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

77 upvotes, 21 top-level comments (showing 21)

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 [deleted] at 18/01/2025 at 15:38 UTC*

113 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

104 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

26 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 glasgowgeg at 18/01/2025 at 19:49 UTC

6 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 techbear72 at 18/01/2025 at 15:12 UTC

27 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 [deleted] at 18/01/2025 at 18:31 UTC*

12 upvotes, 1 direct replies

[deleted]

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

7 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 [deleted] at 18/01/2025 at 15:54 UTC*

13 upvotes, 1 direct replies

[removed]

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

2 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 [deleted] at 18/01/2025 at 15:34 UTC

2 upvotes, 1 direct replies

[deleted]

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

4 upvotes, 0 direct replies

It's 'their jobs are too hard'.

Didn't read the rest.

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

3 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.

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

5 upvotes, 0 direct replies

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

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

2 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 Apidium at 05/02/2025 at 21:34 UTC

1 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Please remove the pop up. It's blinding and I can barely type in this sub on my phone with it. It takes up way too much space and doesn't abide by the dark mode of the rest of reddit. It seems as if it triggers randomly meaning one can't even prepare for it.

It is not accessability friendly at all.

Comment by beariscold at 12/02/2025 at 03:04 UTC

1 upvotes, 1 direct replies

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