After eight years, i resigned as a moderator of my community

I’ve been the main moderator of the same community since 2016. This evening, i approved my last comment.

I’m leaving for two reasons:

  1. Reddit went public a week ago. I didn’t volunteer to work for a publicly traded company, i volunteered to work for a community. As long as i live under capitalism i accept that my labor will generate value for shareholders, but damned if i ever do it for free. (this is not a Faulkner quote)
  2. April 1st is coming and i’m scared they might do another r/place. Doing in r/place 2022 and 2023 has left me dejected and bitter and i don’t want to feel obligated to participate again.

Leaving felt like ripping myself off of something warm i’ve been comfortably glued to for a long time. Still recommend it for anyone still giving Reddit shareholders free labor

EDIT: there are too many comments to respond to, but i’ve appreciated all of them! Thank you

stoly,

I never understood the point of place and why it made people become so evil.

weeeeum,

Place was loved by people because it was interesting and showed lots of human ingenuity. People were so angry that reddit abused it in an attempt to take attention away from the criticism and protests. Especially because it was assumed to only happen every 5 or so years, and having two close together felt very abusive by reddit.

ardi60,
@ardi60@reddthat.com avatar

and if you leave and abandoned that sub by delete your account. admin just need to find a new mod on that sub

mlg,
@mlg@lemmy.world avatar

The only thing I remember about r/place was that they dropped it anytime they did something stupid, like kill the free API, and that they would mod the content which made it a bot spam war fest.

Also the Pakistani flag getting defaced by r/Chodi because insert rent free joke here.

thawed_caveman,

They did that once actually, when they killed third-party apps they decided to do a surprise r/place hoping it would calm people down. In July. Not even a year after the last one. It came as a horrible surprise

wizardbeard,

If you have it in you, please recreate your previous subreddit here in the fediverse. There’s less tools, but also far less users, and plenty of room to make tools.

A ton of niche communities didn’t make it over here during the “exodus”. Any little bit helps.

stoly,

Yes please

v4ld1z,
@v4ld1z@lemmy.zip avatar

Shameless plug: /c/Sekiro, /c/Bloodborne

Doing my part :)

TeaHands,
@TeaHands@lemmy.world avatar

Gotta actually link things if you want people to find them, my friend! 😉

v4ld1z,
@v4ld1z@lemmy.zip avatar

I’m always too lazy to link properly. Thanks for helping out :D

Appoxo,

We need auto conversion ao that c/communityname actually links to the community if it exists on the home sub of the user (for example as a suggestion)

dual_sport_dork,
@dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world avatar

Good on you.

I walked away from my sole moderatorship as well, but I think my contribution was considerably less significant than yours… I moderated a tiny all-but-dead niche interest sub where I was also basically the only poster.

That’s, like, no difference whatsoever from what I do here. So I just upped sticks and moved to Lemmy, with no noticeable change in my life or workflow.

livus,
livus avatar

@thawed_caveman sorry that happened to you, it sounds difficult. But I think you've made the right decision.

Hope you find a silver lining. For me, moving to the fediverse has been an overwhelmingly positive experience. It's fun being part of something cool that can never be sold out by people like Spez.

woop_woop,

This is silly to me. So you’re happy working for free at a private company, but not a public one? The fact that them going public was known for a while was fine? The lack of care they showed you as a private company while taking the shitty concrete steps to go public were all fine?

If yu want to take a hard look at your role, when the last revolt during the API changes happened, the revolt failed because mods like you wouldn’t stand up. So it’s funny to me to see what the “final straw” is for you, because in the grand scheme of things, it seems like nothing.

I certainly don’t understand why you would move to another place in the Internet and announce this silly view.

CaptDust,

I can agree with your point, the API changes should have been the breaking point. Keep in mind there’s going to be a lot of different final straws for people though, it is inevitable as traditional social media collapses into itself. The best time was yesterday, the next best is now.

woop_woop,

I totally get that - but coming to another platform to announce it is just funny to me, and I think the questions I asked at the start were valid and I’m genuinely curious about the answers.

MataVatnik,
@MataVatnik@lemmy.world avatar

No need to be an asshole about it, the important thing is that he moved on, the path he took is not relevant.

woop_woop,

I didn’t think I was being an asshole. The questions I asked were genuine, and I think I was pretty neutral with pointing out how OP shares blame in the situation they are in.

And, through all that, i summed it up with how silly this whole situation is - especially when you look at how OP is responding in the thread. This comes across as a “look at me, I did something good, tell me how nice I am” post. Given the rest of the situations context, just ugh.

southsamurai,
@southsamurai@sh.itjust.works avatar

“This is silly to me”. Followed by a bunch of snide questions.

“the revolt failed because mods like you wouldn’t stand up”. Throwing blame on someone that did nothing that harmed you directly, and that even assumes a niche mod would have had any impact in the results at all.

“I certainly don’t understand why you would move to another place in the Internet and announce this silly view.” Then you go on to call them silly again, and criticize them for making a post in the proper C/ for that kind of venting.

Then your entire comment here is repeating that, doubling down on the same thighs, and then accuse them of begging for attention.

I get it. You didn’t think you were being an asshole. You were. To avoid that in the future, try not using language that denigrates, belittles, or dismisses someone, and you are much less likely to end up being an asshole. And you 100% were being an asshole. If there were a textbook in being an asshole online, your two comments could serve as perfect examples of how to do it without resorting to cursing. That’s pretty much the only thing you could have done to make it worse without going entirely off topic.

One asshole to another? You gotta either learn not to be an asshole, or own that shit and not pretend you aren’t.

FartsWithAnAccent,
@FartsWithAnAccent@fedia.io avatar

Fuck em, welcome to the fediverse!

RemoveEgoDivineFreedom,

Had a 12 year old account. Just got permad. Honestly feels like a weight off my shoulders. That place was making me so toxic.

MataVatnik,
@MataVatnik@lemmy.world avatar

May be an unpopular opinion but I always had an issue with the toxicity of Reddit going all the way back to 2014. I don’t know what it is about that site but the people act like absolute pieces of shit more often than should be expected.

weeeeum,

It’s because of the anonymity and lack of consequences. If it were in person they’d actually be confronted about it. Online however you can spout the most horrific shit all day ,every week and nothing could happen.

MataVatnik,
@MataVatnik@lemmy.world avatar

I think it’s more than that, a lot of ganging up on people for really stupid reasons. I personally blame the karma system, it’s like a dystopian social system that prevents people from being genuine and it’s used to hurt people they don’t like or agree with

odigo2020,

I give this comment 5 Meow Meow Beanz.

collapse_already,

Lost a 14 year old account for an anti-Nazi comment. No more free content for them from me.

viking,
@viking@infosec.pub avatar

I left my community of 12 years with >4M subs a year ago, when they killed the API. Without third party tools, my time modding had more than doubled. I spent almost as much time on reddit as I did on my full time job at some point.

ringwraithfish,

Honest question: what did you feel you got out of modding? I feel like it would be a thankless endeavor and would bring absolutely no satisfaction at any point.

viking,
@viking@infosec.pub avatar

It started as a very niche community when I joined, so being a mod actually felt like being a “recognized” member of the community without doing a whole lot. And when the sub started growing, keeping the trolls out was more of a necessary chore to preserve the peace, that I did without really thinking about it.

Only once I left I started realizing how much time it consumed. I’ve signed up for a phd program since I left and I still have more free time despite the research and a full time job. That’s how much time it consumed in the end.

mysoulishome,
@mysoulishome@lemmy.world avatar

I wonder if they don’t even want mods. Just AI/algorithms and ads. What is 100 well moderated, mindful discussions worth compared to a single, well targeted ad?

RedditWanderer,

deleted_by_moderator

    •
    brainandforce,

    Why do you feel the need to call this person a traitor? Jeez.

    RedditWanderer, (edited )

    I lost a big part of my habits and communities when Reddit killed 3rd party apps, but I actually left that day. If the mods left their little powertrip aside and actually quit reddit/protested properly, it probably wouldn’t have IPO’d. They were just scared to lose their sub and position. It’s also what allowed reddit to manage replacing the few problematic mods and keep things going.

    Anybody who kept going (especially for all these months) deserve to stay on reddit and not benefit from the work Lemmings (not me) have been doing. My experience on lemmy is far inferior to reddit, but I’m doing my part and not going back.

    wizardbeard,

    Mods choices were to give up their community immediately to all the chucklefucks lining up to replace them, or to wait and see. It’s naive, not traitorous. Just as naive as anyone believing that anything short of federal intervention could have stopped the IPO.

    Despite reddit’s ineptitude, shit like an IPO doesn’t happen overnight, and there’s practically nothing that can stop one if the goal is for the CEO to cash out.

    Reddit also was already replacing entire mod teams on default subs, groups of 10+ people. They happily let subs go to complete shit when the new mods were terrible, and closed subs with no mods. Huge subs. They were banning mods for even suggesting moving to other sites, and restoring comments from accounts that had tried to wipe their comment histories. There’s also evidence they were using GPT to run bots in support of staying.

    With all the shady shit going down, Reddit would not have hesitated for a moment to replace literally every existing mod on the site. Could have hired people to do it too, at comparatively low cost.

    Holding on through that is dumb, but you’re an ass for calling someone a traitor because they had more investment in a space than you. You don’t berate someone for staying in an abusive relationship longer than you happen to think is rational.

    Save the vitriol for the corpo shits who did this, actually move the fuck on, and stop shitting on people out of your misplaced ideas of “purity”. These are fucking websites man. Find some more important shit to be an ass about.

    RedditWanderer,

    What was there to “wait and see” after Spez banned 3rd party aps and Rif/apollo went down? Spez had announce monetization schemes and IPO.

    He stayed because it was about him, not reddit. His arguments are pretty weak this late into the gestalt.

    To say that he had more investment than me is bonkers. I was on Reddit since the beginning, and plenty of chucklefucks replaced me, but leaving was the right thing to do, because as you said after the ban there was no stopping the IPO, only helping it.

    Reddit would not have survived replacing all the mods. But a large percentage of reddit didn’t care about 3rd party integrations, and helped spez keep his momentum. Our man here is one of them…

    EvacuateSoul,

    You are so noble and pure for doing what you did. Surely these actions will comfort you on your deathbed.

    RedditWanderer,

    Ironic on a post where people are saying he is noble for what he did, and I should respect that. My comments get removed for being (politely) negative while you guys are all here with your little personal attacks on who I may or may not be.

    thawed_caveman,

    I’m not the one with ‘Reddit’ in my username.

    feedum_sneedson,

    Yeah, Lemmy is shit, enjoy.

    RedditWanderer, (edited )

    What does that have to do with anything? At least I’m not on reddit, or on lemmy whining about reddit.

    Literally made that name the day I wandered away from Reddit, the day they killed 3rd party apps. And I didn’t go back! Youre like gamers who whine but just keep preordering, youre ruining it for the rest of us.

    corsicanguppy,

    Whoosh.

    RedditWanderer,

    That’s OP replying. It’s not a whooosh, he is dead serious lmao

    NoIWontPickAName,

    Deep breath Skippy, it’s just a website

    RedditWanderer,

    Right, first i’m just plain wrong, then it’s not that im wrong it’s that i’m taking it too seriously. On a post of a guy crying about losing his little throne. Lmao

    The ppl defending this guy and downvoting are taking what I said much more seriously than I am. They should chill out, it’s just a website.

    100_kg_90_de_belin,

    They should chill out, but it’s you who is bringing all this intensity to the table and defining yourself by your past back there at Reddit.

    RedditWanderer,

    It’s an opinion like any other. Lemmy isnt your echo chamber.

    My comment don’t violate the rules, unlike the replies

    100_kg_90_de_belin,

    Yeah, but chill down your crusade

    RedditWanderer,

    Please define crusade? Do you know what crusade means? It’s a thread, get over yourself. (And maybe open a dictionary)

    mp3, (edited )
    @mp3@lemmy.ca avatar

    I did the same thing last July, left to switch full-time to Lemmy (I registered my first Lemmy account @mp3 a long time ago EDIT: jeez 5 years ago already?!) and somewhat abandoned my account.

    I was then approached by the lemmy.ca admins, asking if I would be interested to help administer the website, which I gladly accepted. I do not regret one minute giving my time to the fediverse.

    I went back to Reddit last month to remove my account from being a moderator on all the communities I was part of. I didn’t even tell anyone, I just left. Reddit is way past its prime.

    nutomic,
    @nutomic@lemmy.ml avatar

    I still remember your name from the early days, it’s great that you stuck around! How much Lemmy changed in these few years…

    mp3,
    @mp3@lemmy.ca avatar

    I could recognize that name anywhere, hello sir :)

    terry_tibbs,

    It’s heavy to give up on something after 8 years but power to you for sticking to your guns, your energy will be far better spent elsewhere.

    Blaze,
    @Blaze@dormi.zone avatar

    Sorry to hear about your experience, hope you I’ll have a better time here

    Kribensis,

    I’d been on Reddit for 13 years and finally managed to detox by doing two things only.

    • Uninstalling the app from my phone (along with LinkedIn, which I have to use, but despise). Since the browser experience is terrible, that was half the problem.
    • Strategically muting subreddits that annoyed me.

    Wall of text about why (but I’ll use paragraphs):

    In recent years, I started noticing that everything discussion-oriented was either a Dunning-Kruger driven echo chamber or a total circlejerk for the default progressive opinion on that subject. And, anything content-oriented was reposts.

    Quick caveat: I’m not saying that every progressive position is bad, only that I enjoy forming my own positions without getting yelled at. Also, I don’t know OP’s sub and I’m sure it was well-moderated. I’d imagine quitting as a mod would be emotionally harder.

    Anyway, for a few weeks, whenever some low-info/naive/didactic opinion or recycled content popped up, I muted that sub.

    The last to go was my professional sub, since I’m in a small field. But once I realized all I’d done there in 13 years was help people starting out, but never once received help myself (since there are virtually no posters with experience), I was good to go. I can mentor elsewhere and probably help way more.

    Once I muted stuff, I had a few content subs left like r/urbanhell or r/catio, or other fun stuff I want to keep. But my feed is suddenly super quiet, so I just open it once a week, like a magazine.

    It’s not quite quitting, but that’s for when Huffman (or whoever replaces him) realizes that to move the revenue needle, they need to block adblockers like YouTube, or go fucking nuts with sponsored posts, or sell personal data, or build their own LLM on everyone’s posts, or whatever they’re gonna do.

    And it probably won’t be Huffman anyway, since he just dumped half a million shares at $50+ and can therefore buy an island, so he is absolutely out of there 😂

    Meanwhile, if I’m Reddit’s Unix admin or whatever and have waited for years to vest my equity, I can’t even sell for another 5.5 months. It ain’t gonna be $50+ then. Brutal.

    And that’s how it goes. Never again. I don’t miss it, since sending Lemmy memes to my Signal chats replaces most of the hijinks and sex/the outdoors replaces the dopamine.

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