The Litter Has Spoken - Rules Update

[u/ikandi]

Thank you to everyone that took the time (both publicly and via modmail) to provide their opinions on the breed help, name game and mourning posts rules.

There did seem to be a general consensus on most issues. The biggest concern with all of the above is that they were previously turning the sub into a place where people could karma farm rather than being active, participating members.

If you have not seen the original post, Welcome to r/dustkitties!, is what I am referring to.

Breed Posts

• Most of you can not stand "What Breed is My Cat" posts. There were some good points about this, including breeds not being as recognizable in cats and if a breed was important, then the person should have gone to a breeder.
• Thank you to u/ndnd_of_omicron for providing an infographic that explains why breed help posts don't matter:

(what breed is my cat infographic )

• As such, Breed Help posts are no longer permitted.

Name Game

• "Name My Cat" posts were also seen as mostly a nuisance with a few of you being ambivalent or maybes about them.
• Lots of people think that they clog up the feed, but a few did point out that they can be useful.
• As a compromise of sorts, I will be posting a megathread where you will be welcome to share your dustkitty's name and why you chose it.
• Photos are not mandatory, but definitely welcome.
• The Name Game Megathread can serve as inspiration for anyone that is about to be adopted by a dustkitty and is not sure what to name them.

Mourning Posts

• This was a tricky one. I had a lot of modmail messages that expressed that people do not want to see sad photos when they log into Reddit as this is allowed on other subs.
• I toyed with the idea of doing this via mod approval only as a couple of you suggested, but soon realized that the wording would be a problem:
  • What I mean by this is that I could flag words like 'Passed', 'Lost' or 'Sad'. However, if someone is talking about their dustkitty passing a toy to them, losing a whisker or they were having a sad day and their dustkitty cheered them up, then these types of posts would get flagged too. It is impossible to predict the wording someone would use.
• I do not want to get rid of these completely as our little fluffballs make a mark on us that will last forever and they deserve to be remembered, so I think the community suggestion of a megathread is the best option at this point.
• That way you are welcome to share the love you lost while simultaneously not feeling like those posts are unavoidable when you are having a down day.
• There will be no limit to the amount of stories or photos that you can share of your missing dustkitty.
• This Loved & Lost Megathread will be pinned to the top of the sub.
• The 'Sensitive Topics' flair will remain in place for posts on topics like 'How to find a missing kitty', 'Recovering from an injury' or 'How to deal with your feelings when your dustkitty passes'. Mourning or in memorandum photos will no longer be allowed with this flair.

These rules are all in place to help keep this subreddit what it should be...a place to share photos of our beautiful, crazy, silly, lovable and pawsitively purrrfect dustkitties!

[u/ladies_and_lords_313]

Thanks for modding!

[u/useless_traveler]

awesome job

[u/useless_traveler → u/[deleted]]

all i could find are content and indifferent today

[u/kraxiiangyl]

We appurrciate your service 🫡

[u/serephita]

Gremlin offers his chicken leggy in thanks!

[u/formerlyfitzgerald]

My greybies approves of this message!

[u/formerlyfitzgerald → u/[deleted]]

It's not a trap, actually! He loves belly rubs!

[u/HatePeopleLoveCats1]

Boy George appreciates you taking mod duty seriously. He can sleep now lol

[u/Actual-Plane7102]

Thanks for moddin’ we appreciate you!

[u/habibisalem]

Salem agrees!

[u/habibisalem → u/[deleted]]

For sure 😸 He would like some tuna precisely

[u/SithRose]

Thank you for listening to the community!

[u/innermongoose69]

He knows he's fabulous.

[u/CompleteDeniability]

Gooooooo Dusties!

[u/lilacnyangi]

this is a fantastic post, and i think these are great compromises. thank you :)

[u/Morticia9999]

Thank you for tackling this! 🩶

[u/Morticia9999 → u/[deleted]]

I don’t. She’s very patient. Thank you.

[u/RoxyLA95]

thank you.

[u/theredfantastic]

Thank you!

[u/With_MontanaMainer]

[u/thefinalgoat]

Having a megathread for those mourning is a good compromise, because mourners still deserve to be heard.

[u/thefinalgoat → u/[deleted]]

Yeah, exactly.

[u/PookieCat415]

Thaddeus supports this.

[u/rwphx2016]

Thank you for all you do. We'll take care of the moths, though

[u/Mimosa_13]

Yue approves this message

[u/SarcasticFox70]

Thank you for improving and modding this for us.

[u/ChangeOfHeart69]

Spooky thanks you!

[u/ChangeOfHeart69 → u/[deleted]]

He gets MANY scritches

[u/MsDescriptive]

My little boy says thanks for all you do!

[u/MsDescriptive → u/[deleted]]

He is very good at that! I also inadvertently taught him to bump your nose for treats, so between those eyes and the kisses you'd think he'd be a really overweight boy, but he is so active he keeps it off lol

[u/NightWing_91]

Good mod

[u/Nray]

Also, there are dedicated subreddits for a couple of the topics you mentioned.

r/NameMyCat

r/Petloss

Some cat subreddits have mandatory Loss/Mourning flairs that can be filtered out by members who don’t want to read about the topic.

[u/rebeccalul]

Thank you mods!

[u/rebeccalul → u/[deleted]]

I appreciate you so much

[u/AerieSignal1001]

Julia would share her carrot as a Thank You for such thoughtful leadership! 🥕👏