First they came for /r/pics ... now Reddit are coming for the individual personal subreddits
Quite some years ago I'd realised that amongst the problems with using Reddit as a personal blogging space (my avatar here is a relic of that, if you'd not put the two together) was that I do not in fact have any permanent claim to that space.
Reddit's previous policies of moderator re-assignment bothered me. The policies apparently instituted September 2022 and being rolled out aggressively in recent days ... have not weakened my concerns.
And, checking in now, I find a day-old modmail to /r/dredmorbius, a subreddit which only ever was my own personal posts with comments from a few friends, and about 1,000 subscribers ... has received a notice to reclaim by /u/Modcodeofconduct, screenshot attached here.
I have not abandoned the sub. I had closed it in protest of Reddit's continued failings and war against its volunteer moderators and general community.
The Reddit story goes deeper, and drags in Ycombinator and its popular news aggregator Hacker News
My submission earlier today about Reddit seeking to seize my personal subreddit of going on ten years drew 405 votes and 299 comments, but ranked 42nd on the archive page https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2023-06-22&p=2, well below posts with far fewer votes and/or comments.
I note that this conflicts with, and contradicts, a comment from a week ago reiterating HN's policy of moderating less not more on stories concerning YC companies, specifically noting that this was despite the somewhat distant-in-time and tenuous present relationship between YC and Reddit.
And that comment appears to be the first HN's mod team bothered mention the fact, as an HN site search reveals:
And yes, that can be repetitive and annoying and repetitively annoying ... but ... it is often one of the only viable venues for those who are disempowered to be heard.
HN's present Reddit policy both amplifies an existing power discrepancy (that of Reddit members against the company) and puts HN's own credibility at risk.
HN cannot simultaneously claim to:
moderate YC companies less,
impose a penalty for submissions concerning a specific YC company, and ]- fail to disclose the existence of that penalty at all.
The fact that HN have now put their thumb on the scale without notifying either submitters or the general readership concerns me greatly.
How about HN:
De-thumbs that scale
Clearly and prominently disclose the fact of the penalty, and the dates at which it was applied and lifted.
Applies a case-by-case assessment based on new significant information.
Provides a mechanism for aggregating similar classes of stories. E.g., the tens to hundreds of thousands of small and/or personal subreddits which Reddit are now acting to seize control of.
Hacker News's own credibility is very much at risk here and that itself is a serious concern to the site.
(Communicated to HN's mod team via email, toot here adapted slightly.)
As my toot notes, I'd been very aware that Reddit could reclaim the subreddit according to its rules then in place. The pinned posts on the sub, for 2 and 3 years respectively as of this past February, discussed that amongst other concerns. The Wayback Machine shows those here:
One of those posts specifically addressed my preferences for how my subreddit should allowed to die and rest in ... ouch, typo, "piece". That post received an admin response saying that it would be a good candidate for just that.
Arrr them suckers! That's it, let's burrn these squid farts down! Need a light, friend?
Of course, such is easy to say for me, who hasn't had any reddit account. Still, what they're pulling off, it's beyond ridiculous, they are begging to get slaughtered. Good reddance.
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