They did not provide a reason. There was no further dialog. I just got a system message telling me I was removed.
I was also silmultaniously shadow banned from Reddit and my posts and comments stopped showing up. I had created a post complaining about being removed as the moderator (the only moderator for over a decade) of a sub that I built from the ground up and donated literally thousands of volunteer hour to over the last 14 years. It had zero upvotes or downvotes or comments and was not visable as an anon user.
In the end, I decided to rip the bandaid off and killed my 16.5 year account. I was one of the early supporters of Reddit (user #7758) and had left Digg for good in May of 2007 after the AAC contraversy. They showed their authoritarian side in that moment and I knew Digg had reached their high water mark.
Reddit is at that moment now. They won’t be dead tomorrow. They won’t be dead next week. However, it will also never be the same, and it’s only downhill from here.
Much like Digg. Much like Myspace. I am sure there will be a blurb a few years from now as an addendum in some business journal how Reddit sold to a third party for an undisclosed sum and some Skittles…
The future is the Fediverse and I’m glad I was forced to remove my Reddit crutch and dive in full force.
The tonedeafness of this C-suite is remarkable. And like twitter, I’m stunned at how quickly they are steering the clown car off the cliff.
I liked twitter, despite its flaws. I liked reddit too–some of it was a swamp, but you could have your little island and mostly be ok. Like most tools they could be used for good or bad, and you could focus on the good.
But they flushed all of the good. What a really stupid plan.
The fact Spez has come out saying he admires Musk’s work at Twitter is insane. Once the third-party apps stop working it’s going to get a whole lot worse over there too.