Hey all,
My original post obligated this sub to the two day blackout commitment, but after the two days had ended, I felt that nothing much had changed, and there wasn't any significant response from reddit, so I opted to continue the blackout. That is ending now, however, as the obnoxious, nameless /u/ModCodeOfConduct has sent their not-so-subtle threat to our inbox in this sub.
It's important to note that this message to the modmail is set to no replies, or at least, I was not allowed to reply to it. This is disappointing to me, as I was hoping to have a dialogue with the admin behind it to try and talk about the things that I think are important, especially pertaining to our community, such as exceptions for accessibility-minded apps and users, and ensuring that our resident /u/findthesniper-helper bot continues to have access despite the crackdowns. This, however, does not seem possible. On a different subreddit that I moderate, there was some light discussion with the first wave of messages that the admin account sent out, but /r/FindTheSniper was not among those subreddits included in said wave.
With respect to this blackout, I think it was about as successful as one could reasonably hope for. Reddit has made exceptions for their API limit for bots that are utilized in aiding moderating. They've offered to host moderator bots on their Reddit Developer Platform (Though I'd personally rather they just foot the bill for 3rd-party hosting). They've also promised to make exceptions for "non-commercial, accessibility-focused apps". Whatever that means, I think that the improvements that Reddit needs to make going forward are beyond the scope of a sub blackout at this point. It really sucked to have Reddit basically take an official position on mods as "screw you, you're replaceable", but it's not like I expected anything else.
As for the future of this sub, I reckon it will resume operation just like normal. With the loss of Reddit is Fun, I will just end up only using reddit on my PC - a real shame, as RiF's moderator suite is unparalleled. The rules of the sub will not be changed. I know that some subs are going malicious-compliance mode, and while it's funny, I'm just not sure to what end this sub would be doing it - it's unclear to me what else I could hope to accomplish.
So, all that said, welcome back, and thanks for sticking around.
