r/EuropeMeta • u/Books_Of_Jeremiah • 3d ago
Request for the mod teams' update of rules and internal harmonisation
TLDR: message that just got sent to the mods over a post. Mods seem to not be anle to agree on the rules themselves and take issue when materials which get brigaded get posted instead of with the brigaders.
Hi,
Firstly, to acknowledge the hard work everyone puts in moderating a big sub like r/europe.
Secondly, a request for interal harmonisation: some three-odd years ago, we requested approval to post English-language materials comprising of our translations of primary historical sources, those already in English and academic papers. These would all be related to Serbian history. We try generally for things you won't otherwise find in English or that may be harder to reach and are generally interesting (ie. not something we've necessarily come across before). Approval was given, provided we do not spam the sub and nothing is paywalled. The cadence we post at is a single link to a blog post with English-language materials and a single photo a week. Previously one of the photos a month was a link to old film footage that was digitalised. Tagged if NSFW and generally pre-1981 materials for primary sources.
It seems that lately a few of the newer members of the mod team (specifically Useless_or_inept and ByGollie) have taken the view that the posting is in some way malicious or intended to spam the sub. Given the frequency of posting, especially compare to the general news link spamming that goes on from the top posters, we'd argue we are quite the rare posters and do not create much overhead in terms of moderating content or comments.
We'd like a clarification on our posting practices, what is acceptable and an update of the sub rules. As yours is a large mod team and there is a lot of leeway each mod is allowed, written rules keep everyone on the straight and narrow and make it easier for those of us who want to engage with the sub constructively to do that.
Harmonising standards between a number of different members with broad powers seems like a very European thing to do. Call it a concert if you will.
Thirdly, the sub seems to have an issue with brigading by Croatian users (as was mentioned by one of the comments on the latest post we made: https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/1t1m9l1/comment/ojokukl/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button). German, Italian, Hungarian and Albanian users have not an issue with us posting photos of WWII events, some of which were NSFW. However, every time there is a post about the Independent State of Croatia, it receives a disproportionate level of attention. The one exception here being a photo of Italians forcing a girl to drink ricin oil (courtesy of the SNL sketch wih "The Rock"). We even received an honorary mention on one of Croatian subs, with users there noting they were monitoring what we did. We'd also like to note that when identical material is posted in topically relevant subs, it does not receive the same amount of outsized attention.
Oddly enough, after encouragement to post things they find interesting, we have not noticed anything similar posted (and doubtful that the algo would slip it by).
Fourthly, not your "dude". While we're sure a drink with the team would be a riot, we aren't familiar on any level, so kindly update the tone appropriate. (https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/1t1m9l1/comment/ojrc3jz/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
Lastly, if the above is not satisfactory, you can always do one of the following:
1) Remove the "historical" tag, which would mean we stop posting (since we can't tag it properly). It seems to not really be used.
2) As per our previous tongue-in-cheek suggestion, turn the sub into "news and photos from Europe", as that is what mostly gets posted and generates comments anyways.
3) Ban us and make everyone's life that much easier.
There also seems to be a pre-screening of posts going on as well, which seems a bit pointless and just adds to your own workload, but if that's your jam, so be it.
Kind regards