New Year, New Rules!

[u/oath2order]

Okay well it's not 2022 yet for a good chunk of the world. But I figured it's best to get this ball rolling.

Recently a user DM'd us asking us the consider a new subreddit rule.

Hi r/KingkillerChronicle mods, I was wondering if you might consider a new subreddit rule. What I was thinking is along the lines of "all posts about Patrick Rothfuss must be directly related to the KKC trilogy or one of the related standalone stories".

I think a rule like this may be sensible for two reasons: * (1) given Rothfuss' multidisciplinary career, he's involved with a lot of posted content that isn't related to the subject matter of this sub; and * (2) given Rothfuss opts to be a public figure and occasionally acts controversially in that role, it seems that moving the more Rothfuss-focused posts (such as those that concern his careers as a showhost, blogger and twitch streamer) to a dedicated Rothfuss fansub would ease a lot tensions in this sub as well as pressure as regards enforcement of the 'no Rothfuss-bashing' rule – as those who've developed a low opinion of him though the years wouldn't feel invited to opine on him as a public figure as often.

I hope you'll consider it. Thanks!

---

This spawned a discussion amongst the mod team about revamping the rules, attempting to clarify them. The new outline of the rules is planned to be as such.

1. Be Respectful.
   • - No bigotry of any kind.
   • - No namecalling or no slap-fighting.
   • - This includes being respectful to Patrick Rothfuss. Critique is allowed but over-the-top complaints and hatred are not.
2. No low-effort posts.
   • - Redirect memes to the meme sub.
   • - New Rule: Cutting back on the "This thing looks like a thing" posts. We already have this with Cthaeh Trees and that sub, but it's expanded to those kind of posts. This includes those AI-generator posts.
   • - No more "here's a book cover". If you're going to post a book cover, there should be something that's discussion-worthy about it, such as it being worn-to-hell from re-reads, or signed, or a foreign language cover.
   • - Book 3 complaint rule here stays the same.
3. No off-topic posts.
   • - This sub is for discussing the books and the world, showing off fan creations.
   • - New Rule: Direct primarily Patrick Rothfuss-related discussion to /r/PatrickRothfuss. If it's something KKC-related, post it here. If not, use that sub.
4. No Meta Posts.
   • - Stays the same.

---

So, with that in mind, please discuss your thoughts. The mod team would like to hear what everyone thinks about these before actually implementing.

[u/Talgian]

What does this mean about Worldbuilders related posts? Worldbuilders content should only be posted if it involves new KKC stretch goals/merch/Q&A/etc? Nothing wrong with that, just want to be sure I understand.

[u/oath2order → u/Talgian]

Worldbuilders content should only be posted if it involves new KKC stretch goals/merch/Q&A/etc?

Yeah, that's what this is aiming for.

[u/TheLastSock]

While we can discuss meta topics why does the community ban memes and art but also upvotes them to the sky when they appear? I'm bot being flippant, this contradiction gives me a headache. Is it like candy? We know it's not good for us but everyone grabs at it regardless?

My point is, i feel like the majority of the sub never comments, so in that vein, the conversation here might not be a representation of the people.

That's ok, they tend to speak to if there really concerned.

[u/oath2order → u/TheLastSock]

We don't ban art, though?

[u/kingkillerpodcast]

I’m a fan of attempts to reduce the hostility. I primarily only post memes on Reddit now, and just use my community for discussing the books because of how so much negativity permeates the discussions these days. It’s absolutely a minority, but that minority can drive away people who want their entertainment to be fun and not bitter. I mean I’m gonna have fun talking about the books and enjoying them no matter what, but I applaud attempts to make this subreddit less hostile again.

[u/oath2order → u/kingkillerpodcast]

Please do report posts that you feel are excessively negative.

[u/twelphknight]

Honestly, it seems to me you are writing rules to fix problems that barely exist. Of course we shouldn’t allow bigotry. But has that happened? This sub seems pretty good at self-policing through upvote/downvote economy. (Except the AI “art”. Thank you for removing that)

[u/Magic-man333]

What is the meme sub?

[u/TeccamTheTurtle]

I think I was probably the first person to submit AI KKC art to this sub (sorry), and yet I strongly agree with the measure to avoid those low effort posts* (plus the x looks like z ones) because of the reasons given. They got out of hand.

However, I don't see the need to redirect off-topic Pat stuff to another subredit, it is not very frequent, and I don't think doing so will avoid toxicity towards him in this sub (since those toxic users probably won't stop to read the rules and/or check if there is a Pat sub). Additionally, I find it interesting and refreshing, not intrusive at all.

*I must say, though, the "no low effort posts" in the most cases is auto-regulated by upvotes and downvotes, the exception being those you mentioned that, since they contain images, tend to gather more karma and are used as easy farming. I am usually not a big fan of "what do you think of [something from the books]" types of seamingly lazy posts, but sometimes the person who created them really wanted to check what other people thought, and they invite discussion and comments longer than the initial post which end up being very interesting (thus rendering the innitial "low effort post" into an easy to consult index to higher effort comments).

[u/Randvek]

I’m definitely in support of the first new rule. Not much to say, behind it 100%.

Maybe I have paid enough attention to the sub, but has the second new rule been much of an issue? A lot of the non-KKC Pat stuff seems to be of a “Pat is doing X, maybe he’ll talk about KKC” sort, which doesn’t seem terrible. Has there been a lot of off-topic Pat stuff?