I wonder if it’s because they know the first few subs to be forced open will make headlines, but the second batch most likely won’t. So by starting with fringe subs it paints the picture that’s it’s not the bigger or more important subs that are participating in the blackout.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see the /r/antiwork mod’s disastrous appearance on Fox News become a talking point again paired with this, so that when people hear “Reddit forces mods to…” that’s the sort of person the public pictures.

The incident is in fact being investigated by the RCMP. On top of that it was other parents who intervened to stop the man, the school is banning them from school property, a city council member says they’ll investigate how to promote safer spaces for those who are minorities, the mayor gave a statement condemning it, and the premier of the province condemned it and encouraged everyone to stand up against transphobia. The message has consistently been that transphobia is not okay, and not “but she wasn’t even trans!”, which I think is good.

Realistically the response after it happened was probably about as good as could ever be hoped for. I really hope the little girl is able to remember the support and not the attempted insult.

I also feel bad for the grandchild of the bigots, who was also participating in the event and is presumably a classmate of the other kids. The grandparents apparently live two provinces away, so good job Grandma and Grandpa coming for a visit and causing shit for the kid and parents who have to live in that community.

AskHistorians is taking the approach of “blackout for two days, then read-only moving forward indefinitely.” I think that’s a good approach as it still removes the functionality of the subreddit while reminding people of what they’re missing out on due to the admins’ actions.

I know there are bigger subs, but AskHistorians is an absolute jewel in Reddit’s crown. For all the dumpster fire subs that raise controversy and drag Reddit’s image down, AskHistorians is the one sub that could always be pointed to as a sub with an inarguably positive impact. It’s also a sub in a unique position because its moderators are probably the hardest for Reddit to replace, because many of them are the historians that answer the questions, or have personal relationships with those that do. In addition most of the historians aren’t really Redditors, participating only on AskHistorians. Removing the current mod team and replacing them would absolutely 100% kill the sub forever.

Not that I have any faith in Reddit to do the right thing. I just think it’s interesting to realize just how different of a position AskHistorians in than the rest of the subreddits, being at the same time more impactful than their subscriber numbers show, while being fragile enough to be permanently broken if handled poorly. They are also one of the only mod teams I’ve see who have issued a list of actionable goals that Reddit can address.

Also it’s interesting to see that their participation in the blackout is almost entirely on Spez’s head. That’s some damn fine CEOing there, Lou.