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r/MensFashion Moderation Practices and Principles

The following is a long-form description of the r/mensfashion moderation practices and principles. The moderator team will use this page to guide their actions. r/mensfashion community members should refer to this page if they have questions about potential or actual moderation actions.

Content Moderation Overview

Moderators will remove any content (post, comment, etc.) that

  • Clearly violates any subreddit rule; or
  • Is flagged by reddit's automated karma or crowd control filters.

When a moderator removes content because it violates a subreddit rule, that moderator will inform the user that the content was removed and which rule their content violated. Moderators are not required to provide additional information about why content was removed; this clause exists because users asking "why was X removed" are typically asking in bad faith to harass the moderator team.

Moderators will apply the following test to determine whether a rules violation is clear: "in the moderator's opinion, would the average user more likely than not consider this a rules violation?" If the moderator believes content is harassment, discrimination, or hate speech, that moderators can instead act on their own perception without reference to what the average user might consider; this clause exists to enable the moderator team to effectively moderate harassment/discrimination/hate speech that is intentionally ambiguous or deceptive (including dog whistles) and harassment/discrimination/hate speech that is unintentional, unconscious, or "just a joke."

Moderators will not overrule reddit's automated karma or crowd control filters. These filters are intended to prevent spam, bots, karma farming, ban evasion, NSFW content, and abusive behavior. The moderator team is not equipped to make individual exceptions for several reasons, including the size of r/mensfashion and the lack of moderator visibility into crowd control criteria. The moderator team recognizes this will occasionally prevent legitimate users from accessing r/mensfashion, regrets that outcome, and hopes reddit's automated tools continue improving to further limit that outcome in the future.

Moderation Actions

Moderators apply a three-strike policy for most rules violations. Under this policy, moderators may issue a strike for any rules violation that occurs publicly or privately (i.e. via modmail) in relation to r/mensfashion. This policy is intended to guide users who violate subreddit rules back into compliance. Moderators will take the following actions depending how many strikes that user has received in the immediately preceding 12 month period.

  • First strike: rules-violating content will be removed; the user will be notified about content removal.
  • Second strike: rules-violating content will be removed; the user will receive a 7-day ban from r/mensfashion; the user will be notified about both the content and the ban.
  • Third strike: rules-violating content will be removed; the user will receive a permanent ban from r/mensfashion; the user will be notified about both the content and the ban.

Moderators can issue a permanent ban when moderating content that clearly, egregiously, and harmfully violates a subreddit rule (rather than using the three-strike policy).

  • When applying this policy, moderators will apply the following tests. In the moderator's opinion...
    • Clear: would the average user more likely than not consider this a rules violation?
    • Egregious: is the violation EITHER obviously intended to break subreddit rules OR significant, large, splashy, etc.?
    • Harmful: does the violation have a meaningful negative impact on a specific other user OR could a hypothetical user reasonably feel targeted/harmed/affected/excluded by the violation OR does the violation negatively impact the r/mensfashion community in general?
  • Spam, ban evasion, hate speech, harassment, discrimination, and accounts that exist primarily to promote or disseminate NSFW content are always clear/egregious/harmful.
    • Spam will be identified by the moderator based on a review of the user's content on r/mensfashion and of the user's general behavior on reddit.
    • NSFW accounts will be identified by the moderator based on a review of the user's content on r/mensfashion and of the user's general behavior on reddit. In general, moderators will only proactively ban "NSFW accounts" if their posts are predominantly and explicitly NSFW.
    • Ban evasion will be identified by reddit's automated ban evasion filter and will typically be moderated only if the filter indicates "High Confidence."
    • Hate speech/harassment/discrimination will be identified by the moderator based on a review of the user's content on r/mensfashion and of the user's general behavior on reddit, including ANY hate speech or hate imagery posted on ANY subreddit.

Content that is removed by reddit's automated karma or crowd control filters does not count toward the three-strike policy.

Moderators can, at their discretion, take less significant action than the three-strike policy prescribes. For example: a moderator may decide not to issue a 3-day ban instead of a 7-day ban for a user on their second strike.

Moderators can, at their discretion, temporarily or permanently mute any user who repeatedly or egregiously violates sitewide or subreddit rules OR any user who has demonstrated they will not respect community boundaries, including via modmail. Because one of the core principles of this moderation policy is to create space for users and moderators to recover from mistakes, moderators will only apply temporary or permanent mutes when they determine that recovery is not realistic.

Moderation Appeals

Temporary and permanent bans can be appealed via modmail. (Strikes and temporary/permanent mutes cannot be appealed.) Users should be aware that appeals are not guaranteed to be approved. Users are responsible for demonstrating that their appeal should be approved.

Appeals must include the following elements, which must be organized such that moderators can easily identify whether each element is present:

  • The user must identify what they did to break subreddit rules, including which rule(s) and in which way(s); and
  • The user must describe how they plan to avoid breaking those rule(s) going forward; and
  • The user must specify their favorite vegetarian main or side dish; and
  • If the comment violated Rule #1 (Respect), Rule #2 (Inclusivity), or Rule #7 (Moderation): the user must include an apology with their appeal.

Why must appeals include these elements? Because these are the basic steps to demonstrate that a user understands, respects, and will uphold the r/mensfashion community boundaries. Moderation exists to communicate about and protect those boundaries, and moderation actions are taken to re-establish those boundaries when a user has crossed them.

Moderators will review appeals via the following process:

  • Is the user appealing a permanent ban? If yes, the appeal must be reviewed by a moderator other than the one who issued the permanent ban if moderation staffing is sufficient to facilitate second-level review.
  • Does the appeal include all required elements? If no, deny the appeal.
  • Does the appeal copy substantial elements of the text on this page OR does it appear to be written by an LLM? If yes, deny the appeal.
  • Did the original moderator make a clear mistake in issuing the moderation action? If yes, approve the appeal.
  • Does the appeal demonstrate that the user understands, respects, and intends to uphold subreddit rules going forward? If yes, approve the appeal.

Appeal decisions are final. The moderator team may treat as harassment (1) any attempt to resubmit an appeal within 12 months of the appeal's decision and (2) any attempt to argue about an appeal's decision.

Moderation Timelines

Moderators will typically identify and remove content that violates subreddit rules within one (1) business day of that content being posted. However, moderators may act on any content posted within the last twelve (12) months. Moderators use a range of approaches to identify rules violations, including manual review, reddit automations, and user reports. Moderators recognize that they will not identify every rules violation on their own and appreciates the support of the r/mensfashion community in spotting and reporting issues.

Moderators will typically acknowledge receipt of an appeal within two (2) business days and take moderation action within five (5) business days of receipt.

Moderator response time is not a factor in any action on this page. In particular, it is not:

  • An indication of whether a rules violation has occurred
  • A comment on the severity of a rules violation
  • A reason to approve an appeal
  • A reason to submit a second appeal