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.
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.
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.
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.
