I'm guessing the latter. They had been lobbying me hard the last few days and I had made it clear I was not changing my stance.
The irony is out of all the subs that have switched to NSFW in the last few days, this was one in which the most popular posts are actually NSFW.
C'est la vie.
Yes, that was my post as we actually had a survey concerning NSFW content going on and the community agreed that they wanted to continue to see NSFW content.
So I did take that opportunity to change the sub to 18+ and that very well could have been trigger that got me removed.
A very good read and quite prescient.
Also, eff spez!
That was my only departing comment in the, "Why are you deleting your account" box.
That sounds like a very good idea. The work must carry on!
They did not provide a reason. There was no further dialog. I just got a system message telling me I was removed.
I was also silmultaniously shadow banned from Reddit and my posts and comments stopped showing up. I had created a post complaining about being removed as the moderator (the only moderator for over a decade) of a sub that I built from the ground up and donated literally thousands of volunteer hour to over the last 14 years. It had zero upvotes or downvotes or comments and was not visable as an anon user.
In the end, I decided to rip the bandaid off and killed my 16.5 year account. I was one of the early supporters of Reddit (user #7758) and had left Digg for good in May of 2007 after the AAC contraversy. They showed their authoritarian side in that moment and I knew Digg had reached their high water mark.
Reddit is at that moment now. They won't be dead tomorrow. They won't be dead next week. However, it will also never be the same, and it's only downhill from here.
Much like Digg. Much like Myspace. I am sure there will be a blurb a few years from now as an addendum in some business journal how Reddit sold to a third party for an undisclosed sum and some Skittles...
The future is the Fediverse and I'm glad I was forced to remove my Reddit crutch and dive in full force.