Title: The Mod Council is being ignored and it hurts Reddit, mods and users alike.

Hey guys, it's been a while since my last ~~rant~~ post on this subreddit, I hope you are all doing alright.

**Tracking Council Success**

In recent months, Reddit has done a lot trying to assure us that they would better their ways of old and start delivering on promises, communicate more and listen more. Well, since I have been a bit frustrated in this regard in recent times, I decided to spend some time to look at the history of this council and see how frequently our feedback is listened to and whether it is acted upon.

Disclaimer: I only looked at posts on this sub. This includes call summaries, but I of course cannot speak about everything that was said on the calls. I have only considered feedback that can be considered as "acknowledged" because an admin replied to the feedback (either by commenting or by including the feedback in a call summary), I have not considered "suggestion posts" from council members since they are mostly ignored anyways. I have also excluded feedback threads on features that are not supposed to be released yet.

And the answer is: The rate at which Reddit is listening to our feedback is... not great. [See for yourself] how much of the feedback we provide on this subreddit is actually incooperated and usually, the stuff that is getting implemented is very much in the "minor fix" category or was planned anyways.

**Product launches**

Right now, is very easy to get the feeling that mod council consultation is a mandatory step in the launch procedure that is seen as an annoyance by the product team. They will ask the council because they have to, not because they believe in the value of the feedback provided here and subsequently the feedback is disregarded most of the time because they believe they know better. Well, let me say one thing: You don't. Pretty much every feature launch in recent times would have been more successful if you listened to the feedback of the mod council.

From experience, a product launch will usually follow this pattern:

* Feature is created
* Feature is presented to the mod council
* Mod council has feedback
* Mod council is thanked for the "awesome feedback"
* It is promised that the feedback will be "incorporated in a future update"
* The feature will be launched without any changes
* The "mod public" complains about the very points we pointed out prior to the launch
* The "future update" never happens

Time and time again, this results in sub-par features being released to the public. It results in frustration amongst the mod teams, it results in frustration in the council. I seriously fail to understand the value of this place if the feedback provided here is not utilized.

Now, I am not naive. I recognize that Reddit is a commercial operation and that some of its priorities will naturally be at odds with some of the desires of "normal moderators". I understand that it is not feasible to launch every single new feature for Old Reddit even if many mods would love that. I understand that requests for additional features/functionalities require resources that might simply not be there. I however do *not* understand the complete disregard for minor fixes that would go a long way in improving moderators' lives or in making features useful.

I am also familiar with the timeline of product launches. As it stands, the council participation often happens at a point where it's too late for any changes prior to a launch. The consequence however should be earlier participation of the council, not postponing the implementation of council feedback to "updates". For example: According to the [videos provided during the first presentation of the user notes](https://new.reddit.com/r/RedditModCouncil/comments/qnjg81/user_notes_call_notes_from_1026_1027/), the feature was "ready" (or at least in a presentable state) in November 2021. Why is council participation happening one month before the launch in March 2022 and not in late 2021? There would have been plenty of time left to actually incorporate feedback. But no, you decide to ask for feedback so late that it results in the release of an incomplete/sub-par feature. This is simply annoying and unnecessary, especially since there were no (visible) changes to the feature between November 2021 and release in March 22.

Thing is: The whole purpose of the mod council is voided if you do not include our feedback prior to the product launch. If you push the feedback into "future updates", you might as well rely on the public feedback that is provided after a feature is launched publicly. As it stands, the mod council mainly serves as a canary for cases where there would be *enormous* community backlash. If there is no evidence of that happening, the feature will most likely be released without changes. And the [community feedback shows exactly that](https://www.reddit.com/r/reddit/comments/wror2x/changelog_searching_comments_live_bar_settings/iktrpcq/).

**Who is to blame here?**

One thing I want to stress: The Community admins here are doing an absolutely amazing job, but their power regarding the actual product features is limited. The people from product pop up on this sub when they have an announcement to make and then disappear until the next feature. It would be very beneficial to have product people around more often on this sub. And it would be even better if they actually recognized that quite frequently, the council knows better than them because as mods they actually use the tools Reddit is building/modifying every single day. It's the job of a product manger to know the needs of the different stakeholders when it comes to a product launch - it just seems that the mod side of things is mostly ignored right now.

I hate to be that guy, but I get the feeling that one of the core issues Reddit is having is due to the rapid growth the company has been experiencing in recent times is a lack of understanding in the workforce. You are hiring people from other social media platforms and tech companies that might be excellent in their field, but completely lack experience with this platform and thus fail to cater to the needs of the people who actually use it. I find it genuinely shocking how often it is noticeable that people working for this platform lack basic understanding of how some aspects of this platform work and what being a mod or user on this platform is actually like. In the case of some features/programs, it is obvious that the mod experience has been - if at all - an afterthought when it should be one of the first points considered.

**Anti Evil**

One topic that is shockingly absent from the council is Anti Evil. It is one of the most significant pain points for mods at the moment, yet one gets the impression that AE neither looks at the council (or the other subs), does not react to feedback in any way or even looks for feedback. It's nice to get improved mod tooling, but there need to be some changes to the way Anti Evil is working - in pretty much all areas. This affects the technical aspect ("removed by reddit" is inadequate because it hinders mod work), accuracy of the actions taken (still terrible) and ends with the sanctioning system employed (completely missing the mod reality of this plaform). I have no faith in Reddit solving these issue on its own in a way that is satisfactory for us mods, so there needs to be some kind of mod involvement, the council being the most obvious point of contact for that.

**Accountability**

This brings me to the next topic: In my book, this council is - even though it is not elected by the mod community - a body representing the various mods of Reddit. To fulfill that role, we need to be able to hold Reddit accountable for what it's doing, how well it is dealing with the problems of the mod community and how well it is listening to the mods. The way the council is working right now does not allow for that to happen however. Unfortunately, [responses like these](https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditModCouncil/comments/lhp51q/shining_some_light_into_our_product_development/gmz0onz/) make me think that this is somewhat by design - that the admins in the product team are actively trying to avoid any accountability.

**Outlook:**

There's also one noticeable thing: The announcement/product feedback threads are getting fewer and fewer. I do not know the cause for this, but I hope it's a general focus on shreddit instead of building more tooling for a soonish obsolete platform, and not loss of interest in the mod council. The focus right now seems to be on general collection of feedback (where nobody can be held accountable because there is no specific feedback on proposals/features). It is also noticeable that the number of mod-created threads on the council is decreasing out of frustration that nothing ever comes out of them. Either they are completely ignored by the admins or the feedback will not be considered, instead the reply will be full of corporate speech without actually addressing the issues raised.

While the amount of useful threads that are suited for providing feedback is declining, the amount of fluff and casual threads keeps increasing. I am a bit wary about the [recently introduced mod calls change](https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditModCouncil/comments/wsllcu/were_not_going_to_be_doing_monthly_welcome_talks/), I sincerely hope that they will be utilized for actual feedback and not for more fluff. I cannot stress this enough: I am here because I want to make Reddit a better place for mods and users, not because I am looking for a group of friends to have fun with. I am here because too often, Reddit has completely missed the expectations and requirements of its user/mod-base.

The recent [change to mod tenures](https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditModCouncil/comments/ugvtfk/another_update_on_tenure_you_can_stay_forever/) exacerbates this problem: You are essentially building a circlejerk here because it's easier to keep a complacent council rather than inviting fresh minds that might be more critical of new features or changes. Tough feedback is often ignored or honored with empty responses that don't address the issue raised.

**Summary**

Let's not forget: It's moderators who keep this platform running. It's moderators that are spending insane amounts of their free time ([The numbers in this article are a gross underestimation](https://www.newscientist.com/article/2325828-reddit-moderators-do-3-4-million-worth-of-unpaid-work-each-year/?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=echobox&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR0Qgd_IN7VS7H0uML95VsyG8DvH5FkH_n16Ez99MUMhFJBmes0mmh0rSEs&fs=e&s=cl#Echobox=1656061514-1)) to build new communities and improve existing ones. It's moderators that make this whole enterprise possible. We are not striving for compensation. We are not striving for recognition. We just want Reddit to provide us with the tools necessary to do our job as moderators. And so far, Reddit has failed on that front. As it stands, the mod council is not much more than a fig leaf for Reddit so that they can claim that "we have asked and listened to the mods" when in reality, the lions share of feedback is simply ignored or the implementation is postponed indefinitely.

The mod council is - or rather has the potential to be - a very useful institution. You have decades of mod experience, lots of good ideas and honest feedback to your disposal *for free* - use it. You want to do better than previously? Don't just promise it - actually do it. As it is right now, Reddit is moving in a wrong direction. The mod council is being turned into a feelgood atmosphere that is not utilized for its original purpose: Pointing out where there is room for improvement or where things are going in the wrong direction.

Essentially, Reddit is facing a simple question: Do you want to better Reddit for the benefit of mods and help them create a better experience for our users or do you want to have a group of yay-sayers rubberstamping your plans?
If it's the latter, you can essentially shut this place down. Because in that case this isn't more than an excuse for you not to care as much about public feedback because you can always say "we talked to mods".