New rules on Reddit make it harder for moderators to make their subreddits private. This move follows protests against API price hikes last year.
Reddit is changing its policies in response to last year’s major protests. In the future, moderators will have less leeway to make their subreddits private without permission.
Background: Why Reddit is tightening the rules
By the summer of 2023, thousands of subreddits had turned their communities private to protest Reddit’s new API pricing. This measure meant that much content was no longer accessible to the public and also affected search results on platforms such as Google. Reddit responded by asking moderators to reopen their subreddits or face removal from their moderator post.
Reddit:
Mass protest against controversial API changes
With the new regulation, Reddit wants to prevent subreddits from being used as a means of protest to paralyze the platform. Laura NestlerReddit VP of Communities, explained:
The ability to instantly change Community Type settings has been used to break the platform and violate our rules. We have a responsibility to protect Reddit and ensure its long-term health, and we cannot allow actions that deliberately cause harm
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Moderators in a dilemma: agree to the changes
Reddit emphasizes that these new rules were developed in consultation with moderators. Laura Nestler explained that she was in contact with Reddit’s moderator council and their feedback was wide-ranging. Many moderators would understand the need for the new rules, even if they don’t necessarily support them.
The feedback that was very obvious was this will be interpreted as a punitive change. We’re going to move forward with it. We believe that it’s needed to keep communities accessible. That’s why we’re doing this.
What does this mean for the future of Reddit?
For many Reddit communities, this change means it will be much more difficult to protest against the platform’s decisions in the form of closed subreddits. Subreddits that have fewer than 5,000 members or have existed for less than 30 days can change their settings automatically, but for larger and established subreddits the administrative intervention will be a major hurdle. Nevertheless, Reddit makes it clear that protest is still allowed on Reddit as long as it does not jeopardize the normal functioning of the platform.
Reddit:
Will you have to pay for subreddits soon?
Source: onlinemarketing.de
