Hey r/Apple!
aaronp613 here. I’ve been a moderator here for close to 5 years, but some of you might recognize my name from the Apple Event threads posted here over the past few years.
As of yesterday, I have joined MacRumors as a contributing researcher which leaves me in a bit of a pickle as to what I should do as far as my moderator status on this subreddit.
I’ll admit, ever since the API changes and strike, I have not really moderated this subreddit (or really any subreddit) that much, but as mentioned above, I still handle the Apple Event megathreads each time as I love experiencing the Apple Events with all of you.
So now the question is, what do I do?
Obviously, I should not be handling any day to day moderation going forward as I beleive that every news blog that follows our guidelines should have an equal and fair chance of being posted on our forum without the appearance of any potential bias from the moderation team.
When I brought this up to some of the other r/apple moderators, 2 possible solutions we thought of were these:
Option 1: Only continue posting Apple event threads and moderate the comments on those threads (leaving the news posting to another moderator).
Option 2: Option 1 but I also continue to post news links during the event for each topic. Accusations of bias can be avoided as we always post whichever news blog posts first, so the timestamps would speak for themselves.
So I want to hear your thoughts on the matter, because at the end of the day we are a community.
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Just do the megathreads, it’s not that big if a deal.
Option 2 is fine. You really don‘t need to give up your work around events. You seem to enjoy these duties and you‘re obviously doing good work for this community. I really don’t see the problem. As you said, the timestamps will speak for themselves.
Option 3. Stop moderating altogether.
The conflict of interest is mostly hypothetical on Reddit.
It could become very real at MacRumors.
I am not a lawyer or even very educated, nor am I your lawyer or your barely educated internet stranger.
Following up with people who may not see the update:
https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/17xpa3n/addressing_a_conflict_of_interest_on_rapple/k9q045r/
Do whatever you want. The fact that you are being transparent and asking guidance suggests you would do the right thing as a moderator. If we don’t like it (heck, even if we do), we’ll just complain about the moderators.
You admit you don’t moderate anyway, just stop being a mod.
From your replies it’s obvious that you’ve ruled out stepping down as mod already before posting this, so this post just comes across as a way to make you feel better about a decision you already made and an attempt to legitimize it under a faux veil of transparency with the community.
Following up with people who may not see the update:
https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/17xpa3n/addressing_a_conflict_of_interest_on_rapple/k9q045r/
You can quit?
Following up with people who may not see the update:
https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/17xpa3n/addressing_a_conflict_of_interest_on_rapple/k9q045r/
Obviously they don’t want to. Hence this so called “transparency” post. 😂
Moderating is honestly a selfless and thankless job. I say leave moderating and let me explain why. You have a really cool and unique job now. Give that your attention, not this place. Go pick up a cool ass hobby, or spend more time with your family. We all spend too much time on our phones anyways! Congrats on the job! Well earned!
Lmao - admits they don’t do any moderating because but wont give up the power.
Following up with people who may not see the update:
https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/17xpa3n/addressing_a_conflict_of_interest_on_rapple/k9q045r/
Leave. Change your username. Become the newest moderator. We’ll never know.
Out you go…
Obviously you should step down as a mod of r/apple. Working for MacRumors disqualifies you for this position.
How hard is it to understand this lol
Following up with people who may not see the update:
https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/17xpa3n/addressing_a_conflict_of_interest_on_rapple/k9q045r/
Option 3: Give up your position as a mod. There’s a clear conflict of interest and you don’t seem to want to be too involved anyway.
Following up with people who may not see the update:
https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/17xpa3n/addressing_a_conflict_of_interest_on_rapple/k9q045r/
That was an honorable decision. Good on you for listening to the community.
I appreciate the willingness to step back. I think a simple asterisk when posting would be enough for me. Kinda like when you read a news article sharing a related sponsor. I’m good with you doing whatever you want!
Option 3: Give me the security camera tapes like we discussed and I’ll consider letting you out of the cage.
I’ll admit, ever since the API changes and strike, I have not really moderated this subreddit (or really any subreddit) that much, but as mentioned above, I still handle the Apple Event megathreads each time as I love experiencing the Apple Events with all of you.
So you were doing little mod work overall, someone else can create a megathread those 2/3 times a week and you can still interact “with all of us” like you love so much.
I don’t care at all who is a mod or isn’t.
Option 3: You were already not doing much with your mod position during most of the year. The obvious choice is right there, leave the mod team and let others pick up the slack on the events (which is a time a lot of people is probably interested, so likely other mods are available as well), or get a new mod that would actually do more than just show up 2 or 3 times a year.
You can still contribute and be a part of the community without being a mod.