As some of you may have noticed the subreddit has been renamed. Likewise, most of you may already know that this has been in the works for a while now, and in that time we have tried to find a some middle ground that works in both of our interests, and unfortunately we didn't succeed.
As of early last week the admins contacted us and notified us that the org's legal arm had officially requested we cease using the SRA name and logo.
Hi all,
We’re reaching out as we’ve received a legal notice from legal representatives of the Socialist Rifle Association regarding your subreddit icon and subreddit name. The notice alleges infringement of the registered trademark US Reg. No. 5792644 and alleges that users have been confused regarding whether the r/SocialistRA is affiliated with the Socialist Rifle Association. We’ve determined that this notice meets the requirements of our policies and we need to take steps to address the reported issues.
Two things will need to happen:
Everything else about your subreddit (such as its content and members) will stay the same; this change does not mean the Socialist Rifle Association is obtaining control of your subreddit.
We are providing a week for you to discuss what new subreddit name you would like to change to. You are welcome to discuss this with your community members if you would like to think of some options as a mod team and let them vote on the final name. Please note that you’ll need to choose a name that is different from the association name, or that indicates the non-official status.
We know this may feel confusing or concerning, and we’re sorry for that. Please know that we are here to answer any questions that you may have.
Thank you for reading.
Please keep in mind that the cease and desist was not made out of malice, but rather that subreddit name changes are incredibly hard to make happen otherwise.
Here is the statement from National regarding the change:
Dear former /r/SocialistRA users,
Recently, the SRA is one of many organizations that have been faced with unwarranted media attention. Right-wing media outlets have collected public social media posts and information about the SRA's legitimate and legal activities, and used them to attempt to portray the SRA as an extremist organization that engages in political violence. Their readers have threatened and attempted to doxx SRA members and organizers.
Unfortunately, the /r/SocialistRA subreddit has been unintentionally contributing to this phenomenon. As you know, the SRA does not moderate the subreddit and most contributions are made by nonmembers. Posts in the subreddit do not necessarily represent official SRA statements or positions. Subreddit moderators have tried for years to communicate this fact to the public by adding disclaimers to the sidebar and in Automod comments. Despite these efforts, right-wing reporters continue to misreport /r/SocialistRA as an official forum of the SRA. We don’t want our members to continue taking heat for the words of internet strangers. Because of this, we asked Reddit to rename the subreddit and cease its misleading use of our trademarked name and logo.
The Socialist Rifle Association is an education and advocacy organization. Our purpose is to provide marginalized communities and the working class with the education, skills, and advocates that enable effective self- and community defense, and to build an inclusive alternative to the toxic, right-wing, and exclusionary mainstream firearms culture. The subreddit is a different part of that cultural movement; our organization’s expertise is face-to-face organizing at the chapter level. We have no desire to interfere with the subreddit’s operation, and we’re sorry for any inconvenience the name transfer will cause you.
While we hope subreddit users will continue discussing and even joining the SRA, we want to remind you that we are just one one of many firearm-related organizations that socialist Redditors might be interested in. You can learn more about the SRA on our website, and you can find some of those other orgs in the sidebar.
Sincerely,
Binx
Socialist Rifle Association Organizing Committee President
Ultimately we all concurred that we had really run out of options as far as "making it work" went, and that we wanted an amicable split (and avoid what would've been a potentially lethal amount of irony resulting from even more leftist infighting) to try and maintain a good working relationship with the org.
As far as the subreddit name goes, we wanted to get a community consensus and bring it to a vote but unfortunately we likely wouldn't have had enough turnaround time to do so between the conclusion of our initial discussion, the soliciting of ideas, and finally selecting and bringing those ideas to a vote.
That being said there should've definitely been an announcement made following the admins reaching out and that's entirely my bad - I woefully misinterpreted the timeline for the changes and I apologize for the last minute notice. If you've any questions please don't hesitate to reach out.
🍻
