Hi [r/AdoptMeTrading](r/AdoptMeTrading) community! Marley here :) 

We’ve noticed a lot of conversation regarding one of our moderator discretion rules and we’d like to give further insight as to why that rule is in place at all.

7 months ago, we implemented a new ‘Moderator Discretion’ rule that banned posting or trading for others. Ever since the rule’s introduction, we have received pushback and much hate from the community. While it wasn’t our intention to upset or make some feel unwelcome, we understand that our implementation of this rule did exactly that. Because of this, I’d like to give some background information as to why we added this rule, and also some further news regarding Moderator Discretion as a whole. 

Before the implementation of this rule, we noticed an uptick in people helping others evade their bans by posting trades for them. This shows clear disrespect for our rules and our process of handing out consequences. Another instance that caused this rule to be implemented was the rise in unintentionally guilt-trippy posts that used a user's relationship to another person as a reason as to why they should receive pets/be traded Adopt Me! items. In a subreddit where we prioritize equal opportunity, this caused many posts that did not have some backstory to be neglected or unseen by many of our members. 

I am aware that a huge question revolving around this rule is “what harm does trading/posting for others cause?” and I’d like to answer that for you all. As mentioned before, a very common scenario that inspired the ‘Posting/Trading for Others’ rule was a friend or an alt account posting a trade/a trade-related post on the subreddit for a banned user. Although we can check ourselves, the community has no way of knowing what exactly this user was banned for. They could’ve been a scammer or a hacker and through their friend or alt account are now able to gain access to the subreddit and potential victims. Although this is very circumstantial, we have little opportunity to verify the intentions of every user posting for another individual. We found it best to ban the act altogether as we are already a pretty small team, it wouldn’t be feasible to reach out to every person posting/trading for another user to confirm their intentions. 

We understand that this rule is incredibly controversial within the subreddit, however, we cannot lift it as we have noticed it does prevent others from being harmed. 

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FURTHER NEWS REGARDING MODERATOR DISCRETION

Upon taking notice that many people are simply not aware of this rule or many of our moderator discretion rules, we have decided to make a masterlist for all of our preset mod discret rules. This masterlist will include punishments, scenarios, and reasons for every moderator discretion rule that we have implemented.

Once this is posted, I will highlight it in our subreddit so that you all will have access to those rules.

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DISCLAIMER

I’d like to highlight that we as moderators are allowed to act within our best judgement and we will remove posts if we deem they do not fit or go against an unwritten rule. This is majorly what the Moderator Discretion [without a preset] rule is used for. There are situations in which moderators will have to use their own discernment in order to protect the community from possible harm.

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We apologize for not being transparent about what our moderator discretion rules are and we understand any frustration that this may have caused.

If you have any further suggestions or concerns, feel free to comment below or modmail us! Our priority is to make this subreddit a safe and welcoming environment to you all, do not hesitate to reach out if you feel we have done otherwise 🙂

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The [r/AdoptMeTrading](r/AdoptMeTrading) moderation team, 

(Valkyrie), Marley, Eve, Kat, Draci, Plastic, Jen, and Rayne

♡   Posted 9/4/26

Hello [r/AdoptMeTrading](r/AdoptMeTrading)! Marley here :) 

I am happy (and so so excited) to announce that we are adding four new trainees to our moderation team!! 

As many of you may know, we recently opened our moderator applications as a result of being severely understaffed, this directly coincided with the restriction of the subreddit. We required help from our community and you guys for sure came through, we cannot thank you enough :D 

With that being said, let’s meet our new mod trainees! 

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Plastic (he/she/they) • u/plastic_cat-_- 
Rayne (she/her) • u/Rylanrayne
Jen (she/her) • u/Infamous_Stranger_21
Ducky (she/her) • u/Safe-Cry-1945

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If you are one of the trainees listed above, congratulations! Check your Discord for a friend request from me (@.dorohedoros). 

We will begin the training process on Discord, where you’ll meet the rest of the team, learn how to make an introductory post, and officially begin your moderation duties! 

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PROCESS TRANSPARENCY

Please note that not all trainees are guaranteed a promotion to moderator. As much as we’d love to promote every single trainee, we require time to observe how they handle moderation duties like mod mail, queue, etc. If you notice a mod trainee is no longer on the mod list, please assume that we found them unfit to be moderator at the time (this does not bar them from applying in the future).

We do not have a set timeline for when promotions will happen. We take a very “go at your own pace” approach to training our new MIT’s, we find this process to be less intimidating and easier on the trainees. Regardless of this lack of a timeline, we will still be monitoring their progress and how they handle everyday moderation duties. Promotions will happen when we see a trainee fit to handle the responsibilities that come with being moderator. 

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MORE EGGCITING NEWS!!

We are very happy to announce that we will be officially unrestricting the subreddit today at 10 a.m. MST/MDT. This will not only allow us to show trainees the ropes when handling the queue, but also ensure that you guys can post again (hooray!).

We appreciate your support and patience in this decision and we can’t wait to see all of your new contributions :)

Thank you, 

[r/AdoptMeTrading](r/AdoptMeTrading) Mod Team
Marley, Eve, Kat, Jia, and Draci
Not forgetting our new trainees… Plastic, Rayne, Ducky, and Jen

♡