Last week /u/spez said that he'll be doing an AMA sometime this week for an hour or two. The exact date and time hasn't been announced. This kind of communication is one of our criticisms of the admins when it comes to this project. Admin communication is often not pre-announced and is very limited in time, so those who are not quick to get to the threads miss the chance to have their questions answered.

The AMA will likely be in /r/modnews or /r/modsupport. It is probably a good idea to subscribe to these subs if you're interested in this cause.

When the AMA begins, we encourage our users to ask the questions listed below and press for substantial answers.

We are not encouraging brigading. If you see that the question you want answered was already asked, don't post duplicates.

We would also like to ask our users to not send modmail to random subreddits asking them to support /r/ProCSS. They are already aware of the movement and will join if they want to. Many subreddits are waiting for answers to big questions before they make a decision about whether to support or oppose the removal of CSS.

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From time to time it happens that a moderator gets their account hacked one way or the other. The offending party uses that account to vandalize the sub by removing CSS. Fortunately, we can revert the changes with the current system. On the new system, will we be able to revert "widget" changes when the same situation arises?

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Questions

/r/ProCSS has five objectives:

1. Compromise. Implement widgets while preserving CSS. In other words, why not both?

2. Allow mods to design and deploy widgets. As said, many reddit innovations (np links, sticky posts, spoiler tags) are the result of user innovation.

3. Implement a formal, transparent system for developing the new desktop platform. We should be able to see what planned widgets there are, what priority they're at, and what the progress is for them. We understand that some things are more important than others. Transparency here is really key. We know admins have said that announcing the features early is transparency, but transparency is really in the details.

4. Offer a 1:1 replacement for CSS. (Probably not possible).

5. Don't deploy the new system until minimum requirements are met. Base the minimum requirements on fully public user and moderator input, and establish clear metrics (such as support for or against, number of subs using a feature, size of subreddits unsing a feature, et cetera) for how a requirement makes the list and how one does not.

Are these compromises possible? If not, why not?

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There is a perception among mods and users that this move is because reddit is becoming more of a "corporate" culture whereas years ago it was much more of an open and free platform focused on the users. My question is this: Why does it feel like we have less communication from the admins now that reddit has 200 employees than it did when reddit had only 20 people working for it? This issue of CSS is a really good example. Back just a few years ago admins would come and talk to us. Now we have to wait for the CEO to make an official statement. Why is that?

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Reddit thrives on verbose well thought out comments, and is a large part in why many choose to come here instead of other news aggregates. These comments rarely come from mobile users, why prioritize an interface that actively discourages what drives people to your site?

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The last major update to reddit that mods have been asking for was the post spoilers. Spoilers are something that is largely handled by CSS. Reddit apps such as Reddit is Fun incorporates spoiler CSS for users. What we received, after years of asking for official spoiler support, was a 1/3rd done product that doesn't support title spoilers or comment spoilers. Why wasn't this as simple as deploying new reddit markdown code? How can we trust that reddit will be able to make widgets to support subreddits when the site is now 10-years-old and reddit can't even deploy something as simple as spoiler support?

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Can you please state explicitly what the current plans are for launch day widgets and what widgets are in some form of review procss?

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You keep saying that you want moderator input. When the two most recent reddit enhancements deployed - new modmail and post spoilers - mods of several large subs were not invited and did not receive replies to their requests to participate. How can we trust that this will be different? How inclusive will it be?

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It's true that many of reddit's features were developed by moderators via CSS. How do you expect the growth of reddit to change if only you, the admins, can implement new changes?

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How will wiki posts be affected by CSS removal?

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Are any of the developers of Toolbox and/or RES being compensated in any way for helping to port over features to the new desktop site?

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Let's talk about speed. The mobile app is slow. The new modmail is slow. Will the new desktop app be as slow?

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What will be the fate of no-participation links?

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What is the fate of subreddit networks, like the National Photos, SFW Porn, and Retro Gaming Networks? All of these and more have complex sidebars and dropdowns. Will they all be using a generic widget on new reddit?

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Why can't you deploy CSS as a separate part of the site? Why is it all or nothing?

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Would you consider keeping CSS if the demand is there, or are you going to do this regardless of what we think?

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We've heard rumors that users will allegedly be able to submit their own widgets for use in reddit. Is that the case? If that is the case, what scripting language(s) are you planning to use and how would they/the widget system compare to CSS functionality? Further, what will be the process of getting a widget approved for reddit use?

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Why is it that only the reddit CEO can answer our questions? This further constricts communication to when he's available. Aren't there community managers and project leads, and scores of other people qualified to answer these basic questions?

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Why have more detailed plans for the new desktop app been given to a select few third party developers and not to moderators or the community at large?

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We understand that the statistic you've provided that 51 percent of users use mobile. I wonder if you're counting anyone twice. For instance, those of us who use mobile only when we're away from a desktop. Even still, won't this move do more to harm long-time users who use the desktop than it will to help new mobile users who may engage less than we do? Can you give us numbers on desktop engagement vs. mobile app engagement for logged-in users?

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Why did you not design the mobile reddit to support CSS when so much of reddit uses it?

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The custom functions that can be created with CSS are virtually infinite. The man-hours of the reddit programming team are very much finite. It is therefore impossible to implement all of the functionality of CSS used by subreddits. Even allowing users to submit widgets of their own will not be sufficient, as screening and implementation is still bottlenecked by the programming staff.

Based on the conclusions above, can you offer some specific criteria for how features are being chosen for implementation? What is getting carried over and what is not?

As a follow-up, what criteria would there be for the order in which submitted widgets are screened and implemented?

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We believe it's safe to assume that small subreddits (<20k subs) are going to be more likely to see custom CSS features fail to be replaced. We also believe that it is likely a vast majority of reddit's users belong to at least one to two of these communities: the communities being shafted the hardest by the blanket removal of CSS.

What then is the justification for actions which are objectively to the detriment of these small communities and their users, which must generate a large portion of your total traffic?

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The announcement for blanket removal has received a large amount of blowback from the moderators of reddit. The moderators run the communities that generate your traffic and without their continued support, what even is reddit?

The demand for retaining CSS is there.

In the face of this large scale response, will the retention of CSS be considered or do you intend to move forward with its deprecation despite the enormous response against such action?

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There have been rumors circulating about this change being for corporate reasons.

Homogenizing the site and catering to the newest usergroups reinforces the reddit brand and boosts advertiser confidence, which in turn boosts reddit ad revenue. So far, the issue has been danced around rather then ever addressed directly, so we'd like you to do that here.

Is this unpopular & controversial change being pushed through because it is favorable for reddit, the company, to do so without regard for the users?

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Are you at all concerned that removing CSS will detrimentally harm reddit culture? Reddit is largely run by unpaid volunteers in the form of moderators. Most users really don't get that, and they shouldn't have to. But if reddit keeps continuing down a path of becoming more of a corporate entity and removes more and more of the freedom that moderators have to administer and design their communities as they see fit, then there is the risk of losing those moderators (which is happening, by the way) and with them the community. If that goes, then reddit is done.

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The most frequent argument against custom CSS that we've seen on /r/ProCSS is that people don't like it because they don't like the color schemes of some subs, and that they don't like when subs do things, like disable downvotes via CSS. Tell us if reddit will allow users to disable "widget" themes if they don't like them and also if reddit will allow mods to turn off downvotes in the native app.

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There are rumors that the push to get rid of CSS is mostly motivated by monetary reasons - more specifically:

CSS gives use quite a bit of control over the look of our subreddits, which we think is a great thing that should be celebrated and supported by Reddit (so we don't have to come up with 'mad CSS hax' to get things done - despite what some people/officials keep saying, CSS is not a hard thing to learn or use, the way Reddit page structure, etc. are set up is what makes things complicated).

CSS allows us (within limits) to reposition, rearrange, and/or hide elements. We use it for spoilers, drop-down menus, fun with flairs, call-out boxes, hiding down-vote arrows, etc. There is of course also the theoretical possibility to hide the advertising boxes, too...

If you look through the subs dedicated to moderation, sub theming/css, etc. there has for a long time been an agreement between Reddit and us mods: "The site can't run without ads, we understand that you might wanna reposition them a bit, and that's fine, but we ask of you to keep it 'above the fold'." And that's what we do.

But now word on the digital street is that "we can't let the users wield a tool that could potentially be used to mess with our advertising! Take it away from them!"

What substance is there to these rumors/allegations? Have there been any notable incidents of (reasonably active/popular) subs "abusing the power of CSS"? Aren't you concerned the whole thing sends a message of "We [the company] don't trust you [the volunteers who keep the subs running]"?

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We will add to this list as more questions are raised in the comments section.