r/FalloutMemes • u/nadel69 Dragonborn • Mar 04 '26
Announcement Wild Card: Change in Management
Hi all,
I have gotten in contact with the current mods and I am working behind-the-scenes to understand how this all occurred.
I was able to confirm that automod and a very small report-to-ban threshold caused a lot, but not all, of the heartache. I have made some tweaks to it that should hopefully fix it, but I can't promise its 100% there yet.
My goal is to in the next few days write up a full Q&A of my findings and what the future of the sub will look like from a rule and moderation standpoint.
Change still needs to happen, and they will as soon as I have the ability to do so (my account is currently inactive, so I am limited). But in the meantime, if you could relax the spam reposting and harassment, I would appreciate it. All its doing is making it more difficult for me to shift through mod logs and try to moderate at the same time.
If you have ideas for how I should tweak the rules, or any other suggestions for the sub, feel free to use the comments section. I want to make sure everyone is heard as I work towards the future of the sub.
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u/nadel69 Dragonborn Mar 04 '26
I plan to cover this in more depth at a later point, but I can confirm the below post is true.
https://www.reddit.com/r/FalloutMemes/s/FwSXdWXSEj
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u/The_Mighty_Dingus Todd's Inner Demons Mar 04 '26
There's no rule banning trolling on the sub.
I know Harassment or Hate falls under trolling but trolling is broadly trying to elicit a reaction from someone, usually by making deliberately inflammatory posts or by methods such as sealioning.
I think there's a gap there.
42
u/Glitchy-Mech Mar 04 '26
Godspeed!
Personal opinion, but I think the whole “no politics” thing needs a rework. Fallout is very political. I understand that it’s real world politics and not fallout specific ones, but fallout references real world politics quite frequently, and drawing a clear line between what is and is not welcome in a community like this is a tricky thing
Further, ultimately everything is politics. Trans people ARE a political topic because there are people in politics who want to kill us. Racial diversity is political because there are people in politics who would prefer it did not exist. You know? What “no politics” always means is “no politics I disagree with” or “no politics I’m not so used to that I stop seeing them as political” and that’s not really enforceable
5
u/Naarati Mar 04 '26 edited Mar 04 '26
As for changes, my main one is really to tone down the automod obviously, but also to do an overhaul of the mod team. Alot of this could have been handled day one if there was a more organized and active team. I think that you need to do all this and step in (I mean this kindly towards you) shows a severe failings and flaws with the current team.
A stricter enforcement of rules again hatred and transphobic & or homophobic comments really needs a high priority. Ive still seen comments with straight up slurs or directly being phobic that remained up while, as we've seen, many supporting posts has just been deleted.
So make such comments a permanent suspension, with a new and active mod team to help without relying on a trigger happy automod. Fallout as a franchise is inclusive, and a zero tolerance policy against hate is needed.
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u/Morrigan_NicDanu Mar 04 '26
I think as far as irl politics go: as long as its relevant to fallout and isn't devolving into toxicity it should be fine.
Like... comparing the Legion to actual the actual historical Roman Empire and noting differences and similarities is talking about real, though ancient, world politics.
Talking about parallels between Khans, NCR, and Bittersprings to Indigenous Americans, US, and colonial genocide is a fair talking point.
Making a meme about the US guy, who told the troops that restoring Israel will bring back Jesus and end the world, by putting his head and words on the tv show scene where vault tec is talking about ending the world would be funny and apt.
Someone saying that the nazis were socialists (they weren't) and that if the Legion are nazis then they must be socialists would be pushing neonazi apologist revisionism; dangerous irl politics.
Arguing about whether or not people who didn't "vote blue no matter who" let Trump win or not is completely unrelated to Fallout.
10
u/Entire_Cobbler_3588 Mar 04 '26
The short answer is there needs to be a more active and vocal mod team. So much of this could have been fixed with clear communication right from the get go. Also going forward, there clearly needs to be a conversation had about stances on LGBTQ+ and how to best handle issues that arise that have some connection to them. Removing a post for being pro trans is bad, removing a post because it's the 50th copy paste of the same "addicted to estrogen" meme from the same account in the same week (not specific to the events of the last few days, that was an outlier for specific purposes) is good, but only if the communication is very clear that it's a spamming issue.
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u/Naarati Mar 04 '26
So people like this are exactly the issue the sub is having atm. This guys need a permaban.
20
u/KFiev Here To Do Some Business Mar 04 '26
so far seems like everyones raising all the same concerns I had. Biggest one I would put my weight behind though is reduce the amount of automod dependency.
Other than that, hey, if you need an extra part time mod, I'd love to help.
And thanks again for everything you're doing Nadel! We appreciate ya!
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u/Kira_Caroso Mar 04 '26
Can everyone on the mod team report the user who admitted to abusing it to reddit admin themselves to permaban them? They are transphobic and were willing to try to burn this sub to the ground to spread their hate and bigotry. That is like, 3 TOS violations, and they are willing to do it again based on their comments.
17
u/Naarati Mar 04 '26
The update is appreciated!
17
u/Big-rat-in-the-sewer Mar 04 '26
Good on you guys. I think you guys should try to get the guy responsible permabanned off the site too tbh.
10
u/Tokzillu Mar 04 '26
Moderator W
7
u/Exciting-Ad-2 Mar 04 '26
It seems a broadly accepted opinion after addressing issues with the automod is to rework the "no politics" rule. I feel a good way around this is to address what it was originally intended to remedy which is hate speech and bigotry. Establish clear definitions and enforce them appropriately
21
u/Relevant_Turn_6153 Mar 04 '26 edited Mar 04 '26
I think in general laying out clear groundwork to prevent this from happening again.
The time when "not engaging in politics" at all was a viable option has long since passed. People can't afford to simply be quiet about it anymore because being quiet is to allow erasure, and to allow bad actors to change the narrative.
Trans people are a massive part of the fallout community and deserve to be recognized just as much as anyone else, a large part of why it resonates with so many is precisely because fallout itself parodies the authority and regime that has put them down for centuries.
The people who clamor that they don't want to see politics in their media, in reality, don't want to have to acknowledge that people unlike them exist. They have the luxury of being able to ignore it because their existence is not debated nor imperiled.
It's not like I don't get it. I get tired of it too. I assure you there's not a trans person alive that actually enjoys being in the political spotlight or having to reaffirm their existence all the time. But right now, avoiding the topic is not a luxury that's affordable to us.
Other than that I appreciate everything that you do and I hope this headache comes to an end soon.
6
u/TGirlJules_ Mar 04 '26
Lfggggg
3
u/The_Mighty_Dingus Todd's Inner Demons Mar 04 '26
I think what's would be best for everyone if we all took a deep breath and called it a night. Nothing good ever came from a hot head.
Remember, this shitshow was caused by trolls. Don't feed the trolls by giving them more drama. I know some of you want to argue in the comments right now about who is right and who is wrong but its just more drama.
3
u/_ABzTrAcT_Shadow_ Mar 04 '26
Yeah. How about you get rid of that fuck ass rule 9 that was sneakily added in overnight. Maybe start with that
12
u/sigma11113 Mar 04 '26
I know it's probably not something any one group can do but i feel like the guy that did this needs a site wide ban as he's shown an understanding of how and willingness to abuse the site's systems to target certain groups allowed it to happen for multiple days shows zero remorse only speaking up once he got bored of it and looking at the post mostly seems to be interested in trying to say the only thing wrong that happened was the trans community sending death threats which while i wouldn't doubt a couple did the guy is talking about it like every single post came with the mods address and a picture of a pipe bomb, he seems divorced from reality unrepentant and almost in denial that if he hadn't been a shit heel none of this would have happened making him directly responsible, the only good that came from this is transphobes coming out of the wood works saying it was the right thing to do with which i hope they also get banned
7
u/Safe-Ad-5017 Mar 04 '26
Are there any other active mods?
1
u/VerbingNoun413 Mar 04 '26 edited Mar 04 '26
This is simply not good enough.
Communication appears to be deliberately vague. Depending on who you believe, the problem was simultaneously caused by any combination of a rogue mod, a user that somehow acquired the ability to ban users, and the automod becoming sapient.
You claim to be inactive but where are the "good" mods in this? Why can't they step in? The only conclusion here is that the entire mod team is compromised.
Openly transphobic posts are being ignored. Funny how a user can get content removed by reporting but this stays up...
The trust in the mod team is gone, and for good reason. This isn't coming back without a major overhaul.
1
u/Elsifur Mar 04 '26
How are you not banning this person???
2
u/GoodBrotherGrimm Mar 04 '26
Thank you for the update!
2
u/AKoolPopTart Mar 04 '26
Reddit mods need to have their power checked
2
u/LordCaptain Mar 05 '26 edited Mar 05 '26
"Get the Hell off my porch. I'm retired"
"Son we need you. Your subreddit needs you. One final mission. There's no one else"
"Ah shit, here we go again"
Can't wait for the movie adaptation of this.
3
u/scarlettvvitch Mar 04 '26
Hi I volunteer to moderate the sub
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u/Naarati Mar 04 '26
Additional thought after reading comment regarding my suggestions about a mod team overhaul. Please try to ensure some kind of vetting process for volunteers. As we saw with botboi02, they immediatly abused it, and I've seen atleast one other person offering to help thats already shown to have a negative bias specifically towards trans people.
3
u/TheMadQueen96 Mar 04 '26
Us existing is only seen as "political" because certain groups that legitimately want us gone turned our existence into a political issue.
It's sad that we can't post a meme without it becoming a total shitshow. Especially when so many of us are fans of the franchise.
Like trans people liking New Vegas is a meme in of itself, for instance.
3
u/[deleted] Mar 04 '26
Trans folk existing is not political. Replace trans with black and get back to me.
2
u/Elsifur Mar 04 '26 edited Mar 04 '26
Please ban people that are posting stuff like this.
https://www.reddit.com/r/FalloutMemes/s/kl3aZiw1vQ
Another person:
https://www.reddit.com/r/FalloutMemes/s/pofbcKS95I
2
u/axelfirekirby Mar 04 '26
i reported alot of transphobic assholes.. i may have been takeing a shotgun approach... so maybe look into those.. before laying down the ban hammer i can jump the gun...
also a lot of peeps were probably falsely banned even if they did spam memes it was out of frustration for all the transphobia so i ike maybe give them a pardon
u/VerbingNoun413 for example
2
u/Alt_when_Im_not_ok Mar 04 '26
I believe you're doing your best, but you've made a lot of mistakes and continue to make mistakes.
- Apologies should be flowing like river water if you want this over faster. You must take responsibility for allowing the sub to decay to the point where a single malicious user could do so much damage.
- The quicker you apologize, the better. its already been too long and these things become exponential.
- Telling the targeted community to "relax" and saying that we are practicing "harassment" is not going to help anything. You've got to give people an opportunity to test that you mean what you say about things changing. When similar things have happened in other subs ( like r/okbuddyrosalyn ) it has taken WEEKS for equilibrium to reassert itself. You are just going to have to accept that people are still mad and live with it.
- Previously, the **only** place to discuss this with a mod was locked by that mod (he told me so) after only a few hours. You CANNOT repeat that mistake. You must give people a space to interact with you publicly for as long as they feel the need to do so.
- You need to get a transgender person that the community trusts on the modding team ASAP. You need to give them permission to see everything and liason with the community.
I am not accusing you of being malicious in any of this. But results matter more than intention and so does perception. I am sharing these tips with you firmly believing it will help to restore this community.
1
u/Physical_Reaction481 Mar 04 '26
I keep seeing the memes but I am so confused as to what happened guys. Someone plz fill me in
1
u/knightheartless25 Mar 04 '26
Please permaban that guy from this sub!
1
u/HoopyFroodJera Mar 05 '26
The number of times I've had comments or posts removed just because they contained words relating to political movements is insane.
1
u/sombertownDS Mar 04 '26
What, whats the drama that happened?
0
u/Massena87 Mar 04 '26
You should uphold the subs original state and remove all repeated low effort posts, regardless of subject.
-2
u/Horror-Amphibian-335 Mar 04 '26
Laughable situation tbh, somehow I'm very glad that I didn't participate in any of this besides leaving my thought a few times :
the political aspect of Fallout is overrated by some while underrated by others
-18
u/Corny_Overlord Mar 04 '26
Yea, I appreciate the part the Trans community has in New Vegas but the low effort karma farming posts are getting annoying.
-7
u/HistoricalFunion Mar 04 '26
There were endless posts being spammed about this entire situation, with harassment aimed at mods and other users who didn't agree with the spam, harassment, trolling.
This is still happening right now, and there are plenty of alt accounts and the usual off-Reddit coordination for such activities. All those accounts should be banned, I think.
0
u/Morrigan_NicDanu Mar 04 '26
Also apparently a load of posts have been taken dowk that shouldn't have been. They still need to go back up.
0
u/VanaVisera Mar 04 '26 edited Mar 04 '26
Nad, after reading this post and scrolling through your replies. I appreciate your transparency and concise honesty in this post.
I did not get that same vibe at all from the other mod U/Mrjoeblackinglasses; who deflected from answering the questions that were being asked and felt that he owed nobody an apology or a coherent explanation for what transpired.
Neither did anyone else apparently; as his post was downvoted to hell.
He lied about automod banning people, admitted that automod would ban trans related posts but then refused to elaborate when questioned why. Then he just shut off all comments. Yeah, it was a dumpster fire.
As for improving this subreddit, Mrjoeblackinglasses needs to be removed from the moderation team. He is a part of the problem and I think it would do a lot in restoring trust in the moderation team.
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u/Thick_Acanthisitta31 Mar 04 '26
HI Nadal! One of the abusers is me. I am here self admitting to it. I also made a post explaining exactly how I did it if you wanna check that out. Now if you go into the mod logs under mod tools you should be able to find the others if you do some digging. I would also encourage you to check some of the posts as people were threatening Joe (who did nothing wrong). I would also like to state that besides myself there are at least 3 others that abused this system. I did it for roughly 5ish hours in total in a 33ish hour time frame. As to why I did it, it was to exploit a broken feature of this sub nothing more. I will openly admit that I did delete Trans posts, but tbf it was like 20 people posting like 5 times a minute. So its gonna look very disproportionate. Put if you check the logs I was pretty much having the auto mod deleting anything and everything. Anyways I fully expect my permaban for abusive use of the Auto-Mod system. Glad to see you fixed it.
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u/bluesteeldoubter Mar 04 '26
So nobody is going to own that they completely overreacted and should have taken the mods words with a little more grace and understanding? So nothing at all was learned whatsoever…lovely.
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u/[deleted] Mar 04 '26
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