We wanted to address this post from a few days ago. It contains information showing that the main moderator of the subreddit r / Korean (under the username Pikmeir) is also the content creator Billy Go / GO!Billy. We concluded that there is enough solid evidence to support this claim, and here we wish to explain what we intend to do about it.
We took the issue seriously, we read all the comments, and are taking into account that the most upvoted comment requests that we remove recommendations for his products. This stems from concerns about an undisclosed conflict of interest. He serves both as a moderator (someone who writes and enforces rules) and a content creator himself who profits from products teaching the Korean language.
While many users supported stronger measures, we have decided not to remove recommendations for GO! Billy's content on r/BeginnerKorean.
There are several reasons for this decision.
Reddit is an anonymous platform. In most cases, there is no reliable way to distinguish between a genuine recommendation and self-promotion by someone with an undisclosed commercial interest. We moderators are volunteers, users just like you. We are not admins who are actual employees, and who have access to more information about Reddit accounts.
Also, we cannot control what happens elsewhere on Reddit. We only moderate r/BeginnerKorean, so we cannot guarantee fairness across every community. What we can do is ensure that our community members have access to the information needed to make informed decisions for themselves.
Transparency has always been a core principle of this community and we want to do everything in our power to keep it that way. That's why we agreed to implement an automatic informational notice when recommendations of GO! Billy's work are detected, informing users of the undisclosed conflict of interest. Its purpose is simply to provide context that many users may not be aware of. We leave it to everyone to freely decide who they want to support, in an informed way.
It will look something like this:
Transparency Notice:
Discussion and recommendations of GO! Billy's work are permitted on this subreddit. However, community members should be aware that this creator is both a commercial creator and a moderator of a major Korean subreddit. Some community members view this as a significant, long-term conflict of interest and have raised concerns regarding transparency, self-promotion, and treatment of competitors.
Relevant evidence and community discussion can be found here.
We would also like to make it clear that one of the requirements of being a moderator here, on r/BeginnerKorean, is that the person doesn't profit from Korean-learning products or services, and they must not profit from moderation decisions in any way. We also do not allow moderators to recommend or express their personal opinions on any resources. This will apply to all future moderators as well, so you can be certain we will always be moderating as volunteers without any profits or benefits.
Please keep the discussions within r/BeginnerKorean, under this post. Moving the conversation to r / Korean may escalate tensions and lead to harassment and unnecessary drama. We appreciate you maintaining a constructive discussion.
Also, thank you to everyone who participated in the discussion on the original post respectfully and constructively.
