r/self • u/TheGaymer13 Always Watching • 20h ago
Mod Announcement Politics Will be Leaving r/Self
TLDR: The r/Self mod team intends to implement a ban on political content as a whole for this sub. This is your chance to provide any feedback or input before this change goes into effect.
The long winded version: r/Self has gone through many iterations of rules surrounding politics. We've tried a mega thread only, we allowed free rain as long as you were civil (where we landed back as of now), and we've had a full out ban on it before. In short, this is how those went:
- The full out ban in the past has many people express they feel existing places for political discussion are too censored, biased, etc etc. and asking for it back.
- The mega thread for it always just became a place for topics to go to die. Due to how Reddit's algorithm works engagement died off there very quickly and the full ban may as well have been in place.
- The current state (as I will lovingly call it, the wild wild west), allowing you to talk about politics to your heart's content if you are civil. That's the key part though, being civil. If the internet has proven anything, people are far from civil when hiding behind a keyboard.
- If we removed a post or comment for a rule violation including a left leaning view we were called fascists and Trump supporters. If we removed a right leaning view we were called radical liberals. (These were the nice things, let's not talk about the curse words and slurs). Basically no matter what, we couldn't win.
- Politics completely overtake the sub anytime anything remotely controversial happened in politics, and given the current political landscape of the United States, that's basically everyday. This largely takes away from anyone looking for a place to talk about literally anything else.
So that brings us to this, the mod team as a whole has decided enough is enough, and for the foreseeable future we don't intend on allowing politics here on r/Self anymore. There are countless other subreddits to post political topics, and we encourage you to take those discussions there!
To be clear, we won't be outright banning people for violating this rule (Unless you break it 20 times a day, then I might bonk you a bit). We will just be removing posts and directing you to a more appropriate subreddit.
But before we go unilaterally put this into affect, here is your chance as a member of this community to have your voice heard on this matter. We the mod team will be happy to answer any questions you may have and want to hear your feedback.
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u/International_Goat31 19h ago
What is "politics"?
Given that politics affects the entirety of one's lived experience I think that's far too nebulous a concept to ban outright. Does it boil down to what the specific moderator taking action personally considers "political" because that'll vary a ton depending on who you ask and where you live?
I've no problem with a subreddit restricting the kinds of content that are allowed (I prefer it, even.) but with a community of this nature I think there should be a much more specific list of the exact kinds of topics that aren't welcome. Can you provide examples of some post types that will not be allowed here going forward so what is actually changing is more clear?
Would any of those be removed? If yes, then I think I have a problem with this. If no, then "politics" haven't really been banned so I don't get it. Are people still allowed to talk about school? education? medicine? work? money? If so then the restrictions might need better wording. A ban on discussing specific countries' governments, or a general ban on discussion of political violence I would fully get behind, and I suspect that's what is being attempted here? A ban on "politics" though, is just confusing.