this post was submitted on 15 Jun 2023
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Difference here is, I don't rely on reddit for income and have nothing to lose. They do.
That's not really the point, though. A strike works because the strikers are willing to lose their pay to force action. If the strikers can be replaced, then the strikers lose.
What you're saying is true: the strikers in this case have nothing to lose.... except their partial control of Reddit. And Reddit will gladly take that from them.
Once the subs are reopened, any ongoing strike will amount to angry people with no power shouting into the void.
Can they really be replaced, though? There aren't an infinite number of people willing to do shitty internet janitorial work for free. You generally get two types of people to fill that role, those who are passionate about the subject and those who like having control.
The passionate ones are rare and special, they make a community good. They'll go away. The power-hungry ones might stick around. But they'll make the subs worse, and they're now serving at the whim of Reddit so they might not be so happy with that kind of "power" either. They could have so much more power - the power of the ~~gods~~ admins themselves - if they were to run their own instance on the Fediverse.
Reddit may find enough scabs to keep the lights on, but if this was really a cost-free solution to Reddit's problem they would have done it ages ago.
They can throw money at it until it works out. Mods do good things, but the bulk of the work is relatively mindless, and easy to outsource.
Money is the whole reason they're doing any of this, though. The more money this debacle costs them the worse it is for them. They just laid off 5% of their staff, and now they're going to have to hire paid moderators?
They might have to contract some janitors temporarily.
They can afford it. It will keep things running smoothly until volunteer mods are sourced.
Also, the reason they are shutting down third party apps is control. Bottom line is money, but indirectly. They want everyone using their app or their web interface so they can harvest the most data and sell the best ads.
My guess is, that theyβll wait as long as possible to pay mods. This would set a precedent for the whole platform.
can reddit actually afford to pay mods though? mods that can do the same level of work as the current, unpaid mods are doing right now?
if they cant then the strike/protest is successful
They wouldn't want to pay someone to run communities, the "thinking" work that moderators do.
They won't mind paying call-center-level employees/contractors to do the janitor work, the "unthinking" work, which is voluminous.
They only have to do it until more mods come on board.
And don't forget they already have a lot of mods from subs that didn't blackout at all, and likely some from subs that already reopened.
It will not be hard or too terribly expensive for them to keep things running well enough that the masses are placated.
You'd hate to see disgruntled former users fill the subs with trash and unhelpful information. That would take a lot of work to police and repair.
They can't be replaced in this case - unless Reddit wants to spend lots of $$$ hiring moderators. As long as they leave that power to community mods, it is impossible for them to stop this type of protest.
I do think there is a real possibility Reddit will consider this a long-term risk and replace them with paid mods.