Hey fellow Cavs fans,
As I’m sure most of you are aware, Reddit recently announced a number of changes to its API pricing that caused quite the stir around the site. These changes have effectively killed a number of incredible third-party apps that many of us (including myself) rely on to use this site on a day-to-day basis.
As frustrating as that is, the worst part for me has been Reddit CEO Steve Huffman’s (aka u/spez) utter disregard and disdain for the volunteer moderators that have made his site what it is today. On numerous occasions throughout the “Reddit blackout,” Steve referred to moderators with derogatory terms like “[landed gentry](https://gizmodo.com/reddit-ceo-steve-huffman-moderators-landed-gentry-1850546737)” and [compared us to an aristocracy](https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/06/16/reddit-ceo-blackout-moderators-steve-huffman/). This was followed with several rounds of [thinly-veiled threats](https://old.reddit.com/r/ModCoord/comments/14kllmw/umodcodeofconduct_is_sending_out_you_have_48/) by the admins for subs that remained closed.
The simple fact of the matter that Steve seems to be unaware of is that without his **volunteer** moderators, Reddit wouldn’t function (by contrast, Facebook [spends $500 million a year on community moderation](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/31/technology/facebook-accenture-content-moderation.html)). Speaking from my own personal perspective, I’ve poured countless hours into this subreddit over the past 7+ years I’ve been a mod here.
I would never think of asking Reddit to pay me for my efforts. I became a mod here because I truly love this community and I’m passionate about making it the best forum on the internet to discuss Cleveland Cavaliers basketball (which I believe it is). But what I do ask for, is a bit of respect.
Over the past several weeks, Reddit has eroded away every last bit of trust between its longtime moderators and the admins. I feel as though Steve Huffman and the rest of the admins have no respect for me or my fellow moderators. With this in mind, I can no longer, in good conscience, continue to moderate here. So, **effective June 30, I will be stepping down as a mod of /r/clevelandcavs and deleting my account** and all of its history.
I just wanted to take this time to thank every single member of this subreddit for helping build it into the best Cavs community on the internet. It’s been an incredible run these past 9 years. We were a dumpster fire when I first joined, then LeBron came back. We won a title in historic fashion. We fell to the pits again and rose once more from the ashes.
I can’t believe it’s come to this, but it is what it is. I love this community with all of my heart and will be sad to leave it behind. My fellow mods here are an incredible group. This community is an incredible place. Please keep it up in my stead (but also use adblockers like [Ublock Origin](https://ublockorigin.com/) so that Reddit doesn’t benefit from serving you ads and taking advantage of your data).
It’s been a great run, everyone. Keep up the great work — and most importantly, GO CAVS!
Much love,
nickyv23
by nickyv23
3 Comments
FUCK YOU u/spez!!
Man I don’t get this stuff with Reddit. We are here to talk about basketball and I don’t see what it all has to do with respect and the rules and the honor of being a mod. I don’t see why mods take it so personally that a CEO is greedy and wants to make a business decision that will make them huge money and change how the forum works. If you give up then he wins and you never even communicated with the guy so I don’t see how it’s this affront to who you are or your honor or whatever.
It sucks that third party apps are going away and all, but at the end of the day Reddit is a website trying to make its money and increase its value so obviously they’re going to do that kind of stuff. Every mod that leaves will be replaced and the site will go on exactly as the higher ups hoped it would. With tumblr the protests worked bc everybody just stopped using the apps, but so many people are addicted to and dependent on Reddit that rn that’s not gonna happen. And those changes were to the average user experience which I feel like reddits changes aren’t. Changes are drastic for mods using third party but to any regular user who funds Reddit through their ad revenue isn’t going anywhere so mods leaving is just for themselves bc they feel burned by a guy that never gave a fuck about them.
You’re dying on a sword they hoped you would so they can make more money and have an easier job going forward. I’m glad you were a mod and grateful for your efforts bc I love this community but this just seems like a weird cause to me. I hope I’m missing something here
Just use the app 😂