The PPD mod team has discussed implementing various changes. But before we do so, I wanted to run them by the community to get thoughts, feedback etc. In the past, we have made changes without consulting users, and that was a mistake.

Here’s a rundown of what we’re planning to implement.

1. New Standards for Post Quality (not comment quality)

The way we approach moderation worked when the sub had 1500 subscribers. Back then, sometimes a day or 2 would go by with no one posting.

Now, we have a lot of low-effort posts. And that’s not what we want, and it doesn’t seem to be what the community wants either. We’re aware that people have rightly been wary of mod team removing posts based on some nebulous idea of quality. I think we’ve come up with 3 standards, however, that everyone can agree on. Let me know what you think.

  • No posts that contain links to articles, videos, podcasts, etc. without text sufficient to explain the material.
  • Long, terribly formatted rants/blocks of text with no spaces will also be removed. No one wants to struggle through these.
  • And finally, posts that address an issue that has been beaten to death here, and offer no new perspective, arguments, content, a connection to a current event, and so on will be removed.

2. Transparency with Regard to Bans and Temp-Bans

There’s 2 basic things motivating this change. One, people have asked for it. They don’t like the idea that we can ban whoever and no one really knows. And two, the mod team feels like we need it as protection. A lot of people we ban straight up lie about why they were banned, what their interactions with us were like, etc.

We’re not sure about the exact execution yet, but I would like for their to be a public record of everyone who has been banned and why. Possibly with screenshots of relevant modmail, problematic posts/comments, etc. included.

3. New Mods

Even though PPD is a small sub, there’s a lot of work. At the moment, we don’t have enough people to do it effectively.

Hopefully, with more mods, we will be able to do a better job explaining comment removals.

If you are interested in being a mod, or want to suggest someone, let us know in modmail or this thread.

4. Weekly “Discussion of the Week” Threads

This was a suggestion by /u/disposable_pants, and it’s a good idea. Every week, the mods will sticky a thread where people can vote on which post was the “Discussion of the Week." We may add a new flair class that only people who have posted/won a Discussion of the Week can use, or something else along those lines.

To avoid bias, we may need to alternate between red/blue discussions on a weekly basis.

Please weigh in on what we're proposing!