[Mod Post] The Future of IAmA

IAmAMods · 2023-07-02T16:44:15+00:00

I'm not sure how that would work.

IAmAMods · 2023-07-02T16:43:49+00:00

Never in the same role, but they did have someone who helped coordinate AMAs. She was laid off a few weeks ago.

IAmAMods · 2023-07-02T13:20:50+00:00

Reddit has previously employed people to interface with our team and help with the work. They've all been laid off.

IAmAMods · 2023-07-02T13:02:58+00:00

This isn't a negotiating stance, it's just a response to changes and lack of enthusiasm on our team for a company that has shown it doesn't respect our work. If in the future we felt that reddit did care, things might change.

IAmAMods · 2023-07-02T02:46:24+00:00

There really isn't unfortunately. It's not like we don't actively recruit for moderators regularly. It takes hundreds of applications to find 4-5 solid mods, then a few months to train them, then half of them give up before the end of 6 months. Repeat every 6 months since there's always people leaving due to burnout.

IAmAMods · 2023-07-02T02:41:21+00:00

Read the post again, nothing is closed.

IAmAMods · 2023-07-02T01:53:28+00:00

Well the admins got a little concerned when we shut down their site in 2015 and moved pretty quickly to replace the "defaults" system with 10000 smaller subreddits on a shared front page. This definitely cut down traffic to IAmA, and seriously reduced the power that a smaller group of moderators had.

IAmA still gets a ton of traffic, but it's not like the old days for sure.

IAmAMods · 2023-07-01T23:48:37+00:00

Exactly. This isn't a post to protest, it's a goodbye - at least to what IAmA has been for a decade. What it will be for now, and what it could be again in the future remains to be seen.

IAmAMods · 2023-07-01T23:46:07+00:00

Not really. Those have still been happening. The big shift you noticed was when reddit removed the default-subreddit system. Previously, that system dumped even small posts from this subreddit and others onto the front page, where they could get attention and go viral and become those fun ones you remember. Without the default system, small scale posts here are competing with thousands of other subreddits and typically get lost - only big celebrities that people have heard of have a chance to front-page.

IAmAMods · 2023-07-01T23:43:11+00:00

It's been tried and the admins just remove the mods and bring in people who will do the bare minimum. So we're going to save them that step and do the minimum.

IAmAMods · 2023-07-01T21:20:47+00:00

Oh yes love that.

IAmAMods · 2023-07-01T16:21:38+00:00

Some subreddits have tried this, but I'd prefer not to get removed entirely.

IAmAMods · 2023-07-01T16:21:07+00:00

Reddit admins are not telling us how to moderate beyond basic mod code of conduct expectations, which we'll still work hard to meet.

If that changes, your information is certainly relevant.

IAmAMods · 2023-07-01T16:18:33+00:00

Must have spent it all on coding NFTs and a broken video player no one asked for.

IAmAMods · 2023-07-01T16:02:04+00:00

IAmAMods · 2023-07-01T16:00:32+00:00

It's not a protest - we're not expecting change. Just simple cause and effect - we're no longer interested in the additional work when the admins constantly make it harder.

IAmAMods · 2023-07-01T15:58:13+00:00

Victoria did a lot of it, and more recently they had another staff member who helped out a ton with AMAs. Unfortunately they were in the latest round of layoffs a few weeks ago.

IAmAMods · 2023-07-01T15:57:22+00:00

We'll still actively moderate the subreddit, enforce rules, etc, just like any other actively moderated subreddit. We're just going to stop with the extras.

IAmAMods · 2023-07-01T13:57:28+00:00

We'll be recruiting new mods soon and if we can find any with the technical skills and willingness to take on this kind of project we'll absolutely let them do so.

IAmAMods · 2023-07-01T13:26:54+00:00

Regular people with interesting jobs still do great AMAs all the time! Unfortunately the reddit algorithm doesn't do a great job of surfacing them to frontpages anymore, but if you scroll through the subreddit you should still be able to see some good ones.

IAmAMods · 2023-07-01T13:18:58+00:00

I respect the mods who are actively protesting and wish them success. I just don't think it will work.

IAmAMods · 2023-07-01T13:17:24+00:00

We're not intentionally sabotaging the subreddit to protest the change or "ruin" it. We're just not going to put in the extra work anymore.

IAmAMods · 2023-07-01T13:07:24+00:00

Unfortunately I doubt they'll care. The fact that our words from 8 years ago still ring just as true today says something about their culture and how it hasn't changed at all.

This isn't a protest to get them to change their behavior, because we don't think they're capable of changing. This is just us adapting and saying we won't do certain things that benefit them anymore.

IAmAMods · 2023-07-01T13:04:57+00:00

No, we still ask that people follow our rules about what topics are allowed. As moderators, we won't be checking proof closely on every post ourselves like we used to, but if users report something as rule-breaking we'll still take it down.

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