It appears that the moderation team that oversee the popular Call of Duty: Blacks Ops III sub reddit r/BlackOps3 have taken a hiatus from moderation duties after backlash from the community that calumniated in one particular mod receiving death threats.

The whole situation can be quite confusing, specifically because the front-page of the sub reddit appears to be filled with spam threads, threads complaining about the lack of moderation and just general immaturity.

But from what I can gather from reading this stickied thread and several threads about “the purge” (a name given to the lack of moderation by the community, referencing the 2013 film of the same name) all of this began after the r/BlackOps3 moderation team suggested a merge with another popular Call of Duty sub reddit, r/CallofDuty.

r/BlackOps3 sub reddit mod Gurr3nX received death threats and summed up his unfortunate and probably very scary situation thusly:

“I just had like the shittiest work week ever, 7 days and 67 hours. I also put up with some of the most toxic, vile, piece of shit people as best as I could. So “Your time is up, my time is now” everyone.

I didnt ask for the purge, but god damn I cant say I dont enjoy it after the shit some of you guys pull.”

Some posters on r/BlackOps3 have side-stepped the absolutely toxic behavior of their peers and instead expressed their opinion on the proposed merger and its’ potential impact on the existing community:

“I wanna clarify, I’m pretty neutral on this whole merge thing, I just think the mods should listen to what their community wants. I reckon if they had made the proposal of just trying it, and if the community thinks it doesn’t work, they revert it (correct me if a mod did say this), this shitstorm would have been avoided in the first place.”

As someone who has managed several communities – both large and small – I can say with certainty that community organization / moderation is often a thankless job. Deepest sympathies to Gurr3nX and here’s hoping that the immature antics of the r/BlackOps3 community don’t cause him any personal distress or harm. I know it shouldn’t be surprising that a game as well renowned as Call of Duty for screaming 14 year old would foster a community that issues death threats to their peers but online harassment is very real and unacceptable.

I’ll be keeping tabs on the r/BlackOps3 situation and will update this story with any major developments.