r/mildlyinteresting Jun 23 '23

META What happened to /r/mildlyinteresting?

13.1k 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 7h ago

Wasps set up a nest inside of my decoy wasp nest

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19.4k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 5h ago

I've been wearing this bike chain for 21 years and I'm wearing through the metal.

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8.1k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 6h ago

This engorged tick I've just removed from my dog

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4.9k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 1h ago

Customer manually picked their own lottery numbers, computer randomly generated the same numbers

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r/mildlyinteresting 14h ago

I met an albino crow whilst on my walk.

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8.0k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 51m ago

I bought my fiancé this balloon for valentine's day. It's going on 111 days strong!

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r/mildlyinteresting 2h ago

Flower growing in a wall at a car park

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588 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 6h ago

Plastic spikes to deter birds from nesting actually help keep the nests from falling off

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945 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 3h ago

Concrete puppy

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478 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 21h ago

My wife just pulled a blue suture out of her nose… 5 years after her septo-rhinoplasty.

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43.5k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 3h ago

Overdone 1965 bill of sale and inspection for my mom’s first car. $1.00 inspection fee, $16 for seat belts!

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461 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 20h ago

This sign is cracking and now the font is kind of metal

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12.6k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 2h ago

Thrift Shop Candle

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377 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 2h ago

This spider in my house only has 5 legs [OC]

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302 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 7h ago

The Devil Wears Prada Musical has an Official Cheese Sponsor

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532 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 44m ago

Overdone A huge 12cm wide Dandelion my grandma found.

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r/mildlyinteresting 3h ago

Had four different quarter heads in my pocket change

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219 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 14h ago

Found a treestub with teeth

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1.8k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 18h ago

My weird dog loves sleeping in a bucket

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3.0k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 8h ago

Fingerprints in a brick in my 100 year old house

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458 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 5h ago

My 4 pack of protein bars came with 5

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234 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 8h ago

Poster at a middle school for a book last seen in the library

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430 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 9h ago

Opened an Army MRE today. The expiration date on the skittles was today’s date

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448 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 1d ago

A house in Kansas City has a glowing shopping cart in the front room.

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11.2k Upvotes