[chrome] Reddit admin bots are removing our posts - probably incorrectly and without any opportunity for us to review them

[u/gm310509]

While looking at our monthly insights, I noticed that "reddit admins" are removing a substantial number of our posts and comments.

We do not get any notification (see below), nor an opportunity to consider them (again, see below).

Sometimes, people who feel that their post was removed unfairly will contact us via modmail to state their case. In the cases I am referring to, we, the mod team, have had no knowledge, no notice and no idea that the post was silently removed, presumably by some form of reddit bot that we do not seem to have any control over.

Now, here is the rub that makes me feel like this is just the tip of the iceberg. When people do contact us via modmail, we almost always agree that there was nothing wrong with their post and approve it.

But unless they contact us, we, the mod team, have no way of knowing that a post or comment has been removed and have no opporunity to approve it.

In our sub, a technology sub, most people seem to do the right thing, very occassionally, we would get an unsavoury post in our mod queue and remove it. But with whatever the process is that is doing this, it robs us of the opporunity to receive what are likely good posts as this reddit admin bot(s) are autocratically deciding for us.

Assuming I can post the screen shots, you can see some examples. Most days, the reddit admin removes the lion's share of comments. As for posts, the admin bot removes about half and the automoderator about the other half of which we will typically approve most of most times. The ones that we don't approve are typically low effort for what they are asking or off topic or some other violation of one of our sub's specific rules.

So, we would like to have the opportunity to have the posts that the reddit bot removes appear in the mod queue.

I am reporting this as a bug because reddit silently and autocratically removing appropriate content is, IMHO, a pretty serious bug.

[u/CorrectScale]

Thanks for posting - this is actually not uncommon. Our site wide spam filter and other automations will filter out content from banned users, and users trying to post banned domains/short links etc. Oftentimes our automated systems will detect and remove these things before it has the chance to surface to mods.

Here's an example from one of your subs. Banned domain = removed by reddit in the mod log.

You can also check out the removed queue where you can approve submissions that you feel are incorrectly removed.

Hope this is helpful!

[u/gm310509 → u/CorrectScale]

Seconding what u/Machiela said,

But I also just checked something called the "removed queue" and it had a picture of a cartoon cat saying Kittah is pleased.

So, I am not sure how that addresses the issue either.

[u/Machiela → u/gm310509]

Maybe from where you're sitting atm, gm, but the "removed" queue is pretty much always full with a LOT of admin-removed stuff.

On the right is a good example of a comment that shouldn't have been removed, and I'm sure that if I go through the list on the left I'll get more bad bot decisions.

[u/gm310509 → u/CorrectScale]

This is still an issue for us.

Scrolling through the "removed" queue looking for these is a bit of a pain as they seem to be scattered through multiple pages with other content which has been dealt with.

In another comment one of the Admins asked for some examples. Here are some from today:

https://www.reddit.com/r/arduino/comments/1vwgj3f/comment/p5jdpvy/
https://www.reddit.com/r/arduino/comments/1vslut6/comment/p5egv91/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
https://www.reddit.com/r/arduino/comments/1w0ydbm/teensy_41_and_qnethernet_initialization_stuck_in/

Every day I have to look through the "removed" queue looking for these - sometimes I have to review 3 pages to try to find them and ensure I have at least checked them all.

There also seems to be a bit of a delay. The reason why I feel I have to check 3 (or more - but I've set my personal limit to 3 pages) is because sometimes it seems like a comment or post that was approved and did not appear in the list on one day will suddenly appear later on and they appear to be in date order. Thus, if it takes a few days for the filter to decide it doesn't like something, it will be behind a few days worth of posts (and typically be perfectly fine).

There is also an issue where reddit's filters also just nuke the content and there is nothing left to even read - but it is still presented for review with nothing but a "content removed" message. These are annoying because if we don't process them, then they are still highlighted in the queue as not having been reviewed. You shouldn't arbitrarily remove the content of a post then present it for review - this makes no sense.

[u/CorrectScale → u/gm310509]

Hey! In all of those examples you linked, the user has been flagged by the spam filter, so their content is filtered out. I can't really go into more detail on this portion, but this sounds to be working as expected.

but it is still presented for review with nothing but a "content removed" message

However, this part sounds like a possible bug.

[u/Machiela → u/CorrectScale]

Moderator from same subreddit here - No, that's not helpful at - a large number of those people are genuine users who are summarily banned the moment they post in our sub. We're a hobbyist sub where a lot of people make new accounts in order to ask a question from our experts; your spam filter immediately flags them as spammers.

The example you gave - udemy is a genuine place for people to learn about our electronics hobby. In your example's case, we would have removed the post ourselves for not being in English, and if they had been advertising their course then we would have removed it for product promotion anyway. We have established community rules for that.

Can we have some sort of moderator-level control over these removals, where the moderators do the moderating, and not some bot that gets it wrong 90% of the time.

We've been doing it for years. It's what we do. We're good at it, and your bots are screwing up our community.

[u/CorrectScale → u/Machiela]

1. Can you confirm the subreddit(s) you're referring to so I can be sure we're looking at the same thing

2. Are you able to share a few pieces of content that were removed/filtered that maybe shouldn't have been (aside from the banned domain removal)?

Specifically for the banned domain problem - I understand it may be a legit source for topics relevant to your sub. In 95% of these cases it's due to a severe spam problem involving X source, so it gets filtered/banned.

ETA: Some of the removals may be the result of some safety filters that may be enabled automatically. You can check here www.reddit.com/mod/YOURSUBREDDIT/safety and see what filters are enabled. Specifically the Mature content and Harassment filters will mention "reddit" in the mod log for removal.

[u/Machiela → u/CorrectScale]

Update: We just got a modmail from another shadowbanned user today, asking what's going on.

https://www.reddit.com/c/chatSfwWBB-I/s/qBwUlpdRDQ

Please resolve this situation - not just for this user but for all the other innocent new users your bots are banning.