All mods of /r/self and /r/shittylifeprotips were removed and suspended for 7 days without any warning first.
We toggled to 18+ and sort of let nature take its course by only enforcing TOS. I say "we" but in reality I was the only active mod on either sub, so I do feel bad for getting awkwardtheturtle banned by association (lol). After the fact got the "It’s not ok to show people NSFW content when they don’t want to see it.
Mods should not make malicious changes to their communities, such as allowing rule-violating behavior or encouraging the submission of sexually explicit (18+) content in previously safe-for-work spaces."
Is there actually a particular rule against turning SFW subs into NSFW subs?
No, and historically it's been the admins' stance that it's up to the mods to determine what is an acceptable level within the sub. They're absolutely just making up the shit as they go and trying to retroactively justify their impulsive actions after the fact.
Previously, reddit admins could distance themselves from what the moderators were doing.
You know plausible deniability. "We allow our users to post stuff, users moderate themselves. Oopsiedoodle. We allowed users to post pictures of underage girls on reddit for years, time to fire the volunteer mod responsible."
Obviously, anyone who's been on reddit for a while, knows that's bullshit. Reddit's perfectly happy to profit off questionable and outright illegal content. But the admins had that excuse.
But now they're literally and openly forcing subreddits like /r/piracy to re-open.
This strikes me as legally questionable. They're not just tolerating or even condoning some of the more questionable content, they're now actively promoting it.
Ad dollars. They're losing money with the nsfw content because the ads can't be shown next to porn. They still get plausible deniability with r/piracy.
I don't think there are any moderator rules at all. Reddit is just doing anything they can get away with, which is what corporations do anyway.
I am a bit surprised at how slipshod they are about it though, I'd have expected them to hammer out an action plan and then trigger it all in the same hour, but we're getting this slow trickle of changes which suggests that they don't have a plan at all, but are just sort of flailing.