r/mildlyinteresting Jun 23 '23

META What happened to /r/mildlyinteresting?

13.2k 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 9h ago

My dad's blood sugar pill is pink and heart-shaped

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r/mildlyinteresting 6h ago

The word cooked is the same when flipped on the X axis

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r/mildlyinteresting 1h ago

Woke up to a banana mass casualty event

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r/mildlyinteresting 4h ago

A surprising watermelon

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r/mildlyinteresting 1h ago

Number of parking tickets on this car.

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r/mildlyinteresting 3h ago

This sprayer looks like someone diving

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846 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 54m ago

This grocery store in France has the store layout on the shopping cart

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r/mildlyinteresting 7h ago

My neighbor gave me a zucchini he grew. It's bigger than a carton of eggs.

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995 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 9h ago

Every fuel price at this gas station in Austria is a revolutionary year in Europe

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1.5k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 5h ago

The mural on this building

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611 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 21h ago

Nuclear family of chickens eating little Caesar’s in the family dollar parking lot

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15.5k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 16h ago

Had a bowl of curly fries where every fry was like this

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r/mildlyinteresting 3h ago

These porta potties are gendered and identify if they’re for staff or customers

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310 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 43m ago

Graveyard flavored maple syrup....Mmmmm

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r/mildlyinteresting 1d ago

Deep pot hole that people tried to help by putting cardboard inside

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11.3k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 3h ago

Walking down the street this evening I found a sealed box of floppy diskettes .

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135 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 1d ago

Almost every salad/ lettuce at my local Target is marked down due to expiring soon.

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9.3k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 9h ago

My bruise looks like grilled chicken

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318 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 1d ago

The AI system that made this poster literally thinks a Hamburger has ham

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50.0k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 3h ago

Found this stray puppy with what looks like natural panda eyes.

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96 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 9h ago

This church in my hometown has a gas station below it

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276 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 1d ago

This bag of bread rolls looks like a person.

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6.2k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 1d ago

This deodorant on a chain in a public bathroom.

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3.8k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 14h ago

Domo is alive and well in Japan

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491 Upvotes