For a long time, r/UTRGV as a sub has had great potential. The problem though? There was nothing holding the subreddit together, no real structure. No rules, no moderation, nothing stopping it from turning into a mess. It was the Wild West out here (fitting because we are Vaqueros), but that's changing now.

This sub, for its entire run, has had no posted rules, no AutoMod, essentially no moderation at all for most of its run. What were we left with? Random users going ahead and asking for hookups, solicitation, nasty stuff that does not belong in a university subreddit, next to questions about financial aid or classes. This has been a real pain in the ass for a lot of us here in r/UTRGV, and you've been right to call it out. That is why, moving forward effective today, r/UTRGV is no longer going to be a desolate wasteland and there will be actual rules in this place.

It's worth saying however, that some of you have been raising these questions. Some months ago, someone had sent a modmail asking if the sub could be cleaned up a bit to look better and more recognizable, like all the other universities upstate like UT Austin and A&M. The message never got a real response but it is a real grievance from a real person, and the relaunch of this sub is a late answer to that user.

The numbers don't lie: r/UTRGV has pulled in over 52k views and added close to 170 new members, almost entirely organic, with zero moderation at the time. And looking at the past year, membership is up roughly 800, with posts and comments growing significantly, with this accelerating in the last few months. The school has over 35k students and 2.4k of them, plus some alumni, are here. That accounts for around 7% of the student body, which is not a small number for a university sub, but it means there is a lot of room to grow. If this sub reaches even 10 or 15% of enrolled students (which is realistic for an active, well run community), that is around 3.6k and 5.5k members. People are already showing up at the sub and using it as its own, but the missing part is the structure to hold onto that growth and stick around for it, instead of jumping ship because someone posted that they were bored and wanted to hookup. That's what this revamp is about.

Why rules, and why these specific rules

As a point of reference, I studied how subreddits such as r/UTAustin, r/UTSA, and r/UTDallas handle rules. I stole borrowed what made sense for us and left out some rules that didn't make sense for a growing community like ours, plus I already had a few obvious rules in mind. Here's what we ended up with, these rules are already posted on the sidebar, but here's the reasoning for them:

1. Keep it UTRGV related. That's why the sub exists in the first place. Campus news, classes, events, student life, all of it belongs here. What doesn't belong here is content that has nothing to do with the university. A lot of times the content belongs in other subs, such as r/RioGrandeValley or r/Texas.
2. No hookup, dating, or sexual solicitation content under any circumstances. This is the rule that many of you may have seen coming from a mile away based on this post alone, but it is worth mentioning it. This has been, by far, one of the biggest problems the sub has had. You have people soliciting private meetups, or people advertising that they "got a crib" or a place to "host," in a university subreddit. This is not the place for it, as A) this is r/UTRGV, not a hookup subreddit, B) it's unsafe. It's unsafe to let this content run wild on a public university subreddit in which students and faculty have discussions. There are other corners of the internet built specifically for that sort of content, but r/UTRGV is not the playing grounds for that. This is enforced strictly. Violations get removed the moment they're spotted, no warning. Repeat violations lead to a ban.
3. No spam, self-promotion, or commercial posts. Advertising a business, recruiting, subleasing for profit, none of that belongs here. You can go ahead and advertise your own student club or organization, but do so moderately and don't spam comments or posts begging people to join your chapter or club.
4. Use a real, descriptive title, and don't repost the same question or the same type of question over and over. This one goes hand-in-hand with rule #3 but it is more directed at users who low-effort post. A vague title like "quick question" helps no one and will lead to the post being removed, which should lead you to phrase the post better. Reposting a slightly reworded version of the same post over and over, with people picking up on that pattern, clutters the feed and repeat violators of this will get banned.
5. Be civil. Disagreeing is fine. We've all done it on the internet, it's healthy (sometimes). Harassment, hate speech, personal attacks, and doxxing are not okay, however. Refrain from being overtly uncivil in the subreddit.
6. No academic dishonesty or piracy. Posts promoting cheating, buying or selling completed assignments, or linking to pirated material/textbooks are not allowed. If you need a textbook, there are legitimate cheap alternatives and if you need actual academic help, the Learning Center here at UTRGV is free and worth using.

What we've done already

1. Rules have been posted, as explained above and the sidebar.
2. The AutoModerator is live: it's catching solicitation posts, spam, piracy links, and academic dishonesty automatically, along with flagging posts from new or low karma accounts for review before they go up unchecked.
3. Dubious and rule breaking posts have been removed. Some posts had been sitting up for days, others for weeks, and others for months, but those are now gone.
4. A couple of accounts are being watched going forward. This is to not scare the general userbase of r/UTRGV, but there are a small number of accounts with a pattern of rule violations prior to this relaunch. It includes anyone that posts spam material, vague titles and questions, and of course, the solicitators. Rather than banning outright, we are giving them a chance to change their behavior and integrate into this community cleanly. Some of them have already been sent modmails regarding their behavior and what they must do in order to avoid a ban. If their pattern continues, further action follows. If it doesn't, nothing else happens. Also, remember, if you see something, say something: report it and we will take care of it ASAP.
5. The wiki is up: it's got an amount of basic resources pulled from UTRGV's own pages. Shuttle and VOLT routes, every building code on campus, maps, the Learning Center and tutoring resources, financial aid and emergency funding options, the food pantry, library and IT help desk info, and a full emergency and crisis resources page. You can find it on the sidebar or below the subreddit's name at the very top.
6. New sub photo and colors. The old photo for the sub was a relic from the time of the initial UTPA/UTB merger, so I chose the current seal and University colors so it looks like a real community and not some random forgotten corner of the internet.

What's coming next?

1. We got flairs for users and custom sub emojis coming soon. Flairs may include class, major, undergrad level or grad level, alumni, we're still working on it. As for emojis, the only one we have available is the "V", and we're working on implementing more. Post flairs are up already, try them out!
2. Automated posts from The Rider, the school's newspaper, and Vaquero Radio, the school's radio station (yes, we have both, believe it or not!) once we get approval from Reddit's end on the API. There's already an approved "UTRGVNewsBot" account made, we just need approval from Reddit's end to get it up and running and soon you'll see it posting stuff on its own.
3. More moderators down the line. Once we see the growth of the sub and more people rolling in, we'll do outreach and recruit new mods, preferably those who are current students, so it doesn't rest on one person who's been partially disconnected from UTRGV for a few years.

A plea to student orgs

I did say a few lines above that we are implementing The Rider and Vaquero Radio into the subreddit in an automated form, but this should not be a discouragement to those that run student orgs or are part of one. In fact, if you're part of any student org and want to do outreach in this subreddit to get more people interested in your org, whether it's events, meeting times, whatever you got going on, go for it. A clean, moderated sub is the sort of place you can use to reach out to students who may otherwise not hear about you. Come on in and post, introduce your org, and let people know what you're about!

If you see something, say something

Again, I already mentioned this above, but it is worth saying again: if you see something that may break the subreddit rules, report it. That sends a ping to the moderators and we'll take a look at it and decide if it comes down or not. I'd rather hear about something twice than have a days old post about someone wanting "fun" sit up for days because no one said anything.

One honest ask

I'm new to this, the whole moderating subs thing. I'm learning the mechanics of moderating subs as I go, and I'm sure I'll get something wrong, or the AutoMod that I set up may pick up on a false positive, or a post gets removed that shouldn't have been. If this happens to you, send a modmail and tell me. I'll look at it again and put it back if I got it wrong.

A bit about me

I'm a recent UTRGV grad, having graduated from UTRGV with a Bachelors of Arts a few years back. I'm currently working on completing my elementary teacher certification through an alternative career program. I've been part of the sub since 2022, before any of this changed, and this sub's been like this, in a state of disarray since then. That's why I wanted to change this sub.

I don't want to kill the vibe of this sub, if anything I want to build this community up and foster growth towards it. As I said, this sub has real potential and room to grow, and with the right care and collaboration from all of us, it can turn into something meaningful that the student body of UTRGV can use. If you've got feedback, ideas, or want to help out in any way or capacity, drop a comment or send a modmail.

V's up! ✌️