this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2023
171 points (97.8% liked)

Malicious Compliance

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People conforming to the letter, but not the spirit, of a request. For now, this includes text posts, images, videos and links. Please ensure that the “malicious compliance” aspect is apparent - if you’re making a text post, be sure to explain this part; if it’s an image/video/link, use the “Body” field to elaborate.

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I honestly don't know if this is allowed here but I thought this is malicious compliance at its finest.

If you don't want to drive traffic there I'll repost what the mods posted below:

POLL: Decide on the future of /r/Pics!

Hello, /r/Pics subscribers!

Boy, what a whacky time we've all had lately, huh? Reddit decided to kill off third-party applications, a protest got planned (and possibly exploited by bad actors), the site showed up in the news, various communities started opening back up, others decided to stay inaccessible, and then the CEO of Reddit implied that a bunch of moderators would be removed from their positions!

Crazy, right?

Anyway, we – the so-called "landed gentry" – definitely want to comply with the wishes of the "royal court," and they've told us that we need to run the subreddit in the way that its members want. To that end, we figured that the only reasonable thing to do was directly ask how you'd like things to progress from here.

Which of the following should we do?

  1. Return to normal operations

  2. Only allow images of John Oliver looking sexy To be clear, if people choose the second option, screen-grabs from videos will be allowed (provided that there aren't any visible logos, inserted graphics, or other digital elements present). You could – if you wanted to – look through episodes of Last Week Tonight on YouTube, find moments featuring John Oliver at his sexiest, then post images of those moments here.

It's entirely up to you! Whatever the /r/Pics community decides is best, we'll respect!

Vote, friends! Vote now!

(You can vote by upvoting either of the comments in the thread below.)

Voting has now closed.

Our final tally is as follows:

Return to normal operations: -2,329 votes

Only allow images of John Oliver looking sexy: 37,331 votes

It would seem that the community has spoken!

Henceforth, /r/Pics will only allow images of John Oliver looking sexy.

(Said images must adhere to all of the community's other rules, including those mandated by Reddit.)

Happy posting!

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Definitely allowed. For now, anything that fits in the spirit of malicious compliance is fair game, it doesn't have to be text only too.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Is this real?! What episode is it from!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

yes, it's real. it's from the episode on coal from june 2017: https://youtu.be/aw6RsUhw1Q8?t=1443

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Ah, probably my favourite episode! I've never been a big fan of john oliver purely because I find him aggressively unfunny, but showing everyone the ridiculous cease and desist letter with "Let us neither cease, nor desist" is amazing.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Incredible move. But I doubt it'll last. Reddit is going to became 9gag and iFunny very soon. Rest in peace old reddit. It was fun while it lasted.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (3 children)

The point is to hit reddit where it hurts - ad revenue. There will be a slight spike in interests as people laugh, then the lack of original content will cause people to be bored. New subreddits will have to be created and built from the ground up. Moderating a subreddit with 40m subscribers is hard.

Spez needs to realize that going to war with the users is a dumb move.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

He will not realize that, because he wants money and he'll get it. On the one hand, Reddit was fun. On the other hand, it's archaic for the reasons we're experiencing right now. Progress.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I visited 9gag last week for the firdt time in maybe 8 years...wow the boomer humour and aggressive bigotry rivals Facebook

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

What a fantastic, creative and constructive reaction. Respect for the mods!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Absolutely crushing the direction they chose.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

God dammit I guess I'll make an exception for /r/pics.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Glad you posted this - its the epitome of malicious compliance! And a fantastic form of protest too. With Reddit admins threatening to demote mods unless they re-open subreddits, this move takes away that ammo. Additionally, after the initial boost in activity due to novelty, the sub will get stale quickly and users will think of migrating to other platforms like lemmy or kbin. I'm all for it!

Edit: This is what I'm talking about. Here is one of those Reddit refugees now!

https://lemmy.world/comment/273363

Welcome, @[email protected]!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Thanks! It still feels weird, I had my account for a long time and have a fair amount of karma, but the site has been going to shit for a while and enough is enough. This feels like the very early web or fidonet and I’m stoked to be here.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is brilliant! I had just took a look at /r/pics without logging in and can see its just now filled with John Oliver pics

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I haven't laughed this hard in so long. The malicious compliance is epic. John Oliver can't buy PR like this, and he has got to be one of the few people that can appreciate being the face of something like this.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Glorious :) I hope John Oliver picks this up in his show...

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

the writers are still on strike. don't know where they are in the negotiation process.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Update on the vote results, for people who don't want to go there:

  • Pro John Oliver: 61.7k

  • Return to normal: -13.7k.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

“John Oliver Supports the Reddit Protests’ Use of his Image” - https://www.vulture.com/2023/06/reddit-protests-john-oliver-pics.html

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Amazing work as always! Though I did have to check it out kind of defeating the purpose of the protest. I think the best way to achieve what they want is to just do a really shitty job in moderating. Let the entire site be over-run with scams / crypto bros / nazis.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

It already is, /r/all used to be current and now it's just a constant stream of spam posts.

You should be able to block a webpage and all users that share it. Relay For Reddit has a feature where you can select "other conversations" and see all the posts of a specific link. If I could then block everyone who posted a shitty "Elon runs an ETH competition" post... There'd still be a millions others.

Nazis everywhere, Spez left #the_donald alone to grow in scope. Fuck Spez

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

It already is, /r/all used to be current and now it’s just a constant stream of spam posts.

and that's the whole point of this!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (7 children)

I don't think this is a good idea. The point of the blackout is to hit Reddit where it hurts, by driving traffic down. This prank (partially) reverses the work of the blackout, by getting people back to the pics subreddit to post and see (John Oliver) pics. It turns the blackout into a joke. And I think is a step towards the community just moving on from the blackout without it actually having the long term effects that were intended.

I'm all for malicious compliance, but I think this is the wrong flavor of it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well, it'll put Reddit in an odd place. Spez in particular has cited the Moderator Code as a justification to remove mods and instate his own.

THAT would be worse, since then instead of any blackout at all it's business as usual (while being slowly crippled from bad moderation and decaying user behaviours).

The John Oliver thing is an alternative to THAT. They are technically doing what the users want, which was Reddit's whole ammunition against them. Closing a sub of millions of people could be said as harming the site significantly enough that reddit steps in. Opening it and maliciously complying with the rules IS what the users want, so Spez will be hard pressed the wrest control of the sub while simultaneously saying he supports the protests in line with the Code.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

A blackout prevents action. It prevents the usefulness.

A satiric malicious compliance focus does not categorically prevent activity, but does prevent general activity. It prevents the usefulness and value of the subreddit too.

When you are at risk of losing the blackout by losing control of the subreddit. it's the only thing you can do. It's the next best and next most effective thing.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Fantastic! Really good idea from the mod team.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Spez really should have read r/maliciouscompliance a bit before he bit off more than he could chew

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Spez is peak r/choosingbeggars wanting free work to be done but oh, not with your own tools that actually work, no you need the ones that are inside his Basement for the last 10 years and barely work at all.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's how billionaires make their money isn't it? Get everyone to pay them while they themselves pay others as little as possible.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (4 children)

That's a classic reddit moment. There's such a good community on that website, it's tragic that reddit wants to use that against itself.

These kind of protest won't reduce the traffic on the platform though. They might even gain traction and increase it. If it's not linked to reduced ad revenue, I'm afraid it's counter-productive.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Look at the alternatives. It's either this kind of protest, or returning to normal operations or losing their sub.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

the odds are stacked against the mods and the users, but any little bit of resistance is useful.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I can’t see what they did, my browser says it can’t establish connection to the server. Sounds like reddit admins took whatever it was down?

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