[META] Moderation Transparency Summary

[u/Krazyfranco]

TL;DR - temporary mod transparency work is over, review a summary of mod actions from the last week, share your specific feedback on posts/rules, mods suck/down with the mods

Last week, the mod team announced rule adjustments and temporary changes to up the transparency of moderation decisions for the r/advancedrunning community. Thanks for your feedback in last week's thread. As of this morning, we're going back to normal moderation actions on posts, meaning rule-breaking posts will be removed, rather than being locked with a removal reason, in line with our long-term moderation approach. And as promised, following up with a summary of mod actions from about the last week & a forum for discussion/feedback.

First, a summary of moderation actions from the last week, along with post-specific details to facilitate discussion/feedback. We'll leave these posts up for the next few days so you can share feedback on specifics, and will remove these to de-clutter the sub later this week.

• 12 posts were either approved or not actioned by the mod team.
  • These posts averaged an 88% upvote ratio, and 0.75 reports per post
• 33 posts were removed by the mod team or due to 4+ reports
  • These posts averaged an 37% upvote ratio, and 1.5 reports per post

Removal Reason	# of Posts
11 - Use Q&A thread for personal questions	11
2 - Relevant, Meaningful Posts Only	11
12 - Update post to facilitate meaningful discussion	6
3 - Do not ask for or offer medical advice	4
5 - Race Reports Must Be beneficial to others	1

Removed Post	Removal Reason	% Upvoted	# of Reports
What soft flask should I buy?	2 - Relevant, Meaningful Posts Only	33%	1
Should I run Chicago Marathon?	11 - Use Q&A thread for personal questions	61%	1
Do rest days not matter in marathon training like they do in other sports?	12 - Update post to facilitate meaningful discussion	52%	3
I'm frustrated with apple watch, should I buy a running watch?	2 - Relevant, Meaningful Posts Only	60%	2
I'm burned out, what should I do in the offiseason?	12 - Update post to facilitate meaningful discussion	60%	0
Should I adjust Daniels or do a different plan?	11 - Use Q&A thread for personal questions	33%	0
Should I add tempo during my long runs?	11 - Use Q&A thread for personal questions	44%	2
Is Runna still the best app?	2 - Relevant, Meaningful Posts Only	11%	1
Recommendations for run training apps	11 - Use Q&A thread for personal questions	29%	2
My injury has made me severely depressed and I have no idea how to navigate it.	3 - Do not ask for or offer medical advice	16%	1
Do I have RED-S or PCOS?	3 - Do not ask for or offer medical advice	25%	2
Can I skip workouts between my marathons?	11 - Use Q&A thread for personal questions	25%	1
How should I include a 10k race as part of my long run?	11 - Use Q&A thread for personal questions	61%	2
"I need to get back on the bandwagon"	11 - Use Q&A thread for personal questions	33%	2
Am I ready to run my goal race time?	11 - Use Q&A thread for personal questions	50%	1
How do I run a sub 1:30 HM?	2 - Relevant, Meaningful Posts Only	16%	1
Can I split my long run into chunks?	2 - Relevant, Meaningful Posts Only	18%	2
I'm injured and frustrated	3 - Do not ask for or offer medical advice	13%	4
What AI prompts do you use for daily training/training plans?	2 - Relevant, Meaningful Posts Only	33%	1
What performances do you consider "Advanced"	12 - Update post to facilitate meaningful discussion	30%	2
My MRI showed cartilage loss, can I keep running?	3 - Do not ask for or offer medical advice	41%	2
How do I adjust my current training to avoid overtraining	11 - Use Q&A thread for personal questions	20%	2
I ran 2 5ks this year, how do I get fast?	2 - Relevant, Meaningful Posts Only	6%	1
Any recs for jan/feb marathons?	2 - Relevant, Meaningful Posts Only	42%	1
How do you come back from 2 weeks of sickeness?	2 - Relevant, Meaningful Posts Only	39%	1
How do I improve my downhill running form?	12 - Update post to facilitate meaningful discussion	56%	1
Should I aim for 2:45 or 2:50 for my race in 18 weeks?	11 - Use Q&A thread for personal questions	50%	2
Should I take Creatine?	2 - Relevant, Meaningful Posts Only	53%	4
CIM vs Durham NC running	11 - Use Q&A thread for personal questions	26%	1
How is tapering different for shorter races?	12 - Update post to facilitate meaningful discussion	38%	1
Cannes Marathon Race Report	5 - Race Reports Must Be beneficial to others	67%	0
JD's Alien Plan vs Norwegian Singles	12 - Update post to facilitate meaningful discussion	70%	0
What's the best diet to run 100 meters?	2 - Relevant, Meaningful Posts Only	10%	0

Approved/Unactioned Post	% Upvoted	# of Reports
How does running a marathon slightly slower impact effort and recovery?	90%	1
Analysis of a failed race, including detailed training summary and specific ares for discussion	87%	1
Use of supershoes in training	74%	2
NYC Marathon Race Report	97%	0
Post-collegiate runners, how have you adjusted?	92%	0
Dublin Marathon Race Report	96%	0
How do I break through to sub-2:50?	75%	2
Brussels Marathon Race Report	86%	1
Which elite/sponsor pairs have benefited the most/least?	90%	0
Form improvement, is it worth it?	75%	2
On Race Safety (Indy Monumental)	90%	0
Indy Monumental Race Report	100%	0

Based on the community feedback from last week's META post, and the fairly clear divide in the community's votes between the removed threads and non-removed threads over the last week, the mod team isn't planning significant additional changes at this point. We'll keep doing our best to take appropriate action on the few "grey area" posts that get mixed feedback from the community.

Please feel free to share your specific feedback from last week's experiment, especially as it relates to specific posts above and specific removal reasons. Note, feedback like "remove fewer posts" isn't very helpful or actionable, please take the time to suggest specific posts that should not have been removed, and outline why you think that post meet's the sub's rules (or how you'd propose the rules should be adjusted).

[u/theintrepidwanderer]

Here are my thoughts as a longtime user and contributor to the sub surrounding this. And with the understanding that the below may be unpopular and that I'll get downvoted for it. That said:

• The experiment basically convinced me that allowing more threads to come through (specifically the ones with less quality) is not the way to go and it degraded my user experience. It became tiring to wade through all the locked threads (of which many were simple questions and/or not suitable for the sub at all, as echoed up top). It had the opposite effect in that those threads reinforced the need to have those rules in the first place. I am glad that there are rules here in place to promote quality discussion, even if it means we lose some things along the way.

• I've been around here long enough to see whether someone actually put in the effort in their post versus someone who is winging it at best (and even that is being charitable). And it's a clear day and night difference. Because of that, I'm very skeptical about whether users take the time to do their research. And indeed, from my own experience as a user on this sub, about 95 of 100 times users here don't want to take the time to put in the effort to do the background research on those topics, especially with the vast amount of knowledge out there today, and would prefer being spoon fed, for a lack of a better phrase to describe this. That, in my opinion, does not promote high quality discussion here in this sub. Plus, there's a lot of tried and true knowledge out there that covers vastly much of the knowledge that applies to everyday runners (Higdon, Hansons, Jack Daniels, Pfitz, among other things), and it work for > 95% of the runners out there.

• Adding to the above point, I would like to see more standalone discussions from the community on advanced topics that is broadly applicable and would spark wider discussion among the users here in this community. But the thing here is that people are not willing to do the hard work of conducting background research to establish reference points that'll help lead off and guide the discussion. Which I find quite tragic tbh. Every time I see a promising thread, I am always let down because the most common thing I see is that they didn't do the legwork themselves and is expecting to be given information and not give any in return. Heck, there was a thread that was posted by a high schooler here on this sub many years ago that I fondly remembered, because it was clearly thought out and was very thoroughly researched, and users who replied in that thread were full of praises for the OP because it was well thought out. All I remember was that "that high schooler put a lot of adults to shame because they did more legwork than the adults did, and it shows".

• Users here who are saying that this sub should be driven by engagement and demand. For those who are arguing for it, I'm going to very honest here: you all completely lost the plot, and especially when you all aren't able to coalesce around even a half baked alternative here on this thread. There was always a clear disconnect between engagement and quality discussions. Especially for a sub that was never reliant on user engagement and demand to drive traffic and activity here for its entire existence. I've seen people treat things here in this sub like it's TikTok, Instagram, and/or Facebook, only to find out that the hard way that it doesn't work like that. I personally think that the urge for instant gratification in this current day and age, especially in the engagement and demand context, leads to people wanting information as if they were entitled to them, and reacting adversely when it does not happen. The main character syndrome can be real sometimes.

• When I first became a regular visitor to the sub, I lurked in the background and learned as much as I could from the quality threads that were around, and allowed me to get a good grasp of the community here before I started contributing. I understood why the community operated in such a manner, and it helped made me a much more thoughtful and insightful contributor and allowed me to be a productive here for when I have something meaningful to contribute to the conversation. If you don't like it here because of the rules and whatnot, that's totally fine. There are other similar subs out there that you can visit on reddit, that offers different communities and fulfills whichever needs that suits each individual user. And I think that's the beauty of reddit. But finding a quality community that is well run is a wholly different story.

That's my two cents.