• NuclearDolphin@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Notice that they circumvented democratic decision-making between moderation teams to force subreddits open. 1/10 mods wants it open = open. Why would they not do the same here with users, whom they respect even less?

    I suspect they will do one or more of the following:

    • selectively honor results based on when the users of subreddits opt to open them.
    • never open voting in subreddits where mods choose to open the subreddit
    • set voting window to align more closely with timezones with demographics that will favor opening.
    • use their powers from hosting the platform to fuck with results (i.e. voting only working from new reddit or official app, shadowbans, fucking with login/voting of anyone who has posted the word “lemmy”, etc.)
    • All of the above.

    This should be a lesson on how corporations embrace democracy within a system that they ultimately control to let people believe they have some form of self-determination.

    EDIT: Markdown formatting

    • NaN@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      Honestly, they’re just using the democracy thing to look like the good guys. But employees have already been quoted saying “we’ll force reopen subreddits if we have to, to save the company.” They seem to believe that’s justified. Plus, who is gonna vote against reopening? The users still active didn’t care enough to boycott or switch platforms, so the majority of active users probably do want to reopen. So I doubt they’d mess with results; most votes will be in their favor, and their rationalization for using force will resonate with the remaining users.