explodingkitchen,

Here's the text of the open letter:

As promised, here’s what the r/PICS moderators would like to say to Reddit’s administrators:

Forging A Return to Productive Conversation

To All Whom It May Concern:

For fifteen years, r/Pics has been one of Reddit’s most-popular communities. That time hasn’t been without its difficulties, but for the most part, we’ve all gotten along (with each other and with administrators). Members of our team fondly remember Moderator Roadshows, visits to Reddit’s headquarters, Reddit Secret Santa, April Fools’ Day events, regional meetups, and many more uplifting moments. We’ve watched this platform grow by leaps and bounds, and although we haven’t been completely happy about every change that we’ve witnessed, we’ve always done our best to work with Reddit at finding ways to adapt, compromise, and move forward.

This process has occasionally been preceded by some exceptionally public debate, however.

On June 12th, 2023, r/Pics joined thousands of other subreddits in protesting the planned changes to Reddit’s API; changes which – despite being immediately evident to only a minority of Redditors – threatened to worsen the site for everyone. By June 16th, 2023, that demonstration had evolved to represent a wider (and growing) array of concerns, many of which arose in response to Reddit’s statements to journalists. Today (June 26th, 2023), we are hopeful that users and administrators alike can make a return to the productive dialogue that has served us in the past.

We acknowledge that Reddit has placed itself in a situation that makes adjusting its current API roadmap impossible.

However, we have the following requests:

Commit to exploring ways by which third-party applications can make an affordable return.

Commit to providing moderation tools and accessibility options (on Old Reddit, New Reddit, and mobile platforms) which match or exceed the functionality and utility of third-party applications.

Commit to prioritizing a significant reduction in spam, misinformation, bigotry, and illegal content on Reddit.

Guarantee that any future developments which may impact moderators, contributors, or stakeholders will be announced no less than one fiscal quarter before they are scheduled to go into effect.

Work together with longstanding moderators to establish a reasonable roadmap and deadline for accomplishing all of the above.

Affirm that efforts meant to keep Reddit accountable to its commitments and deadlines will hereafter not be met with insults, threats, removals, or hostility.

Publicly affirm all of the above by way of updating Reddit’s User Agreement and Reddit’s Moderator Code of Conduct to include reasonable expectations and requirements for administrators’ behavior.

Implement and fill a senior-level role (with decision-making and policy-shaping power) of "Moderator Advocate" at Reddit, with a required qualification for the position being robust experience as a volunteer Reddit moderator.

Reddit is unique amongst social-media sites in that its lifeblood – its multitude of moderators and contributors – consists entirely of volunteers. We populate and curate the platform’s many communities, thereby providing a welcoming and engaging environment for all of its visitors. We receive little in the way of thanks for these efforts, but we frequently endure abuse, threats, attacks, and exposure to truly reprehensible media. Historically, we have trusted that Reddit’s administrators have the best interests of the platform and its users (be they moderators, contributors, participants, or lurkers) at heart; that while Reddit may be a for-profit company, it nonetheless recognizes and appreciates the value that Redditors provide.

That trust has been all but entirely eroded… but we hope that together, we can begin to rebuild it.

In simplest terms, Reddit, we implore you: Remember the human.

We look forward to your response by Thursday, June 29th, 2023.

There’s also just one other thing.

that "one other thing" is a hyperlink to a picture of multiple John Olivers standing behind a sign reading "We Demand To Be Taken Seriously".

BlueForestDev,
@BlueForestDev@kbin.social avatar

imagine working for a corp for 15 years for free 💀

loobkoob,
@loobkoob@kbin.social avatar

I think there's always been a bit of an unspoken understanding between Reddit and its moderators: Reddit provides the platform; moderators get to run their communities as they see fit (as long as they're not doing anything that gets Reddit in trouble). And with this framing, moderation didn't feel like working for Reddit, it felt like working for your community. It was always seen as fair enough if Reddit makes back to money to pay for the platform they're providing. It felt like wins all round: Reddit makes money, moderators get to have somewhere to maintain their communities and shape them as they see fit, users get communities they can join.

It's only now that Reddit's interfering with how moderators run their communities and interact with the platform that people are seeing it as working for Reddit. It doesn't feel like a collaborative effort any more, but rather Reddit just wanting unpaid labourers. The unspoken agreement feels like it's been broken. That doesn't retroactively make all the moderation done in the past count as working for Reddit (even though Reddit obviously benefitted from it), but it does mean that any moderation going forward is something that should be viewed through that lens.

NotTheOnlyGamer,
@NotTheOnlyGamer@kbin.social avatar

It's that one clause that's the whole hangup right now.

as long as they're not doing anything that gets Reddit in trouble

Reading between the lines of everything Spez said, there's one abundantly clear fact - Reddit is not profitable - and that's a big problem, one the board and everyone is pushing to see fixed at all costs. Investors and ownership expect ROI, customers expect ROAS. They're not getting it, and they're getting to the end of the rope. I believe we're coming to a real existential issue for Reddit now - either they get profitable and drag the company over the line to the IPO (so that all the investors can cash out), or there's no more Reddit. Either you work with the company to bring profits, or you're a cost needing to be cut.

abff08f4813c,

This does kinda explain why reddit is behaving like this. However going too far in cost cutting- well it’s like cutting off your own arms and legs. So reddit as we know it may be doomed either way. Can’t survive if they give into the protests but also can’t survive once the mods and subs have been irreversibly alienated.

pizza_rolls,
@pizza_rolls@kbin.social avatar

I don't get why people are clinging to the idea that reddit will suddenly give a fuck. They are unprofessional, rude, liars. It doesn't matter if they bend down and kiss your ass with a million false promises. They won't follow through.

Look at what happened to interestingasfuck, they are approaching a week with no mods and completely locked down. You can easily make reddit implode themselves with their hubris of mods being easily replaceable. They have shown that is not true. Y'all will be removed anyway before the IPO, they won't risk this again. So hurry up and let them implode before they have time to figure out an alternative before the IPO

CoderKat,
@CoderKat@kbin.social avatar

Reddit does give a fuck, though. If they didn't give fucks, they wouldn't be trying to fuck with the protests (eg, by forcing subs open or removing mods). Whether or not Reddit would actually do any of the things protestors want is a different question, but clearly the protests do at least hurt Reddit and Reddit would dearly like them to stop.

pizza_rolls,
@pizza_rolls@kbin.social avatar

I agree, I meant don't give a fuck as in suddenly change their mind about the API changes. They give a lot of fucks about making everyone bend to their whim. They give so many fucks they will willingly shut down subreddits themselves

The protest was working and they should keep it going

muftiboy,

what I don't get is why someone would go out of their way to try and convince somebody else that a protest is meaningless while the protest is going on. why would you take time to convince others to stop, what is there even to gain from that? only reddit would want that. if the protest was truly meaningless you wouldn't have to argue against at all. clearly the protest have an effect on you and on reddit.

Schluchtschiss,
@Schluchtschiss@kbin.social avatar

yeah still throw in a fuck shit for good measure. kind of sus how the red words are all square as shit if you ask me

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