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

Overflowing mayonnaise filling machine.

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1.5k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 10h ago

Saw a bunch of bloody Shoe Prints walking to work this morning.

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3.4k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 15h ago

Took a pic of my eye with flash and cought my reflection...

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7.1k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 4h ago

40 years later, my kids are using the same step stool I used

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770 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 2h ago

My cucumber started sprouting

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349 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 4h ago

This billboard was stripped down to a movie ad for the 1996 film Jingle All The Way

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452 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 15h ago

Melted+froze my kids' broken crayons instead of tossing them

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2.8k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 23h ago

Went to a zoo and saw an otter undergoing surgery

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25.7k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 1h ago

McDonald's printed me a receipt full of U's

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r/mildlyinteresting 7h ago

Bought a secondhand jacket, found a train ticket from 1999 in one pocket and a bus ticket from 2001 in another

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473 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 22h ago

My town hall has a wall of shame for code violations

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6.8k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 12h ago

Lotion on my boyfriend's back fell into a perfect 9

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937 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 3h ago

I saw an original Molotov cocktail in a museum

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184 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 10h ago

Cellar, probably ~13th century. My workplace today.

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641 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 9h ago

My USB actually stored everything on its internal micro SD

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488 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 4h ago

Save the bees hat, with a live bee resting on it.

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178 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 1d ago

I put my white dress shirts in diluted bleach and one of them turned red

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20.6k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 2h ago

Test message on the freeway sign

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106 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 1d ago

My oat milk has the word “milk” censored

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6.8k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 2h ago

Wild Strawberry Crayola Semi-truck.

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71 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 20h ago

rice pudding store threatens to disgrace, torture and maybe shoot non customers who use the bathroom

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2.1k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 18h ago

Tiny ants attracted to olive oil bottle, totally ignoring the crumbs, sugar and honey bottles on the counter.

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1.1k Upvotes