reddit is dumb.

reddit is dumb.

    I am a regular of /r/subredditdrama. This is a board from reddit.com that focuses on drama in other boards on reddit. It's pretty funny because arguments between anonymous people degenerate to insults pretty fast. It's also funny because you get to find people arguing about things that don't matter that much, like magic cards or something. 

    My favorite kind of reddit drama is mod drama. In it, the people who run the sub-forums of reddit usually end up arguing about how their niche sub-forum is run with the users of their subforum. When it gets really good, the moderators argue in public with each other about how they run the subreddit. (Note: reddit sub-forums are called subreddits, and will be referred to as such from now on).

    I'm talking about this because last night, I found some mod drama, and following some users backwards in time led me down a rabbit hole of betrayal and selfishness on the front page of the internet.

    It started on /r/australia. There was a moderator post stickied to the top of the subreddit saying that some moderators were removed, some added (from the anti-/r/australia subreddit!), and changes were coming. The moderator that created the post didn't talk about the changes, and when asked, stated they didn't know what was happening with their subreddit. A user suspected out loud that one of the older moderators was behind it.[1]

    Going to that link, there was a confession from a power-moderator, /u/qgyh2 (a moderator that owns a significant number of subreddits)[3]. This post stated that he had a repetitive stress injury and was depressed, so was apologising for not being able to moderate well. I can't find a citation for this, but at the time, this person was a moderator in about 20 default subreddits, which are the subreddits that a new user, and a user not signed on, are automatically subscribed to. This is important, because default subreddits automatically have millions of viewers. 

    This moderator was attacked by multiple people who had moderated with him, stating that he was just virtually squatting on valuable subreddits without actually contributing, then yelling at moderators under him (older moderators can remove newer moderators from subreddits), who actually helped moderate. One person cited how one of /u/qgyh2's subreddits, /r/worldnews, is now so badly moderated that users could create posts that literally lie about the news, and they aren't stopped by moderators, or downvoted by users [4]. Coming to his aid was another moderator, /u/anutensil who in the past had essentially went power mad and helped cause the self-destruction of another default subreddit [2].

    After reading the Distraction Addiction, I knew I was in too deep, and I quit Chrome. I stopped to think. I know so much about this that I feel dumb. I posted about this because I felt like it was a useful case-study on what happens when internet communities get too big. People go power mad over things that shouldn't be too complicated. Posts that have mass appeal get the most attention, even if they're lies. Reddit is a site I spend hours on a week, and it isn't that good. At least the popular parts of reddit are pretty lousy. Also, sometimes reddit is where I, and lots of other people, read the news. That's probably bad.

    

    [1]http://www.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/2h4bw4/drama_downunder_in_raustralia_as_new_moderation/

    [2] http://www.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/23dyes/recap_the_failed_moderation_and_gaming_of

    [3]http://www.reddit.com/r/self/comments/1pkb2b/sorry_reddit/

    [4]http://www.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/1novex/rworldnews_realizes_many_of_its_recent_upvoted/