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

My patient’s urine was bright green today.

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16.2k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 11h ago

Storm knocked over tree missing neighbors house, pulled up all the grass on sidewalk.

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r/mildlyinteresting 7h ago

A lady at Walmart had a parrot on her shoulder.

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r/mildlyinteresting 6h ago

Amazon sent me a case of setting spray instead of the single item.

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r/mildlyinteresting 22h ago

This is what an "anti-yellowing" phone case looks like after a year

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r/mildlyinteresting 7h ago

A young gray fox laying atop my grill

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793 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 17h ago

A tree that's been repaired with ratchet straps and spray foam.

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4.9k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 19h ago

Crane-shaped stain on wall

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5.8k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 9h ago

someone was eating crackers in a bathroom stall

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951 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 2h ago

A local grocery store sells a communist “leninade” drink for $3

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241 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 16h ago

Brussels Airport. Wherever there's a leak in the roof or pipes, they place flower pots to catch the drips.

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3.2k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 16h ago

Common consumption area boundary line marked on sidewalk in Wichita, KS

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2.4k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 15h ago

Pantry moths created an entire structure and community inside of this container of seed mix.

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1.4k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 5h ago

My stepmom bought a box completely full of soy sauce packets

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220 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 16h ago

One of my cats has one extra toe on every paw

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1.6k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 17h ago

My grainy potato.

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1.5k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 11h ago

Gloria Steinem signed my wine-soaked copy of her book [OC]

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499 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 9h ago

This van with the plates "Vandalf"

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318 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 4h ago

i buy one new hoodie per year. today i realized the color progression for each year (oldest to newest, left to right)

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96 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 10h ago

Frog choked on a bone.

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240 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 12h ago

My unopened can of diet Pepsi contains no liquid

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231 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 23h ago

The LEDs in my keyboard bleached the keys

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1.7k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 1d ago

There's a troll statue under a bridge in Seattle.

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31.9k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 1d ago

Tiny banana from my housemates garden

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10.3k Upvotes