In case we need another example to why Reddit moderation needs... moderation:
Attempting to remove the Reddit post myself
I’d had enough. I grew tired of having the respect I afforded Marty, and his employer, with attempts to resolve the dispute privately, get turned into a giant waste of time, effort and money. The Reddit post had been up for 15 months and attempts to resolve the dispute with Marty had gotten me nowhere. With my patience stretched to the absolute limit, I decided to take steps to remove the Reddit post myself.
Reddit Moderator: I reached out to one of the r/DOOM moderators. We made contact and arranged a call via Discord.
The moderator introduced himself and spoke about his love for the DOOM franchise and its fanbase. Along with the r/DOOM subreddit, he told me he also moderated the official DOOM Discord server.
I told him how Marty’s Reddit post had affected me deeply, both professionally and personally. It was a source of ongoing stress and harm, and I asked if he’d consider removing it.
Much to my relief, he instantly took it down.
But within 12 hours, the post was reinstated. The moderator blocked me on Discord and didn’t reply to my emails.
A few days later, Marty’s lawyers contacted me and said removing the Reddit post had greatly offended him. He was furious and made it clear in the strongest terms that an amicable resolution would be impossible.
I just read some of the article and that's horrible behavior from ID.
> Please remain civil, don't send hate mail and death threats (I've already gotten some myself). Last I checked this is a fan community where official people sometimes post, and none of the mod team were involved directly in the issue at hand (aside from the noted post removal)
Holy hell even the Reddit mods now get death threats.
That's what happens when abusive, toxic people aren't kicked out of online communities the first time they spread abuse around - they learn that their behavior has no consequences and, as a result, escalate.
They really don't. They're likely unpaid fans who thought they could help out deleting some spam and abuse. Suddenly they're forced to choose sides in a game of he said she said with corporate lawyers involved, and any choice they make will cause people to claim they should be taken to task for their bad decision.
I used to be an active moderator of a fairly popular community. At one point, we were requested by a US TLA[0] to remove a post that they believed contained information that should not have been made public. We complied, obviously.
We then got numerous people complaining that we, a bunch of unpaid moderators, didn't try to fight back. I recall one person saying we were "too chicken" to stand up for ourselves against a major US government agency.
If we had stood up for ourselves, the agency would have gone straight to reddit and filed a DMCA (as would be entirely within their right to do in that case), and reddit, inc. would instantly have removed the content (as hosting providers nearly always do, even if there's no grounds for a DMCA takedown[1].) Why are unpaid moderators held to a higher standard than the website itself?
[0]: "three-letter agency"
[1]: yes, this is wrong, but it's how it usually goes when false DMCAs are filed.
I would never face off with a giant corporation over reddit modding. The best case scenario is their threat being total bluster and nothing happens, and even there you have to deal with their loud demands making it purely a negative experience for you.
If the Reddit TOS doesn't absolve mods from this sort of corporate abuse, they should work on that. They can't let outside pressures manipulate their site like that. Not, at least, if they're not getting paid. Then, of course, game on. But...
If removing the post offended him, then yikes - I just sorted the posts on his original open letter by date descending and it's everything you'd expect and more.
Attempting to remove the Reddit post myself
I’d had enough. I grew tired of having the respect I afforded Marty, and his employer, with attempts to resolve the dispute privately, get turned into a giant waste of time, effort and money. The Reddit post had been up for 15 months and attempts to resolve the dispute with Marty had gotten me nowhere. With my patience stretched to the absolute limit, I decided to take steps to remove the Reddit post myself.
Reddit Moderator: I reached out to one of the r/DOOM moderators. We made contact and arranged a call via Discord.
The moderator introduced himself and spoke about his love for the DOOM franchise and its fanbase. Along with the r/DOOM subreddit, he told me he also moderated the official DOOM Discord server.
I told him how Marty’s Reddit post had affected me deeply, both professionally and personally. It was a source of ongoing stress and harm, and I asked if he’d consider removing it.
Much to my relief, he instantly took it down.
But within 12 hours, the post was reinstated. The moderator blocked me on Discord and didn’t reply to my emails.
A few days later, Marty’s lawyers contacted me and said removing the Reddit post had greatly offended him. He was furious and made it clear in the strongest terms that an amicable resolution would be impossible.
I just read some of the article and that's horrible behavior from ID.
You have my support, Mick.