> You mean "volunteering to keep a community forum polite and productive".

Both of those things can be true.

The reality is those communities--which only thrive on Reddit because of effective moderation--are built on a private platform whose primary method of generating profits is to monetize the attention of those community members.

So, yes, those mods are absolutely contributing free labour that Reddit is turning into private profits, and that labour comes in the form of volunteering to keep those forums polite and productive. Whether or not that's a reasonable tradeoff is up to each individual, though I have to confess I don't personally understand it (despite, in the past, benefiting from it). At least my day job pays me for the labour that they monetize.

And now Reddit is taking a dump all over those free labourers by taking away critical tools that they use to make those forums polite and productive in the first place.

Thank you.

That's why I recommended putting "volunteering time" with actual non-profit orgs and groups, so that 100% of the labor goes to all. I didn't advocate "quit volunteering for a community", cause that's the wrong thing to advocate.

There's mastodon, Lemmy for 2. Discord isn't great, given earlier in the curve of monetization. Same for other for-profit areas. But again, I'd recommend finding communities in a not-profit-driven area and work there.

The for-profit side of things has the same death spirals. I'm just sick of this "web2" crap profiteering and killing useful community stuff.

I mod a technical sub focused on a FOSS project because it's a good place for people to seek advice and share cool tech. I'm doing it for the people, and I'm doing it because I care about the project. It's small though, only just hit 10K subs, and the moderation load is light, basically just ensuring any vendors who turn up actually contribute to the community, not just a drive-by sales blurb.

No one said you're doing it for Reddit. Most mods are doing it to support their community.

The point is Reddit is pocketing profits from you donating your free labour to the benefit of their private platform.

Dress it up however you like, that core fact remains true.

Yep. But then, I'm paying $0 to host a 10,000 strong community, so you know, swings and roundabouts.

This sounds like a bad way of saying things. If everyone agrees Reddit isn’t a great company then the optics of saying you pay nothing to host on a platform/company that isn’t that good doesn’t seem user focused etc.

The other persons rationale make perfect sense. Any one can justify anything they want as much as they want, profits still went to Reddit.

I stopped modding Reddit by 2019. My politics evolved. I didn’t think it made sense to provide Reddit with free labor.

I'm not providing my labour to Reddit, I'm providing it to the community of users.

Stop kidding yourself: You're providing it to both.

That's fine. You do you.

But it is what it is.

Life is not zero sum. You can structure an exchange so that both sides benefit. Many (most?) Reddit mods believe that was the setup, but it’s being lost now.

As is also the case with Twitter, for example.

Maybe the lesson, here, is that private platforms cannot and should not be seen as the "town square" or a place for "community", and that if you make that choice, you need to be ready to move if the platform turns in an unfavourable direction.

Of course, what we're seeing with things like Bluesky is that, unfortunately, for many, that lesson continues to remain unlearned.

I was a moderator for a fairly large subreddit (6 figures subscribers).

I was a moron doing free work for a for-profit company.

I deserved to be shat on.

That's fair, but that isn't how I felt.

I was the mod for a city subreddit for a while and while it was tiring, it was easy to do (especially with a medium sized group, each pitching in a little bit). Keep the spam and trolling down, and community engagement up. (Then I got banned for calling a spammer on a large message board a spammer).

Name an online community space that isn't a for-profit company, that more than a few hundred people could name.

Facebook Instagram Nextdoor Meetup Reddit

Whoops.

> Name an online community space that isn't a for-profit company, that more than a few hundred people could name.

I have nothing against for profit companies.

I am vehemently against of donating labor to for-profit companies. Especially when they will betray those that provided free labor when it becomes convenient.

Reddit proved me right.

Those are all pretty general platforms. A city community is a specific niche that could work anywhere including on its own.

Community building doesn’t have to be only picking one general social media mega platform to live off of.