Content Policy Update

Cheech5 · 2日前

Today, in addition to applying Quarantines, we are banning a handful of communities that exist solely to annoy other redditors, prevent us from improving Reddit, and generally make Reddit worse for everyone else. Our most important policy over the last ten years has been to allow just about anything so long as it does not prevent others from enjoying Reddit for what it is: the best place online to have truly authentic conversations

Which communities have been banned?

slyf · 2日前

This page (https://www.reddit.com/about/alien/) says that

Remember: "reddit" is always lowercase.

But your Content Policy spells it with a capital R, has this branding changed?

BillW87 · 2日前

For the sake of transparency I feel like it would be best to make the list of banned communities public. With all of the concerns lately about the admins not being transparent enough, banning subs without telling us who they are seems counterproductive.

TheMentalist10 · 2日前

Will you be sharing information about the communities which are Quarantined? Will moderators of those communities know if their subreddit has been affected?

Edit: Just as it's not immediately obvious, /r/Coontown has been banned

Edit 2: Here's what it looks like when you try to access a Quarantined subreddit

Edit 3: And here's what private subs now look like. Fancy!

dwchief · 2日前

If a user is subscribed to a Quarantined subreddit, will it still appear on their front page?

ChangloriousBastard · 2日前

Under "Enforcement", shadowbanning is not listed. I know the list is not comprehensive, but does that mean that shadowbanning will no longer be used to enforce the rules as illustrated in the updated content policy?

zachlac · 2日前

Soooooo...shadowbanning? Do you shadow ban for violation of content policy violations? At what point in the list of punishments would this fall?

Xet · 2日前

Regarding Quarantining: Would you ever quarantine a large subreddit like /r/wtf?

A community will be Quarantined on Reddit when we deem its content to be extremely offensive or upsetting to the average redditor.

One could argue that the very gorey types of pictures (edit: and videos, like of people dying) that appear on /r/wtf would be pretty upsetting. I know I've accidentally clicked on /r/wtf images when I temporarily disabled my own RES filters, and honestly of all things on the site, some of the stuff there is more troubling to me than discriminatory self text posts.

Shintao6 · 2日前

Changing the conversation away from CT and SRS for a minute, why were Loli subs banned? They produce no illegal content or anything that violates the new Content Policy. They do not harass, threaten or worsen anyone's Redditing experience. I was fully expecting a quarantine, and would have been fine with that. I understand and respect that Loli is not everyone's cup of tea. I also get that it's your show and we play by your rules, but can we get the rule written down somewhere at least?

illegal_deagle · 2日前

Unfortunately it looks like SRS will continue to enjoy their harassment and downvote brigading.

Edit: Come on, guys. I make a comment about downvote brigading and y'all mass downvote /u/spez for actually responding when he didn't have to.

mn920 · 2日前

Holy crap that content policy is vague.

A community will be Quarantined on Reddit when we deem its content to be extremely offensive or upsetting to the average redditor.

So, a quarantine happens when you believe that at least 50.1% of reddit users would be extremely offended or upset by a community? Seeing as how we're a pretty liberal, secular crowd, I'd like you to please quarantine subreddits relating to religion and conservative politics. I, and arguably 50.1% of reddit, find them upsetting.

Photographs, videos, or digital images of you in a state of nudity or engaged in any act of sexual conduct, taken without your permission.

So, "revenge porn" and /r/TheFappening is OK, since the photos were taken with permission and only later used without permission?

Do not post content that incites harm against people or groups of people.

What the hell is "harm"? Only physical injury and illegal acts, or does it also cover any negative impact, such as loss of income or emotional distress? Further, when does somebody incite harm? If I make a post in good-faith that tends to increase the likelihood a person or group will be harmed, have I violated this policy?

Harassment on Reddit is defined as systematic and/or continued actions to torment or demean someone in a way that would make a reasonable person conclude that reddit is not a safe platform to express their ideas or participate in the conversation, or fear for their safety or the safety of those around them.

Like "harm," this policy abuses the word "safety." What does it mean? Only physical safety, or the safety of my ideas a la safe-spaces?

As if that isn't enough, you've apparently created an exception to the content policy within its first hour:

... we are banning a handful of communities that exist solely to annoy other redditors, prevent us from improving Reddit, and generally make Reddit worse for everyone else.

Ridiculously, this standard for banning is easier to meet than the standard for quarantining. And it gets even worse when your later comments implicitly change the "and" to an "or." Reddit's content policy now seems to ban any content or communities that "generally make Reddit worse." You can't get more vague than that.

I also take serious issue with how quarantines are implemented. It's a generally good idea to keep certain, well-defined categories of content isolated. But requiring login and e-mail confirmation isn't so much quarantining as it is imposing arbitrary standards to make it harder for the communities to exist. Why not also start limiting their comments to 200 characters just for kicks? You could achieve a quarantine using much more narrowly tailored means--just require a NSFW-like confirmation per subreddit, exclude them from /r/all, and block search engines from indexing.

In short, I'm extremely disappointed. Not so much because of the policy itself but because of how you've misled the community into thinking that Reddit was truly interested in community feedback and in creating clear standards. You've created a content policy with a bunch of words, but an overriding exception that boils down to "if we don't like it."

raldi · 2日前

I'm sure some of you are rushing to find the Imgur link about how ripping out someone's tongue doesn't prove them wrong, and that the real answer is to engage them in debate.

But it doesn't really apply, because nobody's tongue was ripped out. The bigots have already migrated to another site, and they're doing just fine.

Shockingly, it doesn't look like the conversation going on over there in any way resembles an intellectually-honest debate on racial issues.

Teh_Compass · 2日前

Quarantining is a good step from outright banning. But banning more subreddits in addition to that isn't going to solve anything.

Banning subreddits that break the TOS like harassing users and such makes sense, but you can't go and ban subreddits that don't, no matter how much people don't like them.

/r/fatpeoplehate, for example, was annoying to people but could easily be ignored. It didn't need to be banned initially. But I totally understand that it was banned for the brigading it did. I was subscribed to one of the subreddits that was being brigaded and its users harassed.

/r/coontown, for example is easily ignored and doesn't deserve to be banned, even if they are racist as shit. I hear rumors about brigading but I personally don't know enough about it. If there is evidence that they are doing something like that then by all means ban them. But just because you don't agree with them doesn't mean they should be banned.

You essentially run the site and can do whatever you want. But remember what the users want.

musicandwords · 2日前

I am surprised nobody has mentioned that by collecting emails for quarentined subs you are essentially creating a database of users who read content you deem 'questionable'. What does verifying the email accomplish? This seems overly broad and Orwellian.

bl1y · 1日前

Please ban /r/videos and /r/worldnews

Both subs engaged in harassing behavior directed at the dentist who killed Cecil the lion. Reddit's policies define harassment as follows:

Harassment on Reddit is defined as systematic and/or continued actions to torment or demean someone in a way that would make a reasonable person conclude that reddit is not a safe platform to express their ideas or participate in the conversation, or fear for their safety or the safety of those around them.

The Cecil story remained in the news long enough that the comment trends ought to be considered "continued actions." The comments directed at the dentist were meant to demean him. The dentist could also reasonably believe that Reddit is not a safe platform for him to express his ideas or participate in the conversation.

The harassment rules include no exceptions for public figures or subjects of news stories. They do not require direct contact with the victim.

Here is a sample of comments that have appeared on these subs:

Comments from the Jimmy Kimmel clip on r/videos:

Poachers and people who support poachers should all be fucking shot

We should skin this asshole and mount his head somewhere!

Please someone go hunt this asshole, treat him like he treats the animal.

lets all hope he kills himself over this :)

He thought it was legal, what does it being legal have to do with anything? I hope he kills himself.

I hope this c*** gets tortured!

Hopefully that fucking dickbag dentist kills himself next.

I don't normally get this extreme but this motherfucker should die for this. He serves no good purpose here, I hope he never makes it back.

From comments on The Guardian article linked on r/worldnews:

i hope he dies and gets skinned alive.

Interesting, maybe Walters head will find itself on someone's wall.

Heh I hope he dies. By being ripped apart by lions and then eaten by cecil's children (if he had any) then I have the leftovers.

Kill him. Shoot him with a bow and then dismember him.

pigeonburger · 2日前

I'm not going to cry for Coontown, but there's two things that worry me.

First, there's the absence of transparency. I want to see who gets banned, for what reason and I believe there should be a forum or a possibility for that group to appeal to the community or at least publically appeal to the administrators to get their sanction reversed.

Then, there's still too much vagueness.

"Extremely offensive or upsetting to the average redditor" - Who decides? This ties with my point above regarding the absence of transparency.

"Forming or joining a group that votes together, either on a specific post, a user's posts, posts from a domain, etc." - Does the group have to be explicitely formed for that purpose? Does incidental voting from being linked by another subreddit which tends to have similar feelings towards that post count? One could argue that being "featured" on SRD/SRS/BestOf/DepthHub is an implicit invitation for people to go and up or downvote the post in question. If implicit brigades are also banned, who draws the line? Again, we need transparency.

"Being annoying, vote brigading, or participating in a heated argument is not harassment, but following an individual or group of users, online or off, to the point where they no longer feel that it's safe to post online or are in fear of their real life safety is." - Thank you for mentionning the first part, but we've seen people who think that heated disagreements gave them PTSD. Which one has priority? Leaving the standard for "harassment" to be determined by the so-called harassed is easily gameable.

While we're on that subject. If we look back to the FPH ban; the images that were floating around showing that they were "harassing" were certainly very debateable. Will we ever have any public proof that they were engaging in harassment according to the guidelines?

ThraShErDDoS · 2日前

Current Quarantine list (Full and updated list at: /r/thequarantinelist/):

/r/DigitalAgeNiggers/

/r/whitesarecriminals

/r/WhiteSmite

/r/WhitesWinFights

/r/WilliamChapman

/r/SHHHHHEEEEEEEEIIIITT

WhiteFlight2 · 2日前

I thought you were going to provide a link with why a subreddit was banned. /r/coontown, despite being reviled amongst some users didn't appear to violate any of the rules. It also did well to enforce additional rules that places like SRS flaunt. Why was /r/coontown banned, specifically?

Naked_Bacon_Tuesday · 2日前

Today, in addition to applying Quarantines, we are banning a handful of communities that exist solely to annoy other redditors, prevent us from improving Reddit, and generally make Reddit worse for everyone else. Our most important policy over the last ten years has been to allow just about anything so long as it does not prevent others from enjoying Reddit for what it is: the best place online to have truly authentic conversations.

If you do plan to ban subs, I'm sure reddit would enjoy an itemized list of ban reasons/offenses by each sub. This shouldn't necessarily include a link or something to an example of the offense, but the list provided should be detailed enough for a reasonable person to say, "OK, yeah, that's clear enough to require the ban."

But the bans should definitely be released and reasons for them made clear.

Karunamon · 1日前

but the fact of the matter is we spend a disproportionate amount of time dealing with a handful of communities

That ain't against the rules, bub. I'd expect you'd spend a "disproportionate amount of time dealing with a handful of communities" if those communities are controversial in any way. So can we add to the list of rules an unwritten one, "Don't annoy the admins?"

Let's review.

Earlier word gone back on about how specific places wouldn't be banned? Check. /u/spez, it's pretty simple here. You lied.
SRS and their "network" still allowed to harass and brigade, despite the definition given here directly going against their entire reason for existing? Check.

Here's a user in this very thread being harassed by SRS. What is the staff going to do about it? My money is on absolutely nothing, because that's what happens every time anyone gets harassed by SRS. Nothing.

The double standard here could not possibly be more obvious.

Reddit admins still remarkably opaque and dishonest? Check and check. Adblock back on, no more gold. I'd reconsidered that policy after you got hired and talked a big talk, but now I see that talk is all it is. Doubletalk and opacity, same as before.

Thanks for re-destroying, possibly permanently, my faith that you guys have any idea what the hell you're doing and have a single Goddamned shred of honesty.

LadyKa · 2日前

Where is the proposed transparency? I was not a supporter of coontown, but I would like to know what policy rules they violated along with concrete examples shown to justify outright banning rather than quarantining.

To my knowledge it was a subreddit where like-minded individuals could discuss an issue they felt strongly on. It certainly never showed up in my feed. If I wanted to participate I would have had to look this subreddit up, which is how most special interest subreddits work. You have to look for them. Sure, the majority of people are not interested, but you can't remove a discussion group because people who have never looked for it might be offended.

If the group discussed scenarios and issues amongst themselves without forcing their ideas on others or endangering anyone, then this group should be allowed, no matter how distasteful you find it.

If it violated these principles, I want to be able to see that. Tell me why, explicitly. Transparency. Yeah, it's a lot of work, but it's important. Give me examples on each and every banned subreddit, so that I can better follow the rules.

VulGerrity · 1日前

I'm pretty sure /r/circlejerk exists solely to annoy other redditors...c'mon man...that's a really terrible and vague rule.

Don't we have a right to "annoy" other people? There's nothing wrong with annoying someone. In fact, being annoyed is the fault of the one being annoyed. I'm annoyed by people chewing with their mouths open, and it's generally unacceptable in the US, but in some countries it's perfectly acceptable, and is encouraged to show respect for the cook.

You know what the best way to deal with "annoying" things/people is? Just ignore them. If it's not harmful physically or psychologically then what's the harm? If it's merely "annoying" just stay away from it. And what's the worst you feel from being annoyed? "Ugh...I'm just really bothered by that...I'm not offended or upset...just bothered, oy, that just really gets under my skin..." Right winged nuts annoy me, can we ban their sub-reddits? I can't stand /r/guns or /r/trees can we ban them too? All of their posts feel like they were made solely to annoy me. Of course you can't do that! So you know what I did? I have RES installed and I've hidden them from showing up on r/all. That's it. Super simple. If it's not actually harmful, the users should have the choice as to whether or not they see or engage with content they find distasteful.

Banning something by proclaiming that it exists solely to annoy others is like claiming that you're banning NSFW subreddits that exist solely for inciting sinful sexual thoughts and behavior. Sexual thoughts and behavior are basically not harmful, and if you don't want to see it, you don't have to.

Maybe instead of banning these types of subreddits, they should just get flagged NSFW, let the NSFW filter catch it. Or create a new filter.

WPLonghornz · 1日前

Reddit would be better off just dropping the content policy and flatly proclaiming "We will ban subs that we do not like." This content policy is an attempt to provide objective rules to subjective situations.

The fact that /r/wtf was not quarantined does not bother me at all but it absolutely fits the content definitions to be quarantined. Likewise I don't care that SRS was not banned but they are absolutely a harassment sub.

/u/spez you just don't sound genuine because you can't defend some of these completely contradictory decisions with this content policy. Not sounding genuine is the same problem Ellen Pao had.

As it stands you have a content policy that is being selectively enforced. If it's being selectively enforced there's no point in even having the policy at all.

kochevnikov · 2日前

Any plans to deal with moderator abuse in some of the larger subs like /r/news or /r/politics ? Certain mods will delete comments and hand out bans for advancing political opinions or posting stories they disagree with. For example /r/news is notorious for censoring stories related to the TPP.

Also what about plans to deal with mods who mod 20, 50, or even more than 100 subs? Clearly they're simply in it for the power and can't even pretend to be able to actually moderate that many, especially that many large or default subs.

These things make reddit worse as a space, much more than some of the rather spurious claims people are making in the rest of this thread.

psuedopseudo · 2日前

I have to say, though I think the "quarantine idea" is a good balance, the ban policy looks a lot more like content censorship that anything else. If that's the way the site will be run, that's your prerogative, but it seems like we keep sidestepping the issue while simultaneously getting closer to bans for content. I know we've moved past the concept of reddit being a forum for free speech, but let's go one step further and approach this honestly.

How do you reconcile a policy strictly against "communities that exist solely to annoy other redditors, prevent us from improving Reddit, and generally make Reddit worse for everyone else" with the subreddit bans from today? If "offensive ideas" falls under this umbrella, why not just say we are banning offensive ideas? I feel like the language about harassment and annoyance is a thin veil, that started as a narrow definition but is now expanding to just mean "offensive;" I feel like I called this two months ago when this whole debacle started:

I guarantee this is what is happening. Banning the blatantly racist subs, etc, would be too obviously based on disagreement with viewpoints - they are moving slowly and widening the meaning of "harassing" subreddits as they go.

I don't really disagree with this decision, by the way -- I just feel like the reasons put forth continue to be disingenuous.

LukeTheFisher · 2日前

Regarding the "animated CP" sub: This was a very odd choice for me. It's not illegal in most places and everything can be illegal in some places. It's on a similar level to bestiality legally but it's actually illegal in far less places. If they're getting quarantined for legal issues, what about the horse and doggy porn subs? Also it's not as if the users of the sub are harassing anyone.

Why this sub specifically? Have they actually harassed anyone? Was it just because of objectionable content? Why not target subs with similar issues then? Like the bestiality subs aforementioned. Seems weird to single out this one in particular.

Also: what about subs like candidfashionpolice? Those seem more dangerous to me in a lot of ways especially since people can't request to have their photos removed. Just a side question on this: I see that you guys are hosted by AWS. They have a compliance policy surrounding this I think, could someone request that their photo be removed from the sub in that way? Do you guys cooperate with them regarding that?

I'd appreciate any answers you can give me.

cainejw · 1日前

"We will Quarantine communities whose content would be considered extremely offensive to the average redditor."

Who is this average redditor? What are their demographics? What are their political beliefs? What are their religious backgrounds? Does this mean if the average redditor becomes someone with racist views, these will be allowed because they're the average redditor?

Frankly, this is horribly vague and lends itself to easy abuse in the interpretation. You've not defined, at all, who this magical redditor is /u/spez. You've just said that you'll dictate the entire policy on their views.

What this should likely read is "We will quarantine communities whose content would be considered extremely offensive to the moderator." There's no need to mix the message that you have any information whatsoever on the demographics of the average user of this site with any degree of confidence.

And I have to say that I have little to no faith that you and your buddies will shy from abusing your station to promote ideological purity and reddit as a "safe space."

Sincerely, a gay liberal social worker who thinks that this sounds incredibly totalitarian for a website that pretends to build itself on populism.

uvulectomy · 1日前

So as before, you are banning communities for the sole reason that 1) you don't agree with them, or 2) they threaten your advertising revenue because they simply exist.

And once again, the reason given for the banning is because they "exist solely to annoy other redditors, prevent us from improving Reddit, and generally make Reddit worse for everyone else."

Under that logic, why is SRS still not banned? They harass, dox, brigade, comb the histories of users they don't like solely to downvote ancient comments, and do nothing but talk about how much they hate Reddit (yet they still use it).

And just recently, a couple of SRS users THREATENED A WOMAN WITH RAPE because she had the temerity to say something they didn't like. When this was brought to the attention of the SRS mods, they banned HER... for reporting abusive messages and rape threats.

This is the EXACT type of behavior that you supposedly banned FPH and other subs for. So I ask again:

WHY DOES SRS GET A FREE PASS???

You have been given numerous and REPEATED examples of SRS violating the VERY SAME RULES you use to censor other communities, yet you do NOTHING to SRS.

SRS is consistently voted the most toxic community on the entire site. They add nothing of value, and they actively seek to make everyone's experience worse.

And still, you do nothing. In doing nothing, you are complicit in their behavior. Your platitudes of "banning behavior, not ideas" is rendered bunk. You are actively seeking to silence not those who break rules, but those who hurt your feelings. Instead of banning them for the same reasons you supposedly banned other subs, you merely "develop tools to keep them from doing anything mean."

What dirt do they have on you, /u/spez?

Ban SRS, stop lying to the users about your motives, and grow a goddamn spine. Or soon enough they will turn on you as well, and you will have nobody left to sympathize with you.

Olive_Jane · 2日前

I'm sorry, can you clarify how hentai and ficticious drawings is child porn?

unwelcome content

2 While Reddit generally provides a lot of leeway in what content is acceptable, here are some guidelines for content that is not. Please keep in mind the spirit in which these were written, and know that looking for loopholes is a waste of time.

3 Content is prohibited if it

Is illegal

Is involuntary pornography

Encourages or incites violence

Threatens, harasses, or bullies or encourages others to do so

Is personal and confidential information

Impersonates someone in a misleading or deceptive manner

Is spam"

Does drawn pictures of underage, fictitious characters, really apply to the above?

Here is a definition of child porn that I found:

Child Pornography

Child pornography is a form of child sexual exploitation. Federal law defines child pornography as any visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct involving a minor (persons less than 18 years old). Images of child pornography are also referred to as child sexual abuse images.

Source: http://www.justice.gov/criminal-ceos/child-pornography

Can you speak on how exactly minors, or anybody, is being exploited or hurt by the content in subs like /r/lolicons?

ModeratelyAshamed · 1日前

For fucks sales I thought I was blessed when I found Reddit Loli community, I've spent far to much time on the darker parts of the web to find that stuff, and far to often its thrown in with material that none of us a r/lolicons or r/pomf ever wanted, the real disgusting vile shit. it was safe here. Had it been a quarantine I would have understood, We get it out fetish is creepy as fuck! But we were not hurting anyone. I mean those were probably two of my favorite communities because we understood one another, no one got harassed or attacked like on 4chan or 8chan, were weren't being flooded with referral links to actual CP by robot spammers, it didn't feel like some dark alley where I had to do shady deals for a fix, for once were safe and I didn't feel ashamed, I didn't hate myself, And you took it away because you don't like it! That's your only reason, you clumped us together with a bunch of racist, hate mongering assholes because you found our fetish morally objectionable. And don't act like your doing some great deed by getting rid of it, it still exists, you've just forced us back to the places where were going to abused and harassed to find it, you're helping no one, your just hurting us, me and my fellow lolis. You've left us to fend for ourselves against a horde of trolls. I'll never leave reddit, I've invested to much, but as a company I've lost all faith in you, your saving face, not your community. [EDIT] fixed auto correct mistake and added a sentence for clarification

lawstudent2 · 1日前

I'm an intellectual property attorney, and this:

Content is illegal if it is against the law for us to host it. This includes, but is not limited to:

copyright or trademark infringement illegal sexual content

is a complete farce.

HAVE A LAWYER REVIEW YOUR CONTENT POLICY.

I cannot tell you what a disastrous definition that is. I write these for a living and that is just bloody shameful and embarrassing.

It is 100% clear that author of this content policy has 0.0% idea what constitutes copyright infringement (much less trademark infringement), and, quite frankly, 99.99% of reddit relies on content that is arguably infringing but is also fair use.

By setting up the policy thusly reddit is opening the floodgates to be harassed constantly by completely bullshit DMCA claims that are designed to limit speech.

Honestly, I know we are supposed to be constructive, but this policy was written by someone with absolutely zero sophistication or knowledge of law. It's pathetic. If I were handed this by an associate at my firm I would have to take them aside and give them a lecture on what a piece of bullshit it was in order to prevent them from embarrassing themselves in front of the partners.

Total crap, guys. Super disappointed.

gigabyte898 · 2日前

I'm going to play devil's advocate for the loli subs that were banned. For those who don't know, loli is a sexual drawing of a minor which is completely legal in the US, where the reddit HQ is located. I personally don't view them, but don't see too much of a problem with them existing either. I understand it may have offended some people, but if so why not add a quarantine label? Looking though your content rules it says actual CP is banned, but not drawing. The reason these drawings are okay is the people depicted have no age. You can draw a picture of a minor, but say they're 18, and that's where the legal grey area comes up. To put it simply, IT'S FICTION.

Regarding you saying this will encourage sexual predator, I think the opposite. Would you rather have them look at real CP, or fictional characters. You'd want the latter, of course. It provides an outlet for people who are attracted to underaged people to "express" their views without causing real harm. If this was actual CP you could say viewing it is harmful because it creates more demand, and you'd be absolutely right, but demand for a fictional character with NO DEFINED AGE isn't hurting anyone.

Just my 2 cents on the matter

tollie · 2日前

I think you should be quick to Quarantine (and un-quarantine, when appropriate), slow to Ban.

that exist solely to annoy other redditors, prevent us from improving Reddit, and generally make Reddit worse

That language seems really broad and I'm concerned that it leaves the process a bit too opaque.

^{Insert obligatory, "While I personally disagree with and find offensive," etc. etc.}

I don't know exactly what the solution is, but for the good of reddit, "I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it."

I feel like the community should be involved more (perhaps through email-registered, or IP limited voting^?), and the process should be more open.

Vittles_And_Libation · 2日前

"While my personal views towards bigotry haven't changed, my opinion of what Reddit should do about it has. I don't think we should silence people just because their viewpoints are something we disagree with. " -/u/spez , about seven days ago.

Permalink:

https://www.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/3f10up/good_morning_i_thought_id_give_a_quick_update/ctka48v

SuperAwesomeNinjaGuy · 2日前

Until SRD and SRS is banned every one of these post is just bullshit PR used as justification for banning content the Admins don't like.

And im sure banning these subs has absolutely NOTHING to do with this huffington post blog that came out yesterday about contacting Reddits advertisers because of racist content.

But your right its all about the subs actions and not the content.

It so fucking obvious to everyone here that Admins are banning things they dont like, and thats it. If they were actually following the PR bullshit they keep telling us, then SRS and SRD would be gone. I mean for fuck sake these people have a fucking custom CSS script that shows where people post and if its some where they dont like you get down voted because of it.

Stop trying to bullshit the people who made this place what it is.

Facerless · 2日前

Encourages or incites violence
Threatens, harasses, or bullies or encourages others to do so

Are these going to be used against communities that are centered around the pre-existing hatred or dislike of a group or person?

I realize this is nit picking but this is still fairly vague

What constitutes encouragement or how will you decide what incites someone to action?

Wildelocke · 1日前

The purpose of quarantining is not to 'protect' users from content. That's asinine: people don't end up on /r/coontown by accident.

It's to undermine their sense of security by forcing them to opt in to questionable content: meaning if their email verified account is ever linked to their real identities, they can be id'ed as racists, pedophiles, etc. This limits the growth of those communities, and makes it harder for sponsors to see them.

Mobre · 2日前

Can you explain the difference between these two?

We will Quarantine communities whose content would be considered extremely offensive to the average redditor.

and

we are banning a handful of communities that exist solely to annoy other redditers, prevent us from improving Reddit, and generally make Reddit worse for everyone else

and how /r/coontown applies to the latter rather than the former? Because it seems that the application of who is quarantined and who is banned overlap and is completely up to the arbitrary decision of the admin rather then an explicit and defined rule set.

The_Adventurist · 2日前

Christ this is so stupid.

You realize that by taking control of what can and cannot be posted on the site based on moral grounds, you thereby imply approval of everything that ISN'T removed, right?

So because /r/coontown was removed but /r/kiketown wasn't, you are now taking a stand that /r/kiketown is Reddit™ approved.

A year ago none of these subreddits were in my life and now they ALL ARE because of this stupid fucking idea to police them.

They were already contained and quarantined. Now they are not. Now it's spread everywhere and now I'm even sympathetic to their rage at these utterly awful content policy changes.

So dumb.

unfunnypun · 1日前

Can we get an updated list of the banned subs? I don't understand the point of outright banning subs (well, I get that it's for sponsors/image, I just disagree with it).

Half of the subs people are listing as offensive (like /r/sexwithdogs) that have been kept (as far as I know, right now) weren't even on my radar. The best thing about reddit- or, Reddit- was that you were able to choose from a fuckton of topics and essentially customize your own forum experience. I'm pretty sure /r/watchpeopledie (just heard of this one, too) would be offensive to the average redditor....but the average redditor will probably never fucking go there. I'd rather have people fucking around on their computers (in harmless communities the majority of reddit will never even see) than trying to find ways to see this stuff IRL. (Which brings up the lolicon debate- who exactly will be rendered unsafe because of a drawing? If anything, it's an outlet for people.)

Lastly, how does it not "violate the spirit of Reddit" to cater to "the average redditor"? We are a cluster of niche communities, some (much) more exclusive than others. If you're only appealing to the average Redditor, how will I have a "truly authentic conversation" if my views differ from those of a young, white, liberal man?

CarmineCerise · 2日前

Today, in addition to applying Quarantines, we are banning a handful of communities that exist solely to annoy other redditors, prevent us from improving Reddit, and generally make Reddit worse for everyone else.

Will there be a clear list of banned subreddits?

mcpuck · 2日前

Now I'm really starting to worry that the reddit I love will die. The subs you've banned I'm sure are terrible, but the amazing thing about reddit has always been the support of free speech.

I don't believe that you should ban ANY content that's legal. Only behaviors (like brigading and doxxing).

The two items that really bother me:

Selective banning of embarrassing subs, which leads many to believe (and I'm starting to think this) that the admins are favoring certain ideologies.
Requiring an email only for those subs deemed questionable? WTF?

I was really hoping all this would blow over and we'd be left with the old reddit, but it seems clear now that the site is headed towards sanitized pablum, or worse.

Taylor7500 · 2日前

/r/coontown will be reclassified. The content there is offensive to many, but does not violate our current rules for banning.

Source

You specifically said that it won't be banned. I don't care for the subreddit myself, but your constant lack of consistency doesn't encourage trust between the users and admins.

Iron_Booger_59 · 2日前

Your content policy is so vague as to be meaningless. "make Reddit worse for everyone else." How? Is that its "sole purpose"? Who gets to decide? What is the reasoning process?

It's time to go, after just all this shit. I never know if what I'm reading is what the community as its own entity has produced or if it's been hacked away at by mods, with communities banned, etc. to produce what the higher-ups personally believe is a more perfect website. I don't want my experience here to be shaped by force by others' moral persuasions or financial incentives. Your use of the phrase "everyone else" is extremely troubling. We are ALL "everyone else." All of us who don't get to control what is and isn't up on this website.

Goodbye Reddit. Hello Voat. Deleting this account, and deleting my real account.

Lynch_King · 2日前

Can you own up to the fact that the subs you banned were not banned for breaking any of the new policy's rules (in fact, the rules you updated in this new policy have been on the rules of subs like coontown for a while, to avoid getting banned) but because you believed they showed the negative side of reddit?

Clearly this is true because, as hundreds have already pointed out, subreddits that encourage brigading (like SRS) are still here. And they actually broke the rules. At least then people will realize you used your own morals to ban subs you didn't agree with, which is pretty dumb on a website as huge as reddit.

Corbee · 2日前

we are banning a handful of communities that exist solely to annoy other redditors, prevent us from improving Reddit, and generally make Reddit worse for everyone else

This seems like a vague, catch all rule that you can use to ban subreddits willy nilly. Who decides what is making reddit worse for everyone else? Why not quarantine the communities instead of banning them, because then they will be closed off among themselves and will have no way of flouting those rules? It seems like this rule is there to be applied anytime there is mounting political pressure on the company. Any subreddit that is creating bad PR, really. This is reddit's safety valve, not a principle.

culman13 · 2日前

Are you serious /u/spez? Wow. You banned subreddits because they "generally annoy people." This right after you litterally said you would quarantine subreddits rather than ban them because they don't violate set rules. You have gone back on your word and have become a straight up dictator.

Listen I am not a fan of any of those subreddits, but people have a right to say what they want to say so long it is not hurting others directly. Those subreddits did not harass people and kept to themselves.

This site is such a disappointing pile of dog shit. Every day the right to say something someone else might not like crumbles away a little more than the day previous. What happened to your words /u/spez when you said you can't win an arguement by silencing the opposition?

DonkiestOfKongs · 2日前

From an information security standpoint: How will you be storing the data about what quarantined subreddits I've opted into? In the event of a security breach, how easily could this information be associated with my 'verified email'?

mmencius · 2日前

/u/spez, are your promises actually workable? I don't really see anyone talking about how Reddit's chief engineer Bethanye Blount quit less than a month ago.

Blount said she left because she did not think she “could deliver on promises being made to the community.”

“I feel like there are going be some big bumps on the road ahead for Reddit,” Blount said. “Along the way, there are some very aggressive implied promises being made to the community — in comments to mods, quotes from board members — and they’re going to have some pretty big challenges in meeting those implied promises.”

Bartisgod · 2日前

are /r/undelete and /r/ModerationLog safe? I guess what I'm saying is do not, under any circumstances, let the default sub mods have any input at all into this policy or which subs are banned. /r/worldnews , /r/news , and /r/technology are basically trying to censor all of Reddit, and they must be completely shut out of future policy decisions if Reddit is to remain the place that you and all of us want it to be. It is absolutely not in the cards, under any circumstances, that those 2 would be shut down or quarantined, right?

zerconic · 2日前

A community will be Quarantined on Reddit when we deem its content to be extremely offensive or upsetting to the average redditor or to ourselves.

Does this also mean that reddit is endorsing any subreddits they choose not to quarantine or ban, since they are now individually censoring subreddits?

EldarCorsair · 2日前

Reddit is done. /u/spez is doing mental gymnastics to justify an arbitrary, biased banning based purely on removing the free exchange of speech and ideas for ad money, especially considering what he said here, just two weeks ago.

/r/coontown will be reclassified. The content there is offensive to many, but does not violate our current rules for banning.

The admins are liars and sellouts. Time to abandon ship.

Lumpyguy · 2日前

Ban SRS already.

Why haven't you banned SRS yet? They are the WORST offenders of breaking the rules you have set up, but you refuse to ban that subreddit.

Why? Why do you continue to let SRS harrass people? Why do you continue to let SRS doxx people? Why do you continue to let SRS vote brigade? What makes SRS any different from Coontown? Or fatpeoplehate? Or Watchniggersdie?

Is it a racial thing? Are you only banning racists? Do you not give a shit about anything else? What is going on?

You keep on talking about being open with what you're doing, but you don't tell us anything about what we want to know.

What is even the point? Why are you even talking right now? Just letting us simmer in the absent silence is basically the same as what you're having us do right now.

"I believe this policies strike the right balance." Also, some people are exempt from them. Apparently.

drebin8 · 2日前

Can you add a permanent opt-in? I'm not really offended by anything, so it seems silly to warn me about things that other people may find offensive. Just add a setting or something to ignore the quarantine...

Mindless_Consumer · 2日前

Opting into 'offensive' subs. Do we opt into each 'offensive' sub? Or is there a "opt into offensive subs" button? Like a NSFW filter, only for 'offensive' material.

discardoursouls · 1日前

You're so full of shit /u/spez. Just be honest that you want to turn Reddit into some shitty, politically correct corporate advertising board. If you actually gave a fuck about what "annoys" us as redditors, you would ban the people who ACTUALLY brigade and doxx us (/r/shitredditsays, /r/subredditdrama, /r/cringe). Sure, /r/coontown was a vile subreddit, but they followed the rules. They never left their sub to harass others. By banning their sub you aren't kicking them out, you're letting them in. They're going to spread their filth all over the rest of reddit now because their containment zone has been destroyed. Great fucking job genius.

dblagbro · 2日前

How do we "opt in" for EVERYTHING? Not that I agree with everything but I come to reddit to get an uncensored exposure to all the web has to offer - I really would like to keep it that way. How do it prevent you from "babysitting" me if I know I'm a grown adult and accept all that comes with it?

tl;dr - how do I set my account to "offend me please"?

Opechan · 1日前

Wingapo. Mod of /r/IndianCountry here.

[Brief Context: 800 users, /r/IndianCountry is the second-largest general Native American subreddit. We also scored some positive diversity publicity for Reddit in an Indian Country Today Media Network story this March. (ICTMN is basically the New York Times equivalent for Indian Country / Native Americans.)]

. .

Simple Question: Is this policy update going to affect the non-ban, non-Quarantine status of /r/Redskins given the team's name controversy and court determinations that it's a racial slur?

Thanks for your dedication to quality, respect, and civility.

metalmartyr · 1日前

Hm... /u/yishan was right. You and Alexis really are worse than Pao could ever have been.

jpatton89 · 2日前

"Prohibited behavior: Asking for votes or engaging in vote manipulation"

Phew! Since we all know vote bridgading is a form of "manipulation", SRS and Bestof are going to get banned if they continue to brigade (or in other words, exist)...you know, now that this new content policy update clearly mentions no vote manipulation. Glad we got this cleared up!

"Our most important policy over the last ten years has been to allow just about anything so long as it does not prevent others from enjoying Reddit for what it is" I think it's pretty clear that SRS is a cancer on the community and needs to go. It ABSOLUTELY prevents many people from being able to enjoy Reddit. The brigade of downvotes they bring makes people afraid to say what they want. Every day you allow that sub to exist, you're showing how hypocritical you are. That you are making arbitrary decisions on what subs get banned based on nothing more than your personal preference.

thelastjuju · 1日前

Irony here is that NOTHING has annoyed redditers as a whole more than the unprecedented level of censorship from the top imposed over the last few months.

We're not just talking fatpeoplehate either. Who remembers the pro-choice thread a month ago where they ordered every pro-life comment to be deleted? Disgusting how far you dun fell, reddit. We can't even have the most sophomoric of political discussions here, yet spez claims reddit is "the best place online to have truly authentic conversations."

Saint_Judas · 2日前

I don't mind censorship on Reddit (after all it is your platform) but it is the hypocrisy that bugs me. Banning ideas, while saying you only ban actions, while certain subreddits actively engage in the actions you say you are preventing but are given free reign. I would be so much happier with these decisions if you just straight up told us that you are banning things the board members don't like.

ibnwarraq · 2日前

Ok. WTF.

So atheists living in Muslim countries write in /r/atheism and /r/exmuslim/ about being beaten, punished, persecuted because of their views. The subs are their source of support, help against the harassment they recieve.

On the other hand, I've seen Muslims actually cry tears (for them its beyond hate, harassment, triggering, etc) when their God or Prophet is criticized, on /r/atheism.

WHY ARE YOU ALLOWING HARASSMENT ON YOUR SITE? Which of these subs are you going to ban? /r/atheism or /r/islam?

Do you not see the problem? Do you not see the case for free speech? Free Speech RESTS on the understanding that some opinions (Left/Right, Feminist/Antifeminist whatever) WILL hurt someone, somewhere.

You CANNOT decide what is hate or harassment - that is the point of free speech.

[deleted] · 1日前

The only thing worse than the awful censorship policy being enacted here is how obviously dishonest /u/spez is being about it. I would even put up with some bullshit like this if you guys just came out and said "CT and FPH and Loli are content we don't like and don't want to see on the site, so we banned it." Reddit is a private outfit and doesn't have to guarantee first amendment rights to anyone.

But to fuckin' parade around here saying "these communities make reddit worse for everyone and make it hard for us to improve the site and exist just to torture others" and then full blown ignore all the thousands of questions about Kiketown and Sexwithdogs and SRS; it's offensive on the face of it and an insult to our intelligence as a community as a whole.

Just say what you fuckin' mean. You are censoring content you find objectionable. Stop being so political about it. ALMOST EVERYONE sees it for exactly what it is and still you spin your nonsense and hock your bullshit like anyone is buying it.

Enough. I held on for long enough. But to both censor content and lie about why you're censoring content, is spineless on top of being disrespectful and useless. I held on for as long as I could and I am really, really, going to miss /r/mistyfront. But I can't support this nonsense with my pageviews and clicks anymore.

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WHY DOES SRS GET A FREE PASS???