[bhouston]

Countdown to when Reddit leadership does some drastic moves like (1) forcibly making some of the most popular private subs public again, (2) removing the mods who want to keep things private. This would effective take these communities under company control.

This will create even more uproar as well though, but I think it is inevitable.

Given the mess they have put themselves in, and their unwillingness to budge on the API pricing issue, they are unlikely to win back support from the moderates themselves in the immediate future.

[pseudo0]

They are allegedly already starting. For example, r/AdviceAnimals is now back and they have deleted the blackout post. Plus the old lead moderator is gone. My understanding is that removing a lead moderator requires reddit admin action.

[McDyver]

Reddit is using the same approach as Apollo: basing their business on a free resource.

For Apollo it was the api (for which they were willing to pay if the price was fair)

For Reddit is free labour and content, which they still want for free

[vile_wretch]

While I don't have a ton of faith in Reddit power-mods, my HOPE is that there would be enough solidarity amongst the mods to make finding replacements difficult and I can't imagine investors would be happy to see leadership excising a potentially significant percentage of their current volunteer labour force.

[bhouston]

You can always replace mods, especially if Reddit pays the new mods.

[the_snooze]

How does that square with Reddit's profit-seeking goals? Reddit isn't profitable when operating with an army of unpaid volunteer mods. I find it hard to believe they'd actually invest in proper moderation.

[kolbe]

I think the biggest problem with employing moderators isn't the cost, but that it now makes reddit liable for the moderation failures.

[aquova]

I agree. If the subreddits remain closed indefinitely, I think the only options are forceful removal of the holdout moderators for the largest subs, or, and this seems somewhat unlikely, a shake up at the company. I don't think it'll save the situation, but I could see the brass removing spez if that means it would all be over.

[deskamess]

I was thinking about this too... this seems to be the most likely end game. The best way for the company to 'handle trouble makers'. They will definitely lose some users but enough should come back to hold the popular subs up. I mean, really, if you asked me who the mods of the subs I frequent were, well... I do not know.

[slaymaker1907]

I completely support Reddit doing this in some cases. Mods have no right to hold my city’s sub hostage indefinitely without consulting the community. If they don’t want to mod, that’s there right, but namesquatting is not. Not the city I live in now, but I imagine support would be about the same as r/NewOrleans for an indefinite blackout (non-existent).

https://www.reddit.com/r/NewOrleans/comments/1491zmn/moving_...