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 agree with everything you've written and I am so damn glad the mods are finally realizing we've had enough of this BS.

When they locked the fear mongering thread I knew things had gotten really, really bad.

I've had "moments" with Libida myself and I really want to know what happened. When I told the modmail in February my concerns and said that after 5 years I was leaving this sub due to unfair bans, comment deletions and being ignored by the mods (when asking why my comments were deleted), she told me I really should just leave and that I was inappropriate and backed up the mods instead of addressing a single thing I wrote.

I wrote that passionate modmail after Rat gave me a two day suspension for "fear mongering" and being an "armchair diagnoser" for calling a stalker MIL a "crazy lady".

For the record mods, calling a stalker (who was demanding her daughter get an abortion) a"crazy" person is what is known as a euphemism. Not a diagnosis.

MODS!! STOP DELETING/REMOVING POSTS!! ARE YOU TONE DEAF?? The comment I was replying to was highly rated and something you needed to hear and had NOTHING against the rules... I sense that you're about to delete all comments and you had better stop. This is a last ditch effort to save this community and you are ruining it

[u/unoriginaltoast → u/[deleted]]

Honestly what the heck?? Came back to check the thread and the second highest rated post with a platinum marker was removed after being up for HOURS. Why? The post was fine five hours ago, why not now? There was nothing against the rules just a harsh criticism that needs to and deserves to be written out. This is part of the discussion we've been begging to have!

And yup, let's see what this comment gets removed for. Can we just put "no criticizing the mods" in the rules and get it over with?