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“Reddit users, moderators, and communities are at the heart of every product decision we make, and our intention in launching ‘Start Chatting’ was to provide Redditors with a new way to connect with each other during these difficult times. Given the Issues and concerns expressed by our users and moderators during the last 24 hours, we have made the decision to disable Start Chat in order to reevaluate our implementation plan and develop the product to meet the needs of our community. “
Although Reddit claimed that the reaction to the first tests of Start Chatting received positive feedback, the launch appears to have taken many of the site’s users by surprise. Shortly after their presentation on Wednesday, Reddit moderators flooded comments on the announcement with confusion and frustration.
Many were concerned that Start Chatting, which moderators would have no control or visibility, would attract the kind of abuse they work hard to keep out of their online communities. Other moderators who monitor subreddits that reach vulnerable groups, such as abuse survivors, were concerned that their groups would be attacked by trolls or scammers. (The company’s vice president of product Alex Le later clarified that the feature had never been enabled for many of these groups, even though the option to join had appeared due to an “error”).
“Right now, r / science would prefer to have this feature disabled in our subreddit because it undermines our goal of having serious and strongly moderated discussions,” wrote one moderator in a comment.
“We already have major issues with scammers using chat and PM to scam people who are already in financial crisis and we can’t even get Reddit to ban those people after repeated reporting (not that it’s difficult for someone to change accounts taking into account that it takes weeks or months for reports to be examined). Even our unofficial IRC chat room is better moderated than anything possible on Reddit. ” wrote another, which oversees r / personalfinance and r / Debt.
Also in question: that Reddit chose to implement the function in subreddits without prior notice to the moderators and without exclusion ability.
“While I understand that everyone is trying to further encourage live chats so that redditors can do something positive in light of the pandemic, the way they have implemented it, without prior notice, without the prior involvement of moderators and without the possibility of opting -out, isn’t it? ”Commented another moderator.
It’s unclear if Reddit plans to relaunch the feature at a later date.
“We are committed to transparent and direct communication with our users, and we will take this opportunity to seek input from the community, gather additional feedback, and create an experience that adds value and supports our communities,” the company said.
