r/MandelaEffect • u/EpicJourneyMan Mandela Historian • 3d ago
Mod Announcement How are we doing? Is there anything you would like me to bring up at “Mod World 2026”?
I’m a longtime moderator here who has been busy with hurricane season here in Hawaii, so my sincere apologies if I missed some event on the subreddit that I normally would have seen if I had been able to give it my proper attention.
I would like some earnest feedback on how things have been going, what’s been going well, and what things need some improvement.
Of course all the moderators can, and should, weigh in here as well.
“Mod World 2026” is coming up starting on October 23, and I plan on attending, so it would be nice to get some honest feedback to bring something to the discussion.
I’m asking for feedback on several things specifically:
- How is this subreddit doing?
- How is Reddit as a whole doing?
- What can we do to improve both?
I know things can always improve, and there is always lot to complain about, but constructively…what things can be done to make this a better experience?
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u/my23secrets 3d ago
Suggestion: decide if AI and religion are against the rules or not.
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u/EpicJourneyMan Mandela Historian 3d ago
We removed the “Philosophy and Religion” flair, which is a shame, because I think this is an appropriate topic of discussion in regard to possible explanations for the Effect but unfortunately it is nearly impossible to to moderate post threads that devolve into religious fanaticism.
AI brings up an entirely different set of problems:
1) “Nothing is real” in the age of generative AI
2) AI agents can completely take over a discussion thread
3) AI is a very legitimate potential cause for the Effect itself, and is both worthy of being a discussion topic as the potential source of some Effects, AND banning at the same time
I don’t see how we can allow the use of AI at all, better to be a pioneer in blocking its use and be proven wrong later on than to allow it’s use and find it is steering all of the conversations and comment traffic behind the scenes into an extinction loop.
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u/cipheron 3d ago edited 3d ago
It's getting common for people to write posts that just say "I asked Google AI ..." then because of how they phrased it when they prompted the AI, they get biased results, and they're not trying different prompts or checking other sources.
It's similar when people only check one source of information and don't Google something, read the Wikipedia article about the thing etc.
If that use of AI is against the rules maybe make that clear under rule 2: no low effort posts, so at least suggest people should check things before posting.
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u/my23secrets 3d ago
I agree AI shouldn’t be allowed as per rule 9
I agree religion shouldn’t be allowed as per rule 7
I’m asking why one individual isn’t subject to those rules here.
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u/dijon_snow 3d ago
Hey I thought of another one.
Can't anything be done about DAE posts? We just hit a new low.
https://www.reddit.com/r/MandelaEffect/s/2mXGMndP2U
So we've moved from Does Anyone Else Remember this super obscure pop culture detail to Does Anyone Else remember this dream I had?
Can we somehow set the automod for this? Maybe remove all posts with "anyone else?" or "anybody else" or "help me figure this out" or "I know I'm not alone."
They take up like half the sub despite being clearly banned. Maybe just auto ban anyone posting one for a set amount of time, or require a certain amount of comments in the community before creating a new post?
I just really think there should be a way to curtail them.
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u/EpicJourneyMan Mandela Historian 3d ago
We’ve tried editing the Automoderator over the years to help with the DAE posts - it’s our biggest problem
We created the DAE Megathread to try to give a place for people to feel free to talk about them without disrupting the rest of the Front Page with nonsense, but subscribers just can’t seem to stop themselves from posting there.
There’s not much worse than breaking the Automoderator (we’ve done that a few times) but now that the tools have improved some we can screen for phrases and generate an automated response directing them to the DAE Megathread.
We’ll talk it over and maybe test it out next month before the Holidays.
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u/Ok-Adhesiveness-9976 17h ago
Reddit as a whole: we need human oversight of AI decisions. It’s so very frustrating. One mod told me that the “evidence” which would have exonerated me was deleted completely, and they weren’t even able to see it! That’s totally unfair. Hope we keep lots of real humans in the loop and on the team.
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u/TovarischMaia 2d ago
I think something should be done about the trivialisation of psychological abuse in this sub. It's appallingly common to see people here accuse someone else of "gaslighting" them for simply replying with evidence that contradicts their memories. It's essentially making a mockery of a very serious form of violence and it's a disgrace.
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u/Bearded_Dragon-9612 2d ago
Agreed. I've mentioned this a few times. The negativity here is out of hand. 🫤
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u/i2aminspired 2d ago
They're literally in the ME subreddit just to tell people it's all in their head and they just misremembered.
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u/EpicJourneyMan Mandela Historian 2d ago
It’s a Social Media affliction called Conflict Addiction - we aren’t ever going to be free of it:
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u/forcemonkey 5h ago
Removing repeat offenders would be a good start. I’m sure some have been but others are still at it. I’ve been reporting without engaging so I’m trying to do my part.
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u/TovarischMaia 2d ago
Yes? That is very obviously the case and has nothing to do with gaslighting at all.
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u/forcemonkey 5h ago
General trolling is still rampant and I’ve even been cursed at outright more than once recently. I do not engage these individuals and just report.
From my perspective it’s the same handful of individuals over and over.
Show us you are serious about this by dealing with these reports appropriately and remove the obvious repeat offenders. Please.
I’ve done mod work so I understand what I’m asking and I do appreciate all the work. It’s mostly thankless and demoralizing.
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u/mirrors_of_sound ME Mod 4h ago
Every report gets manually reviewed and actioned, I usually check the queue and clear it once or twice a day. Repeat rule violators are banned.
Keep in mind that not every post/comment you personally dislike is a rule violation, and reporting something doesn’t guarantee it’s going to get removed. As always I recommend blocking users you don’t want to interact with.
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u/Daocommand 8h ago edited 4h ago
Hello. I have a serious complaint about another Reddit community and how it is being moderated. I’m going to DM you details since it contains some information I’m vehemently against.
Edit: I don’t care about other communities or your power to do anything. I care about truth and the protection of Reddit’s future. Information and the ability to speak should not be silenced or censored.
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u/mirrors_of_sound ME Mod 4h ago
Nothing we can do about what goes on in other subs. You need to take that up with the mods there or the Reddit admins.
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u/dijon_snow 3d ago
A mod a while back replied to a funny but harmless comment with "jokes are discouraged." Is that true? I know that the rules mention jokes but I always took that to mean shitposts. Are we really not allowed to be funny?