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PaperclipPerfector  10mo ago (text post)   32491 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of June 12, 2023

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Reddit Blackout Update: The Admins Strike Back.

Entering day 5 of the "48-hour" blackout in protest of the proposed API changes, many subreddits have chosen to stay private indefinitely until their demands are met. Over the last few days the admins have not-so-subtly telegraphed both on Reddit and in the media their intention to end the blackout and remove uncooperative moderators. But how? I have mentioned before Reddit's feudalistic structure which requires unpaid mods to do the dirty work of removing spam and enforcing content rules. If Reddit were to simply force open subs against the wishes of the mod team, the mods could simply revolt and refuse to work.

Well, Spez seems to have found a solution:

How to request an abandoned community or a mod list reorder.

We’ve received hundreds of inquiries regarding what to do if your mod team disagrees on how to reopen your communities. I am sure many of you are aware that mod teams of subreddits that have stayed private are receiving modmails from this account. Our goal with these messages is to restore community stability by establishing moderator consensus on how to move forward. In many cases, we've already helped teams reopen with no action beyond a conversation. In some instances, this might result in a reordering of the moderator list. In rare instances, this will result in mod removals. What this means is:

  • If mods disagree about how to moderate their community, we will reorder the moderator list to grant top slots to mods that want to keep their communities active and engaged. For example, if a top mod wants to stop moderating, but keep the community private indefinitely, they will be bumped down the list so a more active moderator can step in. (rule 4)
  • If a mod or mods are engaging in flagrantly disruptive behavior that compromises the stability of their community, they will be removed. For example, if an inactive top moderator comes back and decides to vandalize the community, they will be removed. (rule 1 & 2)

Both actions are against our Moderator Code Of Conduct.

How to request moderation privileges for an abandoned community or a top mod removal:

We’re experiencing a high volume of requests via our standard Reddit Request and Top Mod Removal Process. To expedite the process, if your mod team has an inactive top mod (or mods) and you would like to request to have that mod moved down the list, please reach out here.

Please include the usernames of inactive mods you wish to have reordered on the mod list, and be sure to inform your fellow mods of this request. When we say “inactive,” we do not mean overall activity on reddit – we mean activity within your subreddit specifically. Once we receive this message, we will reach out to the entire team to ensure we understand your needs and then work with you to rebuild community stability.

We understand this is a turbulent time and want to do our best to support you and your community’s needs.

Feudal problems require feudal solutions. In this case, the king (Spez), is checking the power of the upper nobility (power mods) by playing them off the lower nobility and peasants (small time mods and users). This ensures a smooth transition of power, as the lower mods who will be actioning these requests have moderation experience, familiarity with the communities they will be moderating, and they will be selected specifically for their collaboration with Reddit against other unaligned forces.

In reality, this process makes itself redundant by design. The power mods behind the blackout know they've been outplayed and outgunned. Subreddits that were committed to indefinite blackout as recently as this morning are reopening, much to the embarrassment of the mod team at the hands of the community. Reddit moderators now answer directly to Spez, and they know it.

I'm personally bearish on the possibility of either Reddit reconsidering their policy or a successful exodus to fairer lands.

I joined Reddit after the whole Digg affair, but I presume that it was nowhere near as entrenched as Reddit is today. Network effects are killer, as all the Twitter competitors found out to their chagrin.

Reddit really does have plenty of room for enshittification before it collapses, though it's trying it's hardest.

The social media landscape/ the internet as a whole is significantly more consolidated these days, I can count on the toes of an uncontrolled diabetic the number of communities that successfully spun off from Reddit (Drama, The Motte, Chapo?). It takes an unusually cohesive and dedicated userbase to pull off, the typical normie browsing sports subs is there pretty much entirely because it's the most popular venue, and they're unlikely to abandon ship till it reaches critical mass.

At any rate, I'm grateful that the Motte made it through mostly unscathed in its own transition, and I wonder if we were ever big enough for others to take note.

Reddit has no network effects. A community is community. The communities that are dedicated to sourdough pizza can thrive separately from the rough anal ones. So they can jump. It probably leaves the subscribers on /r/brutalanalwhileeatingpizza in a cold place. But there will probably be only a 100 of them.

Why do you think reddit killed off all the old forums, then?

I think it was just the convenience of being able to browse many forums on one site and join them with one click, instead of the tedious process of registering a name and password, and responding to a confirmation email, separately for every forum. At least that's what it was for me.

Right, that's just a network effect.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


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