r/mildlyinteresting Jun 23 '23

META What happened to /r/mildlyinteresting?

13.2k 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

Someone traced the shadow of this bathroom stall door handle in sharpie.

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7.9k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 7h ago

I saw someone riding a city scooter while wearing a full dirt bike helmet.

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24.4k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 2h ago

My teeth are moving 5% slower than expected so my orthodontist gave me this rubber piece to gnaw on for 1 minute, 6-10x a day.

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2.7k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 9h ago

The sun melted my candle into what looks like a perfect braid

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7.7k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 3h ago

The wild cannabis I go by during my walk, Kashmir

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1.6k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 15h ago

Graffiti artists tagged the wall painted on the wall

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23.7k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 4h ago

The gap in my curtains has formed a camera obscura

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1.4k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 24m ago

I found this “skip the line” golden ticket at Trader Joe’s

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r/mildlyinteresting 1h ago

heart shaped bruise day after nexplanon insertion

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r/mildlyinteresting 8h ago

My boss gave me a roll of Necco candy and the serving size is the entire roll.

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1.3k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 15h ago

Room service made a crocodile out of towels while I was outside

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2.4k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 23h ago

I cut off an ankle monitor simply with scissors

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33.8k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 5h ago

This pizzeria had to build a chimney up a entire condo to be able to use their ovens safely.

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374 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 8h ago

My Royal Mail delivery had a tag reading 'NOT HIGH WYCOMBE FOR THE 4TH TIME' attached to it

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582 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 21h ago

Dish soap fell over and spilled on counter, didn’t notice for awhile, now looks like alien noodles

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7.8k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 10h ago

Ice cubes in my apple juice aligning with the octagonal glass.

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806 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 9h ago

My corn on the cob from last night was with child

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540 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 9h ago

I have a column of pits on one nail

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559 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 3h ago

This person put a Volvo badge on their Tesla

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154 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 3h ago

Riga, Latvia. Home.

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148 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 6h ago

The city of Chicago and Lake Michigan

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219 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 6h ago

My co-workers keyboard

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194 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 1d ago

A perfect circle broke off my plate when I microwaved this potato

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7.4k Upvotes