A post from r/apple explaining why they were forced to reopen their subreddit after planning to close indefinitely.
Quotes from the r/apple announcement:
Reddit’s asshole CEO u/spez made it clear that Reddit was not backing down on their changes but assured users that apps or tools meant for accessibility will be unharmed along with most moderation tools and bots. While this was great to hear, it still wasn’t enough. So along with hundreds of other subreddits including our friends over at r/iPhone, r/iOS, r/AppleWatch, and r/Jailbreak, we decided to stay private indefinitely until Reddit changed course by giving third-party apps a fair price for API access.
Now you must be wondering, “I’m seeing this post, does that mean they budged?” Unfortunately, the answer is no. You are seeing this post because Reddit has threatened to open subreddits regardless of mod action and replace entire teams that otherwise refuse. We want the best for this community and have no choice but to open it back up — or have it opened for us.
NOTE: The URL linked to this post is a web.archive.org archive linked to a Libreddit instance to prevent Reddit from taking down that post from the internet + prevent giving Reddit direct traffic. Other links linked here go straight to Libreddit urls or to news articles. No links here lead directly to Reddit.
Libreddit is a third-party web client hosted by third-party servers.
EDIT: fixed grammar.
Honestly, they should just force Reddit to replace them. Let’s see how long Reddit lasts without experienced moderators.
This is what I said to another person:
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.
Now that I read it this sounds like a coup d’état
where I got the idea from: https://lemmy.world/post/101237
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.
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.
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!
That dude seems to been an even bigger idiot than Musk.
A feat considered impossible until recently.
Honestly I kind of wonder if this is all some kind of coordinated power grab to crack down on public spaces in the build up to 2024 elections.
bruh, that’s been happening. it’s part of why the discussion quality on reddit is in such accelerated decline.
I think the real reason the discussions on reddit have been in decline is because
- reddit promotes controversy and ragebait, as this has been proven to “increase user engagement”.
- more recently reddit has been wielding the ban hammer hard and perma banning people over things they would previously let slide.
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”
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.
