Skip Navigation

Who moderates the mods on Reddit?

I recently posted the following item on this website un der Xiaomi: https://lemdro.id/post/lemdro.id/12693729

Prior to posting here, I had tried to post the same item in the Xiaomi subreddit on Reddit.

My posting was removed instantaneously. I mean so fast that it could not have been done by a human.

I was presented with the follwing message:

*Sorry u/dromani, your post has been automatically removed.

Your account is brand new or has low karma, and our subreddit experiences a lot of spam from new accounts or help vampires which think we're an Official support outlet for Xiaomi (which we're not). As such, we remove submissions from these accounts to prevent it.

IF YOU STILL HAVEN'T READ THE ABOVE LINK ABOUT BEING A HELP VAMPIRE*

https://slash7.com/2006/12/22/vampires

IGNORE THE MESSAGE BELOW TO MODMAIL US, AS THEY GET IGNORED.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.*

I invite readers to read my post and explain to me how it could possibly be construed as me being a "help vampire", to use the term presumable coined by the mods?

And regarding the last two sentences of the rejection message:

"IGNORE THE MESSAGE BELOW TO MODMAIL US, AS THEY GET IGNORED.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.*

The second sentnece presumably comes from Reddit as a way to provide a path to appeal a mod decision. But the mod, in all caps, essentially tells me "don't bother contacting me, as I will ignore you anyways". This seems to me contrary to what Reddit policy intended with their statement about cpntacting mods if I have questions or concerns.

This all smaks to me as abuse of authority by a petty dicator mod making rules that are in violation of Reddit intended policy.

Hence my question - Who moderates the mods on reddit?

4

You're viewing a single thread.

4 comments
  • Well, I've noticed that the complaints about reddit removal tend to focus on two things. Either the mods are dictators, or there's too many bots.

    Having been a mod there, I can promise you that the single biggest thing to handle was new accounts that ignore the rules, usually by posting spam, off topic, or chronically reposted top ten posts. In other words, the vast majority of posts that needed removing were bots trying to advertise, or build enough karma via reposting so they could post spam ads.

    It sucks, but that's the way reddit set things up, so spam farms took advantage of it. The most reliable way to deal with the problem was to set up automod to just remove anything from accounts that were too new, or didn't have enough karma.

    That's what automod is, it uses a set of criteria to handle repetitive actions based on common events. It isn't a new thing, it isn't rare, and it's not actually a bad thing until there's so many bots that get posts removed and then spam modmail with copy/paste messages so that regular human users can't get through. Seriously, the bots were set up to automatically send a modmail on a post removal. Not all of them, but enough that you could go through a dozen modmail messages and 1 wouldn't be the same things repeated.

    Besides, new humans tend to also be idiots and not read a sub's rules, then whine when you remove their rule breaking post, so it isn't like the humans are better than the bots in that regard.

    Appeals aren't meant for users that don't meet an age/karma threshold. There's no interpretation of that, you either meet the requirements, or you don't. Nobody is special, nobody deserves an exception, that's just how reddit works, and has for years.

    The automated message sent to you clearly explains why it's automated, why they don't bother looking at complaints about it, and (being blunt), the fact that you aren't even aware automod exists kinda means you don't need to be posting there yet.

    The message you got is absolutely not in violation of reddit policy. To the contrary, it's one of the things reddit suggests as part of setting things up. Account age/karma filtering is a core component of the mod tools, and has been for at least the last decade or so (probably longer, but a decade means memory can't be fully trusted on something this minor).


    Now, there are reddit policies about what mods can and can't do. Reddit, however, enforces those at whim, and with unreliable outcomes when they decide a mod has done something wrong. There's employees of reddit that handle such things.

    Now, I haven't been back there since the final stages of the debacle last year. So they may have changed things a good bit. But, before the protests, they didn't care about mods enforcing sub rules at all. If it wasn't something major, and broke reddit policies, there was no such thing as an appeal to reddit because nothing would ever come of it. Even with reddit wide rules, if it wasn't a big enough stink to hit the news somewhere, they didn't do anything.

    In other words, up until last year, whoever was top mod effectively owned their sub as long as it wasn't attracting outside attention. You'd find niche cases where someone would end up as top mod via fuckery, and reddit would step in, but that was rare.

    Whatever opinion a user (or mod) might have of that policy is their right, but it ain't new, and it ain't surprising.

    Again, let me repeat, removing posts with automod based in account age is an ability provided by reddit, and has never been something they overturn, and any semi-populous sub that used account age filtering ignored modmail about it.

    If you want to waste your time, and that of reddit computers, there is a support page on reddit. You can try appealing that way, but you'll get a copy/paste response because admins don't waste their time with complaints about it either. Reddit uses automod to send automated responses to messages about age/karma filtering.

    • Thank you for the thorough explanation. A couple of points (and maybe I am still not understanding correctly?).

      I need karma to be able to post. I get karma by posting. Autobots prevent me from posting. Seems like a Catch-22 situation?

      I have been able to post successfully in other subreddits. Xiaomi is the one subreddit where my posts are always rejected. So different autobot rules for different subreddits?

      I am trying to be a positive contributor to the community, but reddit won't let me in!

      • It can be a difficult thing for an entirely new reddit user. But not every sub applies those restrictions. The key is to find them. With things the way they are now, it's impossible for me to say much about which ones because things changed so much. But there used to be "free karma" subs.

        And you'll usually be able to find meme subs that don't karma or age filter because they don't care about reposts or bots. But you can't spam posts, or you'll end up running into trouble with reddit itself sometimes, if you trip their metrics that are supposed to detect bots (which aren't clear as to the criteria).

        It is a pain in the ass lol.

        And yeah, it's different rules for different subs. And, since the automod is very customizable, but the skill with it varies, the end results can be weird.

        The account age limit is good though, and works in favor of new users because it gives them time to lurk and pick up the basics of what not to do, and get a feel for the culture of the sub and reddit in general, which (in theory) reduces the chances of getting banned for simple or stupid mistakes made from just jumping in blindly.

        The karma limit should do the same thing, but with the kind of subs that are there to build karma, it tends to end up with noobs not actually learning much.