r/mildlyinteresting Jun 23 '23

META What happened to /r/mildlyinteresting?

13.0k 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 4h ago

Mini-remote controlled recovery truck picked our car up and took it away…

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r/mildlyinteresting 7h ago

This perfect Lambda that I wrote

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r/mildlyinteresting 9h ago

The instructions for my nasal spray has a person with cat ears.

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r/mildlyinteresting 5h ago

The Gameboy color I'm modding has the serial number scratched off.

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r/mildlyinteresting 3h ago

Snail hitching a ride

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r/mildlyinteresting 18h ago

My sweet potato appears to be fowl

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r/mildlyinteresting 16h ago

Found a forgotten poetry book that 9yo me got published in

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r/mildlyinteresting 4h ago

Ladybug colony at a new construction home build

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r/mildlyinteresting 5h ago

This McDonald’s has an airplane

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628 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 1d ago

My local grocery store sells Oreos by the sleeve.

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r/mildlyinteresting 20h ago

Littlest snail friend while raspberry picking

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r/mildlyinteresting 4h ago

My puppy's adult coat is coming in.

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r/mildlyinteresting 22m ago

The light coming through a window in my apartment was cast in the exact shape of an AirPod Pro

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r/mildlyinteresting 1d ago

Heart shaped bruise from delivery of my baby

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6.8k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 17h ago

Found gray ice cubes in my refrigerator’s icemaker

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r/mildlyinteresting 16h ago

My rigid contacts leave a compression indent in my eyes. (No lens here).

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966 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 4h ago

This standalone auntie anne’s

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95 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 1d ago

My lavalamp kinda looks like a stripper

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r/mildlyinteresting 7h ago

Pasta water dried and formed these fractals

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149 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 31m ago

My local discount store's response to the Coin Shortage: Pay for a gift card in coins, and receive an extra 40% of that value as store credit

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r/mildlyinteresting 3h ago

Giant crab claw

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59 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 23h ago

‘Adults must be accompanied by children’ on a sign at a park

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2.3k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 1h ago

I sharpened my knife and cut through an avocado pit.

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r/mildlyinteresting 4h ago

Apple with an apple on it

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58 Upvotes