if forced to reopen, they should do it (rather than get pushed out and effectively give admins full control), but allow only a single new mod post every day- “day 5 of forced reopening discussion thread” and lock every other post.
They can just go into the management back-end and do whatever they want. Spez used it to edit commenters' posts years ago, so he knows how to rig things if he wants to. Question is, how long will it take him to get fed up with us and get around to doing it?
People are literally crossing the digital picket line to scab unpaid moderator positions to do free work for admins who are using intimidation tactics against their moderator peers.
If there are mods here who are willing to work towards reopening this community, we are willing to work with you to process a Top Mod Removal request or reorder the mod team to achieve this goal if mods higher up the list are hindering reopening.
Translation: please snitch and we'll give you control of the subreddit. We don't have enough staff to moderate all the subreddits ourselves.