Reddit Seizes Popular Subreddit That Dared Defy Its Iron Fist

They've followed through with their threats.

Unjust Desserts

While most subreddits have ended their protests against the social network's profiteering, the popular r/malefashionadvice has held out — and now, Reddit is punishing its mods by taking it over.

As The Verge reports, Reddit has seized control of the subreddit, which was until a few days ago still locked down in protest of changes to the site's API that will make it harder for third-party apps to access it.

With 5.4 million members, r/malefashionadvice was among the largest subreddits still protesting the site's ownership by keeping the community private. As The Verge noted last week, its moderators had begun suggesting that those members move to Discord after a Reddit employee told them they would be removed if they didn't reopen the forum.

It appears that now, as some of those mods told the tech news site, the company has followed through on that threat.

In interviews with The Verge, three of the subreddit's former mods said they were removed Thursday — a move that they'd been anticipating.

"We more or less have been expecting the removal for the past few days," one of the ex-mods, who goes by the name Walker, told the website.

In Moderation

As of publication, r/malefashionadvice has only one mod listed: the same administrator account that had purportedly contacted the now-removed mods, and which also is in control of several other formerly protesting subs. In a recent post, however, that administrator said that the subreddit is looking for new mods, which unsurprisingly led to some tongue-in-cheek quips.

"I, like many others here, love fashion," one user wrote. "Almost as much as I love to poop. It’s time consuming, like pooping. A good pair of jeans can feel almost as good as a nice morning poop. Hopefully one day, this sub can be moderated like a nice clean bathroom."

Another of the former mods who goes by the name Zach told The Verge that the pre-ousting drive towards the sub's Discord has apparently gained some traction, with users swelling from around 2,000 members to more than 5,000 in the last week.

"The community and regulars coming to the Discord have been, on the whole, courteous and good company," Walker, the other former mod, told The Verge.

While it's great that these men's fashion aficionados have another place to congregate, it's been altogether wild to watch this debacle unfold in real-time — and to see Reddit hold its line firm against its unpaid moderating force.

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