So, apparently, we need to address some issues that have been brought up recently. We’re not buying into the drama that certain people are trying to start, but we felt we need to address a few topics.

First, we love your content! We love the videos that many youtubers (and other media producers) spend a lot of effort and time on. We want to see it all, I want to see it all. I gobble up anything Squad related because I love the content and I love the game. I’m subscribed to everyone on Youtube. Having said that, reddit is not like many other platforms. We have certain rules to follow to prevent /r/JoinSquad from becoming a shitty place to be (as do all subreddits, lest they descend into madness, spam, and shitposts). We cannot tolerate spam or selfpromotion.

Why? Because,

“reddit is different from any other place on the web - first and foremost, it's about community, discussion, and sharing. Honor that and you'll love it here. Think of it like networking. It would be appropriate to give an elevator pitch and exchange business cards with others at a networking event. There are some subreddits that are like that (/r/startups, /r/entrepreneur). But for the most part, subreddits are like your next door neighbor's kid's birthday party that you've been invited to. The reason you're all there is to celebrate a birthday and have cake. It would be completely inappropriate to give your elevator pitch and business card to everyone there - your host would likely ask you to leave or not invite you back again. Meet people, participate in discussion about the reason you're there, and make some new friends instead of trying to promote yourself and you'll have a much better time.”

Now this presents a rather large grey area for us. Sure we want to see your content, but not to the extent of you posting two, three, four videos a day on our sub. At that point it’s just spam. It doesn’t matter how you try to reason it, at the end of the day, you benefit directly from linking your videos onto our subreddit.

So, as a mod team, we all agreed that 1 video per day would be acceptable for us from a moderation standpoint as well as a content standpoint for /r/JoinSquad. Most YouTubers have been able to follow that rule with no complaints. They may disagree with our perception of selfpromotion or spam, but they have been largely professional about our rules and have stuck with them. There was one incident with a particular user who violated the 1 video per day rule (a day=24 hours, not any less than 24 hours) and was unwilling to follow the rules. He was banned as a result. This user asked us to talk to the devs about him violating the rules, implying that the devs had sanctioned it (which we are not saying they did, it was just implied by this user). This brings us to our second topic.

The devs do not run this subreddit. This is the case with a vast majority of subreddits dedicated to various games, as it should be. /r/JoinSquad is a community run by members of the community and that’s the way we intend to keep it. We absolutely love the devs participating as much as they do on /r/JoinSquad and reddit in general, but we are not Offworld Industries’ marketing department and /r/JoinSquad does not exist just to promote Squad. That’s not our job. We exist as a place where people who are passionate about the game can come together, share content, discuss bugs/strategy/content, ask questions, and suggest ideas. It’s rare that we can actually interact directly with the devs so frequently! It’s fantastic! But if you have trouble understanding this point, refer back to selfpromotion.

Our third topic is also related to selfpromotion, as it falls under the same guidelines: clans and communities. Now, again, we love to see the community as a whole grow and evolve over time, but one thing we cannot allow is aggressive and scummy recruiting tactics. We are not implying that any one community or clan is doing this, but it is a valid concern we have as the Squad community grows. It is simply impossible for us to moderate a flood of recruitment posts in a reasonable manner if we do allow these sort of posts (which will happen, if not now, then soon). It has happened before in the past with other games and subreddits, we will not let it happen here. As a result, we have to be strict about what we allow. Specific events held by clans or communities are great, but in the end, they directly benefit the community or clan that sponsors it because it draws new users to your server. There’s no way around that. These posts fall under selfpromotion (I’m hoping you’re seeing a pattern here).

In order for there to be someplace that communities and clans can go to, we have /r/SquadUp. Go here if you’re looking for buddies to play with or a clan to coordinate with. There are all types out there, from milsim types to casual fun dudes who all just wanna have a good time. We would love it if the clans and communities out there we’re able to make /r/SquadUp more active if possible; post your events there or let people know you’re recruiting. Before you say that this is hypocritical, we get your concerns, we want there to be a place where clans and communities can be active, but we do not want /r/JoinSquad to be that place.

As moderators, we’re not villains, evil-doers who hate you all and want to make your lives miserable (well maybe I am, but the rest are good guys!). We’re simply doing the best we can to make /r/JoinSquad a great place for everyone to be a part of. Thanks for taking the time to read this and we’ll see you on the battlefield.

Cheers!