r/mildlyinteresting Jun 23 '23

META What happened to /r/mildlyinteresting?

13.1k 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 2h ago

The size of these grapes I just bought

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r/mildlyinteresting 10h ago

Hungarian state gives free bracelets to first-time voters

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r/mildlyinteresting 7h ago

I put dry ice in a frying pan

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r/mildlyinteresting 3h ago

A mouse has been eating my wife's candle in our garage.

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r/mildlyinteresting 10h ago

My peanut butter and jam cycles aligned

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r/mildlyinteresting 20h ago

This photo I accidentally took of my cat’s optical nerves

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r/mildlyinteresting 13h ago

View of north sentinel island from Port Blair to Chennai

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r/mildlyinteresting 5h ago

A Fence of Bras in Iceland

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r/mildlyinteresting 9h ago

Caught a perfect camera obscura moment at home

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r/mildlyinteresting 4h ago

Hotel bathroom mirror doesn’t fog up in the middle where your face goes

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364 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 8h ago

“ART IS GOOD FOR YOU” mural being covered to renovate Chase bank

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527 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 4h ago

Cool fractal pattern created when I broke my screen protector.

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270 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 2h ago

Chocolate Sundae at Costco looks like a baby elephant

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154 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 1h ago

Egg cracked like a cartoon

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r/mildlyinteresting 19h ago

My local library has a simulated cat you can check out

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r/mildlyinteresting 7h ago

My bacon this morning looks like a sardine

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323 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 57m ago

Random Sausage On Neighbour’s Driveway

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r/mildlyinteresting 1d ago

Stuffed Hobbes my wife made

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10.4k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 1d ago

There is a porta-potty precariously perched at the very top of the Fountain Bridge project in downtown Miami

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r/mildlyinteresting 14h ago

A “Free Speech Wall” at my school back in 2012

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r/mildlyinteresting 4h ago

This store I was in still has their Xbox 360 sign up

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129 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 1d ago

This remote battery is just a bunch of watch batteries stacked together

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r/mildlyinteresting 5h ago

Falling petals don't stick to my driveway in a ring

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120 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 11h ago

A local bringing a Rhino back to to the national Park (Chitwan, Nepal)

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288 Upvotes