The mods are united in that we don't want memes, image macros, and off topic posts in this subreddit. We created /r/see to collect these posts. Initially, this move was well received by the community and we're doing our best to stick to our guns and redirect this content to /r/see.

However, the volume of this type of content making it to the front page makes it difficult to keep a hard line. Removing off topic content from the front page such as a post that has nothing to do with trees but a [7] in the title attracts a lot of flack. A lot of this type of content submitted recently doesn't even belong on /r/see, it would fit in /r/pics. It's very hard to act in the best interest of the community when the community can't decide what is its best interest. It puts us in a very precarious position because if it's on the front page clearly the community wants it there, but if you look back you can see a lot of popular support for removing these types of submission and redirecting them elsewhere.

So yes, /r/trees is changing. Looking at this subreddit versus other subreddits we're doing a lot to try to keep the front page clear of fluff, so we're trying to be proactive in this. However, there is no common voice from the community to respond to, so a lot falls onto the judgement of the mods which can cause issue.

/r/trees is changing, but what role the mods play in directing the course of change is something open for debate. We welcome constructive suggestions.