Three Reddit moderators have just told me that Reddit is sending a message to closed communities asking if they plan to reopen. Here’s the full message, taken from screenshots I’ve seen: The 48-hour timing is notable; Reddit mods had asked the company for a response to an open letter by June 29th (which would be 48 hours from now), and that means that this deadline would be up just a day before many popular Reddit apps are set to shut down on June 30th.

TL;DR: say hello to our friend u/ModCodeOfConduct, disguising threats behind feigned politeness, yet again!

  • martini1992@lemmy.ml
    22·
    1 year ago

    So… They’re going to force reopen the subs before the API turn off and claim the protests had no effect?

    • Lvxferre@lemmy.mlOPM
      141·
      1 year ago

      I think that it’s their intention. Mods have a few ways to fight back, though. And I hope that they’re organising a mass exodus.

      • martini1992@lemmy.ml
        6·
        1 year ago

        I would assume that means they also plan to replace the real people who left the platform with activity from bot accounts to make it seem like business as usual for the planned IPO.

        • empireOfLove@lemmy.one
          7·
          1 year ago

          Of course. Why do you think anyone attempting to delete their content is having it automatically restored? Gotta feed the bots something to repost and generate chatgpt responses with.

  • boff@lemmy.one
    5·
    1 year ago

    Maybe some malicious compliance is needed? If the moderators keep active in their private communities, it would meet the requirements of code of conduct.

    • Lvxferre@lemmy.mlOPM
      4·
      1 year ago

      Privating subs = mods get replaced. Reddit Inc. is already doing this.

      Instead I think that a better strategy is to restrict further and further the scope of the subreddit, while linking and feeding an alternative elsewhere. For example, if the subreddit is about cooking:

      • “From now on we don’t allow baking posts here. Go to foobar/c/cooking to discuss those.”
      • “From now on we don’t allow baking posts or mentions of brands. Go to foobar/c/cooking to discuss those.”
      • “From now on we don’t allow baking posts, mentions of brands, or recipes without veggies. Go to foobar/c/cooking to discuss those.”
      • etc.

      While perhaps retro-actively removing posts breaking the new rules.

      Still a form of malicious compliance, but I think that it’s more effective to divert Reddit traffic to another community also controlled by the same mod team. And it should be really hard for Reddit Inc. to say “no, you need to allow baking posts here!”, as it’s too sub-specific and Reddit Inc. is completely out of touch with the community.