[pas]

It's private because the mods and the community cannot handle the sudden interest. (A subreddit squeeze!)

They even say this on the placeholder page.

A few hours ago zjz (a mod) posted about trying to get an unlimited API endpoint for Reddit from the admins so the mod bots can cope with the load.

"We are experiencing technical difficulties based on unprecedented scale as a result of the newfound interest in WSB. We are unable to ensure Reddit's content policy and the WSB rules are enforceable without a technology platform that can support automation of this enforcement. WSB will be back."

[Macha]

Why do they mention ensuring reddit's content policy? That's a hammer admins bring out when they want to ban a subreddit. Did admins lean on the mods?

It's been bringing bad press on Reddit and that's usually the trigger for the admins to enforce their content policy.

(see the Donald, racist subs, fat people hate, violentacrez, jailbait - while these clearly did violate their policies, it took bad PR for enforcement to happen)

[weston]

My guess is this means the mods will probably create a minimum Reddit karma amount required to post and/or comment. The goal to cut down on spam and bots.

So, new people can’t join in and immediately start trying to pump up random stocks.

WSB is getting flooded right now, so the mods are building in some auto-moderator things to get a handle on the subreddit.

[intended]

Probably additional cover so that people reporting on this issue remember that there exists a reddit wide content policy that all subreddits have to enforce - so if there is any issue, reddit is also in the picture.