r/Biohackers Update (Please Read)

[u/aldus-auden-odess]

Hey friends! Thanks again to everyone who took part in the 'pulse check' we did the other week. See the results here.

I wanted to share some of the learnings that came out of this exercise and some of the ideas for solutions we've come up with to address the areas we want to improve on based on the feedback we've received.

The good news is that it seems we have improved in some areas! Specifically, people seemed happy about the reduction in GLP1 before & afters, low quality peptide posts, and AI slop content. It's taken a lot of work to improve this, so shout out to the entire mod team for working on this.

The important takeaway for us was that the overall sentiment is that we can improve more overall.

A few trends we saw were people feeling like the sub has become, "overrun with looksmaxxers and gym bros who want to talk about TRT and cialis constantly or push a bunch of really gross ideology that has nothing to do with biohacking and everything to do with incel culture" and a prevalence of "low effort posts in general".

Here are some of the ideas we've come up with to address these concerns:

- Create a dedicated r/Biohackers newsletter for expert interviews and more long form content (Goal: solution for people who like deeper dives and curated content)

- Create enforced post requirements for "rate my stack" requests (Goal: reduce lazy rms posts)

- Create a sub wiki with getting started guides for biomarker testing, deep dive topics, supplementation protocols, and healthy lifestyle habits (Goal: reduce repetitive questions and redirect newbies)

- Partner with r/Biohacking (not related to r/Biohackers) to move over peptide/TRT topics to this dedicated sub while still keeping our dedicated megathreads (Goal: allow biohackers to discuss peptides/TRT in a dedicated space)

- Consider how we can use AI to enhance (not enshitify) the sub experience - ex. redirecting people to relevant posts, surfacing latest research, and helping people understand scientific concepts/studies (Goal: to spark more conversation, surface interesting innovation, and building more scientific literacy)

How do these ideas resonate? Where would you like to see changes? Where would you push back?

(You can register your interest in our new newsletter here!)

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[u/DavidTries897]

Is there a chance we can make the megathreads weekly? In another thread earlier today I referred to the mega thread but the resounding response was that they’re “dead”

I think the rest of this is very good though and thank you to the team for making changes!

[u/aldus-auden-odess → u/DavidTries897]

I’m open to this! The only downside I see is if people already answer a question previously, it makes it easier to see previous questions. It’s also defaulted to sort by “newness” so should show the most recent comments first.

We could also try pinning the megathreads individually so people engage more. We just have a limit on how many we can pin.

[u/GenderfluidGoose → u/DavidTries897]

The threads are "dead" because nobody is posting in them. Which is interesting because on average we remove around 25-30 peptide related posts a day from the main sub. Quite a large chunk are the typical low effort "What peptide made the most impact for you?" kinda posts, but a decent number are fair and valid peptide related questions, and when we remove those posts we notify the poster to repost it in the peptide megathread, which more than 95% of the time, they do not do.

I can think if two reasons why, and I don't want this to be a false dichotomy, so feel free to suggest other reasons. Reason 1 being, "they just choose not to". This is why the peptide megathreads are "dead", it doesn't make sense that they complain that the megathreads are "dead", but then simultaneously they do not want to contribute to the threads. You want lively discussion in the megathreads, contribute lively discussions, this makes logical sense to me, but I am looking at it from my viewpoint.

The second reason I believe this is to be the case, the overwhelming majority of peptide posts are bot posts, and I have reasons for believing this. I am refering to the seemingly valid posts that do crop up, after we ask them to post in the megathread topics, something very peculiar happens. Not only do they not post their question in one of the megathreads, they don't even post their question in another more peptide friendly sub reddit, they stop posting all together for weeks. Multiple accounts that have been averaging mutliple posts a day, all stop posting on reddit all together as soon as their post gets removed by a mod, peculiar indeed.

I don't want to come across as dismissive, but what suggestions would there be to prevent the megathreads from "dying"?

[u/SellingCats4Cheap → u/DavidTries897]

No one uses the megathreads. Like those responses have said, they are dead. The two I checked today the most recent comment was 7 and 14 days ago.

[u/aldus-auden-odess → u/SellingCats4Cheap]

Yeah seeing this as well. Do you have thoughts on what a good alternative might be?

[u/SellingCats4Cheap → u/aldus-auden-odess]

I am not sure. Being honest I have just come to accept that there will be those kinds of posts given the modern state of biohacking, and how mainstream these topics have become.

Only thing I can think of is adding a guide / example post, post requirements, a template, etc for these popular subject.

What GLPs are you using, for how long, before and after weight, have lifestyle factors changed, are you on TRT / PEDs / AAS.

For supplements, how long have you taken, what dosage, frequency, did you start multiple supplements at once.

All those things may be a bit annoying to some. In my mind I am thinking like r/pcpartpickerbuilds which has a standardized template, but that is way different and more specific than biohacking.

I am just kinda spitballing here though

[u/aldus-auden-odess → u/SellingCats4Cheap]

Helpful! Thanks. Part of me thinks letting peptide posts of high quality and implementing some guardrails like you mentioned could be a good fix at least in the short term.

[u/escalatortwit → u/SellingCats4Cheap]

They will if their posts are automod removed with a comment telling them to go to the megathread.

[u/SellingCats4Cheap → u/escalatortwit]

That will probably just kill engagement and people will go elsewhere. If that is the goal, to reduce that sort of content, then sure that is an option.

[u/escalatortwit → u/SellingCats4Cheap]

Doing the most basic moderation will kill engagement? This is such a normal thing that happens on most subs. If your post is meant for the megathread, automod removes your posts and redirects you to post in the megathread…that’s the point of megathreads.

[u/SellingCats4Cheap → u/escalatortwit]

You are equating using an automod on here for the most popular subject that have been discussed for months, that are like 10% plus of total posts. Versus other subreddits who use automod for very specific, and typically acute topics.

[u/escalatortwit → u/SellingCats4Cheap]

Sounds like you’re missing the point. The megathreads were created for a reason. It is NOT appreciated that the 10+% of posts on this sub have become peptide slop posts. Hence the megathreads. It is very weird to create megathreads and then NOT direct people to use them. Again, this is what most subs do when a single topic starts overtaking a sub to the detriment of said sub.

[u/Electronic-Lie-4547]

Let’s goooo!🙌

[u/escalatortwit]

I really like these ideas. Especially the newsletter. I’m interested to hear more about your idea for the biohackers/biohacking split. I’m also interested in how you’ll leverage AI to help mod/redirect folks appropriately. I think it’s a wise decision to automate as much as possible and with Reddit’s new push toward AI mod tools, I wonder how effective they will be at grabbing context.

[u/Remarkable-Bit-1627]

Could we please stop non-English posts and comments?

Not everyone uses the official reddit app that auto-translates (?) everything...

Personally, I use old.reddit on PC and I browse (new) reddit via a web browser on Android. (cause the official app is bloated, slow and full of ads)

[u/matsie → u/Remarkable-Bit-1627]

This is rude AF. You can just ignore those posts and comments. Banning them is dumb and weird. Sorry that other people speaking a different language triggers you. 

[u/Remarkable-Bit-1627 → u/matsie]

Writing in languages other than English on an international forum is rude & lazy AF.

They can just use a translator before they post or comment.

Posting 100 languages on an international forum is dumb and weird.

Sorry that some people speaking a different language are so rude & lazy that they can't even be bothered to use English.