True, but Reddit let this problem fester for a long time.
What's interesting to me here regarding this, is Reddits current preparation timescale. This isn't going to be enforced until March 31st, 2026. This tells me that Reddit would have been unprepared for a complete mass-walkout of community moderators during the 2023 Reddit API strikes. A large chunk of Reddit during that period was genuinely inaccessible. But after a few token gestures and a few examples made of some especially rebellious mod-teams, most of the striking moderators returned.
A huge opportunity was missed by people running major communities to functionally degrade Reddit in at least the medium-term as a website. You can't just hastily promote random people to replace moderators Reddit is either forced to remove or who leave voluntarily. The average person is likely too lazy, too arbitrary and too corrupt to effectively oversee communities of notable sizes.
tabular@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Given Reddit’s past unreasonableness, I wouldn’t be surprised if this otherwise reasonable explanation has an alternative motive.
db2@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
*ulterior
krunklom@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
While ulterior is probably a better way to say that alternative motive also makes sense given the context.
tabular@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Thanks, I wanted to say that but I couldn’t figure out how to spell it.
db2@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
That’s what I guessed. Alternative is a fine alternative word though.
SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
*exterior
logi@piefed.world 2 weeks ago
*widdershins
NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
The motive is these mods hold a decent amount of power on the platform that they wish to reduce. They don’t want a repeat of the API protests.
interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
Now /u/spez will have all the power
jballs@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Yeah that is exactly it. They didn’t want mods to be able to disrupt the site again, so they’re looking to make that more difficult.
God, I am so glad I left that place.
goferking0@lemmy.sdf.org 2 weeks ago
Gotta boost user numbers.
Or obscure them considering not letting people see sub count only daily/weekly activities
pimento64@sopuli.xyz 2 weeks ago
That’s it. It’s the illusion of fairness and it takes away reddit jannies’ ability to show off their powermod status, and that’s the only incentive they have not to use sockpuppets for every sub they mod.
FaceDeer@fedia.io 2 weeks ago
This is actually another of Reddit's decisions that I'm in agreement with. Subscriber count isn't a very useful number, it largely just measures how old a subreddit is. You can already see how old the subreddit is much more accurately by looking at its founding date.
goferking0@lemmy.sdf.org 2 weeks ago
If they’d added, yes. But removing it completely is just a way to hide how many are on the platform.
Or left in a protest
FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.au 2 weeks ago
Total subscriber number is useless, daily/weekly/monthly active users is infinitely more important and useful.
ronl2k@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
The user numbers were bogus anyway since Reddit didn’t automatically decrement the user number after banning a member. The banned member had to manually unjoin the subreddit. So the membership count was inflated with banned members.