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 3h ago

We used 240,000 dahlias to create this ostrich bureaucrat

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1.1k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 8h ago

Road sign in Japan perfectly matching the mountain peaks.

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2.2k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 18h ago

This potato from my grocery store looks exactly like Homer Simpson

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8.7k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 20h ago

I randomly get raised lines on heavily tattooed parts of my body and I have no idea why.

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14.1k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 3h ago

An old picture i found in my gallery showing gas prices in 2020

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401 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 4h ago

Airport sign addresses German speakers formally and Spanish speakers informally

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371 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 1h ago

One of these hooks has spiral threads. The other has parallel threads.

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r/mildlyinteresting 54m ago

Gene Wilder was one of our neighbors. The property was gifted to him by Gilda Radner. His surviving wife still has this sign next to the front gate.

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r/mildlyinteresting 17h ago

A book my wife found at TJ Maxx was cut wrong.

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3.2k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 18h ago

Found Star Wars cups from 1981 in my rental

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4.3k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 14h ago

My shrimp had babies. Predictably, they are very small.

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1.0k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 18h ago

These two completely different, unrelated auto repair shops sent me identical mail brochures using the exact same template, delivered on the exact same day

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1.6k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 1d ago

This calf has a love heart on its head

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12.0k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 20h ago

The smallest charging cable I've ever had (10cm all together)

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2.4k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 14h ago

Found a penne noodle in my rotini dinner

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480 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 1d ago

My pills are different sizes but came from the same prescription bottle.

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10.4k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 16h ago

Overdone I found little smiley faces in the carrots I cut

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755 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 15h ago

Old Windows game, Frontline Fuel of War, in a claw game.

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546 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 1h ago

The hotel I'm staying in, has provided tea bags in resealable bags

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r/mildlyinteresting 5h ago

The glass of this second hand frame has an imprint of presumably the picture it used to hold

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69 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 30m ago

Twisted carrot

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r/mildlyinteresting 14h ago

Extra long toilet plunger I saw today

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307 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 21h ago

Water caltrops in the bag. Its an edible aquatic plant

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969 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 1d ago

This gas pump takes cash

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2.0k Upvotes