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I’m assuming just current reddit admins are going to take over or getting some certain moderators from subreddits (that aren’t even of high ranking) to take over and remove the higher rankings from power, which then they will be the ones reopening the subreddits.
If reddit employees start engaging in actual content moderation, reddit will run up against the DMCA's safe harbor protections, which means reddit becomes responsible, as a company, for all the content on the site. Or, at least, in those subreddits.
Ain't no way the legal team is going to let an employee do the actual moderation work. But you're right, they'll find someone who will do it for the power.
It is similar to a coup but from the top, so it‘s more like "consolidating power" phase which dictatorships do go through. Dissenters get removed and replaced by willing servants until the platform is more spez and less "The People". Meanwhile he pretends like somehow the mods are the actual dictators or some shit to make all this palatable to those that still use Reddit, which in my cynical view they will eat up. Reddit is dead and done for anyone who values actual community over ads.
Spez also apparently called the mods "landed gentry" which is hilarious coming from a rich fuck behaving like a king towards some people who work for him for free!
Spez is now being outwardly hostile toward the community. His plan isn't working and he is afraid. From a strategy perspective, he should negotiate and for moderators, they should continue until he negotiates.
This doubling down by the moderators will work. The doubling down from Spez will only damage Reddit further.
When they IPO (assuming it is more than 50% equity) we could probably buy enough shares to force him and the board to resign.
The r/Videos mods called it from day one, and they at least claimed to accept that outcome. I salute those guys. I suspect other mods like r/Apple were never really serious.
The subs should do rolling blackouts on important dates to their communities, Apple announcement day, blackouts... Iphone update days, blackouts... and so on.
It seems quite clear that nobody at Reddit has ever had any form of PR training, The Verge says their PR person was basically saying two different things and contradicting themselves the article goes on to say "I don’t know how to interpret that, or his other replies explaining that the current actions might be a pastiche of interpretations of different rules instead of just Rule 4 — but it all makes me wonder if the conspiracy theorists among us were correct."
So what would happen if the mods refused to moderate and let anybody post anything they want? It's not like they are getting paid and reddit isn't going to pay anybody to moderate.
Even if they did pay someone the quality of moderation will be extremely poor because those people will be surely underpaid, overworked, and won't have any interest in the subreddit's topic.
We, even in disagreement, we appreciate that users can care enough to protest on Reddit, can protest on Reddit, and then our platform is really resilient enough to survive these things.
They should just leave then, along with all the users supporting the blackout. Not bending for that lying piece of shit is the best thing you can do for the community. Doing what he wants and reopening the subreddit only empowers him to continue ignoring and abusing the community. If reddit thinks they can forcefully open up hundreds and thousands of subreddits and figure out the moderation for all of them, so be it, I don't even want to know how it goes. If you genuinely don't like what spez is doing, delete your reddit account now and stop visiting the site, otherwise you're supporting him and his actions.
Yeah I think this behavior is my breaking point. Going from "I just don't log in anymore" the last few days to "I'll get home today, nuke my account and overwrite everything". I'm done.
I have a few loose ends to tie up before walking away from the explosion as outlined in this comment from a similar thread but at this point, nothing short of the entire chain of decisions that started the API debacle being reversed and anyone involved in the mess, spez included, stepping down and being replaced by competent people would even begin to make me reconsider leaving. Of course, I might as well wish for a meteorite made of solid gold to land into my yard.
Besides, this doesn't fix the underlying issue that led us here in the first place, and the Fediverse might just be the answer to that one.
Please guys, we need a petition "u/spez wants to replace protesting moderators that does not bow to his will: we want to replace him as Reddit CEO then"
How could someone force mods to reopen? Blackmailing? Or they just really don't want to lose control over subreddit (and possibly see it "shittified")?
I also wanted to write just how stupid it sounds and that things like that were impossible on the forums of ye olde internet - but actually they weren't, admins could do anything if they wanted, lol