this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2023
127 points (97.7% liked)

Malicious Compliance

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People conforming to the letter, but not the spirit, of a request. For now, this includes text posts, images, videos and links. Please ensure that the “malicious compliance” aspect is apparent - if you’re making a text post, be sure to explain this part; if it’s an image/video/link, use the “Body” field to elaborate.

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I honestly don't know if this is allowed here but I thought this is malicious compliance at its finest.

If you don't want to drive traffic there I'll repost what the mods posted below:

POLL: Decide on the future of /r/Pics!

Hello, /r/Pics subscribers!

Boy, what a whacky time we've all had lately, huh? Reddit decided to kill off third-party applications, a protest got planned (and possibly exploited by bad actors), the site showed up in the news, various communities started opening back up, others decided to stay inaccessible, and then the CEO of Reddit implied that a bunch of moderators would be removed from their positions!

Crazy, right?

Anyway, we – the so-called "landed gentry" – definitely want to comply with the wishes of the "royal court," and they've told us that we need to run the subreddit in the way that its members want. To that end, we figured that the only reasonable thing to do was directly ask how you'd like things to progress from here.

Which of the following should we do?

  1. Return to normal operations

  2. Only allow images of John Oliver looking sexy To be clear, if people choose the second option, screen-grabs from videos will be allowed (provided that there aren't any visible logos, inserted graphics, or other digital elements present). You could – if you wanted to – look through episodes of Last Week Tonight on YouTube, find moments featuring John Oliver at his sexiest, then post images of those moments here.

It's entirely up to you! Whatever the /r/Pics community decides is best, we'll respect!

Vote, friends! Vote now!

(You can vote by upvoting either of the comments in the thread below.)

Voting has now closed.

Our final tally is as follows:

Return to normal operations: -2,329 votes

Only allow images of John Oliver looking sexy: 37,331 votes

It would seem that the community has spoken!

Henceforth, /r/Pics will only allow images of John Oliver looking sexy.

(Said images must adhere to all of the community's other rules, including those mandated by Reddit.)

Happy posting!

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[–] dystop@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Definitely allowed. For now, anything that fits in the spirit of malicious compliance is fair game, it doesn't have to be text only too.

[–] Plenty@lemmy.world 21 points 2 years ago (1 children)
[–] minimar@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Is this real?! What episode is it from!

[–] LambdaDuck@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

yes, it's real. it's from the episode on coal from june 2017: https://youtu.be/aw6RsUhw1Q8?t=1443

[–] minimar@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

Ah, probably my favourite episode! I've never been a big fan of john oliver purely because I find him aggressively unfunny, but showing everyone the ridiculous cease and desist letter with "Let us neither cease, nor desist" is amazing.

[–] yoichi@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)
[–] LambdaDuck@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

no, it's actually not edited. that exact frame appears at 23:03 in the episode on coal from june 2017: https://youtu.be/aw6RsUhw1Q8?t=1443

[–] delfinom@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago

"Bob" was replaced with "Spez"

Yes it was edited. But the base image is real. It also resulted in a lawsuit.

[–] concealmint@lemmy.world 7 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Incredible move. But I doubt it'll last. Reddit is going to became 9gag and iFunny very soon. Rest in peace old reddit. It was fun while it lasted.

[–] Squizzy@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I visited 9gag last week for the firdt time in maybe 8 years...wow the boomer humour and aggressive bigotry rivals Facebook

[–] girthero@lemmy.one 2 points 2 years ago

Wow you ain't kidding! Its White nationalist this, and White nationalist that! They're going to replace us! /s

[–] darkmugglet@lemm.ee 3 points 2 years ago (3 children)

The point is to hit reddit where it hurts - ad revenue. There will be a slight spike in interests as people laugh, then the lack of original content will cause people to be bored. New subreddits will have to be created and built from the ground up. Moderating a subreddit with 40m subscribers is hard.

Spez needs to realize that going to war with the users is a dumb move.

[–] orcrist@lemm.ee 1 points 2 years ago

He will not realize that, because he wants money and he'll get it. On the one hand, Reddit was fun. On the other hand, it's archaic for the reasons we're experiencing right now. Progress.

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[–] NSA_Server_04@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago

Absolutely crushing the direction they chose.

[–] slackdrift@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 2 years ago

“John Oliver Supports the Reddit Protests’ Use of his Image” - https://www.vulture.com/2023/06/reddit-protests-john-oliver-pics.html

[–] raltoid@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago (5 children)

Update on the vote results, for people who don't want to go there:

  • Pro John Oliver: 61.7k

  • Return to normal: -13.7k.

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[–] raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Glorious :) I hope John Oliver picks this up in his show...

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[–] MargotRobbie@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

Only having pictures of John Oliver is definitely an improvement over normal r/pic.

[–] personalife@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

Now this is the definition of malicious compliance!

[–] nothacking@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 2 years ago

r/debatereligion requires all posts to be in Latin, same spirit.

[–] Senseibu@feddit.uk 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

This is brilliant! I had just took a look at /r/pics without logging in and can see its just now filled with John Oliver pics

[–] darkmugglet@lemm.ee 2 points 2 years ago

I haven't laughed this hard in so long. The malicious compliance is epic. John Oliver can't buy PR like this, and he has got to be one of the few people that can appreciate being the face of something like this.

[–] geoffervescent@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago (3 children)

/r/gifs currently is following suit! If you still have a reddit account go vote ASAP! (Also unsubscribe from all your "business as usual" subs as possible, immediately, if you can't delete your account immediately for whatever reason)

Voting is done, they're doing the same hahahaha

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[–] TheRealJefe@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

Spez really should have read r/maliciouscompliance a bit before he bit off more than he could chew

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[–] Henrik@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

Fantastic! Really good idea from the mod team.

[–] DocMcStuffin@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

archive.ph link for those who don't want to give reddit traffic.

[–] demvoter@kbin.social 2 points 2 years ago

30,052,708 John Oliver Enthusiasts - Lolol

[–] Moskie@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago (3 children)

I don't think this is a good idea. The point of the blackout is to hit Reddit where it hurts, by driving traffic down. This prank (partially) reverses the work of the blackout, by getting people back to the pics subreddit to post and see (John Oliver) pics. It turns the blackout into a joke. And I think is a step towards the community just moving on from the blackout without it actually having the long term effects that were intended.

I'm all for malicious compliance, but I think this is the wrong flavor of it.

[–] Kissaki@feddit.de 1 points 2 years ago

A blackout prevents action. It prevents the usefulness.

A satiric malicious compliance focus does not categorically prevent activity, but does prevent general activity. It prevents the usefulness and value of the subreddit too.

When you are at risk of losing the blackout by losing control of the subreddit. it's the only thing you can do. It's the next best and next most effective thing.

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[–] theUnlikely@sopuli.xyz 1 points 2 years ago (3 children)

This is great. Tomorrow I'll see what I can do with stable diffusion.

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