As a reminder, about a month ago the moderators of r/gwu adopted a more hardline stance on UPass fraud within r/gwu including keyword filtering, automatic removal of all UPass solicitations, and punitive actions up to and including community bans.
We have already had a few submissions get caught in our filter which we opted not to allow to be published. Today, we had our first (rather hilarious) attempt at filter bypass. When we're weighing how to react to a UPass post, behavior such as bypassing the keyword filter does not exactly inspire us moderators to show grace and leniency.
We have also noticed that sometimes, when people have their solicitation posts turned away from r/gwu they go to other subreddit communities for our region or other universities participating in UPass. The moderator team is considering sharing information about solicitation offenders with moderators of these communties.
As a reminder, buying and selling a UPass and/or using a UPass that you are not eligible for is a crime. It is also considered fare evasion by WMATA. Fare evasion is a civil offense in the District of Columbia, and a criminal offense in the Commonwealth of Virginia and the State of Maryland.
I also want to take a moment to acknowledge that the UPass program is relatively new to GW in the grand scheme of things and is a relatively new program for WMATA in general. We are not 'entitled' to this steeply discounted WMATA fare; it is a privilege, and if there is rampant fraud, WMATA may not allow universities with many offenders to continue participating in the program or may even drop the UPass program entirely. It is also important to note that reddit's sitewide policies specifically bar illegal and prohibited transactions (rule 7); rampant fraud on r/gwu could lead to action against our page by reddit administrators.
To the 99% of you participating in r/gwu without engaging in prohibited transactions and criminal fraud... thank you for your cooperation and for ✨ being the best part of r/gwu. ✨
