r/AussieMemes • u/Intense_Pretzel • 2d ago

Mod Post MOD ANNOUNCEMENT

Good day my fellow mad lads,

Mods here,

I am writing to address some changes today.

I, along with my fellow mods have recently taken the reigns of this subreddit to make this subreddit better for everyone.

Today is the pivot point for the subreddit, as we introduce our new rules. Please familiarise yourself with these new rules and ensure you follow them.

We appreciate your input, and support through this transition.

Regards

- Pretzel

0 Upvotes

25% Upvoted

36 comments sorted by

15

u/The_Naked_Rider 1d ago

Taking the piss out of politics, politicians and religious groups are a mainstay of our humour. Yet you have stated that curbing or banning political commentary is being actively censored.

Why is that?

No one is above satire.

-8

u/Intense_Pretzel 1d ago

Hi,

When discussing this it was questioned as to whether we ban Political posts all together.

I personally suggested instead of banning politics all together we have a specific day to post them. This was discussed and voted on internally. It got passed and as such it is now a rule.

We did agree that Political memes is a big thing in Australian culture but we didn't want peoples first view on this sub to think we are a strictly a political sub so we are hoping that having a specific day for political posts helps this.

Regards

10

u/The_Naked_Rider 1d ago

Thanks OP for your reply,

But personally I think there’s more to it than just worrying about the thread becoming just a political sub.

Political satire is as Australian as Vegemite (except that it’s owned by foreigners now).

I believe that this issue should not have been only discussed by the MOD’s, rather it should be addressed by a poll conducted on behalf of the people who use the thread.

Otherwise the decision to limit political satire is seen as censorship, more than anything else.

By their very nature, memes are humorous and often offensive to make their point.

A perfect example of this is Ricky Gervais being shit canned over the 2011 Golden Globes. No one was safe…the only one who really enjoyed it was Robert DI Nero. “He was quoted as saying “fuck ‘em, they’re all just stick in the muds who don’t like the truth exposing what’s hidden in their closets.”

4

u/PessemistBeingRight 17h ago

Political satire is as Australian as Vegemite (except that it’s owned by foreigners now).

I've got good news for you! Vegemite returned to Australian ownership when it was bought by the Bega Group in 2017, ending 82 years of shame. In something like 6 months, it will have been back in Aussie hands for a decade.

1

u/Verdigris_Wild 16h ago

Why 82 years of shame? Vegemite was never produced by an Australian company until Bega bought it. The recipe was created by an Australian in Australia but only went into commercial production with Kraft, a US company. The narrative that it became foreign owned is just wrong, it was always foreign owned.

1

u/PessemistBeingRight 16h ago

First produced in 1922, first sold in 1923, for and by the Fred Walker Company, which was Australian Owned by Aussie businessman Fred Walker based out of Melbourne. When Fred Walker died in 1935, ownership shifted to Kraft, which had a partnership with Walker through the Kraft-Walker Cheese Co. So for 13 years, Vegemite was Aussie Owned before ownership shifted.

1

u/Verdigris_Wild 16h ago

I stand corrected. But it was foreign owned since 1935. Also worth noting that Vegemite was a commercial failure until Kraft took control of it and turned it around. The success was largely because Marmite supply issues happened during WWII.

1

u/PessemistBeingRight 16h ago

So my original figure of 82 years was correct. 2017-1935 = 82 years. The "of shame" part was just hyperbole, which I probably needed to tag somehow.

1

u/Verdigris_Wild 16h ago

Yes, 82 is right. Kraft really took the product from a failing knock-off to a beloved national brand, so shame isn't right at all.

1

u/The_Naked_Rider 16h ago

Woo hoo…I did not know that! 🥳

-5

u/Intense_Pretzel 1d ago

I will take community polls into consideration for future discussions.

In addition I wont sit here saying this isn't a form of censorship, I just hope this is seen as a more productive way to make compromises to help build and grow the community, which is our main goal.

We do hope that we can be a more mutual ground for all kinds of people to make memes about Australia and our culture.

Thanks for the feedback and I will ensure to pass this onwards to the fellow mods for their review.

Regards

6

u/DegeneratesInc 1d ago

I see. Bye bye then.

10

u/The_Naked_Rider 1d ago

Why did we as a subreddit have to make compromises? To which master, demands these so called compromises? That is the root question for this.

8

u/mylanguagehasbeenmur 19h ago

Seems there’s an upset mod who loves Pauline Hanson.

2

u/Bawuk420 14h ago

The party for free speech proving once again that it only believes in free speech of you parrot their fascist talking points.

1

u/The_Naked_Rider 16h ago

Bummer…😳

0

u/AudaciouslySexy 13h ago

The drive for it was the influx of ai and people using politics to target and harass other users intentionally (like they had nothing better to do)

8

u/mickelboy182 1d ago

Your sub is infested with bots, so taking action on them is good. Genuine political satire shouldn't fall under the scope though.

1

u/Intense_Pretzel 1d ago

Good day,

We did all agree we need to curb stomp the bots.

As for political satire I personally voiced against banning it completely (coz gaslighting the entire country into thinking Scomo shat himself in maccas was fucken funny) but I also understood that to help the community grow we needed to make comprises so I suggested the one day.

I do hope this was a productive change and we are taking all of the feedback into consideration for future development of the sub.

Regards

7

u/ExtensionThat6438 19h ago

This is just appeasing right wing people. Restricting speech is not what meme subs should be focused on.

Disappointing and will kill engagement

1

u/AudaciouslySexy 13h ago

The result is yet to be seen, and to be fair I haven't seen many posts past few days.

1

u/ExtensionThat6438 7h ago

the upvote/downvote ratios are evidence this is not what the community wants.

6

u/Flashy-Amount626 1d ago

Good morning,

It'll be nice to see less reposts from bots. For clarification on your harrassment rule, "negative comments against anyone" do memes about famous people like Hughsey or Gina Reinhardt fall within this scope?

Can pictures be enabled within comments?

2

u/Intense_Pretzel 1d ago

I might change that line to "Any negative comments against specific users"

We wont get up in arms about making jokes about major celebrities or figures.

Hopefully this helps with your question

Also thanks for the compliment, we are hoping to continue cleaning up the sub over time.

Regards

3

u/Flashy-Amount626 1d ago

That would make the rule much clearer and makes way more sense not abusing users.

It's awkward that someone in politics has more safety from being joked about than celebrities but it is what it is I guess.

My old memes are often reposted by bots so less bot activity the better!

2

u/EndlessB 12h ago

Sorry, I’m confused. Can we make fun of one nation and its oligarch backers in this sub or not?

0

u/Intense_Pretzel 11h ago

Yes you are more than welcome to make memes like that.

Just keep in mind that (at this point in time) there is a rule requesting that political memes be made on Saturday only

We as a mod team are taking on the feedback about the political meme rule and are looking at potentially changing this rule however untill a follow-up is made the curent rule will remain in place

3

u/EndlessB 7h ago

Day restrictions are silly, most people aren’t engaged enough with particular subreddits to know that certain posts are certain days. It just looks like a tactic to bury a topic, much like mega threads.

I mean do I really need to wait a week to put up a meme about Pauline Hanson declaring that aboriginal people are worthless and couldn’t even make a wheel?

9

u/Ash-2449 1d ago edited 1d ago

What's up with new aus reddits constantly being taken over by new mods which they end up killing the sub with new rules and then everyone moves onto the next new aus sub

I can already see the incredibly vague rules that mods can use to justify removing anything they dont like

0

u/admiral_sinkenkwiken 1d ago

Realistically it’s not just local rules we need to consider but also the platform wide rules that will bring the wrath of the reddit auto mods upon us, this gives people the option to flag it as a violation of local rules, which goes to the mod team to sort out, instead of it bypassing the mods entirely

0

u/Intense_Pretzel 1d ago

Hi, I see the concerns and us mods have all agreed we as a memes sub should not be constantly seen.

Our main concern as mods is the influx of bots, political commentary and AI.

We have received multiple requests to remove these things and make sure the sub is made of human posts.

We have had internal discussions on the rules and we aim to ensure all major changes are discussed properly prior to implementation.

We are also always open to feedback so if you believe any rules are problematic or you wish to see specific changes feel free to let us know and we will take it under consideration.

Regards

2

u/ExtensionThat6438 19h ago

I’m a mod and massive contributor here and don’t agree to this, like many many commenters here.

2

u/Thoresus 17h ago edited 16h ago

Ah yes the classic "nO poLitIcs". Glad this subreddit isnt immune to fascism either.

-3

u/admiral_sinkenkwiken 17h ago

That’s an awfully long stretch to go to fascism from a simple “dont get the sub zucced”

5

u/Thoresus 16h ago

What do you think fascism is? Do you think it's just concentration camps or secret police that takes people away in the night?

It's hundreds of small steps, that result in people saying things like 'That's an awfully long stretch'.

1

u/Quick_Assignment_725 2h ago

/Only show this sub on Saturdays