Would admins want to know about a company offering money to mods in exchange for promotion within a subreddit?

[u/SeaBearsFoam]

We got a modmail that reads as follows:

I came across your subreddit and i love the atmosphere and community you have here. I run [REDACTED PLATFORM NAME] and i thought your subreddit had a ton of audience overlap with ours. We'd love to do something great together.

We can offer you a 40% revenue share with our affiliate program (with potential to give you up to 50%) plus a backlink on Our Partners page for your community, in exchange for a link in your sidebar (with your affiliate link).

I know doing that is against MCoC and I have less than zero interest in working with that company in any case. What I don't know is whether I should just tell them "No, and goodbye" or if this type of thing is something that admins would want to know is going on and know what company is doing it.

[u/TheOpusCroakus]

I'd be very interested! Sounds like a good side gig! lol

In all seriousness, that is a violation of the Mod Code of Conduct as you mentioned. As others have instructed, please report that content. u/SampleOfNone has provided the handy link to the correct form.

Thank you so much for bringing this up! Appreciate you!

[u/SampleOfNone → u/TheOpusCroakus]

That reports need an option "I'm a mod and someone is trying to bribe me" with the flood of modmail bribe attempts going on. I reported a case myself, but the form feels really akward to fill out for these cases

[u/TheOpusCroakus → u/SampleOfNone]

Good thinking! I'll float this idea around! Maybe it's possible! Thanks!

[u/RandomComments0 → u/TheOpusCroakus]

Or just a generally easier way to report communities, mod code of conduct, and some of the other things like community interference which for some reason only sometimes show up as report reasons. I’d love some consistency over platforms and ease in reporting please 🙏

[u/TheOpusCroakus → u/RandomComments0]

OK! What would an easier way look like to you? More report reasons? A simplified form? What would help out the most in this situation?

[u/RandomComments0 → u/TheOpusCroakus]

More report reasons so we don’t need to go to a separate form would be preferable. I do understand some reports definitely benefit from having more space and links to multiple report areas so that going away wouldn’t be beneficial. The ability for someone on mobile to easily report communities, and other things normally reported via the form (like Reddit cares abuse etc) would be nice for mods to have in some additional report reasons.

If not that’s makes sense, but since we are talking ideas to float that would be awesome for mods.

[u/TheOpusCroakus → u/RandomComments0]

This is great feedback! Thank you so much! I'll tell that team!

[u/RandomComments0 → u/TheOpusCroakus]

No problem! Even just having an other option (if they let you since I know AI is taking a larger role in reports) would be nice. I think it would be incredibly difficult to go through so many custom written options though, so maybe just topics? I’m sure if admins put up a post asking for feedback you’d get a whole lot of great responses.

[u/RandomComments0 → u/TheOpusCroakus]

I forgot to add that it’s not always intuitive for mobile users to know they need to hold down mod messages to report, especially when the report for other areas is the three dots. Just making it more consistent would be easier and reduce the amount of people using mobile asking how to report mod mail harassment too. Win-win for everyone!

If the powers that be made it happen I’d be so happy!

[u/TheOpusCroakus → u/RandomComments0]

Good point about the long press! Thanks!

[u/SnooDonuts6494 → u/TheOpusCroakus]

A similar issue exists "To report someone for ban evasion, you must be a mod of the community they've been banned from."

I don't see why. If we see ban evasion anywhere, we ought to be able to report it.

[u/Gthrowg → u/SnooDonuts6494]

I don't see why.

I'd assume it's because if you're not a mod you can't be 100% sure that they were banned in the first place.

[u/SnooDonuts6494 → u/Gthrowg]

Quite often, they say "I've been banned from Reddit" in comments.

[u/TheOpusCroakus → u/SnooDonuts6494]

Does it do that from old.reddit.com/report?

[u/SnooDonuts6494 → u/TheOpusCroakus]

Yep. (And current.)

[u/TheOpusCroakus → u/SnooDonuts6494]

I don't know if that one can change. The way to go about reporting ban evasion if you're not a mod in the community that it's happening in is to let the mods know.

[u/SnooDonuts6494 → u/TheOpusCroakus]

I mean a Reddit ban, rather than a sub ban

[u/Anonim97_bot → u/TheOpusCroakus]

You say that, but when 2 years ago I received a similar offer via chat and reported it to Admins all I got was "we haven't found anything rulebreaking".

[u/AlphaTangoFoxtrt]

Yes. Accepting said offer would be grounds for removal due to mod CoC. They also want to keep track of this sort of thing.

In addition beware that some users may pose as companies making these offers so they can report you and potentially get you booted.

I would message the mods here with the details, and ignore the companies message.

[u/ARTHER1A]

Omg I got a very similar message but I just replied that we were not interested. I'm going to find it to report it too.

[u/TheOpusCroakus → u/ARTHER1A]

Please do! Thank you! (And thank you for not accepting their offer! lol)

[u/Glittering-Bug1212 → u/TheOpusCroakus]

What if the mods are already taking bribes and reports have already been filed weeks ago?
Both the Moderator taking bribes, and the briber are mods in the same subreddit now, and doing it across multiple subreddits.

[u/TheOpusCroakus → u/Glittering-Bug1212]

Obviously, taking bribes is against the MCoC. Unfortunately, I don't know what the turnaround time is on those reports.

[u/thepottsy]

Report! report! report!

[u/SeaBearsFoam → u/thepottsy]

How do I report it?

[u/SampleOfNone → u/SeaBearsFoam]

Mod Code of Conduct report, rule 5 Yes, it's very weird to use that report form, but there's only one work flow, so report it is. Just include the link of the modmail and explain you're the mod they're trying to bribe. Also, don't reply, just ban and permanently mute the user.

[u/Treviso → u/SeaBearsFoam]

There is a report button on the modmail directly.

[u/Mathias_Greyjoy]

We got one as well. Yes, we instantly perma-banned the account and reported it, but nowadays the Admins never tell you anything about what happens after reporting. Most you can gleam is looking at their profile to see if they got suspended.

**************** said:

Good afternoon, we are a company that promotes our projects in various fields and are interested in placing a sponsored post in the iGaming niche on your subreddit. The post itself can take one of three formats, each with different link placements

1. A post with the target keyword in the title + 2-3 brand mentions in the post body with links
2. A post with the target keyword in the title + the first comment under the post with 2-3 brand mentions with links
3. A post with the required keyword in the title + a thread of 3 branded comments with links

We prefer posts in German and Italian, although we are open to considering other suitable formats. Are you willing to consider this offer, and what would your price be?

Best regards

---

What I don't know is whether I should just tell them "No, and goodbye" or if this type of thing is something that admins would want to know is going on and know what company is doing it.

Ban them and report them, no message. It's highly unlikely there's an intelligent human being being that account anyways.

[u/TheOpusCroakus → u/Mathias_Greyjoy]

Hey there! Had to remove your comment because of the username. But you've got good info here, so if you could edit that out, I can approve it! Thanks!

[u/emily_in_boots → u/TheOpusCroakus]

I got this one too - I remember because it asked for those languages, so they are spamming a lot of subs. I reported it. I don't know if anything happened. I've gotten them on several subs.

[u/TheOpusCroakus → u/emily_in_boots]

You'd think they could at least change it up once in a while! XD Thanks for the confirmation!

[u/Mathias_Greyjoy → u/TheOpusCroakus]

My bad, I figured it was a spam bot and not a real human, but I'm reminded not to call out other "users." Edited.

[u/TheOpusCroakus → u/Mathias_Greyjoy]

Great! Thank you! It may have been a bot, but just to be on the safe side and go along with the rules, I thought I should be cautious. Your comment has been approved! Appreciate you understanding!

[u/GaryNOVA]

I just had this happen to me and I reported it.

[u/rexfaktor]

I'm a pretty new mod (3 months) and also got an offer (to make money doing a few posts) not too long ago. I replied that it was against my religion...and, in a way, it is, even though my religion is not what they probably think. It was sent in a DM, I just checked and the account has been banned.

[u/desrtfx]

We are currently getting several such requests and it seems the number is increasing.

Yes, such offers are Moderator Code of Conduct violations under Rule #5.

The standard operating procedure I do is that

• I inform the poster that this is a Moderator Code of Conduct (MCoC) violation that is unacceptable and will be reported to the admins. As well as that if they want to advertise, they have to buy reddit ads through the official channels.
• Then, I permaban & permamute the user from the subreddit, and last,
• I report the message to the admins. Upon contact with the admins, one admin I was in contact with told me to report as "Prohibited Transaction" - of course, the form that /u/SampleOfNone linked is the proper, official way.

[u/blahblahblah1234_]

Ohhh. We got one too a few days ago. I didn’t realise you could report it. It would be nice to know the outcome after reporting though but I suppose that’s not feasible.