The change prevents subreddits from abruptly going ‘darkish’ – an motion beforehand utilized by subreddit moderators to protest firm selections.
Social media discussion board Reddit has up to date its guidelines in an effort to stop giant subreddit communities from switching to non-public with out warning.
Any longer, Reddit moderators must submit a request in an effort to replace a subreddit’s group sort settings.
This is applicable to altering a subreddit from public to non-public or restricted, or vice versa. It additionally applies to altering communities from secure for work (SFW) or observe secure for work (NSFW).
Requests will mechanically be accepted for communities with fewer than 5,000 members or communities which can be lower than 30 days previous. Moderators may even nonetheless be capable to immediately limit posts or feedback for seven days with out submitting a request.
“When a public group goes personal, all redditors (even members of that group) lose entry to the group and its content material,” mentioned Laura Nestler, Reddit’s VP or group in a put up on Reddit.
“Communities ought to honour the expectations they set – public communities ought to stay accessible to all; personal communities ought to stay personal.”
Nestler additionally outlined circumstances through which a group might have to alter its sort settings, through which case mechanisms are in place to take action.
These embody episodic occasions the place a group could also be restricted for a couple of hours throughout a reside occasion, a disaster or security problem or moderators eager to take an indefinite break.
Beforehand, the power to alter the group sort setting at will has been a means of protesting Reddit’s selections.
Final yr, hundreds of subreddits went ‘darkish’ in an effort to protest Reddit’s plans monetise entry to its APIs – a transfer that was criticised by builders and reddit customers.
In a bid to handle “the elephant within the room”, Nestler mentioned protests are allowed on Reddit, however not on the expense of public communities.
“We need to hear from you whenever you assume Reddit is making selections that aren’t in your communities’ greatest pursuits. But when a protest crosses the road into harming redditors and Reddit, we’ll step in.”
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