Reddit appears to be stepping up pressure on moderators to open up communities that have been shutting down in blackout protest against recently announced changes to the platform. A Reddit admin — a Reddit employee — told the unpaid volunteer moderators of a subreddit that “the expectation here is that communities will reopen,” according to a message shared publicly on a You are a moderator of r/DIY.
The pressure worked. The community was closed, but it reopened on Thursday, and one mod said that fears of Reddit’s actions forced the team’s hand: “We’re reopening because if we don’t, the mods designated on reddit may not care about the subreddit. the way we do,” the mod wrote.
The mod post also announced a number of changes to the subreddit’s rules that are closer to Reddit’s general requirements, while also removing a number of behavior and rule changes made to improve the quality of content. The changes include no longer requiring users to do basic research and lowering the standard for what the subreddit considers spam. Reddit is reopening the community, but at what cost?
We have seen messages from other moderators where the admin, ModCodeofConduct, uses similar rhetoric. To the moderators of r/homeimprovement the admin said “to be very clear you are not going to stay closed so we need to know if there are mods here who want to participate in opening the community.”
To the moderators of r/harrypotter, the admin account wrote that “keeping the community closed is not an option” – even though users vote for the subreddit privately, according to a post from ar/harrypotter mod.
More than 2,600 subreddits remained dark in protest, and users on r/ModCoord (moderator coordination) are still sharing their stories of receiving messages from Reddit that they view as threatening and intimidating. “My little 27-user sub is being threatened for staying black,” wrote one user. “Reddit is a BULLY,” said one, sharing a screenshot where they told ModCodeofConduct that their messages were “harassment and intimidation.”
Reddit did not immediately respond to a request for comment. According to Reddit spokesperson Tim Rathschmidt, “We no longer comment on rumors, baseless claims, or baseless accusations from The Verge. We will be in touch if corrections are needed. ” Without the corrections, then, you might think that Reddit believes that none are necessary.
