Internet social media moderators have a lot of stereotypes surrounding them, especially Reddit moderators. They are constantly memed on and made fun of in almost every online space, regardless of gender, race or age.
A moderator on Reddit, Stale2000, has just gone viral on social media for a video in which he complained about his plight regarding the removal from his position. He mailed the video to Reddit CEO, Spez and also posted it on YouTube, and has now become the subject of online jokes.
But to understand how this started, we need to go back to the story of Stale2000’s original position as a moderator on the popular subreddit r/LiveStreamFails or as people like to call it, ‘LSF’. It is a subreddit cataloguing various viral live stream moments.
It all started with a reality show scam
Stale2000 was a moderator on the sub and was removed from his position after everyone pointed at the fact that he was constantly promoting a reality show named ‘Million Dollar Fan.’ At first, it looked like regular endorsement posts for the show on the subreddit.
But users on the subreddit took notice of the fact that something was off about this whole thing. The website of this so-called ‘Million Dollar Fan’ club seemed to have been backed by several high-profile online personalities, such as Twitch streamer Extra Emily and Esfand.
More details about the show were uncovered, which claimed that the show runners had deals made with Amazon Prime, and it was going to air on the platform later this year. The main gist of the show was putting these Twitch streamers in a luxury mansion for a specified amount of time.
They would have to face off against each other in teams along with fans, in order to win a Guiness Book of World Record-breaking prize pool of $20 million. Users found these claims to be bloated and began investigating.
Reddit users banded together to bust the scam
The first clue they found was regarding the website itself, which used AI generated image for the said luxury mansion. More users began probing over clues until the investigation deepened, and everyone started labelling the posts on LSF as scams.
As of the current date, the said website for the reality show no longer hosts the contents anymore. Looking at the link online shows a link that is inaccessible. Moderrater Stale2000 quickly came under fire after this huge mess.
When people commented under his posts, blaming him for promoting the same, the moderator took charge and removed some of the negative comments. He also replied to some of them, claiming that he reached out to them because he thought that the whole thing was cool and could be a big moment for the subreddit.
Stale2000’s video echoes the Reddit moderator stereotypes
Reddit’s code of conduct team took maters in their own hands and removed Stale2000 from his moderator position. This, in turn, escalated things because Brian, the actual user from the account, made the next big step of making a video that has now gone viral.
In the video, Brian addresses the Spez, the CEO of Reddit. Explaining how important his job as a moderator was on the LSF subreddit. He also claimed that Reddit mods should be treated on equal footing to streamers and popular content creators.
He boasts about how the mods have ‘control over millions of impressions per day’ and can make or break a streamer’s popularity. The video caught the eye of various Twitch streamers who have also shared their own opinion on the matter.
Social media is where the whole thing has gone off the rails, with people pointing at the video, saying that the stereotypes around Reddit moderators are actually coming true. With many dehumanising the creator of the video.
