this post was submitted on 24 Feb 2024
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[–] Donkter 93 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I mean, looking at trends of any company and the fact that Reddit is about to IPO it's only a matter of time before they ban the ability for community members to mod subreddits.

[–] [email protected] 63 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Who else is going to do it though?

[–] [email protected] 144 points 4 months ago (4 children)
[–] [email protected] 47 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Yes please. I want to watch them burn it down.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

lol can you even imagine?

[–] [email protected] 35 points 4 months ago

lol reddit's automated AEO is already notoriously dogshit, trying to replace human moderation with AI would be a fucking disaster. So I say do it spez. I double dare you!

[–] [email protected] 30 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Oh, I'd love to see that happen.

We need more clusterfucks caused by AI, until people shut the fuck up about it.

[–] Serinus 11 points 4 months ago (5 children)

Crypto was more of a fiction than AI and it's somehow still around. How many times can the same ponzi scheme collapse?

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[–] [email protected] 52 points 4 months ago (4 children)

Yeah they need the community for that. They needed the community for everything. And you know what? Go on that site right now. It’s just endless dribble. Reformatted TikTok videos posted by bots. People endlessly repeating the same shit over and over again. Bots copying those endlessly repeated comments on the subsequent reposts. Where’s the stuff that made Reddit special? Has there been a chuck testa meme or noteworthy cool event like a good ama or the Christmas exchange that’s occurred recently? Is there content coming out of the site that’s making the news like it once did? Is the spark there? No

Now it’s just another corporate whore of a company where a bunch of sparkling water drinking pussies with erectile dysfunction sit around trying to figure out how they can best game the system to exploit their pageviews.

The ceo of this company comes out embracing Elon Musk, whines about how the community is cutting into his bottom line, and we are supposed to sit around continuing to provide this man with the content he needs to keep his website alive?

Fuck that.

I think the people who create the gold that makes the internet what it is have sort of scattered to the ether and they’re waiting for the next thing to pop up. When it happens you’ll see that spark come about once more. Actual interesting content. Good topical memes. A fun atmosphere that doesn’t feel exploited by some pretentious pricks.

I want it to be lemmy and the fediverse. We are lying to ourselves if we think this caught all the people stepping off the sinking ship. But I think with some collective upgrades and a way better ui that can be marketed to the average person. This could and should be it.

Here’s hoping we see that happen.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

and we are supposed to sit around continuing to provide this man with the content he needs to keep his website alive?

In other words, he's "landed gentry".

[–] j4k3 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I mean, if you want it, the only thing that is stopping it is your posts on here. I left that site on the 9th and try and make this place something I enjoy by posting and commenting as much as I can. I'm only at 158 posts and 1270 comments.

Progress and evolution always move forward. We can't go back and reddit will never exist again, but we can be a part of the next thing and help each other morn the loss of what was. All of us would likely become disconnected moronic pricks if we made 192 million dollars last year. I'm sure that buys Spez lots of trips to wherever Epstein Island 2.0 is located now.

[–] Feathercrown 7 points 4 months ago

All of us would likely become disconnected moronic pricks if we made 192 million dollars last year.

I really don't think that's true. If we had always made that much, maybe, but knowing what I do, and being who I am? It'd change me, but not fundamentally. I believe this to be true of most people. Power doesn't just corrupt; it amplifies.

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[–] merthyr1831 12 points 4 months ago (1 children)

They'll just start taking over the large money-makers (if they havent already): pics, funny, memes, news, gaming etc.

Maybe they'll even create a tiered system of "community curated" subreddits and "official" subs.

Either way, they don't have to moderate the whole site, just the parts that take in most of the traffic. That way you don't have to deal with volunteers and their personal beefs and/or protests to your changes.

Most of the smaller subs are basically dead anyway, in terms of moderation. Many of them are way less active too.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago

There were 3.5 million subreddits in 2022, and growing by tens of thousands per month. Reddit can't possibly employ people to moderate them. It has to be done by community members or else no one.

[–] fidodo 73 points 4 months ago (5 children)

Why would anyone do free work for a corporation to profit off of?

[–] EnderMB 34 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I used to be a mod at /r/soccer.

I used it when it was a wild-west shitshow full of the same old posts. I used it for a decade, and when they needed mods in my timezone I thought I'd use the time I was gifted thanks to COVID and redundancy to help out.

Most mods have very little power, and a lot of scrutiny if there are more than a few mods. It's just a queue you occasionally look at to see what has been reported, and you action it based on the rules.

[–] NikkiDimes 30 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Yes, you have described performing work. Many people do the same, but with emails, and get paid.

[–] EnderMB 6 points 4 months ago (5 children)

For 10ish mins a day? Sign me up to that job!

Out of interest, how do you see it as any different to being a mod on Lemmy?

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 4 months ago

Especially when working for projects like Wikipedia and OpenStreetMap is way more rewarding

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I moderated a mid sized sub for a while. Around 100k users. It was a hobby I was into and I figured may as well moderate because I was spending a lot of time on the sub anyways. It also let me put together some community events which were always fun. Once it stopped being fun and started feeling like a job, I left. I never really thought about it as doing free work for reddit and more helping community building for a hobby I had. People do it for all sorts of reasons. The "power mods" are really the issue.

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[–] owenfromcanada 5 points 4 months ago

They're paid in ego boosts. Unfortunately, it means that the types of mods that have hung on are largely the type that like to be paid in ego boosts.

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[–] [email protected] 60 points 4 months ago

Nothing can really kill reddit, but as far as content goes I expect it will follow the same path facebook did where the only people who eventually really interact on it will be conspiracy theorists and moms.

[–] merthyr1831 52 points 4 months ago (4 children)

Its a good thing the Moderators famously fumbled their one attempt at protesting for anything significant to reddit

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago (1 children)

You say it like mods are anything other than a bunch of random diverse people with little to no communications between those on different subs

[–] merthyr1831 4 points 4 months ago

It was pretty organised, all things considered. The problem was that the organised approach was to do a single, one off, 2-day protest with no end-game. The consensus was simply far too naiive in assuming that the reddit admins wouldn't just sit it out knowing that they'd only have to oust a few stragglers at most.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago (5 children)

They should've just stopped moderating in mass. If Reddit wants to replace them that's fine, they'll just need to replace all of them at once.

[–] SomeGuy69 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

They did and Reddit installed puppets in the bigger subs.

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[–] [email protected] 45 points 4 months ago (5 children)

I really don't know what could kill Reddit at this point. It's so different now with Reddit's new UI, the awards, blocking VPN connections, and Reddit licensing user content for AI training. We saw how things went with the blackout and how so many people caved instantly and were willing to fill the roles of the people that left once subreddits were forced back open.

Maybe blocking NSFW content or requiring users to verify their age?

[–] MataVatnik 47 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (4 children)

I don't think it will die, it will probably just fade into irrelevancy. They are hostile to their users, their creators and moderators. Literally the only things that give them value. It will become this fake hypercurated space, like those content pages that produce clean fake feelgood videos. When originality dies in a space it migrates elsewhere and you're left with a shell of unoriginal normie shit. Of all places instagram is popping off with original content and vibrant comment spaces.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Can't kill what is already dead.

The communities are all but gone.

The signal to noise ratio is the worst it's ever been.

Most subs are barely moderated. Actual mod involvement (as opposed to Automod) is low.

Reddit now openly collects and sells user data.

The Reddit we knew is dead and gone.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago

The only place I've seen that still has some life and great energy is r/comics. If lemmy's version(s) of that group could attract the regular content creators I wouldn't have any other reason to visit reddit.

[–] sramder 4 points 4 months ago

Reddit now openly collects and sells user data.

With Sam Altman as shareholder #4 I think we got sold out long ago. The only real surprise is that Reddit got some compensation…

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[–] Philharmonic3 36 points 4 months ago

Fuck yeah, fuck its business. Fuck reddit for going IPO and Fuck spez for being an insufferable gaping asshole

[–] [email protected] 26 points 4 months ago (2 children)

"Could hurt its business"

Apparently we didn't do much. I'm just happy to be on Lemmy so I don't have to care.

[–] mods_are_assholes 6 points 4 months ago

The final results of the protest are still rolling out, they replaced a LOT of mods with what turned out to be utter shitstains (well more shitstainy than normal mods), and their collective abusive actions are chasing good content posters away.

We won't see the largest part of the fallout for a few more months still.

It won't be long till rxxxit is nothing but white nationalists and cat pic lovers.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Lol yeah, tired of people coming over here, lurking (not posting or commenting), and complaining there isn't much content to consume.

[–] LifeOfChance 7 points 4 months ago (5 children)

Huh? Those are two vastly different groups. You can't not comment or post AND complain about it. Those who complain are those who comment and/or post. Those who lurk either don't interact at all or upvote/downvote only.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I modded a few subreddits but left it all behind

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago

I just remembered the other day I'm listed as the only moderator of a subreddit with a couple thousand users and haven't done anything for it in about a year.

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[–] hashferret 12 points 4 months ago

Rip their fucking eyes out

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Reverse psychology Uno card attempt to get any remaining mod or community they don't control to out themselves as a risk and be ousted, imo.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


The company also said that bad publicity and media coverage, such as the kind that stemmed from the API protests, could be a risk to Reddit’s success.

The Form S-1 said bad PR around Reddit, including its practices, prices, and mods, "could adversely affect the size, demographics, engagement, and loyalty of our user base," adding:

Reddit’s filing also said that negative publicity and moderators disrupting the normal operation of subreddits could hurt user growth and engagement goals.

Reddit's filing discusses losing moderators as a business risk and notes how important third-party tools are in maintaining mods:

Any disruption to, or lack of availability of, these third-party tools could harm our moderators’ ability to review content and enforce community rules.

Nondisclosure agreement requirements and the lack of a finalized developer platform also drive uncertainty around the longevity of the third-party Reddit app ecosystem, according to devs Ars spoke with this year.


The original article contains 647 words, the summary contains 150 words. Saved 77%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

Reddit needs to die

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