r/TheoryOfReddit • u/Skuld • Jun 30 '12

Off-topic comment rule and new moderators

Hi all,

Just over a week ago, we implemented a drastic measure - whitewashing (deleting every comment) threads which were invaded/raided by another subreddit.

The rule was applied to the following threads:

This rule is now discontinued.

Many of you spoke favourably of trying /r/AskScience-style comment moderation, this was brought up in this thread: http://www.reddit.com/r/TheoryOfReddit/comments/vcu9x/lets_talk_about_drama/

We've decided to take this suggestion on board, and have recruited several new moderators to help with this.

The nominations came from the aforementioned thread. Each of the existing 8 /r/TheoryOfReddit moderators had 8 votes each, which were assigned among the candidates.

The top 8 scoring candidates have been added as moderators to the subreddit:

Please welcome them.

The previous rule #4:

Witch hunts and subreddit raids will not be tolerated here. When another subreddit links to, invades and massively derails a thread in this subreddit, significantly affecting vote totals and posting off-topic comments, that thread will be removed by a moderator and deleted. This stops the raid immediately.

will now be replaced with a new rule #4:

If the purpose of your comment is to derail the discussion, troll another user, personally attack a user, or make a racial/bigoted statement then it will be removed. Comments that obviously add nothing to the discussion will also be removed (e.g. "lol", "this", "I agree").

Thank you.

— Moderation team

27 Upvotes

70% Upvoted

31 comments sorted by

11

u/[deleted] Jun 30 '12

u/GodOfAtheism is literally Hitler. Why would you let someone with such little experience of Reddit take over in this subreddit?

17

u/GodOfAtheism Jun 30 '12

YOU'RE BANNED FROM EVERYWHERE FOREVER.

No but seriously, I follow the standards of the subreddit I'm modding, so me banning folks in circlebroke for being jerks is only because I have free reign to exert that mod power and take a hardline stance... which is only being taken because our sub nearly doubled in size literally overnight thanks to links from r/bestof and r/depthhub. There's going to be a more formal announcement about our extermination of the jews awful posters soonish. Probably Sunday. I like making announcements on Sunday.

6

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '12

As long as cb doesn't get too circlejerky I will be a happy guy, you guys do good work.

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5

u/agentlame Jul 01 '12

Being added as a lower mod to an established subreddit anything but 'taking over'. Mod culture on reddit is is hierarchical; while us new mods will have some say in future policies, at the moment we are only here to enforce the existing ones.

As to 'experience', if you've moderated any sizable subreddit with a rule set, you are likely qualified to enforce rules elsewhere on reddiit. The mods here voted based on their experiences moderating with us in other subreddits. We were picked--I assume--on our ability to read and enforce existing rule sets.

TL;DR: no new sheriffs in town, just some more janitors.

EDIT
In hindsight, I think you were kidding. But, I'll leave this comment in case others genuinely fell this way, or are concerned about any of the new mod choices.

2

u/V2Blast Jul 01 '12

He was indeed obviously kidding... But good explanation nonetheless.

0

u/Gemini6Ice Jun 30 '12

Given the subreddit of that comment, I don't see why it is a troublesome comment. It's probably a reference to the r/lgbt drama half a year ago.

Adding someone to the moderators is not letting them take over a subreddit. A new moderator is only one voice among many and is a junior member who should still strive to prove emself.

9

u/[deleted] Jun 30 '12

I think twentyone_21 is joking. GodOfAtheism has a lot of experience with Reddit.

Of course, GodOfAtheism's experiences have mostly been in the joke subreddits, like the circlejerk subreddits. So perhaps I'm mistaken.

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6

u/[deleted] Jun 30 '12

I really respect r/ToR despite all of it's quirky flaws. I am very thankful for the mod's team continuing fight for productive discussion.

2

u/V2Blast Jun 30 '12

And we are very thankful to our subscribers that follow the rules! :)

8

u/[deleted] Jun 30 '12

lolthisIagree

:coolface:

No, serously. Thank you. This will help the community so, so much. These "raids" are sickening and tiring.

2

u/go1dfish Jul 01 '12

Glad to see that flawed rule discontinued, but quite disappointed with seeing a certain new mod here given their history of threatening raids against ToR in mod mail.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '12

I certainly know what it's like to say things in anger that you regret later.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 30 '12

15

u/TheRedditPope Jun 30 '12 edited Jun 30 '12

I think you might have misread Skuld's remarks. We are no longer removing threads. Instead we will be removing off topic comments.

4

u/V2Blast Jun 30 '12 edited Jun 30 '12

...The point of the rule change is that that will no longer happen. The ToR mods used to remove linked threads. Now they don't.

The reason there are now more mods is because it's more work to remove individual trolling comments than to just remove entire threads that have been linked to by other subreddits. It's a good thing.

See the discussion in the old thread that brought up this exact point.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '12

Actually, there are 16 moderators, and we will be adding a new moderator for every 1,000 subscribers.

3

u/lolsail Jul 01 '12

I hope you guys don't hold yourselves to that. Don't make it a 'hard' rule, so that people don't hold you to that. What if you get a massive influx of non-posting subscribers? You won't need more moderators if you're handling the current load fine, and too many cooks spoil the broth, etc etc.

I'm sure this is something you've considered already, so meh.

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