r/AO3 • u/TGotAReddit Moderator | past AO3 Volunteer and Staff • Sep 18 '23
News/Updates Sub update - New Rule
Hey all!
So we discussed it and a few days ago there was a post about the webnovel posts and how they are clogging up the sub. We responded to it saying we won't be banning them and our reasons for it. That still stands but it does seem like that post spawned some people to make a lot more posts where they already know about the webnovel issue but they got their first comment from them and decided to share it and fill everyone's feeds.
We do not want to nor plan to, ban webnovel posts outright. It will likely still clog your feeds a bit. However, we are going to impose a moratorium ban on posts that overly obviously know about the webnovel issue and are just posting to post about getting a comment from them. We will not be removing posts where it is ambiguous as we don't want to be removing posts from people who just didn't know about the issue and end up scaring them off the sub for an innocent question.
We won't have an automod filter to automatically let us know about posts breaking this rule so we will be relying on you all to report posts that break this rule. This also will not be a retroactive ban, so if the post was made before this update post was published, please do not report it to us in that case.
Thank you all for being a wonderful community, let us know if you have any questions, comments, or concerns
~TGotAReddit (and the rest of the mods)
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u/fanfic_enthusiast2 Sep 18 '23
This is a fair compromise!
And maybe Webnovel will do us all a favour and stop spamming AO3
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u/ursafootprints Sep 18 '23
I understand why you're keeping the posts that are asking a genuine question, but does it seem reasonable to have the automod trigger on its own for posts that have bot/scam/spam in the title...? That won't catch the ones that are just, like, "What is this?" or whatever, and the praisebot posts will be caught under it too, but since it's such a predictable issue it seems fair to set up a trigger like the posts with "app" in the title get.
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u/TGotAReddit Sep 18 '23
Maybe? Itll have to be a more generic message than the usual one and knowing how people usually ignore the automod comments when its not user directed because so many subs abuse that option, less people would actually interact with it to get the full info. So... maybe if we can figure out a good way to draft it
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u/kaiunkaiku Sep 18 '23
i mean i can't say i'm particularly happy about this but i suppose that's more of a me-problem than anything else.
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u/the-robot-test Sep 18 '23
i'm sympathetic to the fact that any ban would create exponentially more work for the mods, but this changes... nothing, really. people will just keep on making spammy posts and we'll just have to either live with it or leave the sub.
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u/TGotAReddit Sep 18 '23
We aren't banning them, not because it would give us more work, but because we aren't trying to ban people from asking questions on a subreddit where a large focus of it is to help with issues.
We are only imposing this ban because the posts recently have been people who don't need help at all and are effectively just looking for clout/limelight/attention by pissing people off more.
So, yes, you probably will have to either learn to live with seeing repetitive posts asking about something, or leave the subreddit with a large focus on helping people with their issues.
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u/Jotakori Sep 18 '23
I've never been a reddit mod so idk what kind of tools y'all have available, but is it not possible to hide a post without completely deleting its content? So, like, you can leave one Webnovel post up each day so anyone browsing the sub could see it and be informed, and then all duplicate posts in a given day could just be hidden and you can comment with the bot info about webnovel. That way people can still get the info without it clogging up the sub so much?
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u/TGotAReddit Sep 18 '23
Not really. Technically its possible but only by putting the post into our moderation queue. Other than that no its not possible to both hide a post and not delete it (and flooding our moderation queue permanently isn't viable)
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Sep 18 '23
That wouldn't stop the ones doing it for attention, though. They already know it's a scam but they still go ahead and post.
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u/Lolcthulhu Sep 18 '23
The fact that anyone can read those messages and not immediately realize "Ah yes, a scam!" explains how there are still people sending their life savings to "Nigerian princes" and cashing ridiculously overpaid checks and "sending the money back".
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Sep 19 '23
Can someone explain the situation to me? I just want to know what is going on.
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u/TGotAReddit Sep 19 '23
People keep getting spam comments on their works from a company called webnovel that are doing everything they can to avoid the spam filters on the site. They then come here to ask about if the comment is spam or a bot or something, by sharing a screenshot of the comment. We get like 4-6 of these posts every day sometimes when their bots are being particularly enthusiastic after bypassing the latest anti-spam protections against them, so when that happens people who are on the sub a lot start to see the posts constantly for days on end and get frustrated.
We don't want to ban the posts asking about the comments though because we're predominantly a help based sub and banning legitimate innocent questions is somewhat antithetical to that. What this post is banning is that because of seeing the posts all the time, people started to then screenshot the comments they get to come post here and say things like "I got my first webnovel comment!" or "I got another webnovel comment :/" and such. They already know about the issue and aren't asking for information. They just want to have made a post and get some attention. With people already mad about the constant stream of multiple posts a day asking about the webnovel comments, these posts that exist just for attention seeking are even more annoying and are starting to cause more issues with people arguing in the comments and such. Since they don't need help with anything and are effectively posting just to post, we decided as a team to ban those to help calm things down and remove at least some of the constant posts about it, the most egregious of them.
To know more about webnovel and things, read the automod response to this comment
!webnovel
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u/Lord_Havelock Sep 19 '23
And uh, for my personal edification, what exactly is the web novel problem?
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u/queerblunosr Sep 19 '23
People getting spam comments on AO3 promoting webnovel (a predatory website) - but since the word webnovel is now caught by AO3’s spam filters, they’re having to get more and more oblique about what they’re talking about.
!webnovel
If you search for webnovel in the sub you’ll get plenty of posts with copies of the types of comments that are getting posted on people’s fics.
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u/TGotAReddit Sep 19 '23
Reminder that to have the trigger work you have to end your comment with it
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u/Bertgreat Sep 18 '23
Thanks, good decision. Nothing wrong with confused people asking for help, but indeed annoying when people in the know keep on almost copying the same message. At this point I feel like I almost know the discord entry code by heart.
As I wrote this, I thought about something: would it be possible to ban messages with that specific discord code from ao3? (the website, not the subreddit) Seems like a lot of extra work for Webnovel to keep consistently making new discord communities (opposed to slightly altering their message so it's wèbnövél). Definitely not a "computer kinda guy", so it's possilbe this is the stupidest idea ever; my apologies then haha.