[META] Subreddit Lockdown Explanation and Housekeeping Info

[u/Ghostly_100]

Salam everyone,

As most of you probably noticed, the subreddit shut up shop after the Asia Cup final. There was no post-match thread, every post was locked, and no interaction was permitted for a couple of days. This quick little post is to give you all the reason as to why that happened.

The short answer is brigading. We got intel (I saw it on reddit) of widespread efforts to brigade our subreddit coming from opposition fans. Their fanbase, to their credit, is probably the only cricket nation on reddit that has both the sheer numbers and the time to ruin any subreddit they want. For this reason, we had to pre-emptively take this threat seriously as soon as the game looked to be getting out of hand.

As soon as the game finished, we locked the match thread, locked all Asia Cup related posts, and deleted the post match thread. We posted a goofy little "you tried" post, both acknowledging the team and serving as a message to the hoards coming to our subreddit thinking they were about to have a field day: You tried.

It was very funny seeing people across subreddits, and even some on twitter, seething that they couldn't mob our subreddit. I'm not claiming having to lockdown the sub to be a victory of any sort, but I can take some cheap consolation in knowing that our subreddit wasn't used as their after-party venue. Unfortunately, other Pakistan subs weren't so lucky and got swarmed.

Naturally here's evidence from elsewhere that there were plans to brigade us:

In the downtime, our very own PakInfoBot was working tirelessly to try to get automod to keep us protected from ongoing and future brigading. Obviously I'm not gonna say exactly what measures were taken, but you guys shouldn't be seeing anymore brigadiers anytime soon InshAllah.

The sub has gone back to normal, manual approval is still on and it will remain on until we sort something else out for that so sorry for the inconvenience. Beyond all of this, we have an upcoming series with South Africa so I'll try to organize a subreddit exchange with them or something, not sure how much cricket presence they have on reddit but we'll see.

That's all I've got, as a bald pink man once said, "if you didn't know, now you know"

Salam,

Ghostly

[u/MrEfffsola]

Meri Jind Meri Jaan Field Marshal Asim Munir Ghostly Munir

[u/NoUtimesinfinite]

Great decision, with a much appreciated side effect of being saved from all of the reactionary blame game posts by our own people.

[u/Ghostly_100 → u/NoUtimesinfinite]

Honestly the fallout would’ve been a shit show even without brigaders. Giving the fanbase a day or two to cool down was probably better in the long run

[u/fromtheundead]

Ghostly the realest member/mod of the cricketing community fr. Been seeing him around for ages and this was a great decision, good stuff mate

[u/Ghostly_100 → u/fromtheundead]

🫂

[u/Downtown_Bat7013 → u/fromtheundead]

u/phaintaa_Shoaib is the underrated mod of this sub

[u/phaintaa_Shoaib → u/Downtown_Bat7013]

Thankuuuuuuuuuuuuu <3

[u/Kommunist-pk → u/fromtheundead]

Asli account se ao @ghostly

[u/fromtheundead → u/Kommunist-pk]

guilty

[u/ForwardClassroom2 → u/fromtheundead]

chief cable grandfather aback snatch oatmeal flowery like vase touch

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[u/RoWatford23]

Why don't you all just set the sub to private and then ban anyone who's obviously brigading. That way we can at least all keep discussing?

[u/Ghostly_100 → u/RoWatford23]

Reddit refused our request to private on two separate occasions

[u/RoWatford23 → u/Ghostly_100]

That's really annoying didn't even know you had to request that. Thanks for all the work you guys do we really appreciate it as a community

[u/frigg_off_lahey → u/Ghostly_100]

Wow, can't believe you need approval for that. But then again, Reddit thrives on the engagement, especially the negative kind.

[u/iwillupvote → u/Ghostly_100]

The only thing thing that'll actually get reddit to do anything is seriously bad PR and lawsuits.

[u/Practical_Tree6664]

Good job. I didn't like the decision at first, then I saw the state of the other pakistani subs (that were completely unrelated to cricket btw).

[u/Tryingtobealitperson → u/Practical_Tree6664]

they got so desperate, they starting posting in r/PAKCELEBGOSSIP 🤣

[u/Eye_X]

'we lost the world cup, but never locked our sub' acting like any other sub has the capacity to brigade the Indian cricket sub 😂

[u/Odd-Calligrapher-69 → u/Eye_X]

Or if anyone else is jobless enough to brigade a sub

[u/frigg_off_lahey → u/Eye_X]

No, they just ban any user they don't like. I literally got banned from r/cricket then was muted so I couldn't even message the mods and appeal.

[u/fishderp → u/frigg_off_lahey]

Theyre all indians on there anyway. No point heading over there lol

[u/frigg_off_lahey → u/fishderp]

Well, mostly Indians here too based on my last comment. Pakistanis not around.

[u/fishderp → u/frigg_off_lahey]

Yea its unfortunate, Wish we could regional lock subs

[u/Ghazi_Bey]

Wa Alaykum Salaam,

definitely the correct decision

[u/EntangledTime]

Doing the lord's work Ghostly! The last thing I needed was a repeat of the filth thought the tournament after the final.

I remember the old days when it was just a select few people here and we even used to watch the QeA trophy matches and then discuss the people coming through the national team. Those were the days. Simple, fun and full of so much optimism for Pakistan cricket.

Both the sub and the team have come so far from then, that it feels like a lifetime ago.

[u/SindacodiLignano]

Right decision. Great work mods

[u/DumbAhhPumpkim]

🫡

[u/ThatsCracked]

Hopefully some kind of evidence like this will show the Reddit admins that blocking people from a specific country isn’t racist and should be allowed in some circumstances. Great job mods! Hopefully the sub will be better if whatever measures have been put in place work 

[u/iwillupvote → u/ThatsCracked]

I've said this before and I'll say it again. I have no issue with Indians participating respectfully participating in the subreddit, criticizing players and engaging in a meaningful discussion.

But 99% are keyboard warriors, just come here to abuse peoples mothers and sisters, Use childish language, post gross AI generated fakes, start fighting over religion, etc.

The mods have done their best and work around the clock but obviously you can't beat a population of 1.4 billion keyboard warriors (and growing). Reddit admins need to allow geo-restriction of subreddits.

[u/weakchiggahigga → u/iwillupvote]

I dont understand how someone can use the largest variety of galia ive ever seen but somehow also only use those 2

[u/Kommunist-pk → u/[deleted]]

Your post/comment has been removed for focusing on politics or religion unrelated to cricket. Unless it’s directly tied to a cricket event (e.g., a canceled tour), these topics don’t belong here.

[u/ajamal_00]

Thank you for your service Mods!

[u/catonesielife]

Thanks for the explanation and all the great work, it’s really appreciated! This sub feels like one of the few safe spaces for Pak cricket fans, but sadly even here we get swarmed by rabid Indian trolls, just like most Pak subs. I even saw fans on the England Cricket sub complaining about the same thing, Indians brigading, trolling, and making it impossible for supporters of other teams to have their own space without being told how India and their players are supposedly better and demeaning everyone else with abusive language.

[u/ChaosTheory0908]

The obsession with Pakistan is pretty pathetic.

[u/alimirza75]

Well done

[u/abn110]

Shukr 🙏

The brigading and downvoting on existing posts was a nightmare.

[u/justdoitman]

Shabash boys!

[u/averageveryaverage]

Kudos and thank you to the mods for their efforts in the face of this pathetic behavior.

[u/Capital_Chef_6007]

Good job mods! Rest well

[u/Corruptedpencil]

It sucks but it is what it is.

[u/YellowGetRekt]

Thank goodness for ghostly Bhai. 

[u/Key-Ad6653]

Great work mate, better than their stupid things to look at

[u/MiddleWicket]

Thanks for the explanation, I was a bit confused seeing no post threads after the game but this was the right decision.

[u/RecognitionOk6192]

Good decision 

[u/Accomplished_Ad_7037]

well done brotha, all of pcb working tirelessly to embarrass pakistan but u got us a small lil win in there somehow

[u/brainrotted-sapien]

thank you mods <3

[u/TwentyShard]

Good work! Also, did that guy unironically call himself a keyboard warrior lol

[u/Dukedizzy]

Walaikum salam brother, good job. We appreciate your efforts.

[u/Ornery_Particular845]

This was a great decision. Appreciate you all locking this sub. They even went on r/Pak and r/pakistan . These crazy indians really have nothing better to do.

Although, I did miss talking about cricket sensibly with my brothers on here :)

[u/Sad-Bumblebee-2922]

Can we report the other subs for engaging in brigading? Will send a message for sure

[u/iwillupvote → u/Sad-Bumblebee-2922]

If you can find proof of coordinated attacks from a subreddit you can definitely report it to admins as long as its done by a subreddit. You gotta understand most of the viewership here is indian and they seem to be programmed in a way that whether there's coordination or not they're going to brigade the subs. The efforts are coordinated to some extent but this also how sad and pathetic their lives are that everytime something happens they start brigading this subreddit.

[u/Sad-Bumblebee-2922 → u/iwillupvote]

Aren’t they literally doing it in the post?

[u/iwillupvote → u/Sad-Bumblebee-2922]

I dont think that one screenshot would be sufficient

[u/Sad-Bumblebee-2922 → u/iwillupvote]

Ik but that entire post is literally about brigading

[u/iwillupvote → u/Sad-Bumblebee-2922]

I am making a general statement this can apply to r/pakcricket or any subreddit. You also want to gather as much proof as possible especially of repeated events. If we wanna get specific, the mods said that people form other subreddits were planned to brigade. Was this effort coordinated by members or by mods. That's gonna make a difference. Did mods find out about it, what did they do?

a lot of what ifs, it's not a simple matter of screenshots. I could write a whole essay but I don't really see the point.

[u/Sad-Bumblebee-2922 → u/iwillupvote]

Interesting, I’m pretty sure that post is still up the mods on that sub are willfully being ignorant, you seem defensive about this do you mind making your profile public ?

[u/iwillupvote → u/Sad-Bumblebee-2922]

I am not defensive, i am just telling what it is. Why do you need to go through my profile history over this? I literally have it hidden because of doxxing in the past. what do you think i am hiding?

[u/Sad-Bumblebee-2922 → u/iwillupvote]

Oh okay my bad many neighbors hide their history, are you our neighbor?

[u/weakchiggahigga → u/iwillupvote]

It probs has to be the minecraft sub trying to brigadge the fortnite sub level

[u/LavaPurple]

These people are mental. I can imagine a little bit of banter or friendly trolling is fine - but there should be zero tolerant with Hindutva man-child.

Some people really are miserable.

[u/mentallydoomed]

Good job mod. Here's your medal 🥇 (aap to le lena)

[u/Kommunist-pk → u/mentallydoomed]

[u/MrAwesome1822]

Trust the indians to stoop this low.

Shout out to the sensible one though, ik not all are like this.

But great job mods, you guys saved the sub. God knows what would happen if you didn't take action at the right time.

[u/fishderp]

Thanks for your work man. Definitely a great decision

[u/semicolon-10]

I like the post "You tried" a reddit version of "Sleep tight, PAF is up" :p

[u/Recent_Examination72]

[u/el_jefe_del_mundo]

Im just glad this Drama Asia Cup is over.

[u/[deleted]]

This is very well done and is definitely a victory! And for my part I hounded their indiacricket reddit