A source? Me. I watched multiple subreddits split over moderation practices, lived through a couple and I'm struggling with the moderators in /r/politics who have chosen to reign from on high and disallow any discussion about what rules they enforce and how.
A lot of people were trying to post new TPP stuff in r/politics and r/news last week but neither of them would let it be posted because it didn't apply to their subreddits. I ended up finding the article on r/technology of all places.
So based on your personal experiences, you decide to crucify the Mods, blaming them for the blackout? And how are subreddits any different from tribes? Tribes are also moderated by people, this is a problem in certain communities, but if the people are dissatisfied with it, they will leave and create a new, fair community. Which is exactly what happened in the blackout. People are dissatisfied with the admins, they leave reddit and make a new home. But you can't go around blaming the mods, which are a VERY small percentage of the people who are dissatisfied with the events, it just doesn't make sense and it's not relevant. A lot of people agreed with the blackout caused by the mods and a lot more think they should've extended the blackout further. So I don't understand your point in saying that it's the Mods that are "throwing a tantrum" and I don't understand how you call them "semi-professional" when some of them are volunteers who made reddit what it is today.
So based on your personal experiences, you decide to crucify the Mods, blaming them for the blackout?
I understand your position on this issue and I even agree with you on many points but this kind of tone doesn't encourage people to agree with you or change their opinions. I think /spaceghoti was clear that he/she wasn't blaming all mods or even saying that all of them were bad.
Anywho I agree with you that the mods do thankless work and are a HUGE part of making Reddit successful. I also agree that a large percentage of the users supported the mods and their blackout. However, I have to respect that Ellen Pao and the Admins have now directly addressed the community and are clearly defining concrete goals to improve communication. I can't say that I am completely on board with the direction they are going and I definitely don't agree with how they handled this whole ordeal but I am optimistic that they have a chance of working things out now.
However, I have to respect that Ellen Pao and the Admins have now directly addressed the community and are clearly defining concrete goals to improve communication
I'm not totally convinced. I've only seen platitudes so far. The same platitudes that have been made in the past with little change to show for it. "We'll do better." "We are going to communicate more effectively." "We are working on tools." All are things that have been "in the works" for years at this point. It remains to be seen whether Reddit, as a company, is actually able to follow through on the implementation of new tools, or whether this new surge of communication will be more than temporary.
I suppose time will tell. I remain optimistic, only because I prefer to think that everyone is good until they prove otherwise. At this point, Ellen Pao has not sufficiently proven to me that she is malicious or even apathetic toward the Reddit community. I think there is supporting evidence for those that claim she is but it isn't enough for me to assume what others have about her and the Reddit administration team. Either way, I like Snapzu a hell of a lot more than I liked Reddit- I see this community growing to fill in the gaps that currently keep me checking back on a few of my favorite niche subs and eventually I won't need Reddit at all.
So based on your personal experiences, you decide to crucify the Mods, blaming them for the blackout?
Please don't mistake my comment as being a blanket condemnation of all of the moderators in reddit. I very explicitly defined which ones I'm talking about.
While the default subs are slightly more in control now, smaller subreddits are where you really see the undesirable effects of reddit's moderator system. /r/xkcd was a great example, purporting to be about the XKCD comic, but also being used to promote the top mod's bigoted ideas, something that the comic's creator disliked but could do nothing about. The community also disliked it, but was not only powerless, but had any dissent deleted.
/r/horses was another example. To my understanding, it was originally a normal equestrian subreddit about horses. Then, owing to reddit's request policy and an inactive moderator, it was taken over by a bizarre and seemingly psychologically unstable mod who primarily modded various fetish subreddits, and seemed to see /r/horses as a subreddit for a fetish for equestrian girls. He made a number of bizarre and pointless rules, and angrily banned people for not following them, or for actually discussing horses, or disagreeing with him elsewhere on reddit, and so on. Thousands of users who had subscribed to talk about riding and caring for horses were now subscribed to a subreddit that had rules about how much nudity could be in photos. But they couldn't do anything, because one guy had noticed the mods were inactive, and took over. This went on for years, until the mod got himself shadowbanned and someone sane took over.
I seem to recall there was a huge skincare subreddit scandal too, where it came out that the mods were deleting posts and manipulating the subreddit to push products and websites that would make them money.
Oh, and /r/worldnews had some major problems, if I recall, though I don't remember the details.
Do you have a source as to where Redditors had their home subreddits ruined because of the mods?
A source? Me. I watched multiple subreddits split over moderation practices, lived through a couple and I'm struggling with the moderators in /r/politics who have chosen to reign from on high and disallow any discussion about what rules they enforce and how.
A lot of people were trying to post new TPP stuff in r/politics and r/news last week but neither of them would let it be posted because it didn't apply to their subreddits. I ended up finding the article on r/technology of all places.
So based on your personal experiences, you decide to crucify the Mods, blaming them for the blackout? And how are subreddits any different from tribes? Tribes are also moderated by people, this is a problem in certain communities, but if the people are dissatisfied with it, they will leave and create a new, fair community. Which is exactly what happened in the blackout. People are dissatisfied with the admins, they leave reddit and make a new home. But you can't go around blaming the mods, which are a VERY small percentage of the people who are dissatisfied with the events, it just doesn't make sense and it's not relevant. A lot of people agreed with the blackout caused by the mods and a lot more think they should've extended the blackout further. So I don't understand your point in saying that it's the Mods that are "throwing a tantrum" and I don't understand how you call them "semi-professional" when some of them are volunteers who made reddit what it is today.
I understand your position on this issue and I even agree with you on many points but this kind of tone doesn't encourage people to agree with you or change their opinions. I think /spaceghoti was clear that he/she wasn't blaming all mods or even saying that all of them were bad.
Anywho I agree with you that the mods do thankless work and are a HUGE part of making Reddit successful. I also agree that a large percentage of the users supported the mods and their blackout. However, I have to respect that Ellen Pao and the Admins have now directly addressed the community and are clearly defining concrete goals to improve communication. I can't say that I am completely on board with the direction they are going and I definitely don't agree with how they handled this whole ordeal but I am optimistic that they have a chance of working things out now.
I'm not totally convinced. I've only seen platitudes so far. The same platitudes that have been made in the past with little change to show for it. "We'll do better." "We are going to communicate more effectively." "We are working on tools." All are things that have been "in the works" for years at this point. It remains to be seen whether Reddit, as a company, is actually able to follow through on the implementation of new tools, or whether this new surge of communication will be more than temporary.
I suppose time will tell. I remain optimistic, only because I prefer to think that everyone is good until they prove otherwise. At this point, Ellen Pao has not sufficiently proven to me that she is malicious or even apathetic toward the Reddit community. I think there is supporting evidence for those that claim she is but it isn't enough for me to assume what others have about her and the Reddit administration team. Either way, I like Snapzu a hell of a lot more than I liked Reddit- I see this community growing to fill in the gaps that currently keep me checking back on a few of my favorite niche subs and eventually I won't need Reddit at all.
Please don't mistake my comment as being a blanket condemnation of all of the moderators in reddit. I very explicitly defined which ones I'm talking about.
While the default subs are slightly more in control now, smaller subreddits are where you really see the undesirable effects of reddit's moderator system. /r/xkcd was a great example, purporting to be about the XKCD comic, but also being used to promote the top mod's bigoted ideas, something that the comic's creator disliked but could do nothing about. The community also disliked it, but was not only powerless, but had any dissent deleted.
/r/horses was another example. To my understanding, it was originally a normal equestrian subreddit about horses. Then, owing to reddit's request policy and an inactive moderator, it was taken over by a bizarre and seemingly psychologically unstable mod who primarily modded various fetish subreddits, and seemed to see /r/horses as a subreddit for a fetish for equestrian girls. He made a number of bizarre and pointless rules, and angrily banned people for not following them, or for actually discussing horses, or disagreeing with him elsewhere on reddit, and so on. Thousands of users who had subscribed to talk about riding and caring for horses were now subscribed to a subreddit that had rules about how much nudity could be in photos. But they couldn't do anything, because one guy had noticed the mods were inactive, and took over. This went on for years, until the mod got himself shadowbanned and someone sane took over.
I seem to recall there was a huge skincare subreddit scandal too, where it came out that the mods were deleting posts and manipulating the subreddit to push products and websites that would make them money.
Oh, and /r/worldnews had some major problems, if I recall, though I don't remember the details.