Reddit intervenes and throws out moderators
No time right now?
The massive growth of the Wallstreetbets forum on Reddit has apparently called “bad actors” on the scene. The operator was now forced to remove a number of moderators from their function.
The Wallstreetbets forum on Reddit is considered to be an important control tool for the millions of Robinhood traders who meet there to develop and implement concerted investment strategies. The forum played the central role in the unprecedented small stock hype of the past week around Gamestop, AMC, Blackberry, Nokia and a few more.
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Moderators try to secure personal advantages
The public interest in the events and the actors who determine them has reached such proportions that a TV series and several films are already being planned. As is so often the case when it comes to attention, the increased interest has apparently also caused problems within the Wallstreetbets community.
As the New York Times reported, various Wallstreetbets moderators had exchanged views on how they could manage to get a film deal last Wednesday. Apparently a number of other moderators did not like this, who saw this as an attempt to enrich themselves personally from the success of the forum.
These critical moderators were then apparently systematically booted from Thursday, which did not go unnoticed in the community. On particularly successful forum post described the action as an attempted coup, in which moderators who were “known and loved” by the community were removed from their posts.
Reddit turns on, removes a significant number of moderators
At what point Reddit turned on as a platform is not entirely clear. In any case, the operator stopped the process and now removed those moderators who had participated in the “coup attempt”.
Reddit had referred to its moderator guidelines, which rather vaguely refer to “healthy communities” and demand a “stable and active team” of moderators.
Reddit didn’t explain how many moderators were removed. As The Verge reported, there are currently 28 left of a few dozen in the past few weeks. The operator felt it was his duty to act to remedy a recognized instability in the Wallstreetbets community.
Mashable the Reddits statement is available. Among other things, it says: “We know that our decisions today will excite many. From our point of view, however, it is an intervention that was unavoidable in order to preserve the Wallstreetbets community. “
Reset for moderator team, Discord also pulls the plug
The moderators cast by Reddit cannot be reappointed moderators. Those moderators who had previously been kicked out by the “bad actors” can, however, be reappointed moderators. According to Reddit, this is entirely up to the current team of moderators.
Reddit is not the only platform operator that has had to get involved in the Wallstreetbets phenomenon. Discord was also forced to intervene in the moderation authority of the Wallstreetbets server in the past week. The operator resorted to the hardest means, deleted the entire server because of “hate messages and discriminatory content”, but then helped set up a new server and supported the moderators.
