I do understand that point of view, but the fact that they’re piloting a really invasive tool on behalf of the admins and subsequently refused to go black – these make me feel far less charitable

      • Nepenthe@kbin.social
        7·
        2 years ago

        Combating bots by banning anyone without an email is understandable and seems doable for the near future, but like it would mostly be a hiccup for the people churning them out.

        Google ignores any periods in an email address, so if you want to sign up with the same email all you have to do is fill it with differently-placed periods. What are they gonna do? Ban everyone who shares your name from having a reddit? Ban Gmail? If they did, there’s still the plus trick that isn’t specific to gmail

        • TechnoBabble@lemmy.world
          7·
          2 years ago

          The plus and period thing isn’t difficult to filter out in their email check.

          But I do agree that requiring emails is a non-issue for spammers.

          I mean, look at any other platform that requires email, and they’re all covered in spam.

    • quortez@kbin.social
      153·
      2 years ago

      I can’t imagine a website so anti-CCP it utterly internalized the social credit meme (despite it being somewhat more nuanced in reality, I still don’t approve of it, just learned it gets exaggerated in the west) would take well to an invisible ‘reputation system’ that demands data collection and punishes privacy actions.

      The vibes continue to deteriorate.

    • QuestioningEspecialy@kbin.social
      12·
      2 years ago

      A while ago, I had a comment auto-removed on WPT and got a message it was because my account was “not in good standing.” When I messaged the WPT mods, they explained that they were test piloting a new tool the admins plan to use.

      I’mma need some sauce for dat pasta. That’s too wild to not post screenshots.