Communities will be policed, one way or another. If an authority (like Reddit's administration) refuses to do it, then the community will do so itself, and likely in ways the authority, and perhaps even some community members, would rather not happen. This means the Reddit folks have a choice to make: they can police the userbase, or they can allow the community to do so, or they can ban one community policing measure after another until the community itself is no longer useful.
The first and second options have been successfully implemented, to varying degrees and sometimes with a measure of hybridization, in many communities. By refusing to punish miscreants but punishing those who would punish said miscreants, Reddit is currently on the third path, and that's not a practical place to be.
The first and second options have been successfully implemented, to varying degrees and sometimes with a measure of hybridization, in many communities. By refusing to punish miscreants but punishing those who would punish said miscreants, Reddit is currently on the third path, and that's not a practical place to be.