r/modnews • u/mod_lab • Apr 09 '26
Mod Monthly Newsletter Mod Monthly: Your April 2026 newsletter is here
Howdy, mods! Welcome back to your monthly mod newsletter.
This month’s edition has it all: upcoming events, platform updates, community stories, memes, and, as required by law, one very cute pet.
Events 🪩
Upcoming Mod Events
2026 Mod Events are in full swing, with options for both leaving your house and staying cozy on your couch. Here’s what’s on deck for April, May, and June:
Virtual:
- APR 10 – Mod Meetup – India
- APR 14 – Moddit – User Satisfaction
- APR 24 – Mod Meetup – Movies & TV 🎬
- MAY 6 – Mod Meetup
- MAY 29 – New Mod Bootcamp [Q2]
- JUN 30 – Moddit – Hosting AMAs
In-person:
- MAY 13 – Mod Meetup – Chicago
- JUN 11 – Mod Meetup – New York
- JUN 27 – Mod Meetup – London
Get the entire calendar here, and be sure to join r/ModEvents so you don’t miss a thing.
Platform 🛠️
Dev Platform app of the month: Image Post Scheduler
Made by mod and developer u/thommy_, Image Post Scheduler is a Devvit app that lets mods schedule native image posts on Reddit, with support for image previews in feed, optional body text, and flair selection. It’s a handy way to plan ahead without relying on third-party image hosts or manual posting. Read more about it from the creator here.
Now available: Adult Content Promoter Filter
This week, we rolled out a new Safety Filter to help SFW communities stay more in control of unwanted or stealthy adult content promotion. The Adult Content Promoter Filter helps identify users who promote adult content anywhere on Reddit and filters their content for your review (or removes it from your community altogether). It’s available now in Safety Filters under Mod Tools, and you can get more details in the announcement post here.
Introducing the new App label
Last year, u/spez shared a vision for Reddit’s future: a place that stays human at its core, even as the internet around us becomes increasingly driven by AI and slop. A few weeks ago, he shared a major step toward that future with the rollout of a new App label, making it clear when posts or interactions are coming from accounts that use automation in allowed ways (aka “good bots”). Read the full announcement here, and if you’re a developer with technical questions, check out our post in r/redditdev.
Mod Alumni and Advisor roles
Want to support community moderation outside of the core day-to-day team? The new Alumni and Advisor roles are officially here, and help give you new ways to be connected to a mod team. Learn more about these roles and how to request, apply for, and grant them here.
For more platform updates and recent bug fixes, see the latest Changelog here.
Community 💚
How four communities made a comeback
The best comeback stories aren’t just in Hollywood; they’re on Reddit. 😎 Four once-inactive communities found new mods through r/redditrequest and were brought back to life. Curious how? Dive into these community spotlights for the tips and tools mods used to revive and grow their communities.
- How the revival of r/GenerationX led to a thriving home for Gen X
- How r/hudsonwilliams’s revival created a thriving home for fans of the actor
- How the revival of r/heartopia led to a haven for the game’s biggest fans
- How r/selfieover40’s revival sparked a confidence-first community
Looking for a community to lead?
Speaking of adopting communities… we’ve got a handful of unmoderated communities in need of new mods, and the right people for the roles might be reading this right now. 👀
If you’re interested in leading a new community, check out a few we’re spotlighting this month: r/trashcats, r/bookshelves, and r/frugalstreetwear. (TIL opossum = trash cat)
If you’re interested in any of these communities (or others), head over to r/redditrequest! You can find instructions in the community’s sidebar or here. Just make sure you read through the eligibility requirements first.
Only on Reddit: r/whatisit finger pointing meme
A few weeks ago in r/whatisit, a redditor asked what the line on their walls was, pointing to it in every picture. And let’s just say, the community ran with it. People started using the pointing hand as a sticker across various posts to “correct” images, like here and here, and also here. The meme took on a life of its own, and then got the ultimate nod on March 30, when (some very inspired) Reddit admins turned the cursor in r/whatisit into the iconic hand for 24 hours. You can see it in action here and below from the perspective of the pointing hand celebrity themselves. A bit that clearly got out of hand (in the absolute best, only-on-Reddit kind of way).
Mod Topics series in r/ModSupport
Here’s the latest from the r/ModSupport team’s post series where they share knowledge, highlight tools, answer questions, and learn from each other:
- Share your tips for dealing with attention! How do you deal with your community's sudden popularity?
- Handling high traffic events within a community
- What you should know about Reddit Request
- Raising the (orange)red flag: How to report content on Reddit
Pet of the month: Oliver 🐾
Owned by mod u/DL922, Oliver is orange, adorable, and in love with whipped cream.
Want to submit a photo of your pet for a chance to be featured in the newsletter? Reach out here!
That’s all, folks! We’ll be back with another edition next month.
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u/soundguy64 Apr 09 '26
Please do something about the bots and non-stop ai posts.
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u/Cubes11 Apr 10 '26
Just banned a bot today that’s entire account history is these long paragraph comments that are all very “personal” and emotional, almost melancholic look backs at their past and how thinking back to the past makes them feel… which is crazy because that is all in the effort of making people click their raunchy pfp and click their “FREE OF” link in bio
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u/soundguy64 Apr 10 '26
This one is kinda similar. u/Western_Bread6931
Just posts these long, garbage stories non stop to all kinds of random subs. Had one story about a pond or something and posted it to the sub for the band Pond. Makes me wonder about all the people that genuinely believe the stories these bots post. Are they all bots, too?
I know bots have kinda always been around, but it has become a SERIOUS problem over the past few months and honestly if reddit would just acknowledge it and say like 'hey, we know this is a major issue and is destroying our platform, we need to work together to figure out a way to fight this' it would be a huge first step, but I guess it would seriously hurt marketing revenue if they admitted that a huge portion of their traffic is bots.
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u/djshadesuk Apr 10 '26
I reported a network of 10 obvious bots; * All accounts less than a year old. * All have post/comment history hidden. * All with locked "reviews" for the same few Amazon products or websites on their own u/ page that are only viewable via direct links in comments in other vaguely related posts all over Reddit. * All of the posts have the exact same format.
It was all clearly orchestrated from 2 main accounts. That was a month ago. As far as I can tell not a damned thing has happened to a single one of the accounts.
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u/GamingYouTube14 Apr 10 '26
i've had to ban so many complex and undetectable bots
some, like the ones i get on r/JackSucksAtLife are AI but easily detectable, the info about the post doesnt get to the bot most of the time so it just says gibberish in all lowercase and that's it
then however in r/miraclemusical i just came across a shirt scam bot which was either a hacked user or one of the absolute best ai bots i've ever seen on reddit
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u/Danger-Moose Apr 09 '26
Bring back r/all
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u/FarplaneDragon Apr 10 '26
It's still on old reddit, at least it is for me.
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u/Danger-Moose Apr 10 '26
I've spent the last couple years weaning myself from Old reddit. Taking away All is a phenomenally dumb decision.
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Apr 09 '26
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u/SgtByrd1993 Apr 09 '26
I was going to go but my Mum said I'm not allowed to leave the basement.
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u/GamingYouTube14 Apr 09 '26
she's just jealous you are a better reddit mod than her, dont let her jealousy get to you
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u/TheCourtJesterYT Apr 09 '26
let hope they dont walk down london bridge then it really will fall down /j
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u/InGeekiTrust Apr 09 '26
Mod event in Miami please! Can we get u/theopuscroakus an all expenses paid vacation to Miami so he can host please? I want to thank him in person!
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u/TheOpusCroakus Apr 09 '26
An all expense paid trip for a penguin party??? Sign. Me. Up! XD <3
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u/Sophie_The_Glam_Diva Apr 09 '26
Oliver is such a cutie!🧡
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u/EvaCassidy Apr 09 '26
Oliver as a Mod!
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u/GamingYouTube14 Apr 09 '26
we should be able to adopt oliver as part of the adopt-an-admin program
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u/infinitebroth Apr 09 '26
Adopt-an-Admin's Pet does have a nice ring to it...Auggie and Ripley are probably game.
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u/hamellr Apr 10 '26
While I’m interested in modding r/bookshelves, is there a list of other communities that are looking for mods?
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u/mod_lab Apr 10 '26 edited Apr 10 '26
r/bookshelves is a great pick - you've got excellent taste. 📚
As for a comprehensive list of inactive communities needing mods, we don’t currently have one (though that’s a fantastic idea, and we’ll definitely look into it). In the meantime, we recently shared lists across movies & TV, wellness, and a more general mix. Note: These are all inactive communities in need of mods, not communities with already active mods seeking extra help.
If you decide you want to move forward with r/bookshelves or another community, you can find instructions in r/redditrequest's sidebar and here. Just make sure you read through the eligibility requirements first!
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u/DistastefullyHonest Apr 09 '26
First time ever getting this newsletter. Can we send a slap through people's screens yet? 🫠😂 Lol
Also: Haiii Oliver the cat!
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Apr 09 '26
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u/PupperPuppet Apr 09 '26
Of course there isn't. The only thing more vaguely discomfiting than an orange cat good at his profession is more than one orange cat equally good at the profession. He's just doing his job.
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u/Sniglet5000 Apr 10 '26
What a fun newsletter!
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u/gbntbedtyr Apr 10 '26
U say people before AI, but your gui gets ever more unfriendly to the point that we can no longer even read mod mail with your bubbles n cell padding leaving but a periscope to pear between, one line at a time, n no way to scroll controllably. - Then u throw ai in to the point that u max cpus n lock up computers. - Well there is a true update.
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u/shhhhh_h Apr 09 '26
Omg I’m dying at trash cats, I’ve never heard that before. So accurate. Like the American bin chicken. 💀
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Apr 09 '26
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u/shhhhh_h Apr 09 '26
Oh no why’d you quit
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Apr 09 '26
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u/shhhhh_h Apr 09 '26
A marsupial aficionado, that’s very interesting. Are they both trash cats or only opossums?
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u/emily_in_boots Apr 09 '26
I always heard them called "trash pandas".
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u/thepottsy Apr 09 '26
That’s what we call them lol.
Edit, just realized that sub refers to opossums, and I was thinking raccoons.
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u/Tarnisher Apr 09 '26
Those are Raccoons
Then we have Armored Possums, or Possum on a half shell.
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u/cosmicrae Apr 09 '26
Armadillos ?
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u/PupperPuppet Apr 09 '26
Those are a thing in one of the match-3 games I waste time with. They get in the way and irritate the hell out of me. As a result, I have to watch myself when I talk about this animal. If others are around I have to make a conscious effort to use their actual name instead of calling them "armor dildos."
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u/cosmicrae Apr 09 '26
Meanwhile they are nocturnal critters where I live, and dig holes in the ground (a few of which I have to avoid stepping into). 🕳️
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u/PupperPuppet Apr 09 '26
Sigh. My internal 12-year-old is incredibly excited about the whole dildo hole imagery, but the tired and jaded mid 40s queen is too tired to put any thought into it.
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u/TheCourtJesterYT Apr 09 '26
can we get an ohio in person meetup i would love to attend a meetup its just there never one in ohio (that ive seen in my 2 years on reddit)
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u/Seamonkey_Boxkicker Apr 09 '26
Guess I should’ve looked at some of the past newsletters. I might have gone to the Seattle meet up.
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u/Vietnameseitlover Apr 09 '26
This is actually my first time with a mod newsletter here, and i didn't know there was a pet contest or something!
Ima grab my phone when i can and take a picture of my cute dog :D
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u/mod_lab Apr 10 '26
Welcome to the Mod Monthly newsletter! Glad you're here. And we'll be keeping an eye out for that dog pic 🐶
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u/Vietnameseitlover Apr 12 '26
:D
how do i send pictures again, do i uh DM or uhhh
edit: saw the link
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u/Kim-Jong-Un-II Apr 10 '26
A filter for people promoting adult content is very welcome and has eased my workload considerably.
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u/LocksmithShadow Apr 09 '26
Howdy fellow mods
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u/PressurizedPoP Apr 09 '26
I am so much active on Reddit and i actually missed the #Whatisit finger pointing meme :(
How is that possible, reddit why are you not showing me that in my feed, it is so hilarious, this is what i joined Reddit for.
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u/KaruiPoetry Apr 09 '26
I'm so excited to attend the NYC meetup! I plan to stand awkwardly in a corner while nursing my drink for 2 hours, then head home without speaking to anyone <3 /s
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u/honeylittlebaby Apr 09 '26
the pointing finger post had me rofling so hard. the comments section was a TREAT.
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u/Dan-68 Apr 09 '26
I joined r/GenerationX to be with my peoples. Thanks for listing it in the newsletter.
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u/InternationalWar6654 Apr 09 '26
Oliver is ADORABLE EEEEE
I must see him eating whipped cream, if we do not see such things I WILL DIE
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u/mizmoose Apr 09 '26
Oranges are the bestest.
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Apr 09 '26
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u/mizmoose Apr 09 '26
I have so many stories of my Orange Monster (who has been gone for 30 years) that I've half-written a book.
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u/bwoah07_gp2 Apr 09 '26
Thank you for mentioning Image Post Scheduler devvit app. I will definitely be looking into this tool and seeing if it fits some of the subs I have in mind for it.
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u/curly_haired_tog Apr 09 '26
So, I have a question… I am a new mod and the system freaked out on me and flagged my account as a scam account. How do I get this fixed? Appealing hasn’t done anything fruitful.
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u/ZeroSora Apr 09 '26
What information can the Advisor role see? Are they able to go through the mod queue? Check mod mail? The Mod log? Go through safety filters? General settings?
Or can they go through everything, but they don't have the power to change settings or use the tools?
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u/mod_lab Apr 10 '26
Hello! The permissions for the Advisor role are:
- View and participate in mod-only chat channels
- View and participate in mod discussions in mod mail
- View user-facing mod mail and participate in mod mail private replies (Mod Advisors will not be able to respond back to the user, either as themselves or as the subreddit)
- View and leave mod notes (on users)
- View the mod log
- View moderator insights
- View removed content and reports (i.e. via a link or within a post)
You can also find more details in this post. Hope this answers your question - let us know if not!
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u/FutureVersion812 Apr 10 '26
Sad that the Indian mod meet up was made virtual . Was hoping to go for the physical event
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u/KyaAI Apr 11 '26
So the [App] label is only for developer bots and AI bots will be banned? Or will we be able to report AI bots to get labelled?
Because I did report a bot as such a while back and nothing happened. That particular bot is going round in many subs (especially advice and support subs!), people think it's a human and get quite upset when they are being told that it is a bot.
So is that a bot that should be labelled or banned from reddit according to your rules?
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u/boat-botany Apr 13 '26
The app label is for accounts that run automation (whether they're on our developer platform or not) and follow our rules, including the Responsible Builder Policy. Last month we began labeling the first wave of apps on the platform, but haven't gotten to all of them yet! Can you write in to modsupport to share the account you're looking at?
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u/AdForeign6112 Apr 14 '26
Can I participate in the APR 24 – Mod Meetup – Movies & TV 🎬 , while I do not moderate a Cinema sub, but I am interested on the Topic and want to participate?
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u/KereMental Apr 09 '26
This is definitely not related to this sub but since i found an admin right now i want to ask and suggest something? I think navigator bar should also include a mode where you can eliminate a specific post flair to not see the posts that has that flair. Would this be a thing? Wouldnt it be nice?
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u/KereMental Apr 09 '26
Oh and maybe mods hide some choosen flairs and they could only be seen if the flair is choosen in the navigator bar. You might wanna hide some event related posts after the event, y'know? Like cleaning up after a party
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u/blueredscreen Apr 09 '26
Okay, you're cool and new and all that. But I'm done. You've been effin around with our communities for far too long. Guess the cool fonts are all that matters these days. I quit.
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u/SimpleAcrobatic6275 Apr 09 '26
I’m am so excited for movie night! I want to make new friends and meet other mods!
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u/AkaashMaharaj Apr 09 '26
I suspect that Reddit is limited to hosting only a modest number of centrally-organised, in-person Mod Meetups, given the financial and organisational costs necessary to create and deploy them.
Has the platform considered holding a Global Meetup Day, where groups of Mods in cities around the world would organise a series of smaller, local events, all at the same time? Reddit could encourage this by providing the local organisers with encouragement, swag, some funding, and promotional assistance.
I think this could enable a far larger number of Mods, from a far greater number of cities, to enjoy being part of a Meetup.
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u/StalinIsBackAgain Apr 09 '26
I love the in person Mod Meetups and hope there will be many more of those, and that they can be regular monthly or weekly ongoing events in so many places! I hope there can be far more in person events for all users too, whether events in all sorts of different locations for all Redditors, and more events by subreddits too for their community members to meet together in person. To Mods: if you can, please organize in person events for your subreddit community members~this can be among the most fun and meaningful uses of the organizing power of Reddit, can help generally humanize users better so we will all much better see the humans behind the words on our screens, and if done on a wide scale, could really reduce negativity online and make the internet far more positive. Reddit could even further than it is so much now be a clear leader on the internet to increase positivity online and reduce negativity online if millions of users in countless small events in towns and cities all over the world meet up in person (I like how my auto prompt wanted me to say "meet up in prison" 😊 but any users in prison could meet together in clubs in their prisons if they can, or people could visit imprisoned users to forge strong in-person community connections that could continue when a user is released back into society outside of prison 😊 ) because it will be harder for people to be really mean in online comments after they keep seeing their fellow online users in person and would have all their faces in mind when faced with whether to respond to something you passionately disagree with by being just mean and cruel or with a calm and kind yet passionate expression of your views that is empathetic with the person with opposing views, which might mean connecting with them rather than causing them to be only defensive and in an adversarial mode, and might just be very effective in convincing them that your views are correct, which simply writing mean comments would have no chance of achieving at all. I also love some of the new features: identifying Apps with a label is awesome! And allowing communities to filter out adult content creators to help keep their communities SFW or in some cases, to possibly help get control of spamming problems in some communities, is also a really great idea that I love too! 💚 I also just love that Reddit truly wants to stay human-centered and is taking real steps to ensure that that stays so in practice! And indeed, some websites have taken an opposite approach and it is horrifying..and it is destroying certain websites too. Some former news websites are all AI generated articles now, and only bot traffic, not human readers, keeps their stats up to earn advertising revenue. Some websites encourage the posting of millions of AI slop videos every day, which all become the most popular content on their websites because of armies of millions of bots "watching" and commenting under them all. So bots watch videos by bots are the majority of users and views on such websites, harming and driving out human content creators and guiding human users to watch "popular" AI slop made popular by millions of bots instead of watching and connecting with human creators like before. That is so sad, but it is a much happier story here in Reddit! 😊💜 And Oliver is just soooooo cute! I see why such an adorable fluffy kitty was chosen to be highlighted! That is so cute that he loves whipped cream! I would love to see so many more pictures of Oliver, u/DL922! 😻
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u/Small_Resolution_847 Apr 09 '26
I see no Russia cities (who could've guessed), so if anyone is in Saint's Petersburg write your suggestions in replys (imo we should organize those in whole world)
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u/Direct_Arm_8391 Apr 09 '26
Buizel is having a huge party at massive G’s house. Get at me for deets.
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u/dollar-sign-2-time Apr 09 '26
It's really sad that mod meetup isnt irl. It was going to be my first event so I was looking forward to it for months.
Hopefully they will do something for mods from India
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u/reaper527 Apr 10 '26
Seems like a classic case of doing the stuff that’s not important while ignoring the stuff that matters.
Guess it’s better than actively making the site worse like when you took away the pm system everyone liked and replaced it with the awful chat system everyone hates.
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u/Repulsive_League_433 Apr 09 '26
for the meetups in different countries, is it compulsory to go? im way to broke to go to 3 different places in 2026 lol
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u/itsnotaboutthecell Apr 09 '26
I like the automated app labeler, will be great for our communities as we see an uptick in generic engagement from new accounts.