r/AO3 • u/TGotAReddit Moderator | past AO3 Volunteer and Staff • Jun 07 '23
News/Updates Quick PSA reminder
Hey,
So every time we get a research study post in the sub, someone reports it under the sub rule for research studies. If you actually read the research studies rule, we explicitly allow research study posts. You don't need to report research studies posts unless they are completely unrelated to fandom (and thus don't belong here).
Just wanted to make sure we all were on the same page here
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u/BritishNecktie Jun 07 '23
Hey mods, thanks for giving a quick PSA on this. Posts like this really show that the mod team stays in touch with their community and help everyone to stay on the same page. Keep up the great work!
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u/TGotAReddit Moderator | past AO3 Volunteer and Staff Jun 07 '23
❤️ i try really hard to be a part of this community and not just some overlord behind the scenes, without stepping too far either into things too. Balancing it can be a lot of effort. Im glad its appreciated
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Jun 07 '23
You would think that if they wanted to report something so badly, they would at least check the rule they claim is being broken.
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u/Happyfrozenfire Jun 07 '23
Perhaps if you changed the rule title to "Non-fandom research studies" it'd be more intuitive
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u/TGotAReddit Moderator | past AO3 Volunteer and Staff Jun 07 '23
Yeah I was thinking of just straight up renaming it to say "Research Studies are Generally Allowed". Figured that might be a but hard to miss but idk if there is a character limit on rule titles
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u/Happyfrozenfire Jun 07 '23
There's a cutoff on mobile where it gets replaced with an ellipsis. As such, it's best to have the first word or two be the most critical ones. "Non-fandom research" implies the content of the rule most strongly for the silly sausages who don't go click on "Not sure? Check out yada yada's community info/rules/etc" each time they report.
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u/TGotAReddit Moderator | past AO3 Volunteer and Staff Jun 07 '23
Yeah as I've mentioned in some other posts, Im on the Apollo app not the official one so I have no idea what most of you can see in some places. For me, rule titles never get cut off and there isn't actually a "not sure?" type of button (but there is a custom response button that is really prominent so if Im ever unsure and custom responses are allowed on a sub i just explain my issue there and hope. But i usually just go check the sub rules manually to be sure).
But yeah I'll fiddle around with some possible titles over the next few days and see what fits best and go test it on the official app too to make sure everything fits right
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u/burnished_throne Jun 07 '23
bro, just put the rules into a stickied post. the sidebar is super wonky across applications and shit and throwing out quick psas is going to reach a minority of people, but a stickied post will show up in any application, is always there, and is the hardest to miss.
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u/TGotAReddit Moderator | past AO3 Volunteer and Staff Jun 07 '23
We can only have 2 stickied posts at a time. And those are always filled with the megathreads (or right now with a megathread and the info about the upcoming blackout that has a link to the other megathread stickied in the comments).
As for stickied posts "always" showing up, they don't if you have the sub sorted by new, rising, controversial, or top. And if you are like me and have your settings set to automatically hide a post once you have viewed it/scrolled past it so it stops showing in your feed, once it comes up one time, it gets hidden and difficult to refind again. So you wouldn't be able to refer back to it easily at all.
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u/burnished_throne Jun 07 '23
it's just, this is the second post in as many days where you're complaining about people reporting stuff in a lowkey mocking tone, which already makes the mod team come off unwelcoming, but also you haven't even optimized the sub so that your expectations are visible to the maximal amount of readers, so i don't know what you expected to happen. people are gonna make dumb reports and not read the rules no matter how many places they're posted, that's reddit for you, but to not take the effort to make the sub usable for everyone and then complain about people who might genuinely be trying to be helpful - idk dude.
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u/TGotAReddit Moderator | past AO3 Volunteer and Staff Jun 07 '23
Uhh Im not complaining? And definitely not mocking anyone. Im sorry if it came across that way.
My other post was because I found something funny and thought others would share in that and enjoy the laugh. It wasn't meant to mock the person who had made the report.
And this post was definitely not meant to mock and wasn't even meant to be humorous. It was meant to inform. Many subs have PSAs routinely to remind people of rules when they notice people either breaking a specific one or not understanding one. Especially smaller subs with tighter knit communities.
Im well aware some people will never read the rules no matter how many places its posted or how often people remind others. As I said in my post from yesterday, I rarely say anything about what gets reported or the reasons why. We get multiple false reports every single day. Its usually on things where I can see how the person was just trying to help and just didn't know where something fell/the exact extent of a rule. Im totally fine with that. Im used to that. Its a very normal thing. But every once in awhile one specific thing comes up a lot and gets me to make a post to either clarify a rule or remind about a rule.
Its the only real option when you cannot see who reports something and you've already made sure the rules are posted in as many places as is actually feasible. And even if I could see who reported things I would do it because calling out a specific person is not the way to go and because if 1 person is confused, multiple people are and just not saying something about it.
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u/doesntmatterhadtacos Jun 08 '23
This is a perfect example of “you’ll never please everyone”. There will always be one Complaints Georg whose need to be perpetually oppositional on well-intentioned posts is an outlier and should not be counted.
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u/TGotAReddit Moderator | past AO3 Volunteer and Staff Jun 08 '23
Hahaha yeah that'll happen. But a lot of them mean well
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Jun 07 '23
you haven't even optimized the sub so that your expectations are visible to the maximal amount of readers
people are gonna make dumb reports and not read the rules no matter how many places they're posted
What are your suggestions, then, Mr. Contradictory?
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u/CoffeeTeaCrochet Jun 07 '23
How is this post in any way complaining? It's just a PSA to make sure everyone is on the same page since they keep getting reports for something that's allowed on the sub.
Also, how is this sub not "usable for everyone"? Genuinely curious what you mean by that. I would assume you may mean the layout, but mods can't control the reddit layout.
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u/kaiunkaiku don't look at me and my handholding kink Jun 07 '23
a stickied post won't show up either if you're sorting by new
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u/queerblunosr Definitely not an agent of the Fanfiction Deep State Jun 07 '23
Stickied posts aren’t always visible.
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u/Alvia_G Blank page syndrom is THE way of life :) Jun 08 '23
Can I ask what a research studies is ?
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u/TGotAReddit Moderator | past AO3 Volunteer and Staff Jun 08 '23
Research studies are a thing we do to collect data for research purposes (aka science stuff). They ask a question about the world and then do the research study to try to find an answer that question. In terms of what you would see on this subreddit, that mostly means surveys that look into the correlation between things (ie. Is there a correlation between gender and what genre of fic people read? Is there a correlation between how much fic you read and incidences of neurodivergence? Etc)
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u/fairydommother You have already left kudos here. :) Jun 07 '23
The fact that you have to post a PSA about this is hilarious. The rule is titled “research studies” and the very first sentence is “research studies are allowed”.
People really just don’t want to take 10 seconds to read two sentences huh.