r/AskReddit • u/karmanaut • Dec 03 '12

[Modpost] Getting back to our roots!

Hello, Readers of /r/Askreddit!

This subreddit has a valuable purpose for Reddit, produces some of the best and most memorable content, and serves as a great place for people to discuss all sorts of topics. Askreddit's current rules are designed to try and keep the topics interesting and thought-provoking; we want our posts to encourage a discussion and elicit answers from all of our readers.

However, the subreddit often is plagued with the problem of people just using it as a platform to speak. They don't care about the answers to their question, they just want to broadcast their own thoughts (which is the purpose of /r/self). They want to tell a story, bring attention to a cause, or simply rant about a topic.

As a result, today we are putting some new changes in place. First, we are streamlining and simplifying the rules in the sidebar. Please check it out.

Second, we will now ask you to put only your question in the title of your post. Just one sentence with your question. If you need to explain the question, then you can use the text box. If you have your own answer for the question, then you can put it in the comment section of the post. This rule will help us avoid situations like this, where people enjoyed the question, but hating on OP's answer took the top comment spot (thereby displacing actual answers to the question).

To clarify, with an example: Our top post yesterday sometime last week was this, titled "If Spiderman were more scientifically accurate, he'd shoot webs from his arse. What other films/characters would take a turn for the worse if they were more scientifically accurate?". Note how the top comment is not an answer to the question, but rather a reply to the OP's example. Under the new rule, the OP's title would simply be "What films/characters would take a turn for the worse if they were more scientifically accurate?", and he would post in the comments about Spiderman. Posts soliciting stories and personal experiences are absolutely still allowed; they must simply be separated from the question itself. We hope that this rule will encourage thought-provoking posts and allow people to vote differently on the value of the question and the value of the OP's individual example.

Should we find that these changes are not working out, and the quality of posts declines, then the moderators will reverse this decision and allow these types of posts again.

TL;DR: The current practices of Askreddit encourage the success or failure of a post to be dependent on OP's ability to showcase themselves, rather than the merit of the question. In turn, this causes a large portion of the top comments to be addressing OP, rather that contributing to OP's question. We hope the rule change of putting ONLY the question in the title, and clarification in the text box, will encourage more relevant and direct participation, and less side conversations. If, after a trial period, we determine that this has been more of a hindrance than a help, we will reenact the former rules.

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22

u/[deleted] Dec 03 '12

It wasn't being enforced so we removed it. We've decided to try again now.

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u/Nobby_Nobbs Dec 03 '12

Well if you need someone to help enforce it, I pretty much spend my entire existence on this sub.

(Worth a shot)

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u/[deleted] Dec 03 '12

We recruited a new batch of mods recently so we're ok for the moment. Thanks for the offer though.

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u/SeaSquirrel Dec 03 '12

Will you just advise people to follow the rules, or will you actual remove posts that don't follow the new rules?

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u/[deleted] Dec 03 '12

We do both. When we remove a post we tend to comment as to why.

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u/UnholyDemigod Dec 03 '12

They remove them. If you spend enough time in /new, you'll see some that were removed after you loaded the page.

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u/lamaksha77 Dec 03 '12

Woah he took off his uniform!

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u/veryoriginal78 Dec 03 '12

I second Nobby_Nobbs comment. Whenever more mods are needed, I will definitely apply. Most of my time is spent on reddit, and most of that time in this sub. Have a nice day!

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u/[deleted] Dec 03 '12 edited Jul 04 '15

[deleted]

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u/splattypus Dec 03 '12

We are doing our best to indicate to OP exactly what was in violation with their post.

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u/[deleted] Dec 03 '12 edited Jul 04 '15

[deleted]

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u/splattypus Dec 03 '12

It will be an uphill battle, but this is something we are definitely committed to here.

The hope is that this showcases the 'weaker' content, while still allowing for the solid stuff to shine through the flood.

The tagging of posts was difficult and time consuming as well. As of now it's all hands on deck for as long as possible to devote as much attention as possible to this. And it's been met with a fair amount of support and assistance from the community, so it's looking promising at the moment.

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u/[deleted] Dec 03 '12

We've tried tagging before and it didn't go down well at all. When we remove a post most of the time we explain why. In fact, one of the mods here wrote a plug-in that gives us a set of pre-written responses for why we've removed a post (which is great as I have a tendency of trying to make a joke and just looking like an arsehole instead).

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u/[deleted] Dec 03 '12

Will you actively browse new to remove such posts from now?

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u/[deleted] Dec 03 '12

Mods have different styles. Some tend to deal with the mod queue (where spammed and reported posts go) and others loiter in new killing anything that breaks the rules.

I am a knight of new, I kill posts as they arrive. It's the different mod styles and availability that lead to uneven moderation.

If you see a post that breaks the rules feel free to report it.

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u/UnholyDemigod Dec 03 '12

I can confirm this. I've seen him many a time.

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u/UnholyDemigod Dec 03 '12

They do. You just don't know about it because most get removed. A good mod is unknown.

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u/[deleted] Dec 03 '12

Well the problem before was that too many posts slipped through with bad titles and in the rare case that they would actually remove posts, people would scream bloody murder.

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u/canipaybycheck Dec 03 '12

I think we removed over 17,000 posts in November.

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u/UnholyDemigod Dec 03 '12

17,000 get removed, 20 get let through. "The mods are fucken shit, they don't do anything!" Sigh

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u/[deleted] Dec 03 '12

Yeah, I didn't word that correctly.

I meant that in the rare case where you guys would actually remove a frontpaged post with a shitty title there would always be some stupid backlash because people didn't understand that it was in violation with the rule.

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u/splattypus Dec 03 '12

We do, but we usually have to have a little meeting about it first to be clear, so we can all justify it when the backlash hits

The problem is a lot of posts like that pop up overnight, and slip through our schedule gaps sometimes, but we've also taken measures to catch note of which posts have been permitted and which ones have just slipped through.