Did r/retrogaming mods get demodded for supporting the blackout?
Did r/retrogaming mods get demodded for supporting the blackout?
For those who don't know, retrogaming on Reddit was a labour of love, there is a multireddit, m/retrogamingnetwork that networks over 60 subreddits under one banner giving the audience, banner, and reach of a big subreddit to some very small and niche spaces.
I bopped onto the main subreddit to grab their discord link for https://sub.rehab/ and was amazed to see the sub open. There's a stickied post from "your new head mod" - they've made some changes already, ones that would stir debate if the userbase was still there to know about it: Reveddit Link
To quote the post opener:
First of all, you all know me probably at this point, but I’m Chalupacabra. We’re in the process of readjusting the mod team, so it’s not fully set up yet, but I’m your new head mod. It’s a process that’s been in the works for a bit now, I’m sure you’ve probably noticed some of the changes the team and I have put together to try to mix things up a bit based on what y’all told us you were interested in seeing.
And if there's any doubts as to what the community "were interested in seeing" we had voted 88% in favour of a total blackout.
On the one hand I'm glad I don't have anything to miss on reddit anymore, I'm not interested in being part of communities run by people more interested in themselves than anyone else, but it's sad to see something that should have died peacefully be zombified instead.
@pterodactyl: Hey there, I'll field this, since I was up until recently the most active mod on the subreddit. (Commenting from Mastodon, so excuse the weird formatting.)
First of all, there was no demodding involved; instead, there was an internal reshuffling by ZadocPaet, who was the previous de jure head mod and decided to leave formally at the same time I did. DreadedChalupacabra becoming head mod was a decision made between Zadoc and I.
@pterodactyl: In practice, the subreddit was and is run pretty much democratically between the mod team, so Chalupacabra being formally head mod doesn't make much of a difference. He was a bit perplexed at the decision as well, for what it's worth.
Now, I'd have been "ride or die" about sticking to the blackout, especially given the response in both the subreddit and the Discord. But I'm stubborn and principled. Since I was already stepping down, I wasn't going to assert fiat over the decision.
@pterodactyl: The decision to reopen was taken based on an assessment of the response by the Reddit admininstrators and deciding that we didn't want the subreddit falling into the hands of people who might use the subreddit to push malignant political positions, which are far too common in video gaming.
Notably, this was *not* a case of the mod team wanting to cling onto power at all costs like some people would cry. I want to nip that idea in the bud.
That's happening on many subs unfortunately, mods can't do anything about it but users can.
The best option is to just quit reddit, that's what many of us are doing, leave the subs empty and see how well they fare without decent content.
When not possible (it's not a joke to move communities of millions) spam them with irrelevant content, that's what some are already doing with videos full of noise for example, r/pics r/gifs r/art with memes of John Oliver, r/Steam (Valve) with stuff about literal steam, etc.
It's sad indeed, on some communities there are truly amazing people, but I guess it's time to move on, "no king lasts forever".
Oh for sure, I've already purged my accounts and I've no interest in going back, it's disappointing though, the same happened to r/emulation but I'm less mad about that, that's an open source community that dodgy people try to make money off, I'd prefer it be anti community than an outright scam which could reasonably happen if one of the more nefarious app devs had a chance to request it as an inactive forum.
This bodes well for the quality of many subs: I’m sure turncoat figureheads will provide quality moderation. /s
Nah, it's a democracy. Hi! I'm that mod in question. Man we protested for the users, that's why all of that happened in the first place. I'm also the mod that started the discussion with the community about blacking out, and if the option was to either get a few people mad by having my hand forced by spez or seeing the place turn into kotaku in action? I'll take the heat, I'm fine with that. I'd do it again.
My concern first and foremost is the people, I'm fucking PISSED at what spez pulled (and made that VERY clear in our return post) but he forced our hand. If they hand the place off to some of the random mods reddit has in their pocket for this kind of situation or anyone that requests it, it could fuck up the community. I'm literally a mod because I care about that not happening. And that didn't change just because spez is a dickhead.
I'd prefer to see us migrate elsewhere. Until that happens I'm gonna do my best to make the sub the best environment possible for what we do. If that makes me a turncoat, I'll own it, because this ain't about my ego dude. It's about the users. And I'm damn sure not being paid to do it.
It might be time to start thinking about the future and what happens the next time reddit tries to pull something like this because this is definitely not the last time. If what spez was saying is true he's going to drastically cut down the moderators powers in the future, letting users take over subs more easily and also probably removing the option to put subreddits to private or readonly modes. The user experience on the site is going to go down and next time you want to protest you will not be as successful as this time.
What I'm trying to say is, if you want to protect your community it might not be a bad idea to have a backup plan anyway and get people ready for it. The longer you depend on reddits good will the harder it will be to move eventually. It can't be done over night but it has to start somewhere. My 2 cents.
Just wanted to say that folks like you give me faith in the mods who are staying behind.
Thanks for caring, I'd love to see the whole sub migrating elsewhere. Preferably kbin or lemmy.
Similar thing with r/piracy and some others too, whether the mods "agree to step down" (under pressure) or ignore the message or respond some way, it doesn‘t matter, they will be replaced with those willing to follow orders. That is the chosen course of action by the admins.
EDIT: looks like the old head mod commented while I was still writing this. Their comments explain the situation much better.
According to this earlier post (reveddit link), the new head mod was part of the old mod team, and the old head mod willingly stepped down at the same time they reopened. According to the old head mod in the comments they were already planning on stepping down, and the situation with u/spez just sped up the process. As for opening the sub, according to the post the mod team was not happy about reopening the sub, but felt forced too as they did not want to get replaced.
Hopefully they do the thing that some other subs like r/pics are doing and make all the posts about something super specific but not really relevant.
I have no insight into the internal discussions of the /r/retrogaming mod team, but my DMs with DreadedChalupacabra prior to the blackout indicated that they were heavily in favor of the protest. I think this turn of events was just coincidental.
Obligatory: https://kbin.social/m/retrogaming