In case you haven’t been following the drama around Reddit’s r/Art subreddit, it’s a real-world example of the whole “absolute power corrupts absolutely” thing.

To summarize it quickly, an artist posted a piece they made. They left a comment saying prints were available, at which point they were promptly banned for even mentioning the word “print.” This artist, Hayden Clay, then went to social media to complain about the stupidity of this, which led to, basically, the collapse of Reddit’s r/Art subreddit, which has over half a million members.

5000+ bans is absolutely insane https://t.co/kxJhjnS04zpic.twitter.com/BmGxUQboRE

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— Hayden Clay (@haydclay) December 3, 2025

Reddit administrators closed the subreddit. Old mods were tossed and new moderators were forcibly instated. Previous bans were reviewed — at which point it was revealed that basically every single ban was for a reason deemed invalid. Seriously, the new mods say that, out of 5156 bans issued, only 1.2% of them were genuine.

Is this going to change mod behavior in the future? Of course not — it’s the internet! But man, is it fun to point and laugh? Yes!