Huffman has said, “We are not in the business of giving that [Reddit’s content] away for free.” That stance makes sense. But it also ignores the reality that all of Reddit’s content has been given to it for free by its millions of users. Further, it leaves aside the fact that the content has been orchestrated by its thousands of volunteer moderators.
touché
I don’t think the loss of moderators will be a huge problem. I suspect mods actually drove people away from Reddit rather than retaining them.
What is an existential threat for Reddit is the emergence of competing platforms.
Have you ever visited an unmoderated sub? Without moderators, reddit would turn to shit instantly.
Moderators are just users of reddit. Reddit keeps trying to drive a wedge between users and mods, but really the problem mods were always the powermods that reddit supported and often installed on major subreddits.
As usual, the problem is class. Mods are middle class, users are working class. These two groups can easily get along just fine. It’s the rulers (admin) and upper class (mods) who cause all the problems in reddit society.