Reddit is built around its communities. It’s a platform where the power rests with the people.
The so-called "front page of the internet" has what it calls moderators, which are essentially volunteer users who manage and oversee specific subreddits (individual communities on Reddit). Part of their role, include enforcing rules, managing content, moderating discussions, and customizing the subreddit they control.
This time, Reddit starts to think that moderators simply have too much privilege.
Because of this, the popular forum social network is giving its own staff a step up in control, in order to give hem a lot more power over the communities on its platform.
In an update, Reddit said that moderators shall not longer be able to change if their subreddit is public or private without first submitting a request to a Reddit admin.
The policy applies to adjusting all community types, meaning that moderators should to request to make a switch from safe for work to not safe for work, too.
The move is response to what had happened back in 2023, when thousands of subreddits went private as part of a sitewide protest.
At the time, Reddit's API pricing changes forced certain apps and communities to shut down. In response, moderators took their subreddits dark by making them private. This action made the communities inaccessible to the public, reducing the platform’s usability and cutting into Reddit's revenue.
Going private was an effective protest strategy, drawing attention and raising awareness.
More than a year later, Reddit has largely returned to normal. However, the company has learned from the protests and is keen to avoid future disruptions.
By now requiring admin approval to switch subreddits from public to private of from normal to NSFW, Reddit is shifting power away from community moderators and back to its own staff.
"The ability to instantly change Community Type settings has been used to break the platform and violate our rules," said Reddit VP of community Laura Nestler, who goes by the username Go_JasonWaterfalls on the platform, in a post on r/modnews.
"We have a responsibility to protect Reddit and ensure its long-term health, and we cannot allow actions that deliberately cause harm."
"While we are making this change to ensure users’ expectations regarding a community’s access do not suddenly change, protest is allowed on Reddit," continued Nestler.
Reddit explained that it will review each and every request moderators make to make communities private or NSFW within 24 hours. For smaller or newer communities, which are those with less than 5,000 members or less than 30 days old, requests will be approved automatically.
And if a community wants to temporarily restrict posts or comments for up to seven days, which might be useful for a sudden influx of traffic or when mod teams want to take a break, they can do so without approval with the “temporary events” feature.
Reddit is all ears when people think it's making the wrong decision. But "if a protest crosses the line into harming redditors and Reddit, we’ll step in," Nestler said.
Nestler added that the change is "needed to keep communities accessible. That’s why we’re doing this."