@pterodactyl: Hey there, I'll field this, since I was up until recently the most active mod on the subreddit. (Commenting from Mastodon, so excuse the weird formatting.)

First of all, there was no demodding involved; instead, there was an internal reshuffling by ZadocPaet, who was the previous de jure head mod and decided to leave formally at the same time I did. DreadedChalupacabra becoming head mod was a decision made between Zadoc and I.

@pterodactyl: In practice, the subreddit was and is run pretty much democratically between the mod team, so Chalupacabra being formally head mod doesn't make much of a difference. He was a bit perplexed at the decision as well, for what it's worth.

Now, I'd have been "ride or die" about sticking to the blackout, especially given the response in both the subreddit and the Discord. But I'm stubborn and principled. Since I was already stepping down, I wasn't going to assert fiat over the decision.

@pterodactyl: The decision to reopen was taken based on an assessment of the response by the Reddit admininstrators and deciding that we didn't want the subreddit falling into the hands of people who might use the subreddit to push malignant political positions, which are far too common in video gaming.

Notably, this was *not* a case of the mod team wanting to cling onto power at all costs like some people would cry. I want to nip that idea in the bud.

@pterodactyl: As for myself, I decided that spez's response to the blackout was so overwhelmingly contemptuous that I felt there was no alternative but to leave Reddit. But I'd already been disillusioned with the direction of Reddit already, so it's easier to make decisions like that when you're practically on the way out as it is.

As mentioned in the post explaining the reopening, I have been conversant with and have full confidence in the moderators that have remained.

@Liontigerwings: There's always been an undercurrent of "mods just want power and control because they can't get it themselves in their lives" that goes against my experience as a moderator.

Personally, my response to people calling for moderators to put their money where their mouth is, to step down as a moderator and leave the site was, "OK, will do".

@lavender @pterodactyl: I'm already following a few gaming accounts, retro or otherwise and retrocomputing accounts on Mastodon and I'm still moderating the RGN Discord (not the biggest fan of Discord as a platform, but it's there), so I'm not short of places to discuss retro gaming.

We have raised the possibility of setting up shop on the Fediverse or even on an Invision discussion board; I think a fair few retrogamers remember when the latter was the main way to discuss games online.

@Doggylife: My understanding is that third-party Reddit moderating tools tend to trend more towards more sophisticated automoderators and the like. Although that having been said, the core moderating tools on Reddit are not great even on desktop and they're abysmal on the official app.

@abff08f4813c: They're creating one thread a day, discussing a historical case of protest action or an aligned topic, like the history of scabs.

@DarkThoughts @pterodactyl: We're observing the malicious compliance strategies actively and wondering how well they'll go. I have to say that I especially like /r/history's approach.

@snipeftw: No, the Rubicon has been crossed here. I've always thought Reddit was a bit shit to begin with and some of the things I've read since getting out of there have reinforced my decision that I got out at a good time.

@unix_joe: I've been using SUSE with KDE since SuSE Linux Personal 7.0. So, 20+ years?

@davetansley: Definitely a game I've used as a comparison point when it comes to the games with the most ports. There was a book written on all of the ports; there was even an arcade port in the planning at one point which can be played in MAME.

> How much do you know about the inner workings of an internal combustion engine, yet do you still drive?

A fair bit from a theoretical perspective, actually. I've got a copy of Fundamentals of Motor Vehicle Technology on my shelf and I figure 50 years ago, I'd have been one of those people taking apart and putting together a motorcycle engine during the summer instead of figuring out how computers worked.

@davetansley: I've played that one at the Centre for Computing History in Cambridge. Despite not having the accelerated graphics of the Amiga, the ARM CPU in the Archimedes seemed to be powerful enough on its own to deliver a surprisingly smooth performance across a number of games.