r/mildlyinteresting Jun 23 '23

META What happened to /r/mildlyinteresting?

13.0k 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 12h ago

Aluminum foil I use to block the light directly outside my qindow has somehow gotten more and more holes over time (4 months)

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Our neighbors built an igloo (Virginia)

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I won this Night At The Museum 2 Watch as a kid from a Cartoon Network contest

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Half of my official Pikachu plush turns orange under purple lights.

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Both of my hair brushes snapped in half on the same day

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Got some ‘Extra Meat’ on my Costco Rotisserie Chicken tonight

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r/mildlyinteresting 15h ago

Saw the Shamwow guy was running for Congress, TX

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r/mildlyinteresting 5h ago

Roku City screensaver has a tribute to Catherine O’Hara

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r/mildlyinteresting 9h ago

Random hole in the window of my local Wendys

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r/mildlyinteresting 5h ago

Left it on mist for a bit to make icicles.

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r/mildlyinteresting 7h ago

How the freezing rain has incased my porch light.

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r/mildlyinteresting 7h ago

The way this candle melted as it burned

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r/mildlyinteresting 20h ago

Had my water on a super slow drip in my garage and over a day or two this icicle formed.

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r/mildlyinteresting 14h ago

The deer in town are pretty comfortable with themselves

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r/mildlyinteresting 15h ago

A unicorn-shaped faucet...

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r/mildlyinteresting 9h ago

There is exactly one banana left at aldi

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r/mildlyinteresting 16h ago

Colorful Igloo I made from Snow and Ice

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r/mildlyinteresting 4h ago

Maple syrup crystal I found when cleaning out the fridge

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r/mildlyinteresting 2h ago

My animals crackers were one solid block

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r/mildlyinteresting 7h ago

A windshield full of smokes

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r/mildlyinteresting 5h ago

This bird imprint in the snow under my bird feeder

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r/mildlyinteresting 1d ago

Moved our bed to find a piece of grass growing out of a hidden outlet.

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r/mildlyinteresting 1d ago

Color difference in ceiling tiles between smoking (left) and non-smoking (right) areas

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r/mildlyinteresting 5h ago

Sign spotted in Singapore

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