[Note: the link is for the archive, to not give Reddit unnecessary traffic. Here’s a link to the original.]

Apparently r/pics is protesting through malicious compliance; the subreddit is open again, but all content being shown is uninteresting pictures of… who’s John Galt Oliver?

And the moderators decided to actually consult their community, on what they should do. You could vote on two options:

  • Upvote this comment if you want /r/Pics to feature only images of John Oliver looking sexy. As of time of archiving this option was at +51k points.
  • Upvote this comment if you want to return to normal operation. As of time of archiving this option was -8k points.

Interesting detail on how the r/pics moderators worded it:

Anyway, we – the so-called “landed gentry” – definitely want to comply with the wishes of the “royal court,”

I personally didn’t realise that there is such an implication on what Pigboy said - that if he’s calling the mods “landed gentry”, he sees himself as a king.

EDIT: as other users are pointing out, other subs are doing the same sort of malicious compliance, so I’ll share them here:

  • r/gifs (archive link, (original link). As of time of archiving it has +21k points for John Oliver gifs only, and -5k points for returning to normal
  • r/art (original link) - as of now (7:20, São Paulo time), votes are still not visible. Same as above, John Oliver vs. normal operations.
  • r/aww (archive link, original link) - +56k “to only feature John Oliver, Chiijohn, and their lookalikes bein adorable”, -2.5k to return to normal.
  • r/showerthoughts (archive link, original link). Voting on the days that the subreddit should be open or closed.
  • J4g2F@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    It seems r/gif and r/art are also voting or have voted for only John Oliver content.

    • CapnAssHolo@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      So we have r/pics (30mil), r/gif (21mil) and r/aww (34mil) posting only John Oliver. This is beyond hilarious

      • oranges@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        I genuinely love the internet some times … Like what are you doing to protest again? You can hear the Reddit HQ - “Another sub has gone John Oliver guys !”.

        Seriously amusing stuff…

    • Sarie@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I suppose to make John Oliver acknowledge what’s going on in Reddit. And make at least a little remark on his show.

    • gorkx@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      @Spitz how do you not know john oliver? he’s the guy that look lime a maniquin with a square head thick accent and a beack nose, used to be on john stewart, but now has his on show on hbo.

      @J4g2F @lvxferre

      • Spitz@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I didn’t ask who he was. I asked why pick him especially for the malicious compliance thing.

        • MeowdyPardner@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          He often does segments on his show aimed at publicly shaming companies or groups of people, has a very good record of spurring on some kind of change, at a minimum raises a lot of awareness, and provides updates in later episodes on changes that happened due to him putting people on blast. He also feuds with and mocks the parent company that owns his show so this seems like something he would be interested in supporting with a good comedy segment making fun of spez. Sadly not sure if it’ll work out due to the writer’s strike but if we were to try to get the support of a public figure, he’s a pretty good option.

    • panopticchaos@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Because he’s peak sexiness obviously.

      Really this is just r/pics admitting that all pictures not of john Oliver were really just fooling themselves

  • Kichae@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Ok, but Shower Thoughts not pitching becoming a shower review subreddit is a real lost opportunity.

    “The hot water ran out half way through. 2 stars”

  • dan@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    That’s a fantastic response. Reddit can’t oust the mods for “opting out”, and they can’t claim the sub is unmoderated. Plus it keeps people’s minds on what’s going on. Great idea.

  • sunaurus@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    This is an absolutely amazing (and hilarious) response. I guess this whole saga is far from over!

    • Lvxferre@lemmy.mlOPM
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      1 year ago

      Well, spez wants democracy, right? The community shall decide it, right?

      It would be a shame however if the community decided against him…

  • Overzeetop@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    It’s worth noting that, of the 30000000 million r/pics members/subscribers, less than 50,000 participated. The venn diagram of new lemmy users and the SJO voters is pretty close to a single circle I’d bet.

    • coffeekomrade@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Don’t forget the 90-9-1 Rule. Members/Subscribers don’t matter when 1% of the userbase generates the most content.

      (90% lurker, 9% intermediate contributor, 1% heavy contributor)

  • Viper_NZ@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    I’m not a mod. On the day the blackout started I blocked reddit.com from my router and haven’t been back.

    I won’t be unless they back down.

    • Lvxferre@lemmy.mlOPM
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      1 year ago

      Ditto - I stopped moderating for Reddit years ago, I have a thousand bones to pick with individual moderators in that pigsty, and I still think that they’re right protesting against it.

      I still think that it’s nice to have concrete proof that this is not just “a mod rebellion”, the userbase got enough of it.

      I won’t be back not even if they back down though. Screw that place - Reddit Inc. is a user-hostile company, the powermods issue was never fixed because they don’t care about the users, and the Reddit community is only so hostile, stupid, and disingenuous because they took the admins as role model on how they should behave.