Ich habe heute (17. Juni 2023) folgenden Text im Reddit Mod Council gepostet mit dem Titel „Mad“. Ich hab den Text auch schon mit anderen Mods geteilt und es wurde nach einer öffentlichen Version gefragt. Ich kann aber nichts zu reaktionen etc. aus dem Council sagen. Also hier:

I am mad. And feel resignation.

I like reddit (like the communities), otherwise I would not be here. I also like to be part of the people who can improve reddit, hence I am in this council.

I use only the official app and the desktop new version since years for modding. The communities are small enough that I do not need additional tools. My subreddits already opened up after two days because 1. support never closed completely and 2. there are talks ongoing about the requested topics here in the council, so I had the feeling that something is going. Now. I am no longer feeling that.

It is not about the tools taken away and being hindered in modding effectively. It is about the realization, that a company which is build upon thousands and thousands of hours of unpaid work of content creators and mods is not understanding and kind to people profiting in the same way from reddit and, furthermore, is not compassionate and kind to those content creators and mods who are the core of reddit. reddit had all the possibilities of communicating the changes in a compassionate way without sacrificing making outsiders pay for using the APIs.

Instead, here we are in a middle of a shitshow. Now I feel not only hated on by users but also from reddit as the company. My trust is shattered into pieces. This is worse than the „we hear you“. It somehow changed into a big ugly „Fuck you“.

I am mad at reddit. And sad. And with each interview article and official action and without getting something to make me believe in reddit again my fury shrinks and changes into sadness. Enabling this overwhelming feeling of melancholy about what could have been. Culminating in a growing resignation.

I am pondering if it is worth it and what the buiscit I have done with my last 6 years nuturing a community for women to make a safe space and to have a place on a platform generally not that friendly for us when in the end I have to fear that I can not guarantee this safe space to exist much longer if there can be money made out of it. Currently I trust the admins in Germany and I am 100% convinced that those have my communities‘ well being in mind and support me. With them I feel safe. But I do no longer trust reddit as a company and that any admin has enough power if the ones in charge of the company decide to go some other route to make money. I feel no longer valued. I am a statistic of a certain potential to generate money. No longer a human.

Weekend vibe: 1, 2

edit: I shared a screenshot of this text with some fellow mods.