[adamc]

I don't think the users mostly care about the mods directly. They will care about the effects of not having motivated, committed mods, because it makes the subreddits less pleasant or compelling to use. That is, there wouldn't be user protests, just lots of users drifting away because reddit kind of sucked.

[seanosaur]

I agree, it would be a bad idea. But I also think it would take time for the average user to feel the negative effects of such a short-sighted decision. Enough time, perhaps, for an IPO and cash-out for the c-suite at reddit.