Rule Enforcement Change - Top-level comments must answer the question

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskUK/comments/1i48qye/rule_enforcement_change_toplevel_comments_must/

created by Leonichol on 18/01/2025 at 14:32 UTC

73 upvotes, 19 top-level comments (showing 19)

Tl;dr Mod tears that they're 'jobs' are too hard.

Afternoon all.

Many moons ago (aka I cba to find the post), we updated our rules on response to user feedback. There was a feeling that there was too much 'trivial' responses to questions which in turn devalued the subreddit and made it less useful to use - a facebookification of the sub. This makes sense, a lot of users will take a Question to mean, well, not a question, but an opportunity to berate OP, moan about something tangentially related, or soapbox. In response to this, we implemented Rule 9 - top level comments (aka TLCs) **must** answer the question.

https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/41vmzx/whats_a_top_level_comment/

We have failed in our efforts to enforce this rule. It is simply, too difficult for us given the types of users that come across the sub. We are sorry. The majority of users of this subreddit *do not read rules*, nor given how the App is designed and the type of user it encourages, can it be reasonably expected for them to do so. This is especially the case for highly-upvoted questions. We believe in any submission with more than 50 TLCs, that 2/3rds violate the rule. As such, it requires an awful lot of efforts from us, and most people do not report for violations anyway, so most of the time we have to have come across such problems via casual browsing.

As a result, this rule is our most-violated. And users, when receiving their bans for it, act entirely confused. Many a time not understanding what a TLC even is. And expectedly cry foul, given they see similar behaviour *constantly*. And they're right. They do. It is quite difficult to communicate a rule is active when there is so much evidence it is not enforced. We believe we'd need a modteam 8x the size to give this rule a realistic chance of enforcement. Additionally, it causes a lot of modmail for us, where we have to explain to users the rule and what it means, over and over, and puts both users and mods in foul moods. Given AskUK modmail is traditionally there to resolve/fix question-posting problems, rather than for behavioural correction (like we stand a chance), this makes our modmail a place that is increasingly unfun - it might surprise some of you, but some mods take no joy in making bans and reacting to abuse.

Reluctantly, we have now updated the rules to better reflect our *capability* if not quite our desire, given the size of the problem.

Rule 9 is removed.

Rule 6 is edited from 'Put a bit of effort into your comments' to 'Comments replying to the question **should** attempt to answer the question'

And similarly, we will change how we interfere with submissions for rule 6 issues;

We may remove/nuke comment threads (a comment and its replies) if it doesn't answer the question, especially if it is highly upvoted.

We will not ban for it *unless* the 'SERIOUS' flair is applied on the submission.

We will investigate ways to allow OP via our bots, when the SERIOUS flair is applied, to also be able to remove/nuke comment chains that fail Rule 6.

We will encourage the use of the SERIOUS flair

We will edit the Comment Guidance system on the app to attempt to prompt users to answer the question rather than go off on one

I'll leave this open so you can bitch at us for a bit. But again, apologies. We do want to keep AskUK a positive, useful, subreddit for you all, but we're fighting the tide on this one.

Comments

Comment by mr-seamus at 18/01/2025 at 15:38 UTC*

110 upvotes, 3 direct replies

The best part of this sub is people taking the piss out of the more asinine questions.

Rule 6 is going to be unenforceable too, people always go off on a tangent. It's how we as humans communicate to each other and how conversation and discussion works.

Comment by P2P-BSH at 18/01/2025 at 15:03 UTC

106 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Please don't upvote this comment. I want to be able to say whatever I want

Comment by cgknight1 at 18/01/2025 at 15:07 UTC

26 upvotes, 1 direct replies

I wonder if a lot of those can be eliminated by more types of titles being banned because they tend to encourage that in people (me included).

To use a recent slightly changed example

"Am I the only one who doesn't like Silm Chicken?"

I am drawn to - "don't be fucking stupid, on an island of 70 million people, how can you be the only one?"

You can ban certain word combinations in titles right?

(Maybe this has tried)?

Comment by EvilTaffyapple at 18/01/2025 at 16:26 UTC

27 upvotes, 3 direct replies

I think you’re very optimistic about asking the most sarcastic nation on Earth to answer questions sincerely, and not with our infamous British flair.

Are any questions on here really important enough to warrant only serious answers? If they are that important I would have thought Google is better for an answer. I’m pretty sure most people posting a question on here expect a few non-serious answers.

Comment by techbear72 at 18/01/2025 at 15:12 UTC

31 upvotes, 0 direct replies

No beration from me. Can’t imagine the deluge crap you guys have to constantly deal with. It’s a balancing act though. You don’t want to be the Stasi, but if every question is seemingly only answered with sarcasm and hate, the sub will not be a fun place to be.

Comment by glasgowgeg at 18/01/2025 at 19:49 UTC

7 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Good, there are too many legitimate and interesting questions that just get incessently spammed with shite joke answers instead of anything remotely relevant or helpful.

Comment by ItsDominare at 18/01/2025 at 18:23 UTC

3 upvotes, 0 direct replies

In contrast to many other subs in which I've had the misfortune to have to interact with their mods, I've always found you guys to be fair and reasonable, and you seem to actually give a shit rather than "ur banned lol".

Therefore if you say this change is needed, fair enough.

Comment by knight-under-stars at 18/01/2025 at 18:31 UTC*

8 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Can we have a new rule 9 that effectively encapsulates "Stop bitching about fucking Americanisms"?

This is a sub with the stated intent of:

The #1 subreddit for Brits **and non-Brits** to ask questions about the United Kingdoms life and culture

And yet in every damn thread where someone dares to use an Americanism in their post you can guarantee that out of the woodwork comes people being needlessly rude either pretending they don't know what the word means or rudely (and completely needlessly) "correcting" the poster.

Now you may say that this is covered by the "don't be a dick" rule and perhaps you would be correct but there are three issues with that.

1. The "don't be a dick rule" is arbitrarily applied to such comments. I report every damn one of these I see and maybe 30% of them have action taken against them. And not only are they seldom dealt with but even when they are dealt with the same people are doing it over and over again.

2. It is clear that a large number of people in this community not only don't think such needlessly rude behaviour is being a dick but actively support and champion it so the number of reports for breaking rule one will be lower than with a specific rule.

3. Not only are the people doing this very much being dicks (violating rule 1) but they are not making any attempt at all to answer the posed question (previously rule 9, now rule 6). They are purely posting to be an unwelcoming dick.

Going back to the stated intent of the sub this behaviour is completely against that intent, it makes for an unwelcoming environment for those from America or indeed anyone using Americanisms or American spellings which is a big chunk of the world including many people in the UK.

Comment by MrNippyNippy at 18/01/2025 at 15:54 UTC

13 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Whether this is a valid comment or not but that popup for “rule6” is fucking infuriating on mobile.

It takes a fair chunk of screen space when you take into account the onscreen keyboard too. You just can’t see so much of the original post when you’re trying to answer specific points.

Comment by AddictedToRugs at 18/01/2025 at 16:46 UTC

6 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Some questions have one-word answers though. Brevity is a good thing. You need to get rid of that automod that thinks "Yes" isn't an answer and is a statement of agreement.

Also, I haven't used an "unkindness" in this comment, but the automod thinks I have.

Comment by PM-me-your-cuppa-tea at 18/01/2025 at 15:51 UTC

6 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Personally I like this rule change. I appreciate that it might be annoying to get stupid answers, but it is incredibly British

Does this coincide with a new feature you've added? Or am I behind the times as I use mobile Web?

Under my comment these popped up:

"Rule6. If this isn't a reply to another comment, please ensure you're answering OPs question and not making tangential points. Help us keep AskUK helpful!"

And

"You've used 'you' or an unkindness in your comment. Help keep AskUK friendly - please follow Rule 1 and don't insult, berate, or otherwise be anything other than pleasant to others"

Comment by huskydaisy at 18/01/2025 at 15:34 UTC

2 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Ah I did wonder why you guys were going so hard on that TV licence thread.

Comment by ambadawn at 19/01/2025 at 10:16 UTC

3 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Tl;dr Mod tears that they're 'jobs' are too hard.

Their

Comment by cougieuk at 18/01/2025 at 18:48 UTC

3 upvotes, 0 direct replies

It's 'their jobs are too hard'.

Didn't read the rest.

Comment by New_Expectations5808 at 18/01/2025 at 19:26 UTC

3 upvotes, 1 direct replies

If you ask a stupid question, expect a stupid answer. Onus should be on the original poster to ask something sensible and or/putting in basic level of research.

Comment by miowiamagrapegod at 18/01/2025 at 16:34 UTC

3 upvotes, 0 direct replies

This is not a good idea. I do not like this.

Comment by HenshinDictionary at 18/01/2025 at 22:38 UTC

2 upvotes, 0 direct replies

I'm sorry, but there are a lot of questions on this sub that simply demand a non-serious answer. This is absolutely gonna kill the mood on the sub if you actually start enforcing this.