How does a Subreddit work ?

[Poinkachu]

Well shit, I never cared enough to find out, but since lately there's a lot of ripples about it in this forum. Now I am somewhat curious

 

Enlighten me here, as I don't know much about how Reddit & Subreddit works.

By my understanding from quick googling, a Subreddit owner is the person who first created it, this person becomes it's first moderator.

 

The person/organization/whatever the Subreddit was dedicated to can request a takeover of it to Reddit. If the takeover is successful, then the previous person is no longer a mod, unless the new boss decides to keep him/her as one.

 

Am I understanding it correctly so far ?

[Skipple]

Ah! So this is a topic I can speak somewhat accurately to as a 12 year veteran of Reddit and a moderator myself. 

 

So Reddit is the core platform made up solely of subreddits. All content is submitted into individual subreddits. They are denoted with an /r/ in the URL. (reddit.com/r/sub_reddit_name)  Subreddits are dedicated to separate topics, some of the broad (/r/pics or /r/funny), or some of the specific (/r/LinusTechTips). Each have their own set of rules, determined by the moderators, of what is and isn't allowed. 

 

You are correct, that a new subreddit can be created by anyone. The person who creates the subreddit is, by nature, the first moderator on the subreddit. As additional moderators are brought on board, they can by given specific permission levels. The person who created the subreddit is known as the "top level" moderator, and cannot be removed by other moderators, although the top level moderator can remove other moderators at their decression. 

 

Quote

The person/organization/whatever the Subreddit was dedicated to can request a takeover of it to Reddit.

Anyone can request a subreddit, but this is only granted on specific grounds. Either, the subreddit is unmoderated (all the moderators left the subreddit or are inactive on reddit) or the subreddit is under-moderated (the moderators aren't doing their job). I'm not aware of Reddit removing a subreddit from an active moderator group that's in good standing and giving it to the official group the topic is dedicated to. 

 

However, there have been cases where Reddit Admins have placed a moderator of their choosing into a subreddit. There are some fairly noteworthy example of this happening to very popular subreddits (millions of subscribers) where the moderators weren't acting in the way the Admins wished. There is speculation that this is done with political biases and is highly controversial on Reddit. 

 

It is the job of the moderator to ensure the community abides by Reddit's site-wide content policy. Other than that, the subreddit moderators get to enforce rules of their choosing within the subreddit. 

[Strobel]

It don't and never has for a very long time.

[Poinkachu]

24 minutes ago, Skipple said:

Ah! So this is a topic I can speak somewhat accurately to as a 12 year veteran of Reddit and a moderator myself. 

 

So Reddit is the core platform made up solely of subreddits. All content is submitted into individual subreddits. They are denoted with an /r/ in the URL. (reddit.com/r/sub_reddit_name)  Subreddits are dedicated to separate topics, some of the broad (/r/pics or /r/funny), or some of the specific (/r/LinusTechTips). Each have their own set of rules, determined by the moderators, of what is and isn't allowed. 

 

You are correct, that a new subreddit can be created by anyone. The person who creates the subreddit is, by nature, the first moderator on the subreddit. As additional moderators are brought on board, they can by given specific permission levels. The person who created the subreddit is known as the "top level" moderator, and cannot be removed by other moderators, although the top level moderator can remove other moderators at their decression. 

 

Anyone can request a subreddit, but this is only granted on specific grounds. Either, the subreddit is unmoderated (all the moderators left the subreddit or are inactive on reddit) or the subreddit is under-moderated (the moderators aren't doing their job). I'm not aware of Reddit removing a subreddit from an active moderator group that's in good standing and giving it to the official group the topic is dedicated to. 

 

However, there have been cases where Reddit Admins have placed a moderator of their choosing into a subreddit. There are some fairly noteworthy example of this happening to very popular subreddits (millions of subscribers) where the moderators weren't acting in the way the Admins wished. There is speculation that this is done with political biases and is highly controversial on Reddit.

Thanks for replynig.

 

Let's say "A" made LTT subreddit.
Can LTT request to take over the subreddit ?

Also, it means the Subreddit (even if its using let's say LTT for it's name) belongs to A and not LTT yes ?

Sorry if I seem slow on the uptake, it's 2:30AM here and I'm sleep deprived.

Just really curious as to why some people rage over what's currently happening as if the protest took down Reddit itself.

[Skipple]

9 minutes ago, Poinkachu said:

Let's say "A" made LTT subreddit.
Can LTT request to take over the subreddit ?
Also, it means the Subreddit (even if its using let's say LTT for it's name) belongs to A and not LTT yes ?

Typically, no LTT would not be able to take over the subreddit. The only way this would happen is if A was willing to give them control or if A was not moderating the subreddit appropriately (inactive or not in like with the content policy).

 

12 minutes ago, Poinkachu said:

Just really curious as to why some people rage over what's currently happening as if the protest took down Reddit itself.

It, to some effect, has. There was some very interesting data posted over on /r/DataisBeautiful. Depending on how you look at it, the protest removed around 40-50% of the content on Reddit for a period of time.

 

 

 

[NinJake]

If you'd like to educate yourself @Poinkachu and gain a bit more insight as to what is happening regarding this, check out these two articles (in chronological order):

 

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/06/reddits-plan-to-kill-third-party-apps-sparks-widespread-protests/  -article from the 5th

 

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/06/reddit-ceo-assures-employees-that-api-protests-havent-hurt-revenue/ -today's article

 

Check out some of the comments as well for other peoples' opinions.

[Poinkachu]

36 minutes ago, Skipple said:

Typically, no LTT would not be able to take over the subreddit. The only way this would happen is if A was willing to give them control or if A was not moderating the subreddit appropriately (inactive or not in like with the content policy).

 

It, to some effect, has. There was some very interesting data posted over on /r/DataisBeautiful. Depending on how you look at it, the protest removed around 40-50% of the content on Reddit for a period of time.

 

 

 

So basically, if LTT doesn't want a stranger deciding stuffs then LTT should've made one.

 

Yeah, I don't really get why still.
The... i don't know what should I call it. Base ?
Reddit is still there, nothing preventing people from accessing it & the reddit own's system is still working. Just that some subreddits are made private during protest.

I mean. I love this forum, and I would want to support it the best I can, even if it means not being able to access it for a few days.
Even if it's just because the Mods here are protesting for something that makes their volunteering work easier.

Especially since knowing human & internet, unmoderated place or inadequately moderated place tends to devolve into something like post-apocalyptic world.

 

 

@NinJake I know about the API and pricing story going on, not in full detail, but I know the gist of it.

I just can't get why some people rage over some not being able to access some subreddits due to the ongoing protest.

Since from what explained to me so far, Subreddits is like a free reading clubs in a big warehouse where people may come and go as they please, join whichever open to public club without being asked for membership money, and not threatened with a gun if they want to leave.

It's the club owner's right to make the group public or private.

 

I'm not sure the statement above still holds if the club(Subreddit) were dedicated to someone/organization/brand/whatever.

Although nothing preventing the said someone/organization/brand/whatever from making their own Subreddit.

 

 

I thank you for all the explanation and links where I can learn some stuffs so far.

 

edit : Could it be that some peoples raging due to not knowing how exactly Subreddits works ? Like, maybe they think Reddit made it and assigns people to mod, and these mods revolts. ?