Concerns of Redditor safety, jeopardized research amid new mods and API rules.

Did you know that improper food canning can lead to death? Botulism—the result of bacteria growing inside improperly treated canned goods—is rare, but people can die from it. In any case, they’ll certainly get very ill.

The dangers of food canning were explained to me clearly, succinctly, and with cited sources by Brad Barclay and someone going by Dromio05 on Reddit (who asked to withhold their real name for privacy reasons). Both were recently moderators on the r/canning subreddit and hold science-related master’s degrees.

Yet Reddit removed both moderators from their positions this summer because Reddit said they violated its Moderator Code of Conduct. Mods had refused to end r/canning’s protest against Reddit and its new API fees; the protest had made the entire subreddit “read only.” Now, the ousted mods fear that r/canning could become subject to unsafe advice that goes unnoticed by new moderators. “My biggest fear with all this is that someone will follow an unsafe recipe posted on the sub and get badly sick or killed by it,” Dromio05 told me.

Reddit’s infamous API changes have ushered in a new era for the site, and there are still questions about what this next chapter will look like. Ars Technica spoke with several former mods that Reddit booted—and one who was recently appointed by Reddit—about concerns that relying on replacement mods with limited subject matter expertise could result in the spread of dangerous misinformation.

  • 0110010001100010@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I was a mod on /r/homeautomation, probably should have clarified that (though it’s in the article). I was a mod there for some 7 years and dedicated many hours to helping people get into the hobby. It was a huge passion of mine after I bought my first house.

    But you are right, it was 100% a thankless role. The trolls at times can be especially…tiring but I loved the community and it was all worth it. I can only hope I set at least a few people on a path of a new passion.

    I truly, truly appreciate your kind words though. It means a lot as thanks are few and far between while modding. Mostly we just got yelled at for “censorship” when someone was banned for being an ass or totally off-topic.