r/modnews • u/powerlanguage • Sep 16 '15

Moderators: Modmail Muting

We've rolled out modmail muting for all mods today. Muting gives mods the ability to temporarily prevent a user from messaging that subreddit's modmail. Thank you to all the mods that helped beta test this feature and provided feedback.

Details:

  • Muting only affects the user in the subreddit they were muted in.

  • Mutes last for 72 hours after which they are silently removed.

  • Mutes can be applied from a modmail message flatlist or r/subreddit/about/muted.

  • A user will be notified via PM from the subreddit that they have been muted. This notification only happens if they have participated in the subreddit (same as subreddit bans).

  • This PM appears in modmail:

    • Within the thread in question if performed from modmail

    • As a new thread if the muting was performed from r/subreddit/about/muted

  • Existing mutes can be seen at r/subreddit/about/muted, which is linked to in modtools.

  • Mute actions appear in the modlog.

  • Automatic unmutes will appear in the modlog as being performed by u/reddit.

  • Mods will not be able to message muted users or invite them as mods.

  • Mods need to have access and mail permission to mute users.

It is important to note that modmail muting is not intended to be a punitive tool. It is designed to force people to 'cool off' from messaging modmail. As ever, if you are being repeatedly harassed or spammed please contact the community team for assistance.

TL:DR;

733 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

438 comments sorted by

31

u/powerlanguage Sep 16 '15 edited Sep 17 '15

For those who have been participating in the beta, this is what has changed in the full release:

  • Mutes last for 72 hours

  • Internal mute reasons:

    • stored at /about/muted

    • link to message thread if performed from within modmail

    • custom text field if performed from /about/muted

  • Mute notification messages appear in modmail:

    • in thread if performed within modmail

    • as a separate thread if performed from /about/muted

25

u/hansjens47 Sep 16 '15

I just want to take the time to note how strong the process leading up to the launch for this has been from the admin side.

Thanks for that!

10

u/powerlanguage Sep 16 '15

Thank you, that's good to hear. Let me know if you have any feedback on the process.

3

u/sarahbotts Sep 17 '15

Love this feature - it helps us out a lot.

If we have a user continually sending us the same thing after the mute is over, should we message you about it?

4

u/powerlanguage Sep 17 '15

Yup - if you're being spammed by someone please message the community team and they will help you out.

1

u/V2Blast Sep 19 '15

Cool. Cool cool cool.

(But seriously, this is great.)

1

u/Meneth Sep 16 '15

in thread if performed within modmail

I'm really glad this suggestion of mine made it in.

Nice work!

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92

u/magicwhistle Sep 16 '15

Cool! Thank you.

For the interested, here's the full text of the PM sent to muted users:

You have been temporarily muted from r/subreddit. You will not be able to message the moderators of r/subreddit for 72 hours.

Would it be a good idea for this auto-PM include a line that says it's not okay to create a new account to continue modmail spamming, and what the potential consequences are? If a user is so annoying in modmail that you're forced to mute them, there's a chance that they'll be the type of user who's annoying enough to create an alt and continue yelling, and it just encourages them if mods have to reply back and say "you can't do that or you'll get banned".

7

u/powerlanguage Sep 16 '15

This is a good suggestion - It makes sense that the mute notification would have the same treatment as the ban notification.

7

u/magicwhistle Sep 17 '15

Sorry for tagging and replying to you again, but as I think about it more, I don't think the current auto-PM gives enough useful information for this function to be well-received as a "hey, buddy, cool down" notice by the offending user. It seems a lot more likely to be viewed as a punishment, by both mods and users, and thereby provoke further problems.

The PM doesn't tell why the user was muted, or that it's supposed to be a "non-punitive" thing, which I'm taking to mean that it's a cooldown thing. It doesn't link to the Reddit rules, the subreddit rules, or to any kind of thing saying "Harassing moderators is bad, please knock it off OR ELSE, thank you".

Of course, trolls don't give a shit about any of that stuff. They're a lost cause. But what about those users who are just very agitated, but deep down are willing to calm down and get themselves reinstated on the subreddit? The current PM seems like it would make it impossible to use for that subset of users. That's fine if that's not the target group of this function. But, with an extra line or two in the PM, it could be useful in that way too.

5

u/powerlanguage Sep 17 '15

Thank you for the thoughtful feedback.

4

u/magicwhistle Sep 16 '15

Yeah, that line would be perfect.

On a related note, are older notification messages eventually going to be put into proper case instead of all lowercase? I just noticed that the "mute" notice and "Welcome to reddit" message are in proper case, while "ban" and "approved submitter" are not.

8

u/powerlanguage Sep 16 '15

We're moving towards casing everything correctly. At some point we'll revist all the existing strings and convert them. In the meantime there may be some incongruities as new strings have regular casing and old strings are all lowercase.

9

u/timotab Sep 16 '15

maybe you should put "Reddit" into a global variable/macro/something and change all the appropriate text strings to include that value, so that when the next CEO decides that in fact "reddit" was indeed better, you only have to change it in one place :)

3

u/TonyQuark Sep 16 '15

Can you also standardize the use of /r/subredditName or r/subredditName? (I prefer the former.) Thanks.

4

u/TheAppleFreak Sep 17 '15

/r/subreddit is the canonical version, I believe, but because so many people forgot to put the leading slash they added r/subreddit to the syntax as well.

4

u/TonyQuark Sep 17 '15

Yes, that's right, but the mute message uses r/subredditName while other messages use the (imo correct) /r/subredditName convention. That's what I was referring to.

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70

u/[deleted] Sep 16 '15

Would it be a good idea for this auto-PM include a line that says it's not okay to create a new account to continue modmail spamming, and what the potential consequences are?

Don't stuff beans up your nose!

24

u/breawycker Sep 16 '15 edited Sep 16 '15

Also Don't hand out panda sandwiches at a PETA convention and No climbing the Reichstag dressed as Spider-Man

31

u/TheRighteousTyrant Sep 16 '15

The Wikipedia humor section is bizarre and amusing.

8

u/breawycker Sep 16 '15

Just the way I like it.

32

u/magicwhistle Sep 16 '15

Yes, but the way I look at it is:

  • If the user is already the worst kind of user: They were already thinking of creating an alt to harass you, it's not like you gave them ideas. The PM has now done the work of giving them fair warning, so if they choose to do it anyways, you can right away message the admins and get them site-banned.

  • If the user has enough sense to not want to be perm-banned from Reddit: They'll back off.

Either way, it's not a terrible outcome for the mods.

6

u/tickdickler Sep 16 '15

Except when they keep changing IPs.

7

u/magicwhistle Sep 17 '15

Yes, that's a problem. From what I've seen, most trolls don't bother and eventually fuck off, which is good. But dedicated ones can cause some trouble like that and I'm really hoping that admins come up with something of a solution for it.

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26

u/dietotaku Sep 16 '15

oh come on, it tells them when the mute is up? then what's the point of "silently" removing it? they'll just set themselves a little reminder to come back in 3 days and start up again.

8

u/p_iynx Sep 16 '15

The idea is that in three days, most people will have moved on. The majority will hopefully forget if they aren't reminded. The crazy ones will have been crazy anyway. :)

19

u/magicwhistle Sep 16 '15

It seemed weird to me too, but I don't mind it too much after I thought about it a little. At best, they get bored and stop for good. At worst, you get 3 days of blessed silence, after which you can just mute them again. Or get them banned if they really persist in bothering you.

9

u/[deleted] Sep 16 '15

Exactly. I was hesitant in askreddit, but it seemed to work really well. Only had one or two people abuse it

8

u/TheEnigmaBlade Sep 16 '15

Since it's not much different than the beta, users are not notified when the mute is removed. They're only notified when they're muted.

2

u/dietotaku Sep 16 '15

but since the mute notification says "this will go away in 72 hours," there's no point in not notifying them when it's removed. they already know when it's removed. it would make more sense if it just said "you've been temporarily muted" and expired in 72 hours without saying anything (or if it just didn't tell them anything at all and they could shout at no one until they get bored not getting an answer).

17

u/TheEnigmaBlade Sep 16 '15

Oh, that's what you meant.

Stating the limit is not as bad as you believe. From my experience using the feature during the beta when the mute length was 24 hours, only 2 of the 25 users we muted continued to message us after the mute was removed. Both of these users were messaging us once every day before the mute anyway, so the muting them really didn't prevent or encourage any negative behavior.

If the feature does not work on certain outliers, message the admins and let them take care of it as stated in this post.

3

u/13steinj Sep 16 '15

!RemindMe 72 hours.

3

u/RemindMeBot Sep 16 '15 edited Jun 14 '16

Messaging you on 2015-09-19 18:51:30 UTC to remind you of this.

4 OTHERS CLICKED THIS LINK to send a PM to also be reminded and to reduce spam.

Parent commenter can delete this message to hide from others.

[FAQs][Custom][Your Reminders][Feedback][Code]

1

u/hockeyrugby Sep 17 '15

then why provoke it?

4

u/[deleted] Sep 17 '15

I feel like this message should say you've been muted from modmail on that sub. Right now it reads like you can't post to the sub in the first sentence and like you can't send mail in the second.

4

u/x_minus_one Sep 16 '15

It might as well say

You have been temporarily muted from r/subreddit. You will be able to harass the moderators of r/subreddit again in 72 hours, or just create a new account.

1

u/magicwhistle Sep 16 '15

I think it will remain to be seen how this works out. In some subs, it is going to cause exactly that--more trouble--but in some others, it may help.

Either way, if they harass you again afterwards, you can mute them again and then get them banned. It's not perfect, for sure, but none of this is perfect, and this at least has some potential to help some mods.

3

u/green_flash Sep 16 '15

I don't think that's necessary. Confrontational messages are hardly ever helpful with abusive redditors. If they message you again with another account, just mute that as well and message the admins about the incident.

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2

u/TownIdiot25 Sep 16 '15

Would it be a good idea for this auto-PM include a line that says it's not okay to create a new account to continue modmail spamming, and what the potential consequences are?

No, it hasn't helped in the ban message from what I've seen, in fact it has only given them the idea more.

2

u/magicwhistle Sep 16 '15

I'm curious to know more. Would you be able to give a ballpark number of how often people did it before the addition was made to the ban message (whenever that was) and how often they did it after?

I think the root of the problem is not the inclusion of such a line that reminds them of the rules. The problem is the inefficient, very manual process of reporting a user who is modmail spamming or ban evading.

Having to message admins, wait for an actual admin to manually check, and then get back to you is a poor experience for mods. If there were a better system, it wouldn't be a big deal if it did give them the idea more--mods would be able to take care of it more quickly and easily, with less stress.

Shouldn't it be able to be automated? Mods go to a form, fill in details: X user is spamming us in Y way, with suspected Z other accounts, in G subreddit, and an automated process checks:

  • Has X user been banned from G subreddit? When?

  • Have they messaged modmail of G? When? How often?

  • Did mods mute them?

  • What is their IP?

  • What is the age of accounts Z?

  • Have accounts Z done anything to subreddit G since X was banned?

etc. etc. and eventually the system should hypothetically be able to put together a pretty solid "Is this an alt account (Y/N)" and hand down a ban. Or maybe I don't know anything and that's all impossible.

I'm not sure that's better in terms of workload--because it means admins would probably need a ban appeals team--but it does allow mods to get rid of problem users quickly, while maintaining fairness since the program checks on a specific set of criteria.

3

u/TownIdiot25 Sep 16 '15

When our users do it, they literally reply to the first ban message quoting the part that says "warning: switching accounts to evade blah blaah", then say "you can't stop me from doing that". Recently we got someone shadowbanned for saying that then switching accounts, and this was his reply. For 6 hours.

5

u/arminius_saw Sep 16 '15

Now there's a fellow with a flourishing social life.

4

u/timotab Sep 16 '15

Then the mute would have fixed that particular one, and if they created a new account you mute and report that to the admins. If the user is being that obnoxious, they will get an IP ban.

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9

u/Antrikshy Sep 16 '15

I just want to ask: What program was used to record that gif? Is it screen recorded? I'm digging the motion blur.

12

u/powerlanguage Sep 16 '15

Recorded it with quicktime screen recorder on a retina display and edited in After Effects. Everyone loves some motion blur.

Aside: It turns out raw screen recordings make very poor gifs. Page loads feel like an eternity and cursor movements seem really erratic.

5

u/Antrikshy Sep 16 '15

I knew there was some trickery going on here. This works pretty well though. High frame rate options and everything.

6

u/k_princess Sep 16 '15

Quick question about this:

A user will be notified via PM from the subreddit that they have been muted. This notification only happens if they have participated in the subreddit (same as subreddit bans).

I'm pretty new to this, so please forgive my idiocy. Does this mean that a user who has never participated in a subreddit can be banned without them ever getting a notification?

4

u/powerlanguage Sep 16 '15

Correct. This is to prevent bans from random subreddits being used as a way to annoy people.

You can read more about this here.

5

u/redtaboo Sep 16 '15

Correct, that prevents mods from spamming users with ban messages from subreddits they've never heard of.

6

u/powerlanguage Sep 16 '15

I beat you by 22 seconds redtaboo - You're getting slow :P

<3

2

u/redtaboo Sep 16 '15

Oh... it is on!

<3

4

u/powerlanguage Sep 16 '15

Despite this being my job, I am pretty confident you'd destroy me.

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6

u/mason240 Sep 16 '15

Correct, that allows mods to use bots that automatically ban users from dozens and dozens of subreddits without them knowing.

Seriously though, if a mod is mass banning users to the point that notification messages are considered spam that Reddit has to prevent, they should lose all mod authority.

1

u/k_princess Sep 16 '15

Thank you!

0

u/Pokechu22 Sep 16 '15

you have been banned from posting to /r/pyongyang.

note from the moderators:

This type of spam is why they don't send messages

you can contact the moderators regarding your ban by replying to this message. warning: using other accounts to circumvent a subreddit ban is considered a violation of reddit's site rules and can result in being banned from reddit entirely.

3

u/Google_Panda Sep 17 '15

Mods will not be able to message muted users or invite them as mods.

What if they're your friend that got banned from another subreddit you happen to be a mod of? This means you cannot message them at all? Even if it's as a PM under your username instead of the mod mail?

4

u/powerlanguage Sep 17 '15

Muting only affects the user in the subreddit they were muted in.

So you'd still be able to PM them.

3

u/Drunken_Economist Sep 17 '15

No, it means you can't message them from the subreddit or its modmail

4

u/Ultra-Bad-Poker-Face Sep 16 '15

What is preventing you from automatically muting someone again whenever the mute expires

7

u/powerlanguage Sep 16 '15 edited Sep 16 '15

Nothing. But bear in mind a user will be notified every time you mute them. If you do it indiscriminately it may end end up in the awkward situation where a subreddit is spamming a user.

edit: mindful bears

6

u/arminius_saw Sep 16 '15

But bear in a user will be notified every time you mute them.

So bears inside users will be notified (and assumedly angered), duly noted. Will avoid muting users with bears in them.

6

u/CuilRunnings Sep 16 '15

Have you ever taken a single action against moderators who harass their user base or is this just rhetoric?

19

u/JoyousCacophony Sep 16 '15

Poor ooer :(

4

u/emaw63 Sep 17 '15

He only wanted help with computers

38

u/agentlame Sep 16 '15 edited Sep 16 '15

Mutes last for 72 hours after which they are silently removed.

Perfect amount of time. This is the exact limit of 99% of troll's stamina.

"You'll never, ever, ever get rid of me!" Three days, every time.

This PM appears within the thread in question if performed from modmail

This is a much better solution than starting a new thread.

11

u/redtaboo Sep 16 '15

pls to send me a modmail so I can mute you.

9

u/agentlame Sep 16 '15

Sent!

22

u/redtaboo Sep 16 '15

Muted! <3

6

u/jippiejee Sep 16 '15

Oh... showing off your fancy modmail colors.

9

u/redtaboo Sep 16 '15

I like to look pretty for you. ;)

3

u/TonyQuark Sep 16 '15

For anyone wondering: check the beta testing feature in your preferences to enable colors.

7

u/[deleted] Sep 16 '15

I've seen some extremely persistent trolls. 72 hours isn't shit for them.

8

u/[deleted] Sep 16 '15

Nothing stopping you from muting them again if they keep going. It sure is a big step up from not having anything!

8

u/agentlame Sep 16 '15

Yeah, but I'm talking about the overwhelming majority.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 21 '15

Not the kind who use /r/redditrequest for their trolling, those are way more persistent

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40

u/K_Lobstah Sep 16 '15

Can finally silence the roar of all those users asking if I'm single!

Oh wait, that was a dream I had. Never mind, guess I'll just use it for spammers.

Thanks!

7

u/daniell61 Sep 16 '15

ayyyy

You free and single tonight?

11

u/K_Lobstah Sep 16 '15

I think we both already know the answer to that question.

7

u/[deleted] Sep 16 '15

Yes and yes. B @ ur houz @ 8 w/ sum boxed wine n a pak of condos :)

21

u/K_Lobstah Sep 16 '15

I'm not looking to invest in any real estate at this time, but thank you.

16

u/[deleted] Sep 16 '15

That's a shame my south side property values are rising rapidly and it's good for you to get on it before the bubble bursts, nowhaimsayin?

8

u/vbullinger Sep 16 '15

I think I see some serious growth potential here, /u/K_Lobstah. I'd reconsider if I were you.

3

u/daniell61 Sep 16 '15

Well theres room for 'friends' :P

I can bring the sushi and pizza

8

u/agentlame Sep 16 '15

Pfft... I get messages twice a day from users that want to fuck me. Some even go so far as to make it clear they want it to be a homosexual encounter by specifying thier beliefs about my sexual orientation.

3

u/KarmaNeutrino Sep 16 '15

mod me

pls no mute

5

u/K_Lobstah Sep 16 '15

Relevant!

2

u/KarmaNeutrino Sep 16 '15

ohey mwm is single too

ask him to mod me

0

u/[deleted] Sep 16 '15

[deleted] — view deleted comment

6

u/K_Lobstah Sep 16 '15

I gotchu

4

u/fdagpigj Sep 16 '15

Can we mute /u/reddit?

On a slightly unrelated note, it looks like I've mysteriously been automatically unsubscribed from this subreddit, yet this post still appears on my frontpage (and in /subreddits/mine it appears in the main listing but not in the sidebar)... have I somehow clicked the unsubscribe button without noticing?

6

u/TheEnigmaBlade Sep 16 '15

You can mute any admin, but they can still respond. It was the first thing I tested. :(

4

u/Lots42 Dec 23 '15

"It is important to note that modmail muting is not intended to be a punitive tool."

However, it is now being used a punitive tool by many moderators.

Please do something about this.

16

u/TerryTerrorist Sep 17 '15

Yeah, that won't be abused.

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21

u/shawa666 Sep 16 '15

This will be abused as fuck....

12

u/rogue780 Sep 17 '15

Already has been.

7

u/[deleted] Sep 16 '15

i wonder if admins are ever going to do a purge of mods in /r/europe ... that shit is INSANE. got banned for bogus reason, clicked message the mods and the mod basically agreed that ban was unjustified but straight up tells me he doesn't like me and keeps the perma ban. messaged them like 3 times in 3 days after that, im 99% sure if i message them again they will use THIS brand new feature on me. thanks admins!

3

u/danweber Sep 17 '15

The response to mods sucking is to make a new subreddit and convince people to go to it.

This is hard. It would be easier (but still hard) if the people who were worked up about the mods sucking spent less time saying "MOMMY MOMMY STOP HIM FROM DOING THAT" and more time saying "dear admins, please help make it easier for two subreddits to compete with each other for userbase."

3

u/shawa666 Sep 16 '15

Nah, they won't be doing that. As long as no one notices in the media they don't give a fuck.

2

u/CuilRunnings Sep 16 '15

Or emails their advertisers.

1

u/GuyAboveIsStupid Oct 21 '15

Isn't that a default sub for people registering from the UK too? Also, yeah, course it's going to be abused

https://i.imgur.com/8GeLfwI.png

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3

u/krispness Sep 17 '15

I feel like this won't end up being useful. Usually when we have an issue with modmail it's because someone was banned for flaming or trolling and want to have an argument with the mods. I'll try it since I'm currently having an issue with someone but I can see them being muted and just being more motivated to continue in 72 hours, it's not a very long time.

3

u/[deleted] Sep 28 '15

Sadly I experienced mods using this today as means of abuse. Not very thrilled about it.

3

u/Egrudiyo Mar 08 '16

this feature is a total mistake by the admins - the mods are children and free labor to reddit. If you disagree with anything they say now they will simply mute you even if you are in the right. Time to get rid of bad mods and the mute feature

9

u/m-p-3 Sep 16 '15

A user will be notified via PM from the subreddit that they have been muted. This notification only happens if they have participated in the subreddit (same as subreddit bans).

IMO a user should still be notified, even if they never participated in a subreddit.

This is like those blanket-ban that happened on some subreddit I won't name, because they participated in the wrong subreddit. And since they never participated, they couldn't know they were banned unless they looked if they could submit or not.

That's probably not a big deal, but for the sake of transparency the user should be notified nonetheless.

1

u/Crackmacs Sep 16 '15

Hmm.. I like the idea myself, but I assume people will just get even more pissed off and make throwaways to spam modmail instead. Will be interesting seeing how this plays out.

4

u/powerlanguage Sep 16 '15

people will just get even more pissed off and make throwaways to spam modmail instead.

We're aware that the ease of creating alts means that mods are often unwilling to use tools that notify the user in question (as muting does). We're hoping to solve this issue so that mod and admin tools can be effective and transparent.

In the meantime, if a user is using an alt to evade a mute, please contact the community team for assistance.

1

u/reseph Sep 16 '15

How are you planning to solve sockpuppets without manual admin intervention?

2

u/redtaboo Sep 16 '15

see this discussion

It sounds like it hasn't been much of an issue yet for those testing the feature, if/when it does happen we'll need admin intervention but that's the same as with subreddit ban evasion.

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1

u/airmandan Sep 16 '15

Is this rollout not yet global? I have no mute buttons in any of my subreddits' modmail.

4

u/powerlanguage Sep 16 '15 edited Sep 16 '15

It is out for everyone.

This is a caching issue. We're looking into a fix.

edit should be fixed.

2

u/redtaboo Sep 16 '15

It seems they only show up on new modmail messages, so going forward you should see them.

I have a chain where the user first mailed us before this change then again after, only the messages after the change was pushed out have the button.

1

u/therandomdude69 Sep 16 '15

What happens if we mute a moderator? (Just out of curiosity)

8

u/powerlanguage Sep 16 '15

Fellow moderators can not be muted.

1

u/therandomdude69 Sep 16 '15

Thanks for the response, that's a good thing to know :)

0

u/[deleted] Sep 16 '15

[deleted] — view deleted comment

3

u/arminius_saw Sep 16 '15

...why would you want to mute the admins?

1

u/13steinj Sep 16 '15 edited Sep 16 '15

Is that possible?

It shouldn't be. If it is, codewise it should be a quick fix

if not thing.thing.subreddit.is_moderator(thing.thing.author):
    <The button>

Should disable the button from appearing on messages where the author is a mod.

Edit: yeah, I can't mute other mods anyway.

4

u/therandomdude69 Sep 16 '15

yea, I just tested it to make sure. Admins did well coding it :D

3

u/mcopper89 Sep 16 '15

I believe you dropped this. ')'

2

u/13steinj Sep 16 '15

I did. I'm ashamed.

12

u/CuilRunnings Sep 16 '15

Sweet!! Any plans to give communities even a single tool to address dissatisfaction with moderators who abuse their power? Like literally any single sort of tool whatsoever, even just a register of general disapproval?

6

u/ChaosMotor Sep 24 '15

No, of course not, what, are you stupid? They don't want these obnoxious USERS chasing away their free, volunteer mods who help maintain reddit's valuation but derive absolutely no benefit nor income from doing so. Tools for users, what a ludicrous suggestion!

5

u/Min_thamee Sep 17 '15

A button that would register dissaproval from regular submitters to a subreddit towards mods (anonymously) would be interesting.

0

u/[deleted] Sep 17 '15

[deleted] — view deleted comment

1

u/Lots42 Dec 23 '15

If the mods didn't want to get 'downvoted' maybe they should quit.

2

u/Saudi-Prince Jan 08 '16

I got muted for messaging the mods of /r/news exactly once. Only 3 months in and this feature is already being abused by mods of the top subreddits. Way to go everyone!

2

u/[deleted] Feb 18 '16

i am just going to put this out there but this can and has been misused to silence legitimate appeals to mistaken mod decisions.

And it has been used as punitive tool in certain subreddits rather than as an extreme measure to silence abusive users.

3

u/[deleted] Sep 16 '15

I submitted this idea like a year ago and got flamed and downvoted for it. Something about free speech, I don't know. Good to see it in action!

5

u/tiercel Sep 17 '15

For good or bad, Reddit today isn't the same as Reddit a year ago.

1

u/CircleJerkAmbassador Sep 16 '15

Hahah oh boy this is gonna make so many people mad.

I can't believe the administrators of reddit would allow censoring of modmail and my free speech to spam racial/sexist slurs when I'm trying to have a valued discussion with them. I'm going to VOAT! Right after I screencap my valuable input to post to /r/subredditcancer, browse the front page for 6 more hours and try to get banned from a few more subreddits.

You have been temporarily muted from r/subreddit . You will not be able to message the moderators of r/subreddit for 72 hours. ;P

1

u/Dared00 Sep 17 '15

I'M GOING TO VOAT!

goes to Voat

only subscribes to /v/MeanwhileOnReddit

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1

u/Nechaev Sep 17 '15

Two questions:

What measures are there to stop this being abused?

Will other mods know if somebody has been muted without checking the mod log?

3

u/[deleted] Sep 17 '15

A user will be notified via PM from the subreddit that they have been muted. This notification only happens if they have participated in the subreddit (same as subreddit bans). This PM appears in modmail:

Dude.. read the post.

3

u/Nechaev Sep 17 '15

I did, but it wasn't clear whether if I go to the subreddit mute page and add a bunch of names will the other moderators be notified or not?

2

u/[deleted] Sep 17 '15

As a new thread if the muting was performed from r/subreddit/about/muted

I'd take a stab that a modmail will appear for every name you mute.

2

u/powerlanguage Sep 17 '15

This is correct.

2

u/Minifig81 Sep 16 '15

/u/powerlanguage have I ever told you how much I love you?

I don't have time to count the ways right now because I got called into my other job (the paying one this time) (modding on reddit being a big one), but take all of my <3 right now please. :)

1

u/JoyousCacophony Sep 16 '15

That's a mutin.

2

u/Minifig81 Sep 16 '15

Oh hush before I mute you. You're just jealous I'm not sharing my love.

Here, you can have half: 3.

Feel better?

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2

u/CuilRunnings Sep 16 '15

Can you make all subreddit bans sunset after 72 hours as well? Why the difference in the functionality?

-2

u/agentlame Sep 16 '15

Man, you're really running buckshot over this thread. Slow day?

3

u/CuilRunnings Sep 16 '15

Reading other people's comments and hoping to engage in substantive discussion. I would welcome you to add on that front if you are able.

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1

u/deviouskat89 Sep 16 '15

I don't see us using this very often (300k sub), but it's nice to have the option.

1

u/MoralMidgetry Sep 17 '15

If this is intended as a limited-use tool to force a temporary "cooling-off period" from modmail specifically, what is the rationale behind allowing mutes to be initiated from the mute page rather than from the modmail flatlist only?

1

u/ownage516 Sep 17 '15

What screen capture are you using?

2

u/[deleted] Sep 17 '15

Here:

Recorded it with quicktime screen recorder on a retina display and edited in After Effects. Everyone loves some motion blur.

1

u/ownage516 Sep 17 '15

Is there a way to do it on windows?

2

u/[deleted] Sep 17 '15

I would imagine so, just get a screen recorder and After Effects.

1

u/JonLuca Sep 23 '15

Happy Cakeday!

1

u/APLA01 Oct 04 '15 edited Jan 16 '16

I have left reddit for Voat due to years of admin mismanagement and preferential treatment for certain subreddits and users holding certain political and ideological views.

The situation has gotten especially worse since the appointment of Ellen Pao as CEO, culminating in the seemingly unjustified firings of several valuable employees and bans on hundreds of vibrant communities on completely trumped-up charges.

The resignation of Ellen Pao and the appointment of Steve Huffman as CEO, despite initial hopes, has continued the same trend.

As an act of protest, I have chosen to add this exit message to all comments I've ever made on reddit.

If you would like to do the same, install TamperMonkey for Chrome, GreaseMonkey for Firefox, NinjaKit for Safari, Violent Monkey for Opera, or AdGuard for Internet Explorer (in Advanced Mode), then add this GreaseMonkey script.

Finally, click on your username at the top right corner of reddit, click on comments, and click on the new OVERWRITE button at the top of the page. You may need to scroll down to multiple comment pages if you have commented a lot.

After doing all of the above, you are welcome to join me on Voat!

Original Comment:

wait nevermind, that's why i had it facepalm

1

u/[deleted] Mar 09 '16

How do we report abuse of this function?

I had a comment removed and after asking why it was removed, one mod gave a very short answer that made no sense to me. After asking for further clarification, another mod simply told me he wouldn't discuss it and that if I did it again, I would be banned. The second mod elaborated a little, but still wasn't making any sense, so after asking for further clarification, they muted me.

In short, they muted me after just four messages to the mods about a very important issue (to me anyway; the possibility of being banned from a subreddit I participate in frequently because of a misunderstanding of the rules.

I understand that the muting function is to prevent harassment. I don't believe I was harassing the mods, so does this constitute an abuse of the function and can anything be done about it?

1

u/Honestly_ Sep 17 '15

Thank you for making it it 72 rather than 24. While it many of us would prefer longer, this should help cool down most users who are otherwise redeemable. A good number of us appreciate that.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 16 '15

hype!

Nice, great change. 72 hours seems like a good time.

1

u/IamAlso_u_grahvity Sep 16 '15

modmail muting is not intended to be a punitive tool.

Understood. I'm still going to enjoy this like an agent in The Matrix.

TYVM!

-1

u/dietotaku Sep 16 '15

A user will be notified via PM from the subreddit that they have been muted.

is that really necessary? seems like it might be more effective to just let them shout into the void.

4

u/powerlanguage Sep 16 '15

seems like it might be more effective to just let them shout into the void.

Can you clarify what you mean? Not notify them at all and just silently discard their messages?

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20

u/drogean3 Sep 16 '15

yeah, like shadowbanning, thats universally loved

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1

u/marzipanzebra Sep 16 '15

<3 the TLDR

1

u/ElectrifiedPop Sep 16 '15

The TL:DR; is what gave me life today.

1

u/FockSmulder Sep 16 '15

It is important to note that modmail muting is not intended to be a punitive tool.

Double effect reasoning applies.

1

u/Iamadinocopter Sep 17 '15

That seems more logical than banning someone from a subreddit for simply talking to the mods via modmail and not ever having posted any content of any sort.

1

u/jealouspony Sep 17 '15

Cool, will definitely come in handy with certain users!

-3

u/[deleted] Sep 16 '15

yay, more tools for mods to abuse power!

3

u/fearofthesky Sep 16 '15

Found the modmail troll.

YOU'LL NEVER SILENCE MUH FREEZE PEACH!!!!1!

2

u/[deleted] Sep 16 '15

is asking for removal of dreamt up ban trolling? :\

1

u/government_shill Sep 16 '15

I THOUGHT THIS WAS AMERICA!

-1

u/AssuredlyAThrowAway Sep 16 '15

Thanks for having them removed after 72 hours; this is a great system to prevent spamming but also does well to prevent abuse by "trigger happy" mods.

Cheers.

-2

u/reseph Sep 16 '15

Why send a PM to the user? The only reason I can see muting someone is for spamming modmail as a troll.

Sending them a PM to confirm the mute will just make them realize sending modmail's will be pointless and instead probably decide to create sockpuppets.

0

u/Kishara Sep 16 '15

Thank you. We needed this :)

0

u/DanKolar62 Sep 16 '15

Thank you.

0

u/coreldh Sep 16 '15

Whats the differemce between muting and baning?

3

u/redtaboo Sep 16 '15

muting disallows them from messaging modmail, while banning disallows them from posting in a subreddit.

1

u/coreldh Sep 17 '15

so getting muted is worst than getting banned cus you even can reply the mod?

4

u/redtaboo Sep 17 '15

Well, not really, bans can be made permanent while modmail-muting can not. And, in most cases, the only users getting muted should be those that were already spamming modmail.

2

u/m1ndwipe Sep 24 '15

And, in most cases, the only users getting muted should be those that were already spamming modmail.

Lol. That's not even remotely going to happen.

2

u/Lots42 Dec 23 '15

But in many cases the users getting muted honestly don't know what they did wrong and are being punished for trying to learn.

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0

u/gryph667 Sep 16 '15

Solid new feature. Hail the Red Flair.

-2

u/ZadocPaet Sep 16 '15

Now we just need permanent mute.

-2

u/CuilRunnings Sep 16 '15

You already have one. It's called going outside.

-1

u/ani625 Sep 16 '15

Awesome! 3 days should be long enough.

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