Reddit to Moderators: Closed Subreddits ‘Won’t Stay Private’

Reddit is putting pressure on protesting moderators to make their subreddits public again. This is evident from reports seen by The Verge. The company is imposing deadlines for moderators to announce their reopening plans.

“This community cannot remain closed to her [miljoenen] members.” Reddit employee ModCodeofConduct wrote according to The Verge in a message to the moderators of a large subreddit. The company refers to a deadline that was previously communicated; This week, Reddit asked protesting communities to let us know within 48 hours whether they will reopen.

After a response from a moderator, the Reddit admin responded: “[Miljoenen] members have lost full access to this community and that cannot continue. Wanting to take time to consider future moderation plans is fine, but that must be done in at least a ‘limited’ setting,” the employee wrote. “This community will not remain private beyond the time frame we have allowed.”

Speaking to another subreddit, the same Reddit employee told moderators that their protest violates the Reddit Moderator Code of Conduct. The admin refers to rule 4, which calls on moderators to be ‘active and involved’. “Continued violation of Rule 4 over the next 31 hours will result in further action,” ModCodeofConduct wrote. This subreddit is now public again, albeit in an archive mode where new posts are automatically deleted.

Reddit has long been pushing for protesting subreddits to reopen. The company reportedly previously removed certain moderators from protesting communities, although the mods of at least one subreddit later regained their positions.

Moderators from various communities are currently protesting the API changes that Reddit is implementing on July 1. This will stop free access to the API. Several third-party clients for Reddit have indicated that they will have to shut down due to the changes, as accessing the API is not cost-effective. The maker of popular Reddit app Apollo would have to pay $20 million a year to keep the app running. Certain communities find the amounts that Reddit charges for API access to be too high and therefore went dark.