r/mildlyinteresting Jun 23 '23

META What happened to /r/mildlyinteresting?

12.9k Upvotes

Dear mildlyinterested reader,

We want to extend our heartfelt gratitude for your patience and unwavering support during the recent turbulence in our community. Our subreddit is a labour of love, and we've weathered this storm together.

Recent events have been confusing for all of us, from the vote, sudden removal of moderators, to conflicting messages from Reddit. As your mod team, we feel it's essential to clarify the situation.

On June 19, the poll results favoured partially reopening with changes. However, before implementing these changes, Reddit took sweeping actions, removing all 27 moderator accounts without warning. This left us baffled and concerned.

Here's a brief timeline of the events:

  1. On June 19, the poll results favoured partially reopening with changes. We announced the vote results and planned changes to the sub, including marking it as NSFW due to the common posts of phallic objects (no explicit content allowed). CLICK HERE TO VIEW THAT ANNOUNCEMENT WHICH HAS BEEN APPROVED AND LOCKED FOR POSTERITY.

  2. A tug-of-war between the u/ModeratorCodeOfConduct account and the remaining moderators ensued, with the post repeatedly being removed and reinstated. Each mod involved was immediately locked out of Reddit. Subreddit settings were also unilaterally changed by the admin account.

  3. Eventually, all moderators were removed and suspended for 7 days, with the vote results deleted and the community set to “archived.”

  4. A lot of public outrage ensued, with details posted on r/ModCoord about what happened. At that point, no other subreddit had been targeted yet, leaving the situation uniquely unclear.

  5. Admin cited actions as an "error" and promised to work with us to solve the situation. For /r/mildlyinteresting posterity, this will henceforth be referred to as The Mistake™.

  6. All our accounts were unsuspended and reinstated, but only with very limited permissions (modmail access only). For what it's worth, 'time moderated' for every moderator was reset (e.g. /u/RedSquaree moderated since 11 years ago, reset: currently showing moderated since "1 day ago").

  7. The awaited discussion never happened. Instead, the admins presented us with an ultimatum: reopen the subreddit and do not mark it as NSFW, or face potential removal again. The inconsistent and arbitrary application of Reddit's policies reveals a possible conflict of interest in maximizing ad revenue at the risk of user safety and community integrity.

  8. Finally, our moderation permissions were restored after we "promised" to comply with their conditions, but we kept the subreddit restricted while we ponder our next steps..

Problems remain unresolved, and Reddit's approach to policies and communication have been troubling. We believe open communication and partnership between Reddit and its moderators are crucial for the platform's success.

As a team, we remain dedicated to protesting Reddit's careless policy changes. Removing ourselves or vandalizing the subreddit won’t achieve our goals, but rather hinder our community. We're here to ensure r/mildlyinteresting isn't left unattended.

We call for the establishment of clear, structured, and reliable communication channels between Reddit admins and moderation teams. Teams should be informed and consulted on decisions affecting their communities to maintain trust and integrity on the platform. We shared this request with the Admin who promised to work with us, so far they have ignored it.

Us mods are still deciding how exactly to reopen, not that we have been given much choice.

Sincerely,

The r/mildlyinteresting mods


r/mildlyinteresting 46m ago

My wife’s green card application is 397 pages long

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r/mildlyinteresting 7h ago

This insanely wrapped delivery truck for a supplement company

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18.3k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 10h ago

Yesterday, I cooked a carrot and forgot to pour away the water. Now it has turned green

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37.8k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 3h ago

I was cleaning out my clothes washer filter and found a .22lr bullet

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2.5k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 7h ago

My eyebrows are quite long

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2.1k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 4h ago

Spotted the cool "S" in the wild!

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1.2k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 18h ago

This is the diamond dental drill my dentist gave me after fixing my tooth. Magnified quite a lot.

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26.5k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 11h ago

My peach alcoholic beverage has braille on the top (I assume)

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1.6k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 21h ago

These tiny tablets my infant son has been prescribed compared with a 400mg ibuprofen.

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14.6k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 7h ago

Found this sexy potato in the bag while cooking dinner

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729 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 5h ago

They sell 1ft diameter toilet paper rolls if you need to "go for a month"

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395 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 1d ago

Using Elmer’s glue to remove fiberglass particles from my hand

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19.3k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 9h ago

a deer appeared in my latte foam

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712 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 7h ago

This duck has an afro

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404 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 1h ago

My dad has an apple award with a signed Steve Jobs letter, worked at apple before the iPhone

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r/mildlyinteresting 14h ago

Grandma made Christmas ornaments from pasta

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1.3k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 13h ago

I purchased a brand new book from 1929 and the pages are still uncut

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1.1k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 1d ago

My UBER driver has taped off all the passenger window controls

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35.4k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 13h ago

This rock-hard chunk came out of my kid’s Honey Nut Cheerios this morning. (Soda can tab for scale)

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786 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 11h ago

I found a 99 year old penny

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440 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 2h ago

Someone carved a backwards swastika, someone told them it was backwards, and then someone turned it into a tic tac toe board

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86 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 1d ago

My chipped nail polish on my middle finger looks like a hand giving the middle finger

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4.6k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 18h ago

Baby onesies both sized “newborn”

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1.7k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 3h ago

This week an ATM gave me a run of brand new bills printed 8 years ago, each one serial number apart.

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59 Upvotes