Mods are being "encouraged" to not be "inactive" because inactivity is a violation of the Mod Code of Conduct[1]. The last two paragraphs are the most relevant.
> Thanks for bringing this up; it's an important conversation.
> Mods have a right to take a break from moderating, or decide that you don’t want to be a mod anymore. But active communities are relied upon by thousands or even millions of users, and we have a duty to keep these spaces active.
> Subreddits belong to the community of users who come to them for support and conversation. Moderators are stewards of these spaces and in a position of trust. Redditors rely on these spaces for information, support, entertainment, and connection.
> We regularly enforce our subreddit and moderator-level rules. As you point out, this means that we have policies and processes in place that address inactive moderation (Rule 4), mods vandalizing communities (Rule 2), and subreddit squatters (also Rule 4). When rules like these are broken, we remove the mods in violation of the Moderator Code of Conduct, and add new, active mods to the subreddits. We also step in to rearrange mod teams, so active mods are empowered to make decisions for their community. The Moderator Code of Conduct was launched in September 2022, and you’ll notice via post and comment history that this account has been used extensively to source new mod teams.
> Leaving a community you deeply care for and have nurtured for years is a hard choice, but it is a choice some may need to make if they are no longer interested in moderating that community. If a moderator team unanimously decides to stop moderating, we will invite new, active moderators to keep these spaces open and accessible to users. If there is no consensus, but at least one mod who wants to keep the community going, we will respect their decisions and remove those who no longer want to moderate from the mod team.
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[1] Who could have possibly predicted that CoCs would be weaponized?
One of the big arguments in favor of the blackout is that it is supposedly a democratic expression of the will of the communities.
But most of the more than 2000 comments on this thread are not only against the blackout, they go further and express derision and hatred toward the mods.
I am not in the least bit surprised. Knowing how Reddit mods on big subs usually function, I did not ever think that this was a bottom-up revolt. The typical big sub Reddit mod is not a benevolent democrat, he is a mentally disturbed petty authoritarian.
Time will tell whether a significant number of users have simply left the site, like you have. I am going to register a prediction: I think that the number of people who use Reddit will be almost indistinguishable after the lockdowns compared to before the lockdowns.
I agree it's very likely that the total number of people using Reddit might not decrease, it might even increase.
But I'm willing to bet the quality of discussion and content will go down. Have you looked at YouTube comments? Millions (billions?) of people commenting and producing mostly absolute garbage.
It's entirely reasonable to me that Reddit can grow as a tiktok reposting platform, and if that's what spez is trying to achieve, he's doing a good job.
I used to have a prejudice against YouTube comments, but having paid more attention to them lately I am realizing that in my experience, YouTube comments are not any lower quality than Reddit comments on average.
Almost every comment there would strenghten my convictions. Calling mods "fucking dorks" make it clear that some folks still have 20th century mindset where they are ok being spoon fed by corporations and don't understand the basis of community. They just want to be fed. Amusing themselves to death as the author said.
It's not that I like Reddit the company, it's that I dislike the mods even more than I dislike Reddit the company. If they were actually working for the benefit of their communities as I understand it, I would probably feel differently.
9 comments
[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 23.9 ms ] threadFrom https://old.reddit.com/r/ModSupport/comments/14a5lz5/mod_cod...
> Thanks for bringing this up; it's an important conversation.
> Mods have a right to take a break from moderating, or decide that you don’t want to be a mod anymore. But active communities are relied upon by thousands or even millions of users, and we have a duty to keep these spaces active.
> Subreddits belong to the community of users who come to them for support and conversation. Moderators are stewards of these spaces and in a position of trust. Redditors rely on these spaces for information, support, entertainment, and connection.
> We regularly enforce our subreddit and moderator-level rules. As you point out, this means that we have policies and processes in place that address inactive moderation (Rule 4), mods vandalizing communities (Rule 2), and subreddit squatters (also Rule 4). When rules like these are broken, we remove the mods in violation of the Moderator Code of Conduct, and add new, active mods to the subreddits. We also step in to rearrange mod teams, so active mods are empowered to make decisions for their community. The Moderator Code of Conduct was launched in September 2022, and you’ll notice via post and comment history that this account has been used extensively to source new mod teams.
> Leaving a community you deeply care for and have nurtured for years is a hard choice, but it is a choice some may need to make if they are no longer interested in moderating that community. If a moderator team unanimously decides to stop moderating, we will invite new, active moderators to keep these spaces open and accessible to users. If there is no consensus, but at least one mod who wants to keep the community going, we will respect their decisions and remove those who no longer want to moderate from the mod team.
---
[1] Who could have possibly predicted that CoCs would be weaponized?
But most of the more than 2000 comments on this thread are not only against the blackout, they go further and express derision and hatred toward the mods.
I am not in the least bit surprised. Knowing how Reddit mods on big subs usually function, I did not ever think that this was a bottom-up revolt. The typical big sub Reddit mod is not a benevolent democrat, he is a mentally disturbed petty authoritarian.
But I'm willing to bet the quality of discussion and content will go down. Have you looked at YouTube comments? Millions (billions?) of people commenting and producing mostly absolute garbage.
It's entirely reasonable to me that Reddit can grow as a tiktok reposting platform, and if that's what spez is trying to achieve, he's doing a good job.