Several subreddits had begun allowing porn and not safe for work content to protest Reddit. In response, the platform has removed entire moderator teams from the affected subreddits.
I get why they were trying to dialogue with Reddit Inc. at the start, but at this rate it’s hopeless - a protest only makes sense if there’s a reasonable chance that the other side will listen.
Instead they should be 1) encouraging migration, and 2) causing as much damage as possible in their way out, to discourage other businesses from taking the same approach.
I disagree. You don’t protest just because you think the other side will capitulate. That’s what discussion is for. Protesting is for when there is no discussion. Regardless of if it results in your desired outcome, it’s still an effect tactic to support a cause and damage an adversary.
You protest mostly to force the other side to either accept the demands or to discuss a compromise, through a show of power. The goal of a protest is not the damage itself; the damage is just a mean to an end.
When the goal is to damage the adversary, it isn’t a protest, it’s simply war. And IMO the moderators and other users should be warring Reddit Inc., not just protesting. They should actively seek to cause damage to the company as a goal.
In other words: it was good that they privated subs, posted John Oliver pictures, flipped subs to NSFW, but this is too little now. All those actions assume that they’ll take control over the subreddit later on, and resume businesses as usual. They won’t, the platform is already lost for them - they should be actively destroying the subreddits, so the enemy (Reddit Inc.) doesn’t use it against them.
I agree with your point in general. If your protests get you banned/removed and thus eliminate your ability to protest then another tact may be more appropriate.
what you’re describing is the difference between a protest and a riot. I’m not saying the latter doesn’t have its place, but protest does intend to provoke, at least, compromise, if not capitulation. riot is the escalation when reason and civility fail, and is just an expression of collective outrage.
personally, I don’t see the point in participating in the riot, as the worst thing any of us could do to reddit is not to vandalize it, but to simply leave. en masse.
Hopefully they get replaced by mods that continue to fight back. I wonder how reddit is going to continuously vet new mods across communities. I think an especially effective tactic will be selective moderation. Just occasionally let some illegal content through and when the admins press the mod team, they can just say it was an accident and it’s up to the reddit admins to judge if that were the case. This is glorious, if you ask me. The more animosity between reddit users and owners the better. The owners have had it far too good for far too long.
Reddit has enough of power hungry boot lickers that would be more than happy to please Daddy Spez.
Best part of the article:
“If this community remains private, we will reach out soon with information on what steps will take place,” Reddit said in a message to a small subreddit called Hentai_in_Peril
