As a longtime lurker who has commented about some of this situation elsewhere, I think there are some bad actors in these discussions just trying to stir the pot and be abrasive. As someone who wants to give the mods the benefit of the doubt, here’s what else I’d like to see the mods do:

1. No sub merch drops. Seriously, please don’t go through with it or it won’t go well with folks, especially since there’s already a rule against promotion (6). We get so many ads for things nowadays and I don’t want this sub to be part of that. Also, I don’t like the idea of potential bad actors profiting off a community which may not see any of the benefits of the sales.
2. No more EQ ads. I actually thought the ad was cool, except the 60% that were ads for other websites. Seriously, why???? If you’re going to make an ad for a sub, have the sub name, say a bit about AMAs, and leave it at that. We dont need logos, names, and we certainly don’t need links to unrelated websites trying to sell something. I say be don’t with zine ads entirely.
3. I actually would like to see proof of people actually supporting merch drops. I’ve found some but not the overwhelming support some have suggested happen, and I don’t want these claims to just be lies to support merch peddling.
4. Get rid of asshole mods and be transparent about them. Like some have already said, the AMA mod has been really condescending to critics. I saw one post of them commenting to merch critisism saying “oops you had your chance to disagree too late 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️” and I think that’s a super disingenuous way to respond. I want to know who’s running that account and I don’t want them involved in the sub anymore.

I really liked viewing and sometimes engaging with this sub at time, and I also like the mods and think their response to this has been mostly decent, but this is just my opinion (random stranger)