Reddit Tells Protesting Mods It Will Remove Them If They Don’t Stop, As Reddit’s Subreddit For The Blind Can No Longer Be Moderated By Blind Users
from the so-much-for-democracy dept
As you’ll recall, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman whined about what he called the “landed gentry” among moderators of subreddits that were protesting his ridiculous extractive API changes. He insisted that perhaps things should be more democratic. In response, many subreddits took a vote on how subscribers to those subreddits wanted the mods to handle things, and many urged the moderators to continue protesting.
But, Huffman apparently couldn’t handle that kind of democracy. So he’s spent the last few weeks threatening mods. The ultimatums ramped up over the weekend, after Reddit made it official that protesting mods who changed their subs to be labeled as NSFW (“not safe for work” meaning no ads can show) would be removed unless they changed back.
However, Reddit has sent messages to the mods of those subreddits saying they must “immediately correct” their NSFW labeling, claiming each community “has not historically been considered NSFW nor would they under our current policies.” If the designation isn’t corrected, any moderators involved in that decision will be removed. Those mods may be “subject to additional actions,” such as losing the ability to join future moderator teams.
Much democracy, very freedom.
It appears some mods have caved, saying they don’t know what else to do. But some are still holding out.
As of Thursday evening, r/PICS had dropped the NSFW designation, along with r/military.
In an email to The Verge, a moderator for the military subreddit said that the mods decided to revert the NSFW designation because the community is a helpful resource for veterans experiencing mental health crises. The mod said that if Reddit removed the team, it could put the community at risk.
The moderators r/PICS discussed remaining NSFW and awaiting removal, but decided instead to explore “alternative ways of adhering to Reddit’s vague and contradictory mandates and policies,” a mod wrote in a Reddit DM to The Verge. “To be clear, reverting the NSFW setting technically constitutes a violation of the site-wide rules (as they are currently written), but since Reddit has insisted, we have been left with no other option.”
The mods of r/Askwomenadvice, who also received the warning, instead plan to keep the designation and potentially face removal. “Anyone with two brain cells to rub together could do a quick look at the top posts, whether it’s by week, month, year, or all time, and see that our sub is peppered with NSFW topics,” one moderator wrote. “Our ethics won’t allow us in good faith to lie to you so Reddit can make a buck. So when the sub gets turned over to whatever scab steps forward, we hope they have the decency to run it in a way that keeps you safe.”
Meanwhile, now that the API changes have been put in place, and a bunch of tools have had to shut down, moderators for the /r/blind subreddit announced that their blind mods can no longer moderate the sub.
Since the latest “accessibility” update to the Reddit app, the amount and magnitude of new accessibility related bugs has made it virtually impossible for blind mods to operate on mobile.
We have done absolutely everything we could to work with Reddit and have given them every opportunity. When they offered to host a demo of the update, we understood how little they understand about accessibility: they did not respond to a request to use the app with screen curtain on. The only fair conclusion is that they cannot use it without sight, but expect us to.
The update introduced various regressions and new bugs. This is entirely within the expectations of the mod team, given how rushed it was and how Reddit continues to demonstrate how underprepared they are to deal with accessibility.
While the group initially talked about moving elsewhere, for the time being they’re staying on Reddit, but all of the moderators on r/blind are now either sighted or visually impaired, as opposed to fully blind.
Seems like an ADA lawsuit waiting to happen, but hey, Huffman wants his IPO, so why not just toss out the blind moderators who are causing so much trouble.
Once again, things feel ripe for someone else to step in and fill the void of the enshittified Reddit. There are, of course, already attempts in the Fediverse with Lemmy, kbin and others. I’ve seen talk of building Reddit-like functionality into other decentralized protocols like nostr and ATproto. And, I’m sure that some others are looking at jumping in as well. For all we know, in a few months, Meta may launch its own Reddit competitor as well, just as they’ve slipped into the microblogging world with Threads.
Filed Under: accessibility, blind, nsfw, protests, steve huffman
Companies: reddit
Comments on “Reddit Tells Protesting Mods It Will Remove Them If They Don’t Stop, As Reddit’s Subreddit For The Blind Can No Longer Be Moderated By Blind Users”
Another interesting take is from the r/dndmemes sub who are apparently also removing the NSFW tag after repeated threats from Reddit. The problem for Reddit is that unlike other subs who posted porn in protest, the NSFW content is entirely on-topic related memes with entirely on-topic comment sections. But because Reddit insisted they remove the tag from the sub, the poor folks in r/all are about to learn what it looks like when two goblins love each other very very much.
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That’s okay. The sidebar will feature ads for potions for those goblins who just need a little help.
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No worries, I’m sure ‘Thanks to an idiot CEO Reddit has an inconsistent policy when it comes to NSFW content and is requiring that subreddits with that content be flagged as family-friendly’ will go over great with advertisers and potential business partners.
I mean what company doesn’t want their name and/or ads right next to (in this case) two goblins having a go at the horizontal tango?
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Goblins? The CEO and other straight fucktards at Reddit are going to learn what it’s like when you piss off enough furries.
Let the Bad Dragon advertisements commence!
Re: dndmemes
My favorite part of the r/dndmemes vs Reddit is their response to Reddit asking them to roll for Intimidation or Persuasion.
I sometimes browse r/noncredibledefense, the self proclaimed defence themed shitposting sub. They got the same not NSFW historically nor under current policies boilerplate threat. Despite the sub’s top posts being about the mobik cube, a pile of decomposed human corpses pressed into a cube shape to fit on a palette. This sub also cheers for the new russian space program (russian vehicles throwing parts of their crew high up in the air when they explode), and regularly draws porn of men sticking their private parts inside warplanes.
I’m pretty sure none of the higher ups actually bothered looking at the subs they’re threatening to forcibly reopen, and just fired the same letter to every sub that enabled NSFW mode relatively recently.
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there was talk on the r/modconduct subreddit (I believe) about whether it was a hastily prepared script that got sent out, which would explain how some longtime NSFW subreddits were getting the warnings messages… because it meant that whoever wrote the script ignored the account tags showing when the NSFW tag was applied (which gets saves for 90days, so anything rated that way longer than that, has no tag).
But then other mods said they could see the V at the end of the message, meaning it was being manually cut and pasted into each message…
and overall it was very inconsistent which NSDW subs were getting the warnings (as in some that were NSFW for years got the warnings, some didn’t, and some that got the warning, but then re-opened, still got a second round of threats!)
So who knows if it’s manual, or shitty scripts, or both, but suffice to say it pretty much seems GUARANTEED that the higher-ups are NOT looking at which subs they are threatening before they do so, because it’s being enforced SUPER haphazardly… oh yeah, plus they also said that Reddit just laid off 5% of thier staff too, on July 6th!!
And r/botDefense announcing they are shutting down doesn’t help the matter either, like pretty much all these actions seem like they will just increase the amount of NSFW content, not decrease it (though all those porn-bot page views are still pageviews for ad purposes I guess)??
facepalm
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Shitty programming doesn’t become less so just because it runs in brain instead of silicon.
From what I’ve been hearing, a significant amount of Redditors who decided to jump ship swam to the isle of Tumblr. Rumor has it they’ve been welcomed with open arms and bottles of rum. I doubt they’ll be asked to wear eyepatches and don peg legs, though.
These unnecessary pirate references doin’ anything for ya? 🙃
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Not if it’s sexy John Oliver in period-appropriate pirate gear.
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Good choice. Tumblr has always been a paradise for sexual minorities. I don’t know what I’d do without my collection of autostrangulation vore specialists.
One subreddit that got the warning is in a odd bind with this is a subreddit that is effectively a support group for people with bad Mother-in-laws or Mothers.
They tried to switch to NSFW as part of the protest. Yet the content survey already labeled them as Sexually Explicit. And there are already frequent posts dealing with violence and abuse in multiple forms (sometimes to extreme degrees)…
They tried to get a appeal/clarification but were just stonewalled with them repeating they didn’t qualify as NSFW.
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there seem to be lots of stories about small niche subs that this has happened to 🙁
Zuck will soon create Face-It, algorithm based editor-less Reddit.
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Considering the pun in the name of Reddit, I’d personally go with Scene-It.
For a tyrant, Huffman seems to be unable to just boot the mods and replace them with his own paid jackboots.
Here’s hoping his incompetency and the protests continue, before shit gets escalated.
Even if seeing the Reddit IPO die to the same tactics that made hedge funds freak out would be funny.
Re: replacing mods
If Reddit replaced mods with their own, it would be interesting to see how that would impact their “neutral” platform immunity under the DMCA, CDA 230, etc.
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It wouldn’t, because no such thing exists.
Re: problem is identified
I think that is the problem. In the past, moderators worked without any pay from reddit. Replacing people who do it for love with people who do it for money is likely to affect the budget.
Replace an hundred ``free” people with a like number of paid people, or even half that number, will start to add up. At a time when the revenue trends appear unfavorable, it might not be easy to staff the moderation desks.
Re: Re: 'Scapegoat, scapegoat, who wants to be a scapegoat!'
Not to mention ‘We want you to replace a mod we just booted. The pay is bad and the tools you’ll have available to do the job are even worse and on top of that you’re almost certainly going to be dealing with a hostile audience given how you got the job and will be blamed for both that and inevitably failing to do the job to the standards demanded by those that hired you thanks to the lousy tools you’re allowed to employ’ doesn’t exactly make for a compelling job-pitch.
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Huffman wants mods to continue to work for free, even though he’s made it significantly difficult to moderate subreddits. He’s the only one acting like landed gentry.
That's what you get when your CEO has Elon as a role model...
‘I don’t care if the users voted in favor of the protest, that moderators can’t do the job because the only tools available to them now make the job impossible or that forums that absolutely do contain OSHA-violating content are being forced to flag themselves otherwise, all I care about is looking good for investors and advertisers!’
Brief clarification about r/blind
We haven’t removed blind mods, but they are at risk of being removed by Reddit, as their policy, as of late, is to remove “inactive mods.”
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That’s like telling an employee at a fast-food place that they’re not allowed to step into the kitchen but they’ll be fired if they don’t personally cook enough meals for customers.
Removing someone’s ability to do the job and then giving them the boot for not doing it goes beyond an indifferent business move into straight up cruelty for it’s own sake.
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Only pro-communist TD under MM would somehow find fault with a capitalist dynamo and success story like Reddit deciding to remove useless and/or obstructionist mods from positions of power within that site.
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Given that it doesn’t make business sense, either, this is entirely in keeping with capitalism.
Also, you clearly have no idea what communism is.
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jhon pls
has amazon reistated you for running a scam through them yet
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die mad straight white trash
the bbcs are coming for you
lube up and drop the soap
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Why was this truth censored?
if a bot talks to another bot in an empty thread, does it even make a sound?
no, but it generates an ad impression and that’s all that matters
Man, If I was a moderator I would put out a helpful tip on how to safely browse the site with an ad blocker. Those things carry malware, ya’know?
The CP77 Reddit was one where it made sense to be flagged as NSFW, and I was shocked it had not been designated as such sooner, but now they’re being threatened over it, and arguing to Reddit that they’re a sub for an 18+ game with graphic violence and nudity.
Users are not only posting naked pics of their ingame characters, with their junk hanging free (The default appearance in the inventory unless you equip clothing) and the sheer amount of NSFW fanart of the characters from the spinoff anime is overwhelming. This is NOT a sub that should have the NSFW tag removed.
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Sounds like a situation ripe for some good old malicious compliance in the form of not covering for the idiot running the company and instead doing what he’s demanding despite it not being what he wants.
‘We told you the content in this subreddit was very much NSFW but you threatened us and demanded we remove the tag so it’s open to everyone, and while we could continue to fight the classification if that’s what you want to say is ‘family friendly’ who are we to say otherwise?’
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Oh, and once in a while, you see John Oliver’s face on one of those pics…
Plap plap plap.
Get Frog Olivered.
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He’ll probably not only remove the mods when that happens, he’ll ban them all for letting it happen. Even though they warned him it was already happening and that’s why they applied the NSFW flag to it.
Done with Reddit
Added all Reddit’s ip to the network firewall. No more redit here. More admins should do this.
Eh?
“We’re going public! Please please please buy our stock even though our app is garbage, users are leaving in droves, and our site is full of spam, gore, and porn thanks to the many wonderful changes we’ve made recently!”
I guess I just don’t understand the marketplace!
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Oh boy.
Time to HOLD REDDIT STOCK, ALL THE WAY TO THE MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON.
As soon as the IPO comes out, that is.
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I don’t know why you are carrying water for these reddit mods. They are not as benevolent as their press releases would portray.
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I don’t know why you are carrying for the CEO of Reddit, and by extension, Wall Street and Rich people everywhere.
They’re even less belevolent than the most asshole mod you know, and the media frequently lies about their importance…
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It takes a special kind of stupid to blindly follow Spez and assert the mods and reddit community as a whole are the real problem.
Life goes on
The military sub shows exactly what I stated before: protesting mods are damaging the communities for personal gains.
Good to see a few have come to their senses.
You don’t do any good by destroying the community you claim to be protesting for.
Pretty sure this already exists in the form of Facebook Groups.