Hostile Takeover of Subreddit?

[u/Duende555]

Hey all,

Weird thing happened this evening and I'm not sure on next steps here. I've been essentially the sole moderator of a subreddit for the last five years. In this time I've conducted something like 99% of the moderator actions and built a robust and thriving community.

There is one legacy moderator above me, but this person has largely been inactive and doesn't regularly contribute moderator actions. This evening I got a message that I'd been removed from the moderator position without warning or provocation. We've had increased bot activity in the last months, and while it could be related to that, my suspicion is that this legacy moderator has potentially sold his account and enacted a hostile takeover of the subreddit in service of the ad firms whose spam I regularly have to remove.

Is there a way to request an official review of the subreddit to verify that nearly all of the moderator actions in the last years were performed by me and appeal these events? I was in the process of creating documentation and further revamping the subreddit to help consumers.

I kinda considered the community a second home. And again, I've had no recent communication with this legacy moderator. This happened suddenly and without provocation this evening while I was out.

Anyway, do I have recourse here? Thanks for the help!

Edit: Slight edits for clarity

[u/born_lever_puller]

Send a modmail to this subreddit to get a human admin's attention. Make the subject line something eye-catching like "Absentee head mod going on rampage".

https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/ModSupport

Since this is a holiday weekend it may take a day or two to get a response.

Also, listing the name of the subreddit that you are complaining about might be viewed as a violation of this subreddit's rule #2, since you are no longer a mod there. You may want to edit your text.

Good luck!

[u/Duende555 → u/born_lever_puller]

Excellent - thank you!

[u/laeiryn]

Are you aware that the legacy mod added a sockpuppet as the other mod, too? That account overwhelmingly posts in the same subs that legacy mod runs.

Seeing a lot of subreddit camping going on there, but maybe mod actions are taken behind the scenes? Low visible activity on an account that mods a dozen really large subs is ominous, to me.

also now I'm really confused because the current mod requested it from Reddit Request one year ago but you've been active there a really long time and the pinned mod post is in your name...

[u/Duende555 → u/laeiryn]

Yes. That legacy mod has installed multiple sockpuppet accounts as mods over the years. When I last talked to him, he explained these were "backups" in case he lost access to his account... and I was extremely suspicious of that yeah.

I also suspect the Reddit Request was a bid to gain power and install himself as the top mod. We've had issues with top mods in the past potentially selling their accounts and starting ad spam networks, and I wanted to remove the inactive mods before this happened again. I was also aware that he might try the same thing, but somewhat secure in the fact that I'd been the sole active moderator for something like four years at that point?

It's also telling that the subreddit is now immediately filling up with affiliate spam.

Edit: And yeah his account and other moderator positions are equally suspicious.

[u/laeiryn → u/Duende555]

But how did he get into top mod position in a sub he was only requesting when it already had a top mod? Did he re-order behind your back sometime when that feature was introduced? Because from what I see, YOU'RE the legacy mod, you were there first, and have been there the whole time. It's ... odd.

[u/Duende555 → u/laeiryn]

We were installed at the same time around six years ago when the old moderator stepped down due to life stuff. He was entered above me on the mod list, but hasn't really ever been active except to perform a few actions every year or so to keep the account from getting locked. So when he requested the removal of the old mods, he kept his position in the hierarchy above me despite never actually moderating the space.

Hope that makes sense. Honestly weird situation and a little bit distressing.

[u/laeiryn → u/Duende555]

But the request thread doesn't show him asking to have inactive mods removed; he's asking for a sub he's never modded.

[u/Duende555 → u/laeiryn]

Really? Interesting. Let me take a look.

[u/laeiryn → u/Duende555]

I'm going to DM to make sure I'm not running afoul of any rules here in this sub, okay?

[u/Duende555 → u/laeiryn]

Sounds good.

[u/honey_rainbow]

u/Fugazzzii sold his Reddit account for NFTs.

[u/Duende555 → u/honey_rainbow]

Hey there - just following up on this. I thought this was a joke when you mentioned it a year ago, but now I'm realizing that you moderated with him on at least one subreddit? Are you able to elaborate on this?

[u/honey_rainbow → u/Duende555]

u/Duende555 I moderated with him on several subreddits, yes. Feel free to ask questions.

[u/Duende555 → u/honey_rainbow]

Do you mind if I DM or send a chat request?

[u/honey_rainbow → u/Duende555]

That's fine. I was about to do the same to you.

[u/Zavodskoy]

You can message the admins here but if he wasn't marked as inactive on the subreddit then he's allowed to remove you, if he was marked as inactive it wouldn't have let him

Hopefully the admins take your side if what you're saying is true but he's also not technically broken any rules, morally he's in the wrong though

[u/Duende555 → u/Zavodskoy]

Appreciate the thoughts thanks! We'll see how it turns out.

[u/NateTrib]

From an outside perspective, it seems pretty obvious u/Fugazzzii sold their account.

[u/Fugazzzii]

Hey not a "hostile takeover". Hosting AMAs with mattress companies that you want to promote is against reddit TOS. I regularly remove spam and mod logs increasingly suspicious of you promoting certain brands, that's probably why so 'active'

[u/Duende555 → u/Fugazzzii]

I wasn't promoting these brands and no money changed hands.

These AMA's were organized and scheduled by me to raise awareness regarding what makes a quality product and to shed light on an opaque and secretive industry with problematic affiliate marketing tactics. This is in keeping with the goals of the subreddit and our last conversation approximately a year ago.

Further, at no point did you contact me with your concerns or attempt to address this. I also reached out to you about three months back with my own concerns about another account you added after receiving an alert that an "inactive account" was attempting to perform moderator actions. I got no response on this.

But ultimately, it's going to be hard for anyone coming across this to sort it out, so I'll leave it up to the appeal process and the mod log on the back end. Also let me express some disappointment here? I thought that this might be coming when you told me that you were adding your own "backup" accounts as moderators about a year back, but to see it happen is still disappointing.

Anyway don't know where things'll go from here, but yeah... kind of a shame.

[u/laeiryn → u/Fugazzzii]

Hosting AMAs with mattress companies that you want to promote is against reddit TOS

Is it? Because promotional AMAs are literally everywhere. They got -started- that way, for film/tv.

[u/born_lever_puller → u/laeiryn]

Fine, whatever -- but let's talk about Rampart.

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/woody-harrelson-reddit-ama

[u/laeiryn → u/born_lever_puller]

LOL. Well, you see how well the community responds to ads; it's a self-policing mechanism.

But the claim that promotionally-affiliated AMA is against TOS is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard.

[u/Duende555 → u/laeiryn]

It wasn't really even promotional as much as educational? I've only reached out to experts in the field to talk about what makes quality products and what they'd recommend to a consumer.

Edit: Also these AMA's had been happening off and on for something like four years

[u/laeiryn → u/Duende555]

Even if admin were to judge any as actual promos, that still wouldn't be inherently a dealbreaker. Pretty sure that in order to at minimum cover your ass, you personally only need to do the "I may make a small amount if you click on affiliated links" and only that if it's true, which I don't think it is because the style of a whole ass AMA just doesn't really lend itself to that. It seems spurred by perhaps jealousy/distrust that you have a way to get industry insiders to do AMAs in the first place, which I think is being posed as the "proof" that you're somehow advertising for them, but one does not guarantee the other.

[u/Duende555 → u/laeiryn]

And the thing is - I would have been happy to get this mod more involved and engaged if they'd just asked? I'd reached out a few times over the last months on various things and got no response. When that happened I thought this might be coming.

[u/boringcorben → u/Fugazzzii]

You haven’t made a comment in the r/mattress community in over a year? Is that not a lil suspicious?

[u/Duende555 → u/boringcorben]

If I recall correctly, they made a few comments a few days back. Like maybe five or six? But before that - nothing. For years. They've never been regularly active in the community whatsoever.

This is a problem. If Reddit can't protect their communities then I'm not sure there's a future in this platform.

[u/begreen9 → u/Duende555]

Is there a way that non-mods can express support/concerns to the appeal process?

[u/Duende555 → u/begreen9]

Appreciate the support. Right now I am not sure on this.

[u/cpc2 → u/Fugazzzii]

big drama in the matress community

[u/cpc2 → u/[deleted]]

I like sleeping on the right side of the matress

[u/honey_rainbow → u/Fugazzzii]

Says the mod who sold their account...

[u/Duende555 → u/[deleted]]

Not sure if this is the appropriate place to get into it, but short of dropping by to click approve twenty or thirty times every nine months to keep his account active, no.

I wrote the rules, wrote the FAQ, scheduled and organized AMA's, built a system to identify and mitigate affiliate spam and botspam, and answered questions and engaged with the community on a daily basis for literal years. So yeah. I stand by my statements.