Is it a bad idea to bulk “unleash” previously banned users?
I recently stepped down as a moderator of a subreddit after a disagreement with the current moderation team about the direction of the community.
During my time as a moderator, I banned quite a few users. I was probably stricter than some moderators would be, but my reasoning was that removing disruptive users helped keep the overall quality of the subreddit up and, in my experience, also reduced downvoting and other disruptive behaviour.
After the moderation approach changed, a significant number of previously banned users were unbanned. Since then, I've noticed a noticeable increase in downvotes, low-effort posts and low-effort comments. This is exactly the kind of behaviour I previously tried to keep under control.
So I'm wondering: is there any evidence or moderator experience suggesting that mass-unbanning previously banned users can negatively affect a subreddit? Or could this simply be a normal consequence of a change in moderation style?
I'm also interested in how other moderators handle old bans. Is it generally better to leave bans in place unless there is a specific reason to reverse them, or is periodically reviewing and removing older bans considered good practice?
I want to be clear that I'm not asking whether my moderation style was too strict. I can acknowledge that I was probably too strict at times. I'm more interested in the practical consequences of suddenly reversing a large number of moderation decisions.
For additional context, I had been responsible for a significant part of the day-to-day moderation and content creation. The other moderators had been much less active, and we ultimately developed very different ideas about what the subreddit should be. I decided to step down rather than continue a disagreement over the direction of the community.
PS: I also wonder whether a change like this can affect subreddit activity in the longer term. Reddit encourages moderators to actively contribute to their communities, including through creating content and maintaining engagement. If the people taking over the moderation are less active themselves, I wonder whether that can eventually result in declining traffic or engagement.
The vision for the subreddit also changed quite significantly. I had always tried to keep it relatively serious and topic-focused, while the new approach appears to allow more low-effort and off-topic content. Maybe my expectations will turn out to be completely wrong, but I'm interested in hearing from moderators who have experienced something similar.
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