r/mildlyinteresting Jun 23 '23

META What happened to /r/mildlyinteresting?

12.2k 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 4h ago

My Local Italian Place has a cream dispenser for wiping your butt

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4.8k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 2h ago

this sticker on my microwave is telling me to leave the spoon in

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2.9k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 2h ago

I have 1 really long eyebrow hair that always grows back

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1.2k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 6h ago

Man sitting on his throne of books at a market in Seoul, Korea

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1.8k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 10h ago

My street in L.A. was turned into a 1957 New Jersey neighborhood for the filming of Steven Spielberg’s movie “The Fabelman’s”.

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2.4k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 2h ago

Good day at McDonalds; got an extra patty.

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560 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 19h ago

My kid’s lunch on a Japan Airlines flight has an egg giraffe and airplane-shaped carrots

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40.3k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 22h ago

My local theater has a screening room with a playground in it

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32.3k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 21h ago

Came home to find a slice of cheese slapped onto my tailgate

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9.0k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 1h ago

This perfectly circular stone I found in a potato field.

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r/mildlyinteresting 3h ago

My door right now

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157 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 11h ago

There’s 2 fruit by the foots in this one package

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400 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 1h ago

The cafe where I ate breakfast today had a Compaq mug.

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r/mildlyinteresting 1h ago

This phone charger at the repair shop looks like a car battery

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r/mildlyinteresting 2h ago

A fairy tale book gifted in 1885

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73 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 14h ago

Perfect star left after wiping nozzle of whipped cream

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418 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 2h ago

This tree eating a trail sign

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50 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 3h ago

Today I found a five leaves clover

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50 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 10h ago

This drawing of Luffy has been on this whiteboard at least as long as I’ve been at this job (almost a year)

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142 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 1d ago

Overdone Intertwined carrots …

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2.4k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 3h ago

The Airbnb I’m staying in has a room with a weight scale taped to a tanning bed, in front of a photography light

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28 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 5h ago

Found a twinana

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33 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 20h ago

I saw a Star Wars R2-D2 USPS mail collection box located near a shopping mall.

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430 Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 1d ago

This single digit license plate

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5.2k Upvotes

r/mildlyinteresting 1d ago

My grandmother planted a pumpkin in our backyard, it grew over the pine tree and now I have pumpkins growing on my roof.

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13.2k Upvotes