Reddit Botches Rollout Of Group Chat Feature

Moderation has always been a big problem on Reddit, but now it seems the company has added a new issue to the list. "Start Chatting," Reddit's group chat feature, which the company hoped would let people connect during the coronavirus quarantine, rolled out on Wednesday and things have not gone smoothly

Shortly after announcing the feature on the Reddit blog, moderators from across the site expressed concerns about moderating chats. For example, a moderator from /r/abuse wrote:

To me it seems our sub is necessary, because it provides redditors with a safe space to talk about the stuff that is too personal and too laden for something like /r/ask. But how am I expected to run a highly sensitive sub filled with traumatized minors when you guys implement a chat feature that I can't interact with? Did you guys even consider the vulnerable communities on your site? 'Cause to me your plan sounds like linking a hospital directly to open sewage.

However, due to a glitch, Reddit's slow rollout of the feature went wide across the site, meaning every subreddit and Redditor. This included subreddits that dealt with sensitive topics, like /r/abuse and /r/rape, which were never supposed to get this feature.

Reddit claims that even though some could see the button in these subreddits, the feature shouldn't work. This was not the case, according to users.

An anonymous Redditor told Mashable:

I wasn't able to get the chat to open on /r/rape, but the banner overlay still displayed. I was able to get into an /r/offmychest chat though, and we deliberately set our subreddit topic to support with the admins months ago. We never should have had this enabled per their guidelines for the rollout.

Ultimately, Reddit admitted that they had "fucked up" and updated the feature, announcing that they will not offer the feature again without giving moderators a way to opt-out. In a statement, they wrote:

We will not roll the feature out within your community again without having a way for you to opt out, and will provide you with ample notice and regular updates going forward.