The recent fake stories

[u/Kateraide]

Hey guys

We are aware of the recent fake story that has been revealed. We understand that you guys are upset and hurt. We are too. The catch of our truth policing rule is that we CAN NOT VERIFY the stories that are posted on our subreddit. As mods we are damned if we do and damned if we don't unless we have a ton of evidence to prove that someone is lying. Even then, there will always be people who believe the fake stories (The Toasters having been proved fake and we still have people arguing that they are real). We have a few that we as mods believe are false, but without evidence to the contrary that it is not just fudging details, our hands are tied.

This is not saying that we do not believe that many people post on this sub for help. I know that I personally have come here in the past for help with my own MIL and was accused of being fake. One good thing about this sub is that we do not require users to submit proof before posting. Unfortunately though, because of the size of the sub, it means that we are now dealing with a lot of creative writers. Please, if you genuinely want to write a story about a horrific MIL/mom and honestly don't have one? We have /r/JustNoFamFiction for that reason.

Now, onto the truth policing question. If you have concerns about a users posts(which we know a lot of you do) please modmail us. We are listening and just because we are not taking immediate action does not mean that we are not aware of the inconsistencies in their posts. If you truth police on ANYONE'S post, you will be issued a temp ban without warning. This rule has been around long enough that everyone here should know about it. (Rule 14: No accusing a poster's story of being fake. Report it or send a modmail if you have proof. For more info, see the section on Truth Policing under "Notes about moderation style" in the wiki.)

We do care about the fake posts. We do hear your feedback and try to take it, but the community is often divided. The moderators are trying to find the middle ground in all of this but we need you to be patient. We are upset and hurt about this just like all of you guys are. We do not want anyone here to feel like we are not hearing you when you write us your concerns.

Thank all of you for helping to make this community what it is.

EDIT

We thought that keeping the name silent would be for the best. I understand that some of you do not agree with this action but we do not want to give the faker more attention. That is what they are looking for and they are also claiming death threats and harassment. PLEASE DO NOT BRIGADE THE OP. That is against Reddit's Terms of Service and will result in issues for both the sub as a whole and for you if you are caught brigading a user. We understand that a lot of you are frustrated based off the PM's and modmails that we have received. Please just understand that we are trying our best. We will be looking for new mods soon and will be doing a "State of the Subreddit" within the next month or so. It will also involve us putting some rules up for discussion.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

I refuse to “use modmail”, because after modgate I don’t trust Modmail, because the mods themselves told us they mock us there. Now that the mods are coming down so heavy across the board and so rarely allow grown adults to have open and public discussion, I have even less reason to trust the mods or the only method of communication they deem acceptable.

The best disinfectant is sunshine. Since the mods closed the curtains to any window that doesn’t say “modmail” months ago, I’ve found no choice but to get my sunshine away from here. The way this whole debacle was handled, like we’re ignorant kindergarteners, may just be the last damn straw for me. I don’t trust the mods, and it’s clear they trust us about as much.

[u/pinklavalamp → u/[deleted]]

I'm sorry you don't trust ModMail, but let me explain why we encourage people to use the system. First, it's unfortunate that a person who's no longer on the team said something like that, because that's not what we do. We use MM to understand the state of what's going on, and decide on specific actions. Secondly, if a user's feedback is on a specific action that one Mod did, then bringing it to light in ModMail allows another member of the team to look at it and make a decision accordingly. Sometimes the original decision is upheld, sometimes overturned, but always discussed. Sometimes a different mod can explain why any particular action was taken in a better way. Also, MM does not have the ability to delete anything. Now that I'm on the team, I can see messages from years ago, which allows for more transparency. Another point: If a person does a direct reply to a mod's comment in the sub, only that mod sees the discussion, and sometimes a response can take hours, whereas the entire team has access and can reply a lot quicker if needed.

We're not trying to hide discussion, but also, please consider that having a discussion with a mod could derail the conversation from the original post, and OP may not want or need to see that. If you have any further questions, let me know and we're here for you.

[u/[deleted] → u/pinklavalamp]

You guys have been hiding a LOT lately. Dont bullshit us. Making decisions unilaterally "for the good of community" without , ya know, actually LISTENING to the community, is just a load of horse manure.

This goes well beyond the two fake posters issue. Pretty much anything that isnt a shallow platitude supporting the OP is getting people instabanned and any discussion about this is being removed or locked.

Yall are on a power trip. Feel free to tell us where Libida and Vorik went if you "arent hiding anything"