The Reddit moderators who coordinate many celebrity AMAs will no longer do so

https://www.theverge.com/2023/7/1/23781306/reddit-moderators-iama-celebrity-ama

by OnlyLys • 3 years ago

56 23 3 years ago

theverge.com

mikece• 3 years ago

I am not a Redditor; is there a synopsis somewhere to briefly explain what this war of mods vs Reddit has been about?

Tempest1981• 3 years ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Reddit_API_controversy

The "Subreddit Blackout" section talks about the battle with moderators:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Reddit_API_controversy#...

joshstrange2• 3 years ago

This is completely unsurprising. I wrote a handful of small bots for a subreddit I helped with for a few years. Had all this API stuff gone down back then I’d have shut down my stuff as well. I spent a couple hundred dollars over those years on services and servers to help with that sub and I wouldn’t change it looking back but I also would never do that for something on Reddit again given how their CEO has behaved.

This is what people were warning about. On top of moderators walking away, Reddit is going to experience a “brain drain” of bot developers and developers who make tools for Reddit. Those people might not be influencers/content creators themselves but their work empowers that group.

I’m going to really miss Reddit and what it was. Other than Google results, Reddit died for me along with Apollo.

BenFranklin1004• 3 years ago

For someone such as myself who has accessed Reddit through a web bowser since its founding in 2005, I don’t get the outrage. So some people can’t access it through their favorite app? I’m more annoyed mods are shutting off access to a valuable resource that millions of users including myself contributed to over the last 18 years.

3836293648• 3 years ago

I bet you're still on old reddit. This is the equivalent of shutting down old reddit for mobile.

mandmandam2• 3 years ago

I don’t get the outrage. So some people can’t access it through their favorite app?

OP's comment states multiple good reasons why people would be pissed off. There are many, many more.

And you don't even need to be "outraged" to leave - it's enough to feel disrespected. If you don't feel disrespected, fine - stay. Have fun. But, ignoring other people's real experience, then immediately acting as if there's nothing to be mad about, is disingenuous.

aaomidi• 3 years ago

Welcome to how protesting works. This could be a time for you to inform yourself of why the protesters are pissed off and why Reddit is at this point, never going to get back to the quality of engagement it used to have.

edgineer2• 3 years ago

I thought they had an employee for that. I mean they used to, was Victoria her name? She took dictation for celebrities until one of them complained when she transcribed their words too directly, when she was fired. Did no one replace her?

edgineer2• 3 years ago

Mea culpa, the article mentions her. Though they do not detail exactly why she was fired, which I think they should.

liamwire• 3 years ago

If I recall correctly former reddit CEO Yishan Wong’s tweets on the matter, it was ordered by Alexis Ohanian directly. Yishan went on to describe how Alexis let the at-the-time CEO, Ellen Pao, take the heat for the decision.

In my eyes, Reddit’s distaste for their own users emanates from the founders directly.

autoexec• 3 years ago

I stopped caring about AMAs after they canned her. If felt like reddit wanted to turn AMAs into nothing but advertising. Occasionally other subreddits would host them with varying success though.

DangitBobby2• 3 years ago

Any reason whatsoever to believe new mods won't fill this role immediately?

str3wer• 3 years ago

the point is not if they're getting replaced but if they're able to do so, everyone can become a moderator but how many people can actually moderate?

joshstrange2• 3 years ago

I view moderators a lot like open source maintainers. It’s often a thankless job you do for free and you have to put up with a lot of shit. Also a lot of people think the job is easy and “anyone could do it” when we know that’s not the case in reality. You need someone who cares in that position. Are there bad mods and bad OS maintainers? Absolutely, but it’s still not as easy as people make it out to be to replace either.

pangolinja• 3 years ago

so no more Ghislaine breaching her incarceration conditions? or is she still going to retail all her current juicy mod privileges?

2342342343636• 3 years ago

Celebrity AMAs are mostly just Q&As with celebrity publicists, and are done purely for promotion (usually for some new film, show, or brand they're selling), and are a great example of how fake and astroturfed reddit is in general.

solarkraft• 3 years ago

A good step. Will they move to the main competitor? What can we do to make that happen? Do Lemmy instances already have high-profile moderators that could attract moderators like these?

The Reddit moderators who coordinate many celebrity AMAs will no longer do so

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