“Please let us know within the next 48 hours if you plan on re-opening.” - The Verge

https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/27/23776082/please-let-us-know-within-the-next-48-hours-if-you-plan-on-re-opening

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.

“Please let us know within the next 48 hours if you plan on re-opening.” - The Verge

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

14 comments

martini1992

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

lvxferre

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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

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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

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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.

lvxferre

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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.

Possibly. But that's going to backfire badly in the light of a certain new Google feature.

boff

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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

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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.

Bozicus

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I like this. It'll probably be declared "vandalism" of the community, and they'll try to ban mods, but it would affect the community's usefulness to advertisers if it becomes annoying for users, or specialized in a way that makes it unsuitable for the companies who are currently in there. Brands choose Reddit because they think they can reach exactly the people who are likely to want their products by targeting the right subreddits. Change the type of conversation in those subreddits to something that no longer attracts the audience advertisers want, and advertisers will be less interested. Forbidding brand mentions is good, too.

lvxferre

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It’ll probably be declared “vandalism” of the community

Yup. But it's really hard for Reddit Inc. to track this, as long as the deletion is slow enough, and posters are "discouraged" from adding new posts; and the community still there are the ones who don't really give a damn.

Forbidding brand mentions is good, too.

Damn, that would work great on a few subs. Like r/cooking.

Bozicus

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That's true, Reddit has its hands full with red pandas and John Oliver pics. They'll probably let gradual rule changes slide for a while. Forbidding brand mentions might actually kill r/SkincareAddiction, since it's mostly product reviews and people posting blurry pictures of gnarly abscesses they believe are pimples.

DominicusPurple

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they had one job...