I saw this and went to check - in the few subs i confirmed, they are not top mods. Top mods have the actual power, to assume that they are setting the agenda for every sub by being the 14th mod out of 28, or the 9th and so on is impossible, given how fractious moderating teams can be.
Drama is leaking into HN without anyone doing a sanity check on the claims.
This is the most important comment on this page. The reasons for this are varied, but it's pretty obvious that cultural changes have occurred on HN during this pandemic.
Right now, criticizing any of the “default mods” will get you banned, making any post like the one I referenced will be deleted, Reddit is engaging in censorship like they never have before.
Take a look at r/WatchRedditDie/ and tell me how it’s nothing.
That’s not even new.
That is also moving the goal posts- exactly the kind of stuff you see on Reddit and not on HN.
The point was about the claim- ‘ 5 people “controlling Reddit” ‘ and how it’s been absorbed and discussed without reflection.
Not about default mods banning people for meta drama.
92 of the top 500 subs are controlled by 5 people. [0]
Yesterday this post was locked, and so many of the comments were removed by mods with no self-aware irony at all - I just checked and saw very few [REMOVED] posts, I think they removed the evidence they removed them - crazy. Check ceddit.
Two mods, Cyxie and AwkwardTheTurtle moderate 1196 subreddits. They have more control over content on reddit than Sinclair Media has over news stations.
[0] https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/fko21a/9...