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How reddit crushed the biggest protest in its history: Did it, though?
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this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2023
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Wasn't hard to win when you threaten to remove power from power trippers.
The fediverse got a nice boost and there's enough people here to make it worthwhile to scroll and interact. Much nicer than reddit, they can keep the masses honestly.
I think people really exaggerated this thing of "power trippers", and that really only served to turn users to Reddit's side. While there are a few mods who get too full of themselves, mods don't actually get to command anyone or any sort of payment. Mods don't hold a fraction of the power that admins do. And what do mods get to lose? The "privilege" to do volunteer work sifting through the worst things people can post? Is the power to ban someone really that enticing?
And it's not like the Fediverse doesn't need mods too.
Really it played out a lot like other kinds of protests. The ones in charge who are depriving people of something pointing fingers at the protesters temporarily inconveniencing them and saying "look what awful selfish people they are". Which is ultimately what pressures protesters to give in the most.
It's not just power, it's the status that comes with it and a lot of sunk cost.
Some of that definitely exists, if even karma score is something that gets some egos inflated, but I think this is a very cynical and uncharitable way to describe it when care for a community plays at least as much of a role.
At the end of the day, even being the mod of a big sub is not much to brag about, nevermind the smaller ones. They are not celebrities, not even to the extent social media influencers are. Most users might not even recognize their usernames without that little tag or looking up the mod list. It's most of all, voluntary work.