This is correct. I started r/cubancigars for example. It's mine. I can kick every single moderator off the team, shut the sub down, or change the rules without care. I don't, but I can, and nobody would stop me.
That is an interesting point. Would assume your subreddit isn’t yours so at any point you could grow and generate content and users and Reddit could take it over and add in their own moderators?
Yes, it's total private tyranny if the person who started the subreddit chooses to keep it that way. But if Reddit (the company) doesn't like the way you're running your sub, they can and will replace the people in charge.
On Reddit, moderators are only allowed to add or remove moderators below them on the list. Therefore, the moderator who is listed first—generally the one who initially created the subreddit—can not be removed by anyone else, and has the power to remove all of the other moderators, making them the de facto "owner" of the subreddit.
How do you tell a willing user with the intention to keep a sub running as is, and a willing user who just wants to burn it all down, turn it into their own fiefdom, or worse?
What's the ratio of the former to the latter, and does Reddit have the manpower to tell to the difference on a time frame that keeps the subs alive?
What's the impact of a bunch of people who know how the sausage is made being essentially coup'ed by Reddit? Are they going to shrug and move on? Swear eternal vengeance?
I'm still not following how that's any different than just owning a subreddit. If I own a subreddit I can moderate the posts in it. Under your model, you're suggesting that I can "moderate" posts that initiate from my server, but not others, and once again I'm still not sure what advantage that has over owning a subreddit?
I want to be a part of it for the community. Moderators are the (un)necessary evil.
The fact that you seem to see moderators as "owners" of a subreddit doesn't really help the case.
Mods on reddit have dictatorial status on their subs (within reason). However anyone is free to start a new sub to be more open than the one they are banned/shadow-banned in. If the topic is important enough people will move there.
Sure. They can't be controlled because they do it without monetary payments. But it's not a good thing that they can't be controlled when a sub gets to a certain size.
At some point, large subreddits become important to the internet and they outgrow the moderators.
You know how some founders are great when the startup is small but is completely incompetent when the startup grows and scales? Then VCs bring in "adults" to run the larger startup? Yea. It happens on subreddits too but founding moderators can't be kicked out as far as I know.
Users can create their own communities called subreddits. If they do, they are the first and only moderator of that sub. A sub can be about anything, and if other users enjoy that type of content they can subscribe.
Ultimately mods can remove or approve any post they desire. Some mods are hands-off, and others curate content. It depends on their goals for the subreddit. If users are not happy with the content of the sub or the moderation style, they can subscribe to a competitor subreddit or start their own. It's very much an open system.
I control a single fairly inactive subreddit with the name of my hometown (please don't go look for it!) I don't pay a lot of attention to it, but I'm around to perform whatever moderation is necessary.
A couple of years ago someone contacted me in private, suggesting I might want to hand over the subreddit to them so they can "improve it". Looking into the user, they were a powermod already controlling a dozen other subreddits. They posted aggressively to all of them, often the same thing to multiple of these subreddits. There was a whole bunch of crypto promotion. I said okay, I'm willing to hand over the reins to someone better, but anyone can submit to a subreddit; you might at the very least want to actually become an active participant in the community first so I can see if you're serious; I can even make you a moderator to begin with.
Their response (paraphrased)? "This requires too much time and dedication for me to do it experimentally, without any guarantees that afterwards I won't be kicked out. Have a good life."
I think there's a major difference in perspective between powermods and, you know, regular subreddit mods. To me, a subreddit belongs to its community - which means whoever shows up to engage with it. It's a convenient structure for organizing content submitted by people with a shared interest. My job as a moderator is to keep it clean of content that infringes platform rules and to enforce the will of the community in ways that the voting system isn't suited for. This can mean doing very little, if the subreddit is small. But a powermod like this one seems to require absolute control. Subreddits must be "theirs", their project, before they will engage, and they see it as their responsability to "grow it", to actually provide the content if necessary. They think a lot about karma and metrics and partnerships. They seem to me like control freaks who really, really need more hobbies (no offense, guy from back then).
I retain my lone subreddit to this date not because I am in any way well suited to do so, but to protect it from being nabbed by people like this. I'm always mildly worried the powers that be will think I'm squatting, but I'm an active redditor in general and I'm happy to keep an eye on contributions - which can be made by anyone. Maybe one day a community member will show up who is truly passionate about the town and suited to take my place and do more... css stuff with it.
If I start a subreddit, I become a moderator. Reddit didn’t ask me to start the sub so I’m not sure it would be the same thing. Unless they are actively recruiting mods for larger subreddits, perhaps.
It is probably better to say sub-Reddit moderators, they are given a free hand.
(That this is not consistent with their jargon doesn't really matter, the moderators of /r/AskScience can't do anything about you starting /r/Asklutuspaboutpsychology, they don't have the ability to moderate "Reddit", the various levels of site administrators do that)
The problem this is that historically a person will create a subreddit, add other moderators, and then vanish. The other moderators will build up the community and culture of the subreddit, and then one day years down the road the top moderator returns and decides they want to make unilateral changes that the actual moderators are powerless to contest.
Do you disagree with him here? Mods are too powerful, many have decided to try and murder the site because of something most users don't even care about. The idea that because I volunteered to moderate r/subcultureX for a few years I can make sure www.reddit.com/r/subcultureX can never direct to any content forever is ridiculous.
reply