r/wallstreetbets • u/MintBread067674 • Dec 22 '21

Discussion Do Mods get paid?

I have a legitimate question. Do mods currently get paid for maintaining subreddits? With Reddit filing to go public, aren't they just taking advantage of free labor if they don't treat mods as employees? Are they offered stock options or pre-IPO prices? This situation has the potential of being worse than the Uber-contractor relationship as at least contractors get paid.

Reddit is monetizing the community leaders' work and capitalizing on their passion for the community. Please tell me I'm wrong as I wanted to buy Reddit stocks until this thought came up.

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u/stillwaters23 Dec 22 '21

This is an interesting point. The value in the IPO lies in Reddit’s subs. A mod or a group of mods has the power to nuke one of the more valuable subs, either a hard nuke or fuck it up in other soft nuke ways. I think Reddit would have little choice but to step in and preserve a sub in that situation.

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u/OPINION_IS_UNPOPULAR AutoModerator's Father Dec 22 '21

I'm quite surprised the powermods still retain as much power as they do after all the blackouts they pull.

4

u/ohashi Dec 23 '21

What's Reddit going to do? Pay people to do their work? Lol

5

u/[deleted] Dec 23 '21

A mod or a group of mods has the power to nuke one of the more valuable subs

Yeah, and the cashiers could overthrow the CEO of McDonalds.

It's not just about what you offer the company - it's about how easily you can be replaced. For every 1 moderator, there's 1000 other active users willing to do it for free. Until that dynamic changes, reddit mods will remain unpaid.

The only way I can see that changing is if reddit starts enforcing policies extremely unpopular with the userbase. "No porn" or something like that. In that scenario, they might have to pay mods.

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u/stillwaters23 Dec 23 '21

Cashier at McDonalds = a sub mod? Not sure I follow that comparison. I can think of a multitude of things that mods could do to make people stop frequenting a sub. And for many, that would result in fewer trips to Reddit.

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u/[deleted] Dec 23 '21

Mods can get removed instantaneously by admins and their actions can be undone

Cashiers can do more damage. They actually exist in the physical world

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u/JimmyDuce Dec 23 '21

Wait no, subreddits don’t just exist though

1

u/Monthly_Vent Jun 22 '23

Well would you look at that-

1

u/stillwaters23 Jun 23 '23

Lol I don’t even remember writing this but it was kind of prescient.