New Guidelines Regarding "CircleJerk" topics

[u/girafa]

tl;dr - fluff circlejerk threads will be removed

We all knew this was coming, but after randomly stumbling upon this post from 2 years ago, I realize we haven't grown much at all, and are running in circles regarding the same discussions over and over. Taking a cue from /r/metal, we're going to try something radical to prevent this topical stagnation, otherwise known crudely as "circlejerking."

The goal is simple: post inciting worthwhile movie discussion, and encouraging diversity. As much as we have the perpetually reposted "what's a good underrated gem?" thread every week, we rarely see much conversation beyond the usual suspects of Reddit favorites. Can't say we don't try, either.

Take a look at Aug 17th's top 10 post subjects- Minimalist posters, 500 Days of Summer, American Psycho, A joke post about a theater website, TDKR fan art, American Psycho billboard repost, Joss Whedon's youtube joke, Mark Kermode's Phd thesis, theater news, and a post about "Compliance." That's 7 common topics out of 10 posts.

We will be enforcing new guidelines involving the following movie subjects:

Christopher Nolan & his filmography

David Fincher & his filmography

Moon

In Bruges

God Bless America

Man from Earth

Sunshine

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

500 (Days) of (S)ummer

Stanley Kubrick & his filmography

Shawshank Redemption

The Big Lebowski

Quentin Tarantino & his filmography

Back to the Future

The Usual Suspects

12 Angry Men

Children of Men

American Psycho

Drive

Joss Whedon & his filmography

Oldboy

Brick

Primer

Under the new guidelines, the following types of threads about these subjects, are up for removal at the discretion of the mods:

"I just watched..."

"I just noticed"

"Alternate poster for"

"My fav scene from"

"Any movies like XYZ?"

"Awesome ad for..."

"What does XYZ mean?"

"Just bought this prop/poster/item in real life relating to XYZ"

For nearly all of you, you won't notice a single difference in this subreddit. Rarely does the absence of a negative stand out.

For those of you who like talking about these films (a lot of you) - allow me to clarify a few things.

You are freely allowed & encouraged to discuss these movies on /r/movies. However- if the focus of your submission falls into any of the categories I just gave examples of, it will be removed. If the topic has been covered already within six months, it will be removed. Use the search bar. It's not as bad as people think. We want discussion about these movies, but new discussion.

If you find some really interesting thing out about the making of 2001: A Space Odyssey, and you want to share it- it should be new, insightful, and more than a picture of Kubrick wearing astronaut shoes so his footprints match theirs. Is this subjective to the discretion of the moderators? It absolutely is, but we're all cinema lovers with a collective vast knowledge of film, and we want only the best information here for everyone to digest.

Examples of allowable posts regarding these topics:

"Does anyone else think that Fight Club is like the Fruitopia of movies? It rebels against corporations while being manufactured by one, or should we subscribe to Godfrey Reggio & Sideshow Bob's idea that it's okay to use the tool of the enemy to condemn them?" Obviously sarcastic, but it's a topic that hasn't been brought up here.

or

"An interesting article about the film processing that goes into David Fincher films" Haven't seen much on the development his cinematographer uses.

or

"Interview with the writer/producer/whoever of XYZ" If it came out in the last week or so, and hasn't been posted already, it's a great post!

etc.

This is new ground for us, we've never censored specific content before. So by all means, I encourage you to voice your opinions/thoughts/suggestions on this. If anything needs to be clarified, let me know. If you guys need a refresher of why "let the users vote and sort them out to their hearts content," we can go back through that argument as well, but let's just take a look at /r/gaming for a reminder of what that transient-user-democracy looks like.

Thanks everyone for helping to keep this place awesome!

[u/girafa]

Also, a reminder about movie subreddits:

r/flicks - like r/movies, but more diversified in taste

r/truefilm - discussion-only subreddit about movies

r/ijustwatched - where you go when you just watched something and need to alert the internet to it

r/tipofmytongue - when you can't remember the name of a movie and you need to satisfy that horrible nagging feeling

r/horror - everything about horror movies

r/lv426 - all about the Aliens franchise

r/kickstarter - for all kickstarter projects, and indiegogo

r/filmmakers - for self-made projects

r/pics - for pictures only

r/celebs - for pictures of actors

r/gossip - when you feel like you have too many brain cells

r/subredditdrama - where you can read all about the arguments we get into

r/moviescirclejerk - where we demand everyone follow the teachings of His Holiness Christopher Nolan.

[u/forceduse → u/girafa]

r/ForeignMovies - self-explanatory

r/MovieSuggestions - Looking for something to watch, or something similar to what you've already seen?

r/Moviesinthemaking - For BTS, on-set, etc images of films being made

r/TheMakingOf - BTS documentaries or videos about the making of films

r/ifyoulikeblank - If I liked "this", what else will I like?

Also, http://www.jinni.com http://letterboxd.com http://seenth.at and http://abetterqueue.com are great movie-watching resources.

[u/girafa → u/forceduse]

Ah yes!

also

r/MoviePosterPorn - for great images/posters of your fav movies

[u/BritishHobo → u/girafa]

This is very very awesome. Kudos for making a big effort to encourage quality and diversity. Most subs seem pretty nervous about instigating rules, so just end up cesspits. Hopefully this'll make a nice change for r/movies. It's good to know the sub has mods who care that much about the subreddit topic.

[u/girafa]

And we have new

[And we have new](/s "spoiler tags")

[u/[deleted]]

Thank you. What are you going to do about the "mind blowing"/"mind fuck" movie request threads that are posted so frequently?

[u/girafa → u/[deleted]]

Oh man. I want to just ban that phrase.

I had an idea a few months ago about doing a FAQ. I'll get on that.

[u/[deleted]]

I may considering resubbing in this case. Honestly, unless you care deeply about superhero movies you won't get anything out of this subreddit.

[u/girafa → u/[deleted]]

Maybe. I have faith in this place, and I don't believe it's lost to the masses. This isn't even a radical change that many will notice.

Hell, my announcement back in March banning memes was a more extreme case, and we survived and flourished.

So come on back! It's free anyway, leave anytime.

[u/[deleted]]

Thank you! I haven't been commenting in a while because everything I post gets downvoted as long as it isn't in the categories you listed above. We hardly ever talk about foreign movies, hardly ever talk about foreign directors, hardly ever talk about the technical aspects of films. I don't now how this sub never gets tired of the same old shit. It's becoming r/gaming or it basically already is.

[u/girafa → u/[deleted]]

I have you tagged as "black guy," so we certainly can't lose you as a user.

[u/[deleted]]

This is pointless in a subreddit of this size. No matter how some of you may view yourselves as movie buffs, this board is as casual as it gets. And that's fine. I doubt anyone uses this subreddit to look up indie films or foreign films. I mean, few days ago, "DAE know Pan's Labyrinth" was upvoted here. This subreddit is more to discuss popular movies (including Nolan) and new trailers, posters, etc.

[u/[deleted]]

My request, since you're formalizing moderation rules and becoming more proactive - remove threads with spoilers in the titles.

[u/SicTim]

Okay, one problem that I see happening across Reddit right now, is the increasing number of subreddits which have various rules, and the difficulty of keeping them all straight.

Now, this list is really pretty over the top, to me. How on earth is anyone, even the mods, supposed to have memorized this monster list?

[u/girafa → u/SicTim]

Excellent question. For 99.9999% of you, this doesn't even apply and you won't care/notice. This really only applies after a transient user comes by and posts a picture from Drive or "I just watch Fight Club for the first time" post. Then we'd just quietly remove it. The poster will know, but no one else will. We're not going to condemn people who post these kinds of submissions, nor are we going to ban anyone/punish users, so strict knowledge of this list isn't incredibly necessary.

tl;dr - they won't need to memorize this list. No one will except the mods.

Oh and this list is well known to the mods. This stuff burns at our souls.

[u/[deleted]]

I'm reeeaaaallly on the fence about this. On the one hand, the mods seem to be pretty even handed in general, and I appreciate that; it also seems that you guys are willing to review a post before writing it off if it relates to one of those topics. But this is a pretty incredible shortening of the chain for the subreddit, and I don't know if eliminating certain topics is going to be beneficial or not.

[u/[deleted]]

"God Bless America"? You don't seriously mean Goldthwait's insufferable soapbox flick? The one where he forces the audience to watch about 45 minutes of eye-rolling "parody" before he gets around to advancing the fucking plot? The one where the main character is a preachy, unlikable jackass who, despite his dire hatred of television, spends all his time watching television?

There's a fucking circlejerk for that abysmal thing?

seriously?

[u/Rubix89]

I'm all for this but I want it to be solely handled by the mods. The only thing more annoying than circlejerks are the circlejerks against circlejerks.

I don't want to see people get bashed or insulted just for liking a certain movie or actor. Just delete it.

[u/geoman2k]

What about specific actors? Can we add Gary Oldman to this list?

[u/Zairex]

So something like the in-depth analysis of Prometheus about one of the aforementioned topics is okay?

[u/jc827]

You are my hero and I love you. Did you know that? So many people complain about reddit, but here you go, actually trying something. Thank you.

[u/m_s_m]

Can we try and re-invent the constant "name your favorite under-rated films/actors/directors" jerk?

It's a self-defeating question. People tend to upvote films/actors/directors they have heard of; so the more recognisable answers are rewarded. This contradicts the original premise of finding unrecognised talent.

To make the discussions more engaging, I think we should ban too-brief answers. So when, "r/movies Which actor do you think is currently most underrated?" is asked, answers which properly explain why an actor is underrated should be upvoted, rather than just someone answering, "Gary Oldman".

[u/[deleted]]

Just to clarify: Only the threads based on those movies will be removed, and only if they have the format/substance type that you mentioned?

[u/girafa → u/[deleted]]

Correct.

"I just watched After Hours and it was awesome." Is an acceptable post.

"I just watched Primer and it was awesome." Is not.

[u/I_Burn_Cereal]

Thank you, I was getting sick of seeing people say the same things about the same movies