this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2023
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Malicious Compliance

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People conforming to the letter, but not the spirit, of a request. For now, this includes text posts, images, videos and links. Please ensure that the “malicious compliance” aspect is apparent - if you’re making a text post, be sure to explain this part; if it’s an image/video/link, use the “Body” field to elaborate.

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I think the title speaks for itself.

EDIT: UPDATE: So apparently the former r/jailbait mod that is The CEO purged the sub’s mods and forced the sub to re-reopen under the old rules.

Mission failed! We’ll get them next time!

EDIT2: aaaaaaand the sub's archived and no longer accepts new submissions. The garbage fire keeps going....

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[–] nightscout 104 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Reddit is only valuable because of the content users provide. If you don’t post valuable content, the site is worthless. Reddit can force subs back open, but they can’t force users to submit the content that makes the site valuable to begin with.

[–] Doodoocaca 39 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is what Reddit forgot. They don't implicitly provide any value, it's the community that provides the value. Reddit is just the place where people happen to post.

[–] regeya 12 points 1 year ago (5 children)

So...do we know if Reddit iself is behind flooding subs with comments about how mods are being jerks and hurting the communities pointlessly? It's weird, the same kinds of comments in every sub I'm in. Also lots of comments about how Lemmy is too complicated. 😆

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[–] utopianfiat 15 points 1 year ago

Not just that but moderation curating that content prevents the site from enshittifying and degenerating into sludge.

People complain about mods but without mods you get essentially a forum where every poster is ChatGPT.

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[–] AlmightySnoo 83 points 1 year ago

It's a porn sub and it's more inclusive now, unless Reddit wants to keep discriminating against sex workers.

[–] Apoidea 62 points 1 year ago (6 children)

They are clearly itching to ban NSFW content site wide (paid API doesn't even include NSFW posts). This sort of thing might make a good excuse.

But at the same time, who is going to enforce that? The unpaid moderators you just fired? LOL

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[–] [email protected] 60 points 1 year ago (3 children)

This is epic level malicious compliance. Best way to run a SFW sub into the ground is opening it up to NSFW content.

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

TIL reddit cant run ads on NSFW Subreddits!

[–] Blissingg 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Realistically nothing is stopping them from doing so it’s their own policies which is kinda dumb af. All they’d have to do is prevent ads from brands that don’t want to be associated with it from showing there.

The fact they don’t show advertisements on NSFW subs/posts just tells me their advertising tools and targeting are absolutely sub par.

[–] pwnicholson 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

As a professional marketer and advertiser, that's not correct.

What keeps them from doing it is that most high-dollar advertisers don't want their ads/brand appearing next to NSFW content.

It's probably more difficult for Reddit to filter out NSFW ad impressions rather than just let ads appear anywhere. But advertisers demand it, so they have to do it to get the dollars.

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[–] Ralphensnitch 38 points 1 year ago

The possibilities here are endless

"Amagi's toes are interesting" "This penis has an interesting vain"

I can't wait to get off work, this sounds hilarious.

[–] zikk_transport2 37 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Lmao. Reddit had a chance to reverse this crap. Now it's too late. Can't wait for their IPO.

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[–] Airazz 36 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I support their decision. If admins are going to be dicks, then so be it. I hope they'll enjoy it.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I didn't see it mentioned, but reddit apparently doesn't advertise in nsfw subs, so it has more value than just the laughs it gives us.

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I really enjoy this form of protest. The "landed gentry" is giving the users what they want. I really hope that more communities do what /r/interestingasfuck and /r/justnomil have done to deprive Reddit of its advertising revenue.

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I really hope this leads to actual change. Subreddits are becoming meaningless to visit and frustrating for normal users, so hopefully they just stop using reddit altogether.

[–] Gingerrific 33 points 1 year ago

When your website relies on the free labour of thousands, you'd think you might want to tred carefully in hopes of not alienating too many people at once.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago

I already seen a bunch of comments like "why are mods doing this, it's hurting my and other users experience" and I'm sitting here like that's kind of the point haha. Reddit relies on all those mods to curate those subs and so now they're gonna to do it in a way to make the experience less appealing for them and for advertisers. Like it sucks but then again you are using a site heavily reliant on volunteers who are near universally upset by the recent changes

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I like this more than what r/piracy and r/memes did, (especially r/piracy^) as the content now being produced in those subs is still "quality" content that won't deter users from Reddit.

What needs to be done, (assuming Reddit mods refuse to risk giving up their power) is to pollute the homepage and r/all with so much crap that people refuse to use the website.

^ r/piracy rant, taken from my Reddit comment: (made before switching to lemmy)

spoilerYou have given up the protest.

You are helping Reddit twofold: Continuing to provide content, (even John Oliver content is still content) and removing unwanted content. (The discussion of digital piracy)

At this point you might as well remove the megathread as well.

[–] MyReligionIsAI 16 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I honestly just found about Lemmy and signed up because I noticed the quality of content on Reddit (especially /r/all) took a nose dive.

Even in the comments so much nonsense and hate today.

[–] dystop 12 points 1 year ago

Welcome! if you're new to the fediverse, I have a quick intro stickied in this sub. The main difference is looking for communities across different instances, not just on lemmy.world.

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[–] dystop 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

What is piracy and memes doing? I haven't been back to reddit since last week (except to steal content and bring it here).

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (8 children)

The sub is now /r/InterestingANDFuck. I'm sure this is worse for Spez than the John Oliver sub changes, which I also approve of. Everyone knows advertisers love NSFW content being just out there for anybody to stumble upon.

Edit: Forgot an "ing" in the new sub name.

[–] Acetamide 22 points 1 year ago (2 children)

What I realised to maybe as equally damaging is if all the original NSFW subs started allowing only SFW content. This would drive the fairly isolated but big userbase of those subs away.

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

@Kombat Yes, it's nice to see the funny rules some subs are coming up with, including all the John Oliver stuff, but I'd like to see more of them just get rid of their rules and allow porn or whatever people want to post. I think that would be much more economically damaging to the company, especially after the mainstream media starts describing Reddit as a porn site.

@Iron_Lynx

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I love that all of the massive subs are just going full r/worldpolitics at this point. No wonder lemmy/kbin are still growing exponentially after the blackout technically ended, the front page must be completely ruined by all of the huge subs doing this shit.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I love how Mods Tell they are "forced" what is reddit gonna Do otherwise? Dont pay them?

Oh wait....

[–] [email protected] 46 points 1 year ago (2 children)

People get suckered into the sunk-costs fallacy all of the time, and managers of large communities are going to be extra prone to it when they're told they'll have "their communities" taken away from them.

Remember, these people are fighting to "save Reddit". They see the possibility of having corporate friendly scabs take over as a community-destroying and a Reddit destroying proposition.

The event horizon of a black hole is the 2-dimensional surface across which the possibility of turning back is eliminated. At that point, space and time become so twisted that there is no longer an "outwards" direction. Every road leads in. But in supermassive black holes, that event horizon is so far away from the centre that the actual tidal forces -- the forces which pull things apart when they're near large gravity sources -- are remarkably weak. You would not notice the difference between being 1 km above the event horizon and 1 km beneath it. If you weren't being careful, you could cross that event horizon without ceremony and without realizing you'd doomed yourself.

This is how it is with big services, too. The thing that makes them irrelevant happens long before revenues or usage decline. In fact, there's likely still growth! But there'll be an inflection point in the acceleration that those who don't know what to look for won't even notice. Then it could take months, or even years, for things to turn around and decay into nothing of value.

These mods are trying to save something that has already experienced its killing blow. Something that will cease being what it was long before it ceases to be. Something that has already quietly -- though not too quietly -- slipped past the event horizon.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago

The hard scifi nerd in me appreciated that metaphor.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago

I would like to say that this analogy owns.

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

GUYS, IF YOU DON'T STOP, I'M GONNA GET REALLY, REALLY MAD! ;( - spez

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago

Definition of "interesting" changed. Definition of fuck did not.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago

It's r/interestingassfuck now

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Interesting assfuck.

That is all.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The worst thing for Reddit is that they don't advertise against NSFW content. This has major revenue implications for Reddit.

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[–] MadWorks 16 points 1 year ago

I mean, I find that more interesting. lol

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They're missing an S for it to be interesting ass-fuck

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[–] ulu_mulu 15 points 1 year ago

They're not lowering the standard on what qualifies as interesting, they're just taking the "fuck" part to the letter lmao.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I wonder if all this malicious compliance is also gonna screw with all that AI research people were interested in doing, if all the topics have essentially shifted....

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This is the best way to harm reddit. More than a decade of carefully organized human sorted and ranked data by topic on. Destroy that data, it's ranking, it's sorting - you destroy the value going forward

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[–] Hypersapien 15 points 1 year ago

Keep turning reddit into a shitshow and you'll keep hemorrhaging users.

[–] fne8w2ah 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I fear for the fate of other subreddits who may also be forced open.

[–] TempleSquare 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Mine is closed. But considering it has under 500 subscribers...

... Well, let's just say if Spez forced mine to open, then the site would literally be on fire.

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[–] BanggerRang 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I thought i was logged onto the wrong account LOL

[–] Iron_Lynx 12 points 1 year ago

Same. I never subbed to pornographic subreddits, so when I saw a lady broadcasting her breasts on my front page, I had to do a double take. And then I made this post here xD

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