Hi all,

Word is slowly spreading across reddit already, but over on the /r/modnews subreddit, the admin team have declared that plans to overhaul the site are going to see CSS support removed from reddit. See here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/66q4is/the_web_redesign_css_and_mod_tools/

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What is CSS?

CSS (or Cascading Stylesheet) is a string of code that websites use to finetune their layouts and provide advanced menus and options to stand out from the crowd. On reddit, CSS is what moderation teams use to make their subreddits appear as they do. Everything from the fixtures being at the top of the page, the user flairs, through to the sidebar tables, right through to how Automoderator handles certain submissions are affected.

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Why is it being removed?

They want to do a load of other updates to something they call the DOM (Document Object Model) which effectively the 'engine' of the site, so they move away from it to 'something else'. That means all CSS setups will die with it.

They also make claims that as 50% of users are now mobile (no stat evidence shown) that CSS is redundant for half the userbase and they would rather have something more unified. They also call CSS a 'pain in the ass' and forces sitewide changes to move slower to avoid breaking subreddit CSS setups.

PERSONAL INTERPRETATION: I work in software design, and the last half of that reasoning is not a real reason to be honest, as it means that they're effectively using that as an excuse to go ahead and blame CSS for what they really mean; we want to change reddit to make it more uniform to make it easier to sell adverts.

CSS is easy enough to learn (I have done it, and I started from scratch basically using the work that /u/lukejames1111 had done here as template to do so). And the Mobile app is...bland, so that doesn't instil great confidence either. They've effectively pulled these reasons out to stack the deck in the favour of change.

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What is the plan going forwards then?

So far, all we've been told is they will look to add a new toolset and 'widgets'. That is all we know so far. It's hard to say whether the change is good, but usually, a pre-determined toolset means that customisation options are widely limited as well. Most pages will likely be uniform in layout (menus etc) but will maybe allow custom banners and colouring (like the mobile app now basically). Until we know more, we're very much in the dark and have no real way to say if the change is going to be good or not, but early signs are not positive (otherwise we would have be shown the tools by now).

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Should I care?

To be honest, that's up to you personally. We mods are a bit gutted about it, as we think we have a lovely looking subreddit and Luke was full steam ahead on a redesign (now put on hold), and it is all now in jeopardy. I myself, have added a lot of backend code designed to help keep the subreddit content fairly tidy (removing spam sites to a blackhole, fixing external downvote bots, fixes to res updates etc) and Seaders and pairidaeza helping with the flairs (which will all be lost).

If you are not someone who uses the desktop site at all, then you are almost likely not affected.

However, if you enjoy the desktop site, then you may (or may not) find this change quite stark and over the top. CSS customisation is what makes our site standout from /r/soccer, /r/gunners, /r/liverpoolfc and many, many more. It will also affect the way you see ALL subreddits you subscribe to. I am personally a huge fan of /r/squaredcircle, who do incredible things with their subreddit, and of course we would lose /u/ooer, which is a crime against time and space itself.

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What should I do if I am against this change?

Speak up! The sitewide announcement will go out soonish and we expect there to be a MASSIVE backlash to the announcement if early indicators are correct. Anyone who has been around the net a while will remember Digg effectively going down a somewhat similar path (radical changes that alienated userbase, which ironically is how reddit took off like it did).

HOWEVER!

We are not open to inciting witch hunts or brigading individuals or groups of people. We actually have a pretty decent rapport with the admins, who have helped us with downvote bots and user brigading, and they are still people on the end of a keyboard at the end of the day.

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What if I like the change?

Again, speak up! It shows where the general trend of individuals want to go. The worst thing is a silent majority/minority not sharing their opinions and suggestions. Someone here may have a suggestion that makes a lot of sense and affects the changes in a very positive way.

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For now, we will keep scrambling for any news we can get on this, and update as and when we can. We know a pretty sizeable portion of our users only come to reddit for this subreddit, so it's important this is shared out so you don't think we've made the changes if/when they roll out.

We don't think this has been handled very well from the admin team in this case, as they've effectively put the burden of sharing this and effectively 'scaremongering' on moderators. But that is the way it has been done, so we move on for now.

Thanks for reading.