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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There’s nothing wrong with running this subreddit and being at MacRumors. Unless you decided to only allow Macrumor content. That would probably kill the subreddit.
Otherwise, if you were working for Apple, they might have a bone to pick with you.
Option 3: No MacRumor, 9to5apple, and other spam blogs. No conflict of interests and the forum will have higher SNR.
Terrible place you’re headed to. Have 2nd thoughts.
You can quit?
Obviously they don’t want to. Hence this so called “transparency” post. 😂
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/
Congratulations on the new job at MacRumors. 👏
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.
If you go through with option 2, I think that would be fine. Like you said, timestamps would speak for themselves.
Congrats on the job. I can’t say it bothers me if you just carry on as you want to
I feel like there’s a third option that it seems like the mod team isn’t discussing: leave the moderating to the other mods.
Because they don’t want to. Not sure why they’re even asking us.
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: Remove your moderator status.
What else would need to be done? That’s literally the most obvious answer when COI is involved. Stop being involved with one of the parties.
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/
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!
People telling you to quit are taking this too seriously. It’s a subreddit, and you’re going to be working for a blog/news site. It’s not like you’re taking a job with Apple and could be removing posts critical of Apple. Option 2 is fine. Congratulations on the new job.
Obviously you should step down as a mod of r/apple. Working for MacRumors disqualifies you for this position.
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/
How hard is it to understand this lol
Congratulations. You absolutely need to leave as a moderator.
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/