Reddit is using the same approach as Apollo: basing their business on a free resource.

For Apollo it was the api (for which they were willing to pay if the price was fair)

For Reddit is free labour and content, which they still want for free

Not for free. They want you to pay for it by having a premium account or whatever they're doing.

They want you to submit content, moderate the content, rate the content, consume the content, censor the content, filter the content that doesn't make money. And on top of that, you have to pay them for an optimal experience.

And so many people are actually doing it. I honestly don't get it. What the fuck?

They are allegedly already starting. For example, r/AdviceAnimals is now back and they have deleted the blackout post. Plus the old lead moderator is gone. My understanding is that removing a lead moderator requires reddit admin action.

While I don't have a ton of faith in Reddit power-mods, my HOPE is that there would be enough solidarity amongst the mods to make finding replacements difficult and I can't imagine investors would be happy to see leadership excising a potentially significant percentage of their current volunteer labour force.

You can always replace mods, especially if Reddit pays the new mods.

How does that square with Reddit's profit-seeking goals? Reddit isn't profitable when operating with an army of unpaid volunteer mods. I find it hard to believe they'd actually invest in proper moderation.

I think the biggest problem with employing moderators isn't the cost, but that it now makes reddit liable for the moderation failures.

I agree. If the subreddits remain closed indefinitely, I think the only options are forceful removal of the holdout moderators for the largest subs, or, and this seems somewhat unlikely, a shake up at the company. I don't think it'll save the situation, but I could see the brass removing spez if that means it would all be over.

I completely support Reddit doing this in some cases. Mods have no right to hold my city’s sub hostage indefinitely without consulting the community. If they don’t want to mod, that’s there right, but namesquatting is not. Not the city I live in now, but I imagine support would be about the same as r/NewOrleans for an indefinite blackout (non-existent).

https://www.reddit.com/r/NewOrleans/comments/1491zmn/moving_...

And this, boys and girls, is what a scab looks and sounds like.

I was thinking about this too... this seems to be the most likely end game. The best way for the company to 'handle trouble makers'. They will definitely lose some users but enough should come back to hold the popular subs up. I mean, really, if you asked me who the mods of the subs I frequent were, well... I do not know.