Today, Reddit almost jumped the shark. Next time, though, we might as well consider swimming out.

Were it not for the events that transpired this afternoon (Eastern Daylight Time--DST happened a while ago), my next long-in-gestation post (for the Nerday community) would've been dedicated to all raccoon lovers everywhere. Sad to say, that post will take a bit more time to surface--more important matters must be tended to. Much as I don't mind being on Reddit, portions of what follows below should not be taken as a critique or condemnation of their services--although all opinions on the matter are still mine. So, here goes nothing...

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Earlier today, it was business as usual on the front page of the Internet. As u/Routhwick, I was trotting out a few examples of Tovasala Relformaidi (né Relformaide) on r/conlangs, and was pitching my own 2015 design of Sam the boy-raccoon wonder (as I have done for the past several weeks) to various folks at r/ICanDrawThat, r/DrawForMe, and r/furry. (Mind you, I've been waiting it out for one more quality piece with young Mr. Dixwell in it, just so I could get a Nerday piece going--and Nerday is practically the only place where I feel the likes of such belong. In anticipation of the upcoming raccoon rundown, I had begun the Ecency draft with just the title--and the community settings--at one p.m.)

That afternoon, I engaged in an off-sub chat with u/KanejjiKun, whose latest request I found at r/furry, to pitch Sam and his backstory to them. (Knowing how long I've waited this out, they might as well be my last hope to deliver. Otherwise, I'll cross my fingers over someone else.) After my latest go at nibling-sitting between 3:20 and 4:00, our chat continued at a leisurely pace as I hit our home scanner to take care of the remaining pages of Doctor Dolittle's Circus (1924; 1952 reprint) for an upcoming Wikisource mission. (The first 169 pages made it in last Friday afternoon.)

Towards the end of that scanning sprint (which I only did to beat a deadline of March 26 imposed by the Brandon library), I noticed that on my Redditor overview, nothing RFM- or conlang-related was showing up in my archives--not even refreshing helped. Error in the system--some random 50x--or abrupt closure?

Turns out, r/conlangs was set to private until 2:00 p.m. on March 25--with a reminder to visit r/OutOfTheLoop for details on what happened. As it further turned out, scores of subreddits spanning various topics (risqué or otherwise) were blacking out in protest over the service's newest admin, one Aimee Knight née Challenor by name. There's a reason Mrs. Knight was kicked out of the Green Party and Liberal Democrats in her native Britain some time back, and also a reason why her name hasn't surfaced in the STM/Hive archives as far as is known...and trust me, you don't even want to read the other half of that story. Too controversial/trigger-inducing to put into print on here, an audience-friendly feed--beyond the fact that her then-50-year-old father more than molested a 10-year-old, diapers^! and all. What in Dickens' name has mainstream social media (and the people who run it) come to?

Any sensible staff worth their salt should've reconsidered ages ago. If I were among the top-brass: Yeah, #MeToo.

Now, as I type, the Gamergate and r/The_Đøňæłđ scandals of years past are nothing compared to this latest episode. Was Reddit oblivious to those past allegations, or did they hire her on the spot without a second thought but knew of them anyway? I am saying this as a post-Google+ refugee on there--and also on behalf of that userbase's most respectful denizens.

Meanwhile, at OOTL, u/sloth_on_meth offered this dispatch, now since cleared away in light of later events:

The situation is as follows, the moderators of /r/Ukpolitics set the subreddit to private last night. This was not a decision they took lightly, but one that was made to protect both the users and moderators of /r/ukpolitics.

A moderator posted an article from the Spectator - which contained a three-word mention, in passing, of a minor British public figure ( who was expelled from both the Liberal Democrats and Green Party) - this moderator was permanently suspended from Reddit (and later reinstated after we contacted the admins) for "doxxing" as a result.

As they had no idea what had happened, or why posting this article resulted in a permanent suspension, the mods of /r/Ukpolitics took the emergency step of making the subreddit private and immediately contacting the admins for clarification. They took this step to protect both the users of the subreddit, and themselves, from further action by the Reddit admin staff.

It later became apparent that Reddit has hired the individual as an Reddit admin, and were banning people from discussing the employees past to protect their employee from harassment.

Like the /r/Ukpolitics mods we would ask the following, in order to protect your account from getting terminated by Reddit:

• Do not name this individual, at all. Doing so may result in your account being banned by the admins.

We are obviously extremely concerned by these developments and expect Reddit to explain this situation.

The usual subreddit rules and Reddit-wide ToS apply.

More or less echoed by u/RKola at the top of their answer:

Aimee Challenor/Aimee Knight has been made a reddit admin after previously moderating several subreddits. They or other admins have been replacing/deleting comments and banning users who bring up what their history consists of or mentioning their name under the guise of "doxxing". (i put this in brackets, as under Aimee Challenor/Aimee Knight's old deleted account, she hosted her own AMA and included herself on a list of "Famous LGBT People").

And yes, they mentioned the abuse details a third of the way down. Still not for the faint of heart.

As this item is still being prepared, the instant backlash has been enough for Reddit Inc. to reverse their decision and fire her--as they well should have all along. But to paraphrase the situational adage, the damage on another chunk of their reputation has been done. A while ago, u/PauliesWalnut took Spez and co. to task:

Since your vetting process is clearly flawed, will you go back and re-vet all Reddit admins and mods who are already onboard, in addition to those future ones incoming?

They should've considered that part of their ethos ages ago--but if they do now or soon, too little, too late.

Consider it a draw this season--but next time, we'll be on the lookout. And in case worse happens, we'll be prepared to pack our bags, take out our archives, and swim right out. If they do provide a Takeout option anywhere like G+ once did, then I'll be more than happy to take it. (Digg and its much-maligned v4, the Myspace retool and the songfile mishap, LiveJournal and their hamfisted control by the Russians, Tumblr and the adult-content ban, KBoards and their new owners claiming their community's copyright, SmackJeeves and their eventual downgrade + downfall...still more lessons to learn, and the ArchiveTeam plus Archive.org have seen it all. Not to mention the old Steemit and its current management's centralised approach.) After all that's happened, let's hope Hive doesn't go a similar route...and Reddit doesn't notice this here.

Of all the things to bring me back here after several weeks' wait...this had to happen. (Plus this Verge recap by Adi Robertson, and this in-house companion piece from one @okean123.)

Et tu, Snoo?

¤¤¤¤

Well, I'm out of here for who knows how much longer (apart from the occasional random reblogged highlight every now and then in the interim)--and sorry, no Volume 5 of Reflections until Golden Week in April. (That big snowstorm in Dallas earlier this year cut into the Briarwood/Kino Lorber team's deadlines--and for that matter, those of an American CGI anime some of you may be aware of as RWBY. [Thanks, Trope Trivia!]) Next time around, all the fluff and none of the trash (but there will be a bit of the latter quality-wise); in the weeks ahead, reruns from r/conlangs and the Takeout archives, plus more cabbages and kings while we're at it, and a retool of last summer's Notebook entry on Revolution. Till we meet again, take care, stay safe, wipe everything down...and best of Easter wishes to you.

Let's hop out of here, shall we?

(CAPTAIN'S NOTE [25/3, 4:21 p.m.]: A while before this went to press, r/conlangs--and assumedly others affected--opened back for business hours earlier than anticipated. Statement by moderator Slorany.)