Rephrase "moderators will now have to submit a request if they want to switch their subreddit from public to private" and "making sitewide protest basically impossible"<p>to: "moderators will now no longer be able to exercise the decision to unilaterally shut down a subreddit which non-moderators may not agree to or desire" and "but moderators are free to stop moderating or to abdicate their role if they wish to protest, or even pin a sticky post at the top of their subreddit containing whatever message of protest they wish."<p>What this really comes down to is: who "owns" a subreddit and decides its fate? It's moderators? Its users? Reddit itself? Or some combination of the three? Moderators think they deserve sole discretion and ownership, but many users who may not care about moderator's protests may disagree, as may Reddit itself.<p>When a subreddit is switched to private by moderators, that also makes protest by the users of that subreddit against said decision basically impossible.