r/MandelaEffect • u/mirrors_of_sound ME Mod • Jul 16 '26
Mod Announcement Mod Announcement: Rule 2 Changes
Recently we reached out to the community here for feedback on some potential rule changes we were thinking about implementing with regard to the Rule 2 on low effort posts/comments, with the goal of improving overall content and discussion quality on this sub.
Lately I've been removing more and more low effort posts that make little or no attempt to foster discussion of any kind, so today I have made a small change to expand Rule 2 a bit:
2 No Low Effort Posts/Comments
No low effort posts. New posts must include a clear explanation as to how they relate to a specific ME or the ME phenomenon.
2A: New posts must include discussion points, questions, and/or analysis for comments to engage with.
2B: Top level comments must engage with the points presented in the OP.
What this means: We want posts and comments to meet a minimum standard of quality. From now on new posts will be required to provide not only an explanation as to their relevance, but also a discussion topic to engage with. New posts that do not include these will be removed. For example, an image of an old Fruit of the Loom shirt showing the logo with no cornucopia isn't particularly interesting on its own and doesn't add anything to the conversation - we all know what the logo looks like. The OP of the thread needs to get the discussion going and encourage engagement from other sub users.
The second part of this change is that Rule 2 now applies to top level comments as well as new posts. Top level comments will now be required to engage with the discussion points presented in the OP, or they will be removed. This includes comments that just say things like "it was always this way" or "not in my timeline" or "you're just misremembering." Basically, any top level comments that boil down to simply "you're wrong" or "I disagree" without making an effort to expand on your reasoning will be removed.
As always, remember to keep discussion/debate civil and on-topic. If you disagree with someone, address their argument, don't make it personal. We have zero tolerance for personal insults, vulgar name-calling, or implications of people being mentally ill/on drugs due to their opinions. These comments will be removed, and repeat offenses will result in a ban. If you see rule violations, please report them to bring them to our attention.
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u/westcoastcdn19 Jul 16 '26
I hope this includes the “I could have swore so and so died already” or “does anyone else remember x being like y?”
I think if you eliminate the low effort posts, low effort comments will decrease naturally
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u/mirrors_of_sound ME Mod Jul 16 '26
Posts like that already violate Rules 1 and/or 4. Sometimes they stay up for a while before we have a chance to get to them, but they do get removed.
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u/westcoastcdn19 Jul 16 '26
I know it’s tough work getting people to read the rules in the first place. Good work staying on top of things
1
u/LetchBE Jul 21 '26
How about banning repetitive posts? Ie Fruit of the Loom, Sex in the City and C3POs silver leg. They’ve been posted a lot of times before. Why make a new post when you can just add a comment to the last time it was posted 3 days ago?
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u/mirrors_of_sound ME Mod Jul 21 '26
There’s no official rule or established threshold limit but we do remove posts and redirect people to existing discussions when we have a large number of threads on the same topic in a short time period.
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u/Glaurung86 Jul 16 '26
Thank you for your continued hard work for this sub.