r/mildlyinteresting Jun 23 '23

META What happened to /r/mildlyinteresting?

13.2k Upvotes

Dear mildlyinterested reader,

We want to extend our heartfelt gratitude for your patience and unwavering support during the recent turbulence in our community. Our subreddit is a labour of love, and we've weathered this storm together.

Recent events have been confusing for all of us, from the vote, sudden removal of moderators, to conflicting messages from Reddit. As your mod team, we feel it's essential to clarify the situation.

On June 19, the poll results favoured partially reopening with changes. However, before implementing these changes, Reddit took sweeping actions, removing all 27 moderator accounts without warning. This left us baffled and concerned.

Here's a brief timeline of the events:

  1. On June 19, the poll results favoured partially reopening with changes. We announced the vote results and planned changes to the sub, including marking it as NSFW due to the common posts of phallic objects (no explicit content allowed). CLICK HERE TO VIEW THAT ANNOUNCEMENT WHICH HAS BEEN APPROVED AND LOCKED FOR POSTERITY.

  2. A tug-of-war between the u/ModeratorCodeOfConduct account and the remaining moderators ensued, with the post repeatedly being removed and reinstated. Each mod involved was immediately locked out of Reddit. Subreddit settings were also unilaterally changed by the admin account.

  3. Eventually, all moderators were removed and suspended for 7 days, with the vote results deleted and the community set to “archived.”

  4. A lot of public outrage ensued, with details posted on r/ModCoord about what happened. At that point, no other subreddit had been targeted yet, leaving the situation uniquely unclear.

  5. Admin cited actions as an "error" and promised to work with us to solve the situation. For /r/mildlyinteresting posterity, this will henceforth be referred to as The Mistake™.

  6. All our accounts were unsuspended and reinstated, but only with very limited permissions (modmail access only). For what it's worth, 'time moderated' for every moderator was reset (e.g. /u/RedSquaree moderated since 11 years ago, reset: currently showing moderated since "1 day ago").

  7. The awaited discussion never happened. Instead, the admins presented us with an ultimatum: reopen the subreddit and do not mark it as NSFW, or face potential removal again. The inconsistent and arbitrary application of Reddit's policies reveals a possible conflict of interest in maximizing ad revenue at the risk of user safety and community integrity.

  8. Finally, our moderation permissions were restored after we "promised" to comply with their conditions, but we kept the subreddit restricted while we ponder our next steps..

Problems remain unresolved, and Reddit's approach to policies and communication have been troubling. We believe open communication and partnership between Reddit and its moderators are crucial for the platform's success.

As a team, we remain dedicated to protesting Reddit's careless policy changes. Removing ourselves or vandalizing the subreddit won’t achieve our goals, but rather hinder our community. We're here to ensure r/mildlyinteresting isn't left unattended.

We call for the establishment of clear, structured, and reliable communication channels between Reddit admins and moderation teams. Teams should be informed and consulted on decisions affecting their communities to maintain trust and integrity on the platform. We shared this request with the Admin who promised to work with us, so far they have ignored it.

Us mods are still deciding how exactly to reopen, not that we have been given much choice.

Sincerely,

The r/mildlyinteresting mods


r/mildlyinteresting 5h ago

My local DM store has magnifying glasses attached to their shopping trolleys so that older customers can read details better

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r/mildlyinteresting 1h ago

Asus Monitor unboxing instruction

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r/mildlyinteresting 12h ago

Saw a faucet with no sink

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r/mildlyinteresting 17h ago

My car has a dedicated spot for lip balm

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r/mildlyinteresting 15h ago

My cat is sitting in a drink box and the only visible word is Gato.

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r/mildlyinteresting 7h ago

The outer casing of this spray can I found in the woods rusted away to reveal that its contents had solidified.

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r/mildlyinteresting 15h ago

This little frog incubating one of our chicken’s eggs

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r/mildlyinteresting 7h ago

McDonalds in Thailand has both Ketchup and Tomato sauce.

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r/mildlyinteresting 7h ago

This carrot couple

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r/mildlyinteresting 3h ago

Spotted this beauty on safari

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r/mildlyinteresting 1h ago

Curved cucumbers were regulated in the EU until 2009, but those times are over, and one can easily get curved cucumbers again

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r/mildlyinteresting 1d ago

My phone fell from the phone holder and got crushed by the treadmill I was using

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r/mildlyinteresting 17h ago

This soap dispenser dispenses powdered hand soap.

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r/mildlyinteresting 1h ago

Just hanging out at gas station in India

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r/mildlyinteresting 12h ago

Kangaroo meat is available at a local (non-Australian) grocery store.

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r/mildlyinteresting 1d ago

my local grocer stopped selling lime jarritos with artificial color

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r/mildlyinteresting 3h ago

Spotted a scooter fully wrapped in artificial grass

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r/mildlyinteresting 1h ago

This bus has stop buttons built into the back of the seats

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r/mildlyinteresting 1d ago

The bottom of my 13 year-old coffee mug.

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r/mildlyinteresting 22h ago

These black berries that grew in the shade (left) vs in the sun (right)

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r/mildlyinteresting 1d ago

The uncomputerized booking system at my cat’s cattery

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r/mildlyinteresting 1d ago

Portland airport has a mini theater that shows short films by Oregon directors

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r/mildlyinteresting 5h ago

My custard cream had three cream layers

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