Hullo hullo my precious peeps, sending y'all much love and thanks for your eager participation in yet another annual Drammy award vote! It's hard to believe this is already the third year now that we've done this, right? While 2023 may already be a distant memory for many of you by now (yes I know this post has gone up super late shut up I've been busy and nobody else wanted to volunteer), come walk with me one last time as we celebrate the most dramatic events of the year, both in-house and across the web!

Best Dramatic Happening - The Reddit Jannypocalypse (169 votes)

On one fateful day sometime in 2023, /u/spez AKA Steve Huffman, the CEO and chief chadmin of Reddit Inc. suddenly shot awake from a wonderful dream where he was bussy blasting the cute new twink intern. He had just had a galaxy-brained epiphany - his company was planning to IPO soon, and nobody is going to want to invest in his shitty forum aggregate site that makes no money and has a reputation far and wide for having really fricking annoying janitors that love making the user experience miserable for everyone. Heck, they've even made special dedicated bots and scripts to autoban and mass ban users if they posted in a rival subreddit 6 years ago, and gone as far as develop unlicensed third party mobile apps because the official Reddit app doesn't let them mod abuse hard enough. Well Steve finally had enough of being pushed around by this fierce cabal of jannies, and decided to finally put his foot down.

It began with an announcement - on June 1st, Reddit announced that Reddit was pulling API support for freeloading third party mobile apps as well as janny apps such as PushShift, unless they fork over enough cash to make it worth Reddit's while. The jannies predictably reacted as they always do whenever they get well-deserved pushback from the higher ups - threatening to strike from their unpaid volunteer roles, because they're just that important and valuable to the site, y'all. (as always, we snuck into their secret protest planning Groomercord and leaked everything teehee )

Reddit communities to ‘go dark' in protest over third-party app charges

Major Reddit communities will go dark to protest threat to third-party apps

Reddit blackout: Subreddits to go private on Monday

Now to be fair to the janitors, this tactic of throwing a tantrum and attempting to disrupt site operations has actually worked for them in the past for some r-slurred reason, the most prominent example coming to mind being the /r/NoNewNormal stuff. But this time was different. The patience of the admins had finally worn thin, and they threatened to send in the Pinkertons to break some mops and bust up this janny union once and for all. And the reaction of the jannies was amazing to watch.

Some prominent rdrama threads:

AT LAST, JANNYCIDE IS UPON US!

Janniecord is taking the janniecide well

GIGAJANNIES PUBLICLY DECLARE OPEN SEASON ON PROTESTERS

Reddit admins drop a bomb on powerjannies: “ If you believe that your community or another community is being subject to decisions made by a sole moderator without buy-in from the broader mod team, you can let us know via the Moderator Code of Conduct form above.”

This resulted in most sub jannies negotiating their way down to a pointless ineffective "48 hour temporary shutdown" which achieved absolutely nothing, because the thought of actually turning in their mod powers and walking away from their $0.00 salary role cleaning up the site was too much to bear for them. Even so, this war was not without its casualties.

Infamous mod abusing AHS powerjanny and close friend of Bardfinn, u/AwkwardTheTurtle, has his account permanently suspended and he has an opioid-induced meltdown over it, spam pinging admins and DEMANDING ANSWERS. He never did get a response.

Another well-known powermod u/Karmanacht AKA u/N8TheGr8 has his mop broken. He would later also be permanently suspended.

A mod that spent over $5000 on Reddit NFTs gets gigajannied. No refunds!

Amidst all the chaos, some of our sleeper agents here in the rdrama admin team were able to get in contact with some journ*lists, posing as members of the janny protest. While some contacts like Reuters and WSJ didn't include our quotes of choice in their articles (lame), some publications took the bait.

"For a lot of us, moderating Reddit is a good chunk of our lives," user HeyMoon, who requested to use their pseudonym, told Context. "I have moderated r/politics around five hours, most days of the week (since 2016), providing real, monetary value to Reddit. The least they can do is respect what we want ... We aren't the kings, we're the darn janitors of this website." (context.news)

They said they wanted Reddit admins to realise that they rely on moderators to operate the site and felt that the only way to send a message was by harming Reddit's traffic. "This is a completely volunteer position, we don't receive any financial compensation, and despite that, we do like to take it quite seriously." (BBC News)

To be honest though, I'm upset they didn't include my "Million Mod March" speech.

With Reddit now expecting to finally IPO in 2024, will there be more janny/admin drama waiting for us in the wings this year? You'll just have to stay tuned.

Dramatard of the Year - @kaamrev (173 votes)

Battling off fierce competition from a podcaster, a white woman and a zoophile (three separate candidates for clarity), long-time South African dramatard and pillar of the community @kaamrev takes home this year's crown as your chosen dramatard of the year! Known for his many effortposts on SA drama as well as a variety of other topics, it only makes sense why you morons accidentally nominated him 5 separate times in the nominations thread and I had to manually count up all the separate upmarseys on each comment to figure out the final tally.

But that aside, congratulations @kaamrev, and we appreciate that you've stuck with us all this time!

A catalogued archive of kaamrev's many valued effortposts can be found here!

Best rDrama Post - I didn't realize Stable Diffusion has a folder where it saves all outputs you generate (149 votes)

Awarded: @Adolin113355

This one was a blowout. I don't think I have to give any further explanation on this one - if somehow you haven't seen this post yet, go read it now. Don't forget the follow-ups in the comments either.

Despite posting one of the biggest Ls this site has lived to see so far, at least @Adolin113355 gets the consolation prize of a shiny badge on his profile and the knowledge that his unfortunate experience brightened the days and remained in the memories of many a dramatard, to the point where his personal lamentation was voted the best post of 2023. Congrats!

Best rDrama Bait - Nashville Manifesto Mayhem (134 votes)

Awarded: @tina, @DWHITE___________DYNAMITE, @CarpathianGroypist

As what seems to be a recurring annual theme now, rdrama's best bait of 2023 again revolved around meddling in the aftermath of a tragic spree killing. You naughty fellows.

This tomfoolery was technically two separately planned bait ops, but since they were very similar in nature, piggybacked off the same event and both had very effective results, it was decided that they be rolled into the one nomination candidate.

Hot on the heels of it being revealed that the Nashville school shooter identified as trans, @tina of Cinch News puts out a well-timed article as a reminder to chuds that someone being a bad person does not grant you permission to misgender them or invalidate their identity.

@CarpathianGroypist took to Twitter to signal boost this spicy piece of ragebait, which was enough to hook over 400 retweets and 4500 likes from gullible rightoids. Not only that, but bigger online figures such as Ian Miles Cheong and Tim Pool's editor in chief gladly swallowed up the bait. Eventually, it grew viral enough to catch the ire of deboonkers such as Snopes and USA Today, a badge of honor shared by previous viral drama ops such as the Libs of Tiktok Furry Hoax and /r/TXBountyHunters.

In the meantime, @DWHITE___________DYNAMITE was hard at work mocking up a fake manifesto that reveals that the hate site rdrama.net was the culprit behind their radicalization!

It was spread around on /pol/ for a bit, before @CarpathianGroypist again managed to get the attention of, and successfully bait Ian Miles Cheong a second time within a couple of days, despite the bait being so obvious that it includes the entire /r/drama "let me tell you this" copypasta

Some other notable threads:

the /ftm/s on 4chan have taken the bait manifesto

Beware: Fake images of the Tennessee shooter manifestos (like these) are circulating all over the internet to malign trans people

Eventually the Washington Post wrote an entire article about the hoax, although opting to blame the hacker 4chan for the ruse instead of giving proper credit. As recently as 3 months ago, they were still referencing it in articles.

This collaborative two-pronged effort was the dramatard's choice for ruse of the year. Well played and well baited to everyone involved!

Best rDrama Activist - Reddit HQ Pilgrimage (186 votes)

Awarded: @Modern_Major_Jefferal, @Dramarama, @Homoshrexual

The first winner of this new award had little competition to fend off, and it's no surprise - @Modern_Major_Jefferal leaving a huge Marsey poster designed by @Dramarama by Reddit's leaf HQ was considered to be a very popular maneouver, earning the additional title of the most upmarseyd post of 2023.

While the poster was gone three days later as discovered by @Homoshrexual - and its ultimate fate unknown - @Modern_Major_Jefferal has promised to make the journey to Reddit's real headquarters in San Francisco and leave a souvenir if he wins. This contract is now officially binding, and you'll be banned forever if you don't deliver by December 31st 2024. Congrats!

Best rDrama OC - Marsey Cursor Follower (137 votes)

Awarded: @KatserKitty1987

Absolutely thrashing all the more conventional candidates, @KatserKitty1987's adorable marsey cursor follower was by far the most popular rdrama OC of the year, and was integrated as a feature of the site itself! Enjoy your coveted shiny Drammy badge and $20,000 mbux for your efforts

Marsey of the Year (105 votes)

Awarded: @Dramarama

Long-time beloved marsey artist @Dramarama earns a second Drammy this year (and third overall!) for her marsified rendition of the popular emote, for when you just know some dramafriend is completely talking out their bussies. Well done, and thanks for all your contributions over the years!

Lolcow of the Year (rDrama) - @TED_SIMP (146 votes)

Goddarn, there were a lot of potential candidates for this very special award this time round. There can only be one winner however, and the scandalous real-life dramatard sexual affairs (plural!) involving bird girl @TED_SIMP really broke new ground in terms of how r-slurred some of y'all can get.

I admittedly didn't follow this metadrama all that closely at the time due to extended grass touching, but these posts seem to very comprehensively sum things up, including a live interview with the coomer moids involved!

NEW SIRPINGSALOT DM DROPS CONFIRMING LOVE TRAINGLE BETWEEN HIM, R-slur and Ted_Simp WITH R*PE ALLEGATIONS, FULL SIRPINGSALOT INTERVIEW IN VIDEO

UnaBRIDGEd and UnredacTED, Unraveling the Tale of Ted_Simp: Chronicles of Deceit

What's going on with TED_SIMP?

hi, I'm Ted. AMA!

Goddarn, look at that ratio though.

Lolcow of the Year (off-site) - Jinxthinker (107 votes)

In a stunning blow to the nonces of pedorama, our homegrown avant-garde artist and animator, crusader against anime and popular streamer Jinxthinker officially makes his mark as a Drammy award winner! It was debatable as to whether Jinx counted as either an rdrama or off-site lolcow considering he used to frequently post here, but in the end I opted for the criteria that rDrama lolcow nominees must have posted to rdrama itself at least once within the year of their nomination.

Here's a brief showcase of his greatest Jinxkino of the year, particularly showing off his mentally ill anti-asian obsession with our very own @X.

THE X (FORMERLY CHIOBU) CARTOON DROPPED

Taylor Swift is Dying of Cancer. Only X (formerly chiobu) can Grant her Dying Wish

X (formerly chiobu) revealed to be trans

X (formerly chiobu) visits Japan

Carp finally joins the Jinxverse! X (formerly chiobu) gets gender affirming surgery

Janitor of the Year - @NewMoon (133 votes)

A shocking twist! Despite Carp leading the polls for almost the entire voting period, NewMoon makes a comeback in the eleventh hour and scrapes the win by a measly 4 votes! I checked by the way, those were real votes and not from sock accounts - a sneaky pinned campaign post in the final few hours are what made all the difference. Given that NewMoon was also your 2022 Dramatard of the Year though, it's no surprise that he would be one of the less despised mop wielders 'round these parts. Congrats!

And that's all, folks - until next year, if we're still around!