I run a moderatly successful Subreddit (~200.000 subscribers), but I want to stop. I have no interest in moderating it anymore, but Reddit as a company has totally made it clear that it is viewing subreddits as its own property:

  • As far as I know I can’t take a subreddit of this size private anymore
  • If I just stop moderating, people still can post and will post problematic content that I don’t want to see online
  • If i stop moderating, somebody else can “claim” the sub and will be the new moderator, which I also don’t want

Does anybody here have experience in stopping a subreddit that doesn’t lead to Reddit just placing new people in control? I’ve already removed the option for the sub to be recommended to users and for it to be shown in “high traffic feeds” (which always led to nazi showing up btw), but I also was thinking about a way to restrict who can post or to set extreme high karma requirements for posts. Or are there any other options?

    • BilboBargains@lemmy.world
      1·
      2 days ago

      Self post obfuscated links and references to Lemmy.

      Make it enough of a challenge that only the curious users are sufficiently motivated.

      ???

      Profit.

  • letsgo@lemm.eeEnglish
    1·
    3 days ago

    Your requirements appear to be contradictory. You want to kill it, i.e. not see it any more, and you want to stop moderating it, but you don’t want anyone else to moderate it.

    So stop moderating it, and block it. It’s not up to you to tell 200,000 people that they can’t continue to have a community; doing so makes you appear to be acting as some kind of landed gentry. Just walk away and don’t look back.

  • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
    0·
    3 days ago

    Just walk away, let it crumble, and accept the time and effort you put in are a sunk cost.

    Perhaps make a pinned post saying what’s happening and why, a plug for the Fediverse, and leave.

    • shneancy@lemmy.world
      1·
      2 days ago

      an overt plug for the fediverse will be removed though, reddit is actively censoring anyone saying positive things about it

  • cronenthal@discuss.tchncs.de
    0·
    3 days ago

    You can’t really. It’s that moment when you realize you never “owned” the subreddit in the first place, all your work belonged to reddit.

    • FaceDeer@fedia.io
      0·
      3 days ago

      And frankly he’s being incredibly selfish to try this. 200,000 people apparently enjoy his sub, but now that he’s bored with it he’d rather see it destroyed than let someone else handle it.

      • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        3 days ago

        Might not necessarily be as narcissistic as you imply. If this person created the sub, and is still the only mod, then it wouldn’t really exist without them.

        I’m not saying they own it, but if you’ve built something from the beginning, even if the work isn’t 100% your own it’s extremely difficult to abandon it. It’s similar to open source software. How would you like it if some corpo, lobbyist, PsyOps operation, or straight dumbass, took the thing you built and co-opted it for personal gain? Just like software, they may feel an obligation to ensure it won’t fall into the wrong hands or be bastardized.

        The Reddit corporation doesn’t give a fuck. They are the enemy of the entire user base.