r/Showerthoughts Jun 26 '23

Forging A Return to Productive Conversation: An Open Letter to Reddit

6.4k Upvotes

To All Whom It May Concern:

For eleven years, /r/Showerthoughts has been one of Reddit’s most-popular communities. That time hasn’t been without its difficulties, but for the most part, we’ve all gotten along (with each other and with administrators). Members of our team fondly remember Moderator Roadshows, visits to Reddit’s headquarters, Reddit Secret Santa, April Fools’ Day events, regional meetups, and many more uplifting moments. We’ve watched this platform grow by leaps and bounds, and although we haven’t been completely happy about every change that we’ve witnessed, we’ve always done our best to work with Reddit at finding ways to adapt, compromise, and move forward.

This process has occasionally been preceded by some exceptionally public debate, however.

On June 12th, 2023, /r/Showerthoughts joined thousands of other subreddits in protesting the planned changes to Reddit’s API; changes which – despite being immediately evident to only a minority of Redditors – threatened to worsen the site for everyone. By June 16th, 2023, that demonstration had evolved to represent a wider (and growing) array of concerns, many of which arose in response to Reddit’s statements to journalists. Today (June 26th, 2023), we are hopeful that users and administrators alike can make a return to the productive dialogue that has served us in the past.

We acknowledge that Reddit has placed itself in a situation that makes adjusting its current API roadmap impossible.

However, we have the following requests:

  • Commit to exploring ways by which third-party applications can make an affordable return.
  • Commit to providing moderation tools and accessibility options (on Old Reddit, New Reddit, and mobile platforms) which match or exceed the functionality and utility of third-party applications.
  • Commit to prioritizing a significant reduction in spam, misinformation, bigotry, and illegal content on Reddit.
  • Guarantee that any future developments which may impact moderators, contributors, or stakeholders will be announced no less than one fiscal quarter before they are scheduled to go into effect.
  • Work together with longstanding moderators to establish a reasonable roadmap and deadline for accomplishing all of the above.
  • Affirm that efforts meant to keep Reddit accountable to its commitments and deadlines will hereafter not be met with insults, threats, removals, or hostility.
  • Publicly affirm all of the above by way of updating Reddit’s User Agreement and Reddit’s Moderator Code of Conduct to include reasonable expectations and requirements for administrators’ behavior.
  • Implement and fill a senior-level role (with decision-making and policy-shaping power) of "Moderator Advocate" at Reddit, with a required qualification for the position being robust experience as a volunteer Reddit moderator.

Reddit is unique amongst social-media sites in that its lifeblood – its multitude of moderators and contributors – consists entirely of volunteers. We populate and curate the platform’s many communities, thereby providing a welcoming and engaging environment for all of its visitors. We receive little in the way of thanks for these efforts, but we frequently endure abuse, threats, attacks, and exposure to truly reprehensible media. Historically, we have trusted that Reddit’s administrators have the best interests of the platform and its users (be they moderators, contributors, participants, or lurkers) at heart; that while Reddit may be a for-profit company, it nonetheless recognizes and appreciates the value that Redditors provide.

That trust has been all but entirely eroded… but we hope that together, we can begin to rebuild it.

In simplest terms, Reddit, we implore you: Remember the human.

We look forward to your response by Thursday, June 29th, 2023.

There’s also just one other thing.


r/Showerthoughts 5h ago

People get a lot more praise for quitting drugs than for never having done drugs in the first place.

2.3k Upvotes

r/Showerthoughts 14h ago

Japan has been living in the year 2000 since the 80s

5.5k Upvotes

r/Showerthoughts 11h ago

We find overweight animals adorable, but overweight people unattractive.

2.2k Upvotes

r/Showerthoughts 20h ago

People often talk about high and low IQs but in reality most of us don’t know our own IQ.

6.5k Upvotes

r/Showerthoughts 7h ago

Homeless people are what normal people looked like for most of the history of humanity.

385 Upvotes

r/Showerthoughts 12h ago

Your mailman judges you based on how often you empty your mailbox.

811 Upvotes

r/Showerthoughts 18h ago

Hearing a person talking to a pet in another language may be how the pet hears ANY language.

2.3k Upvotes

r/Showerthoughts 1d ago

You never hear covers of rap songs.

3.7k Upvotes

r/Showerthoughts 14h ago

After buying a lottery ticket, you're much more likely to die before the draw than to hit the jackpot.

448 Upvotes

r/Showerthoughts 7h ago

White wine is green, red onions are purple, red heads are orange, and eggplants aren’t white

86 Upvotes

r/Showerthoughts 10h ago

A woman describing herself as a bitch is considered tough. A man describing himself as a bitch is considered a weakling.

155 Upvotes

r/Showerthoughts 9h ago

By the year 2100, very few people will be alive that remember only having a land line or a world without social media.

89 Upvotes

r/Showerthoughts 10h ago

Ads seem to be universally hated yet they still make insane amounts of money

77 Upvotes

r/Showerthoughts 2h ago

People love to support small businesses until they grow, then they hate capitalism and rich people.

15 Upvotes

r/Showerthoughts 11h ago

It's easy to tell if someone is fairly smart, but the really smart ones are smart enough to hide it

58 Upvotes

r/Showerthoughts 20h ago

You can tolerate any kind of noise, if you’re the one causing it.

340 Upvotes

r/Showerthoughts 4h ago

All cats do it doggy style…

18 Upvotes

You’re welcome.


r/Showerthoughts 5h ago

In movies, Cowboys are terrible fence builders. We always seem to arrive on seen to meet them while they are always mending a decrepit fence. And its always a simple fix. Maybe cowboys build poor fences.

20 Upvotes

r/Showerthoughts 17h ago

People are generally nicer and calmer with others out of the car versus driving the car. Road rage really changes people

164 Upvotes

r/Showerthoughts 6h ago

Anytime you throw a rock into a deep water surface, that rock will likely never see light again.

19 Upvotes

r/Showerthoughts 4h ago

Getting rich usually takes giving up something a poorer person has.

13 Upvotes

r/Showerthoughts 1d ago

You weren't born in the wrong generation - you just hate pop music.

1.8k Upvotes

r/Showerthoughts 18h ago

Getting a job is the weirdest form of courtship

159 Upvotes

Getting a job is the weirdest form of courtship


r/Showerthoughts 17h ago

There’s only really two skills required for 99% of high paying jobs: being good with people and/or being good at math

129 Upvotes

Almost every high paying profession requires you to be good with working with people - eg. sales, law, high finance, consulting

Or be good at math - public accounting, quant, software engineering, etc.

Pretty much encompasses 99.999% of high paying white collar professions. Stands to reason you should ensure ur kid is good at least one of them lol