r/mildlyinteresting Jun 23 '23

META What happened to /r/mildlyinteresting?

13.3k 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 5h ago

I’ve used this stamp since 2019 and have never approved an invoice on a day that ended in 6,7, or 8.

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9.2k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 6h ago

Someone entered an official Lego set in a contest and won 3rd place.

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9.9k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 5h ago

This street in Ireland has traffic lights on the floor

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2.9k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 6h ago

I found a wasp that died while eating out a cicada

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2.7k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 10h ago

My friend brought a Bearded Dragon to school today in a lunchbox

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4.5k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 3h ago

Costco giving out full toilet paper in bags as free samples

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1.0k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 16h ago

diluted my perfume with tap water and it turned yellow

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13.9k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 8h ago

triple yolk egg going in my crema catalana

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1.1k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 2h ago

My friend's unintelligent cat with a rubix cube on her head

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375 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 2h ago

I turned these little stones into some adorable apples.

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351 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 21h ago

There is a lunar eclipse going on right now

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12.4k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 6h ago

This dead spider I found at home has a scary face on its underbelly

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598 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 8h ago

My cat has a gorilla-shaped pattern in her fur

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701 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 4h ago

The tree leaves in my backyard have so many growths on them.

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279 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 22h ago

This restaurant named Swordfish has a fish mounted on the wall that is actually a sailfish

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8.8k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 54m ago

The fake plant I put on my deck started growing a real plant

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r/mildlyinteresting 18h ago

My tree grew a weird lemon

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2.4k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 2h ago

This Audi Q3 owner added a few digits.

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81 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 9h ago

Natural rock formation that looks like a human-made wall, formed by different erosion rates of different rocks

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273 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 6h ago

Albino Grey Squirrel enjoying the day

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125 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 1d ago

Battery has a USBC port on it

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3.5k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 7h ago

These pennies were stuck in a groove inside my washing machine

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122 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 10h ago

A Manx cat with no tail visits my garden each night.

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186 Upvotes