I agree that Reddit will just replace non-complaint mods. I disagree about the lineage of mods though. The mods actually have much more claim to specific sub reddits than even reddit does in my opinion. Reddit created essentially a framework, but for many of those subs the OG mods are the ones that created them. They then selected who to pass the modship onto and so it continued. In essence, it’s semi hereditary. I mention this, because I was on a gaming forum where people were REEing about how their game subreddit was taken down and limiting information access, claiming the majority did not want the shutdown. They didn’t seem to get that it isn’t a democracy; and it really isn’t reddits place to go about choosing leadership on what is essentially a volunteer created, built and moderated forum when reddit really just operates as the hosting service. Reddit communities weren’t communities in the traditional sense of it when it comes to online areas. They were essentially electronic fiefdoms in miniature, with the users benefitting from the power of the populous for more content or ideas, and it all ultimately belonging to the mods who were not elected and had the ultimate executive power to exclude members, control the content that was allowed and enact rules as they saw fit. Unlike mods for many other forums or social networks, they largely weren’t elected by the community and weren’t installed by the corporate overlords. If it’s up to the mods to ensure things like illegal activity are kept off the subs, and to decide what type of content is acceptable on a given sub it stands to reason its within their rights to delete the sub or change how it operates.
I say this as someone who utterly despised Reddit mods, because I’ve been banned from more subs then I can remember. They tend to be thin skinned, they refuse to allow anyone to dispute their decisions, and are often very far into whatever echo chamber their particular sub belongs to so if your ideologies don’t align perfectly with the sub you’ll essentially inevitably be banned.
So I despise them. But I still support them, because like it or not the mods were the spiritual core of a sub. They embodied whatever OG creators valued because they were in part selected for that. They kept the subs free of bots, scams and illegal content which largely kept them alive, all for bloody free. So them having their little power trips was a price I was willing to pay.
Regardless, if Reddit goes through with removing mods that don’t comply they will completely rewrite how Reddit operates, and I can see it backfiring by both losing the individuality of the subreddits and also disheartening current and future mods by showing them that not only are they not paid, but they are expendable and replaceable at the drop of a pin, all in return for a bit of negligible online importance. Takes a special kind of masochist to look at that deal and go “yup that’s worth it”
