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> but it's an extreme form of selfishness to demand that someone else sacrifice earnings to provide perpetual unfettered platform access to things that were put on the platform of posters' own accord without coercion.

In that same sentence you highlight why it's not selfish. Reddit wants content and moderation, they're not paying shit for it. It's only a fair trade for people to keep their tools and clients in exchange.

I've said this before but yea, Reddit can do both all by themselves as well. Not sure how profitable that'd be though.




> Reddit wants content and moderation

Reddit benefits from content moderation, but reddit didn't make any mods be mods. Mods did that to themselves entirely on their own.

> they're not paying shit for it.

This is a nonsequitur. Reddit doesn't need to pay anything for the mods to experience compensation. The compensation that the mods get is having the subreddits be moderated in the way they want. It's possible (and unknowable) that, if mod were a position compensated in other ways, there would be fewer complaints about power tripping, but that's neither here nor there. Mods are already compensated by having exactly what they became mods for in the first place, moderated subreddits.

> It's only a fair trade for people to

It's the opposite of fair to expect payment for doing something that nobody asked you to do. If I come and mow your lawn because looking at a mowed lawn makes me happier, you don't owe me shit. I have already received my reward.


> Mods are already compensated by having exactly what they became mods for in the first place, moderated subreddits.

Basically. And now that Reddit takes that away from I don't know how many, what motivation or incentives does it leave for both current and future ones? Sense of duty (LOL)?


Reddit didn't take it away from them. They decided to stop. People were moderating subreddits looong before any of these apps were available.

And it's fine that they decided to stop. People have to move on from things eventually when they decide that they no longer feel sufficiently rewarded.

I could likewise not mow your lawn anymore. I don't owe you the mowing any more than you owe me payment for mowing that I did for myself at the time. You might have come to rather enjoy having a mowed lawn, though, so maybe when I stop you'll hire someone else to do it for more than it would have taken to keep me doing it. But that's at most a miscalculation.




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