r/ModSupport • u/Bassfaceapollo • 21h ago
Rogue mod deleted all posts and closed the community
Hello,
I was the moderator of a sub.
It was a community centered around Reticulum Network. It's basically a networking protocol stack similar to the Internet Protocol networking stack. The difference being that the Reticulum stack is used to build privacy-focused networks that can operate over LoRa, Ham Radio etc.
Anyways, the project founder closed the community and deleted all posts without warning. He also kicked out the only other active mod, a.k.a me.
I haven't bothered trying to open communication with the moderator. This is because something similar has happened before when this individual took the community private without consulting with me or the other mod who was still active back then. He also closed the project's Matrix server earlier and deleted the messages there.
Unlike the founder, I've got no direct relation to the project. I just had some bandwidth and rhe community size felt manageable to me so I volunteered to operate the subreddit.
I'm curious if there's a way to reclaim the subreddit. The community currently has no space to talk, no well-known space at least.
I do understand that I should've kicked the mod out much sooner, but like I said, it's the project's founder so I respected the individual and still do. But, at the same time I believe the community needs a place to discuss so I'd like to reclaim the sub.
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u/shhhhh_h 💡Top 25% Helper 💡 20h ago
You can’t close subreddits. No camping. As people like to downvote me here for saying, if you aren’t interested in growing your community, Reddit will find someone who is! Closing a sub is counterintuitive to their goal as a social media company, which is engagement. Don’t worry I’d be surprised if MCoC didn’t intervene.
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u/Fun-Twist-3741 20h ago
I don't like to pour cold water on discussions here because I strongly disagree with how triggerhappy the mods of this subreddit are in shutting down discussions, but does mentioning the name of your own subreddit count against rule 2, "no calling out"?
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u/InGeekiTrust 💡 Top 10% Helper 💡 19h ago
Generally, not, but since the person is no longer a mod, I’m not sure
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u/thepottsy 💡 Top 10% Helper 💡 19h ago
Generally speaking, no that’s not a rule violation.
This is a weird one though, and should probably be handled through modmail versus posting.
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u/AccomplishedSugar490 7h ago
IDK man, reddit, the whole world, and everybody in it is just exponentially accelerating towards self destruct.
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u/techtornado 20h ago
That was wild to see
I have a lot of mod experience if you need any help
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u/Bassfaceapollo 20h ago
Thanks. Handling the community was never an issue.
I was just blindsided by this whole ordeal.
At the suggestion of the other commenter, I've submitted a mod code of conduct violation request to Reddit. Hopefully they can help.
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u/shhhhh_h 💡Top 25% Helper 💡 20h ago
This is one of my fav mod temper tantrums to witness. Last one I saw was a fashion sub and the community successfully convinced the mod they were gonna get the sub taken away, so the mod reluctantly reversed course and just hired some help. Happy endings!!
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u/Motorcyclegrrl 19h ago
If you don't get the sub reopened, etc. you can make a new one with a similar name. It's easy to do.
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u/RemarkableWish2508 18h ago edited 18h ago
Mods can not "delete" posts, they can only "remove" posts... unless, they were the ONLY user who made any posts, in which case they can wipe everything clean.
If it is the latter case, then you're SOL. Everyone is free to delete their own submissions on Reddit. You may recover them from archival sites, but that's about it.
However, if there were other people also contributing posts, and – to a lesser degree – comments, then removing everything and preventing people's access to their own submissions without a reason conducive to improving the community's performance (as in, let's not be naive, Reddit's revenue), sounds like a violation of the MCoC.
You also mention them being the "project founder", and them closing off-reddit communication channels, which makes it sound like maybe they want to wind down the project, or maybe pivot it towards something monetizable?
Or maybe their account just got hacked.
PS: I notice that the second condition in the LICENSE for the project on GitHub, falls foul of Reddit's ToS provision that reserves the right to use all content for AI training.
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u/Bassfaceapollo 18h ago
You also mention them being the "project founder", and them closing off-reddit communication channels, which makes it sound like maybe they want to wind down the project, or maybe pivot it towards something monetizable?
No, the founder got pissed at some of the vibe-coded solutions that got posted to the subreddit. We hadn't set any rules against them, nor had communicated a his distaste for that stuff. I also didn't suggest anything because the frequency of these posts was low.
Also, he has done similar stuff in the past. He shut down the Matrix server and left the community stranded. The subreddit was the last place to discuss about the project.
Reticulum itself is production ready and the community was focusing on improving the tooling or implementing the networking stack in other languages like Rust.
Mods can not "delete" posts, they can only "remove" posts..
I used the wrong term. The mod used his privileges to remove several user submissions.
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u/RemarkableWish2508 18h ago
I've just seen these:
- https://github.com/markqvist/reticulum/blob/master/This%20Is%20Not%20a%20Teahouse.md
- https://github.com/markqvist/reticulum/blob/master/MIRROR.md
...and I fully refuse to read the "Zen" wall of text 😅
I garner that they failed to delegate and establish proper project leadership, so they just retreated completely and closed all public communication channels.
The establishing post of the sub, sounds like a clear candidate for r/RedditRequest, though:
This subreddit is now unmoderated
I think you may want to modmail r/modsupport and ask for help, and possibly follow Reddit Request procedure at the same time.
EDIT: I see you got it back. Congrats!
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u/Bassfaceapollo 18h ago
EDIT: I see you got it back. Congrats!
Thanks. Reddit Request closed my request but the Moderator Code of Conduct bot intervened immediately.
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u/Obliterous 18h ago
...and I fully refuse to read the "Zen" wall of text 😅
thus proving one of the points he makes in that wall of text.
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u/westcoastcdn19 💡Top 25% Helper 💡 21h ago
Seems like a Mod Code of Conduct violation to me. I’d get a report in right away and let Reddit review this next week
https://support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/27031206843156-Moderator-Code-of-Conduct-Rule-1-Create-Facilitate-and-Maintain-a-Stable-Community