r/mildlyinteresting Jun 23 '23

META What happened to /r/mildlyinteresting?

13.0k 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

There’s a mid 80s Rolls Royce parked in my middle income neighborhood.

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3.6k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 4h ago

I found frozen fish thrown into a pond for some reason, and then the pond froze over

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1.7k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 10h ago

This chocolate contains zero chocolate

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2.3k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 14h ago

The lid of a carton of milk is accidentally attached to side rather than to the top.

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4.0k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 17h ago

My Dog’s Bowl was supposed to say Worlds Best Dog but the best washed off

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6.9k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 4h ago

This keyboard has 'PANIC' keys.

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498 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 23h ago

Smashburger and GameStop have the same font.

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13.4k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 7h ago

The 3 in this building number was installed upside down and backwards

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463 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 1d ago

My house torn down to the studs after a house fire

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21.9k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 12h ago

Pocket knives can be bought at the airport and taken on the plane in Germany

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1.1k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 9h ago

This magazine in my Doctors office waiting room is from 2001

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603 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 8h ago

Infinity onion ring

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432 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 1h ago

The size of this large tree that fell during a storm

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r/mildlyinteresting 5h ago

Heart shaped birthmark on my leg

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200 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 1h ago

Got a full sized silver dollar with my change today

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r/mildlyinteresting 12h ago

This very tiny avocado seed

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650 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 4h ago

This beer has different nutritional facts if it’s in Utah

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107 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 17h ago

I boiled carrots last night for dinner. The water turned green overnight.

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931 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 4h ago

My skin and hair have been turning white for no reason. The spots glow under UV

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76 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 14h ago

My tomato looks like it has a fish eye (it was a water bubble over a bacterial dark spot)

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476 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 5h ago

I found a turtle skull on the beach today

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88 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 12h ago

Trilingual Newspaper in Brooklyn, NY

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302 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 12h ago

Virginia allows an ampersand in personalized plates

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253 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 1d ago

Mini-remote controlled recovery truck picked our car up and took it away…

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21.9k Upvotes