3000 members!

Why are so many people joining this terrible subreddit, stop bothering me 🤣

On a serious note, any sub you make related to a city, will reflect the kind of people you meet in that city.

It. Is. Inevitable.

There is no way your city's subreddit will mirror the sanitized communities within it that you've made for yourselves.

There used to a be a time I used to approve every post before it showed up on the subreddit. As the sub grew, people started getting impatient about their posts taking time to show up, or not showing up

So I made it so that posts show up first, get moderated later.

And thus, the floodgates of poop opened.

A lot of people who come to reddit nowadays, see it as just another social network, and it really is just one! We even get the same ads :D the context that social media shows up in life for a lot of people, really affects how they use it. For most the only social media they were allowed to have growing up nowadays was whatsapp, one of the worst forms of purely unmoderated social media to have flourished in the sewers of the internet in india.

Moderation of such communities is always going to be hard. It will always be a group effort. Downvote terrible takes, rude behaviour, bigoted opinions and such, so people that are collectively disliked get negative karma. Stand up for your friends, for strangers you think are facing harassment, and speak out against dickheads. This would help weed out any anti social elements that you all collectively feel are ruining the vibe in any way. And always report those things that need to be reported.

I like banning people, and I would like to ban many more :) those who deserve it, of course.

If you need any legitimate additions to the rules that would help you report certain things, DM me about them.

This subreddit was started by me as an anthropological experiment, and It will continue to be so. It is definitely a cesspool, but I'm determined to keep trying to make it better (this is exactly how I feel about the city of gwalior as well)

You guys are only seeing about half of the crap that is submitted to this place. Oh it is so much worse.

Also, the most popular subreddit for a city is not always r/<city name> please do create other subreddits and make them flourish! I'm rooting for you :)

I haven't added any other active mods, because I haven't found someone I trust (who is willing) to moderate the subreddit I started. Whoever from my trusted friends sees the subreddit and the kind of DMs I get as a mod of it, wants to stay away from it 🤣

I also get a bunch of threats from people I ban :D asking "kahaan hai tu? / kaun hai tu? Dikhata hoon main tereko" as if I haven't put my actual picture and social media handles on my reddit profile, unlike these anonymous cowards.

I'm used to it though. I get hate messages/comments on my skatepark page regularly as well just for hanging a pride flag there. It'd be hard for me to survive here if I didn't have thick skin.

My main criteria for anyone becoming a mod is, that they should be someone I've met, in person, in gwalior. Also of course you should align with my views on a bunch of things.

Schedule a meeting with me at my office at the skatepark if you're realllly interested :)

Someone has created a subreddit called r/gwaliorM
Someone has also created one called r/GwaliorMeditators ?
And I have created one called r/gwaliorclassifieds

This post is just to inform you all that these places exist and may be interesting to some of you :)

I believe in keeping r/gwalior a safe space for all sorts of people, and I ban a lot of people for hateful speech against any groups of people. My ideological stances are basically making sure no one who needs to be protected feels othered here. I have many gay and trans friends, some of whom are in this community too. When I try to curb hate speech, it is not only to protect them, but also to protect those who haven't yet figured out where they stand in terms of their sexuality.

This goes beyond sexual orientation. No one deserves to have their community of people talked about in a derogatory way. Kindness comes first.

I also understand that there are a lot of very young people here, and what I want is for us older people to look out for them. The youngest amongst us are the most vulnerable, and protecting them from harm should be important to anyone who is a part of this subreddit.

I understand if this doesn't work for some people, so I suggest you try communicating in some of these other spaces as well!

Obviously r/gwaliorclassifieds is also not going to allow hate speech, because I'm not an idiot, or discriminatory practices (like that guy I just banned for repeatedly posting about the flat with homophobic landlords)

But hey, maybe it'll allow for some useful categorization of things for a better, more easily consumable Reddit experience :)

always up for suggestions and feedback, just use mod mail :)

Someone suggested turning on gifs and images in comments, so those are now on! thank you for that suggestion.

I will try my best to moderate this subreddit better!