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 3h ago

Random woman appeared in a corrupted image on my camera

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14.3k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 13h ago

Saw a random person dressed in full Plague Doctor outfit today reading a book at the park in Dickson TN. It is 86* outside.

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27.4k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 15h ago

Took a picture during a storm in the exact moment of a thunderbolt (OC)

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22.0k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 16h ago

Neighbor kid threw a rock through my window and it made a circular hole instead of shattering

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21.4k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 1h ago

My Tick Bite Bullseye from 13 Years Ago.

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r/mildlyinteresting 19h ago

A letter from John Lennon to a laundry service, at the O Street Museum in DC.

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29.6k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 7h ago

My fathers diary entry from 9/11

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1.4k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 9h ago

Someone left this note encouraging people to switch to Linux in our mailbox

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1.5k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 3h ago

The Barbershop in this Small Town Opens at 4am

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468 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 20h ago

This sticker indicates how a package was handled during shipping like a ball maze game for kids.

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12.9k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 16h ago

My bag of rotini from Aldi had a turtle shaped noodle in it.

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3.7k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 12h ago

They moved the Phillies game up an hour due to anticipated air pollution. This is what it looks like in the 8th inning.

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1.8k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 11h ago

My dog's prescription medicine is just dust in a baggie

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1.5k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 20h ago

This road sign with an ultimatum.

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6.8k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 15h ago

This egg yolk didn’t break and cooked right up in the oven

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1.5k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 23h ago

A pair of butterflies have been mating on my window for over 4 hours

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6.2k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 24m ago

Every night hundreds of ants gather under this light and die en masse

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r/mildlyinteresting 8h ago

Piece of wood shaped like a rhinoceros

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372 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 14h ago

We repaired half of our couch

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826 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 14h ago

My Uncrustable came with an Uncrustable

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839 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 17h ago

This mini bag of mini Doritos

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1.4k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 11h ago

The image my MacBook’s webcam accidentally took as I shut it closed. I call it “Oblivion.”

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389 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 5h ago

Birds nest made from cable ties.

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119 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 12h ago

This guy in front of me has a towel over his license plate

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420 Upvotes