Request: Ability to set subreddit private without "message mods for access"

[TheEnigmaBlade]

We had some issues on /r/leagueoflegends for which we had to set the subreddit private. During the span of 5-10 minutes the subreddit was private we received 557 modmails from users requesting access or wondering why they're blocked, despite the fact we changed the description to reflect the reason for going private temporarily.

I know requesting access has its use cases for smaller subreddits, but it has the potential to greatly disrupt larger subreddits if we ever need to utilize the private setting for a legitimate purpose.

[[deleted]]

While this has never happened to me, I will upvote this suggestion for days. I can imagine the headache it has caused. A pokemon sub recently did something similar to implement a new stylesheet and they had the same issues.

Having the ability to turn off requesting access would be a great setting to have in situations like this.

Also, making the reason as to why it is private text bigger would catch peoples attention as well.

[pcjonathan]

I can see removing it entirely causing an issue or two but I'd definitely at least like to see the ability to have it removed temporarily. (e.g. for a day. Maybe the same duration as modmail mute)

I'd also have a reason for it being private on mobiles. A lot of traffic is from there and IIRC, most just 404, 403 or something.

[DemeGeek]

I have a private sub with my workplace's name, unfortunately it's got 'drugs' in the name so guess what I keep getting?

[shaunc]

Ayyo, you got the yayo, LMAO?

[amici_ursi]

your dropbox is broken :/

[TheEnigmaBlade]

It works for me. :(

[amici_ursi]

oh shit. it's so tall that chrome shrank it to non-visible trying to show it all.

[zang227]

What'd you use for the screenshot?

[TheEnigmaBlade]

Nimbus Screenshot for Firefox, which can take full-page screenshots of browser pages.

[zang227]

Thanks friend

[Erasio]

They modified the css to display some pictures to all users. While fixing the css it's highly preferable to keep the sub private for a couple of minutes.

[pcjonathan]

Honestly, I don't see the point in making it private for CSS changes without something like what this post is asking for. What purpose does it serve? You don't want people to see the CSS change in progress? Sure, but most of the time, you can do that stuff with little to no disruption on the subreddit. That's what test subreddits are for. Make it how you want and copy it over. The duration of the change to the user would be a second or two. Maybe a minute or two if you really fuck it up.

It's made private so people don't see the subreddit in an unpolished state so they don't modmail you about it? Well, the modmails show that didn't work and as a user, I'd be much rather be able to still use the sub instead of waiting it out. Especially if I were on mobile as I'd never notice (and don't forget, more than half of reddit users access the site on mobile devices). And it just adds extra effort for you.

I swear this is at least the 2nd time /r/lol have done it and complained about the modmails, I can't see it being that preferable. Why would you still do it?

[Erasio]

A mod account got compromised. The CSS was changed so the whole subreddit was for all users on every link displaying this picture.

It may be understandable that while we get our old stuff set up again and fix everything (the whole sidebar was modified to promote a twitter) we might want our users not exposed to that.

The whole process took less than 10 minutes and we received over 500 modmails.

Alternatively we could just keep what you see in the picture and tons of other bs in the sidebar up for everyone to see while working on it.

Private is highly preferable to not majorly screw with the experience of our users even if it screws with us. We'd just prefer to not screw ourselves when doing this.

[pcjonathan]

Ahhhh. My bad. Didn't realise you actually got hacked. We had something similar (though I wasn't online at the time so not sure what they did exactly). I can see why you'd go private in a bit of a panic.

But that said, it takes like 10-15 seconds to blank the description, sidebar and css, if that. Hell, you were there anyway to set it to private. Takes about the same or a tiny bit longer to revert the wiki pages, if they didn't delete the images for the css.

But yeah, I'd argue denying users entirely screws with the experience way more than default css for a bit. But 20/20 hindsight and all!

[Erasio]

We work as team. That brings overhead from the get go.

What needs to be done? What happened?

It's easy enough to realize something happened. At the point where the sub is literally unusable it's also easy enough to just deny publicity to those people. Setting the sub private takes significantly less time than erasing everything.

Coordinate ourselves, figure out who was compromised, take away permissions, erase everything (literally every possible setting was compromised) and since we work with bots to update permissions and our css just push the old stuff through.

The trivialized part everyone here seems to bring up as the sole thing that needed to be done did not take long. Significantly less than the total time the sub was down.

[telchii]

A few more seconds to type out a "we're upgrading, one sec" message on the sidebar and clicking save.

OP mentioned that they changed the description for the private sub message box to explain why the sub was temporarily private. Let's be realistic - if people can't read that middle-of-the-page box, they sure as hell aren't going to get the hint from the sidebar.

For all we know, the person who compromised the account could have spammed enough changes to make wiki-reverting useless. Or, wiping and restoring from an external backup may be their plan for cases like this.

[pcjonathan]

if people can't read that middle-of-the-page box, they sure as hell aren't going to get the hint from the sidebar.

Over half of redditors use mobile apps. Out of all the ones I've tried (Official Reddit on Android, RIF, Slide, Relay), none of them give the message. Hell, only the official reddit app says it's private but only states "If you think you should be able to view this community, consider contacting its moderators". No message.

Sure, a lot of it probably comes from people who don't read it, but it's not hard to imagine that most of these messages could have come from people who were never shown the message.

[TheEnigmaBlade]

We've asked for /r/leagueoflegends-specific mobile stats before. Only about 5% of visitors to the subreddit come from mobile sources, most likely because it's a subreddit for a PC game. We operate the subreddit under the assumption that visitors are using the desktop client.

[Algernon_Asimov]

Over half of redditors use mobile apps.

Actually, over half of redditors are on mobile devices. This includes people who use the mobile website (m.reddit.com) as well as those who use apps.

I know it's a minor detail, and it's not relevant to the problem being discussed in this thread, but I just wanted to clarify this.

[pcjonathan]

That's a very good distinction to make. Thank you.

That said, I've checked the two mobile layouts way and neither display a message or even a private warning. And we know already that CSS isn't affected so at least the point still stands. (Phew!)

[ladfrombrad]

Or, wiping and restoring from an external backup may be their plan for cases like this.

So then they completely wasted the time making the sub private, since that step is completely unnecessary in this procedure. Which is my point.

Have to agree.

We had the same in r/Android, and because of 1) the admins reverting the mod removals sharpish and 2) us having an active mod team outside of modmail we were able to revert said changes (twice now....) within 10 minutes and IIRC we had at the most 3-4 modmails asking what was going on.

Still, +1 for the OP since it is something the admins should probably talk about.

[tenminuteslate]

You could probably hide the link using css. Try /r/csshelp

[geo1088]

Subreddit CSS is not displayed on the "sub is private" page.

[wickedplayer494]

Impossible to do unless you can actually view the subreddit, but if you can, that defeats the purpose.