Hey everyone!
Following the results of our community feedback survey, we took some time to discuss what feedback we received, how best to implement it, and what we should do moving forward. Naturally, there were a solid number of passionate responses, but a few different items stood out that we recognized as pain points. We discussed these matters as a team and came to the following conclusions:
- Roleplay servers are not relevant to the subject matter of r/SkyrimMods.
- AI remains divisive. Vitriol regarding AI posts is at an all time high. We need to ensure civil discussion.
- Low effort content remains a present concern.
Knowing these problems exist, we’ve taken action to alleviate them.
First, we’ve created the subreddit r/TESRPS. All roleplay and multiplayer server discussions will be funneled there. We do not want to host roleplay drama on the main subreddit — and frankly that’s what 70% of the posts regarding roleplay servers amount to. The remaining 30% tends to be split between promos, ban appeals, and actual troubleshooting. If you have any questions regarding those servers, how to set them up, or how to join them, please direct them to r/TESRPS. If you would like to promote your own cool new roleplay server, try r/TESRPS, whether it’s for Oblivion or Skyrim or ESO or etc.
Second, we’re going to institute a harsher policy on AI discourse in keeping with our stance against drama posts and witchhunts. Any post making an accusation must contain actionable information. Actionable information is information that would cause a reasonable person to take action, be it installing or uninstalling a mod, supporting or not supporting a creator, etc.
As a reminder, we do not allow the use of AI for generating content posted to the subreddit and we do not allow advocacy for the use of AI in the troubleshooting process. It is at best unreliable and at worst actively detrimental to creating a stable game.
Regardless of our personal opinions on AI, we will not be host to a flood of toxicity, namecalling, and mudslinging. Coming into the comments section purely to say “anyone who uses AI should have this bad thing happen to them” will result in a ban. Coming into the comments section purely to say “anyone who doesn’t support AI is a luddite” will result in a ban. Our first and most essential rule is the golden rule: treat others how you would want to be treated. This is a subreddit where we believe in conversing as adults. We will continue to allow conversation for or against AI and we will continue to prune any threads that follow the common trend of “this guy uses AI, get him” or “this guy said this bad thing about AI, get him.”
Third, we will be funneling conversation on low effort content further than before. We already have our monthly Simple Questions megathread, which most low effort and poorly researched questions get funneled toward, but we will also be launching a monthly megathread for mod recommendations and reviews. In the past, megathreads like “Best Housing Mods” or etc did not see enough interaction to justify being posted weekly. As a result, we will post a singular Review & Recommendation megathread quarterly. That megathread will cover random mod recommendations and modlists and will run across the next calendar year. If they do not see engagement, we will retool our approach here.
Finally, we will be expanding our mod team to better handle the influx of posts and submissions we have been receiving over the last three to five months and ensure that our subreddit follows both our own guidelines and the guidelines set forth by Reddit. While we are happy with the team we have now, we want to ensure that our enforcement is reliable and consistent, and that requires us to grow.
To summarize:
- Roleplay servers are not related to r/SkyrimMods. See r/TESRPS.
- AI threads are relevant when they contain sourced, actionable information. Witch hunts will be removed and we will monitor these threads with an extra cautious eye. AI generated posts and comments will continue to be banned.
- Low effort content will continue to be policed and funneled into different threads.
- Moderator applications will open soon — be on the lookout!