Amid Bickering Over Movie Rights, Reddit Removes Top 'WallStreetBets' Moderators

The New York Times reports: Late on Wednesday, a moderator of the popular Reddit message board WallStreetBets posted several screenshots on the chat app Discord. They showed that other moderators had quietly started talking among themselves about landing a movie deal. "What's our cut?" one of the moderators had asked in a Discord chat, according to the screenshots. By Thursday morning, that quest for Hollywood riches had exploded into an ugly battle, giving a glimpse into the unruly nature of a suddenly famous Reddit community. That was when the WallStreetBets moderators who were considering the film deal began booting out other moderators who had questioned them for secretly trying to profit from the forum's success. Eventually, employees at Reddit weighed in to try to quell the unrest.... One moderator said he was in touch with Ben Mezrich, an author of the book that became the movie "The Social Network," who last week secured deals to write a book and help with a movie about the GameStop saga, according to screenshots from the forum shared with The Times. "Oof we gotta go fast i think," another moderator wrote back. "While the studios are competing...." The conversation heated up after WallStreetBets founder Jaime Rogozinski announced that he had sold the rights to his own story to a movie studio this week. Mr. Rogozinski did not respond to requests for comment... Some began criticizing the top moderators for moves they had made to raise their profile, like creating a Twitter account and hiring a public relations representative. Some also made death threats. Late Wednesday and early Thursday, the top moderators began removing lower-ranking moderators who were asking questions.... On Thursday afternoon, Reddit stepped in to remove the top WallStreetBets moderators.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

from Slashdot https://ift.tt/2MC3pYo

Share on FacebookPlus on Google+

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER