Subreddit moderators are manipulating our front page: an analysis of irregularities in the remove-and-restore policy by moderators from 592 subs

https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/6ew75y/subreddit_moderators_are_manipulating_our_front/

created by newTypeOfShitposting on 02/06/2017 at 18:27 UTC

201 upvotes, 10 top-level comments (showing 10)

*TL;DR: Certain subreddit moderators are manipulating what we see by using mod powers to boost some posts and illegitimately remove others.**

What is this?

Every graph[1] displays information about removals of successful posts in a subreddit. The left side of a bar is the creation time of a post. The right side of the bar is the removal time of the post. A bar goes all the way to the right if it was never removed.

1: http://imgur.com/a/advoJ

As for removed posts, only post that have been **restored afterwards are included**. Hence, the aim of the chart is to demonstrate wrongful removals. Note that the restore time of a post is not available, the only thing we know is that they have been restored at some point after removal. A second removal is indicated with a black vertical line. Again, this removal is non-permanent.

The color code shows how close a post was created to another post's removal. Why this is important will become clear in the next section.

Data: top posts from a subreddit + removal data from /r/undelete and /r/longtail. Selected subs are the top 500 on recent activity + subscribers + growth on redditlist[2].

2: http://redditlist.com

Visualisation: using matplotlib, starting from code by /u/ggggnut.

In this post three general 'healthy' subs from various sizes are shown, followed by the most blatant offenders as described below. The visual difference should be clear immediately.

What does it tell me? Firstly, to a certain degree this indicates how many wrongful removals there are. More 'broken' bars means more removed-and-later-restored posts. Note that this is not necessarily a problem in itself. Certain subs are more cautious than others and rather remove something for consideration when in doubt, whereas others rarely remove successful posts.

This information is particularly useful in combination with the color codes. The more red, **the closer a post was created to removal of another post**. This *can* indicate moderator abuse.

Due to a high volume of posts this visualization is less useful for very large subs, but this is not an issue as manipulation of this kind is pretty much impossible there anyway. The main subs able to use these techniques are small or semi-small subs trying to reach a broader audience.

More detailed posts have been written about this, but I'll summarize:

Reddit's algorithm changed making it difficult for a sub to have many successful posts high up in the rankings at once

Some mods use a loophole by temporarily removing (perfectly fine) posts when they/others make new posts, in order to boost them to the top of /r/all more easily

More information on this: here[3], here[4], and here[5].

3: https://np.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/6ef2fk/posts_removed_from_two_subreddits_vs_posts_made/di9r44f/

4: https://np.reddit.com/r/TheoryOfReddit/comments/6eesg3/opening_up_the_discussion_on_mod_abuse_how/

5: https://www.np.reddit.com/r/KarmaCourt/comments/6d5wcf/the_people_of_reddit_vs_uGallowBoob_umalgoya_and/

'Guilty' subs will likely have a more diagonal chart with short bars and a lot of red on it. For example, a very red bar means that this post was created very close the removal of a wrongfully removed post. Again, this could purely be coincidence, especially for large subs. It is when the pattern of short bars and red bars becomes dominant that there's very likely manipulation going on.

It is also important to compare charts of subs with a similar number of subscribers and activity if you want to be able to draw any conclusions.

Why does this matter? Moderators abusing mod powers in order to boost their own posts/boost their subreddit by illegitimately removing other successful posts is a big middle finger to the community.

I think we, as users, can all agree that transparency is important. If a sub is being ruled in an undemocratic way, by mods who use their power to determine which posts they boost and which they remove, we at least deserve to know about the practice.

This may seem a small problem given the limited amount of subs now, but if we as a community don't stand up to it Reddit may quickly become a place curated by a small group of mods who can use this to accomplish whatever their end-goal is. Besides, even this small group of subreddits is already influencing the global rankings as we speak by manipulating their own community.

Also note that whether or not this type of abuse exists at all is not up for discussion anymore, given that on multiple instances mods have confirmed that this indeed happened. **The main thing this post is trying to do is making sure everybody is aware of how much or how little the subs they subscribe to care about their community and transparency.** Admins know about it but have chosen not to do anything about it, but **if we as users want to keep Reddit a democratic place where free speech, transparency and equal opportunity are core values, we need to make sure mod abuse is limited and mods are held accountable for their actions and actions of fellow mods.**

So if you subscribe to one of the subreddits that seem suspicious to you, please ask your mods why this is happening and urge them to do something about it.

Mods are also shown in bold on the graphs, which strengthens the belief that manipulation is going on. Several mods mod multiple of the identified subreddits.

Results Currently, I have identified 8 subs that are in my opinion very likely using this manipulation or have done this at least once based on the data.

These subs are:

r/marchagainsttrump: questionable honor of being the absolute worst user of this manipulation

r/instant_regret

r/evilbuildings

r/natureisfuckinglit

r/stoppedworking

r/esist

r/thisismylifenow

r/ourpresident ^Not ^in ^the ^large ^list ^of ^subs, ^but ^this ^sub ^was ^identified ^as ^doing ^this ^earlier ^so ^not ^including ^it ^doesn't ^make ^sense

Subs that do not have a regular pattern throughout the month but seem to possibly have done this a few times. I recommend giving all the below subs the benefit of doubt as there are very likely false positive among them, I am displaying them here to not withhold discovered irregularities.

Click links of subs for images of chart*

r/science[6], significantly larger sub than all others with an enormous amount of mods, which is why it's likely an anomaly instead of manipulation. Especially top-right is a strange pattern.

6: http://i.imgur.com/Ek9FgyV.png

r/conservative[7], sample size too small to draw conclusions

7: http://i.imgur.com/gDrN4w8.png

r/madlads[8], healthy pattern, except for one big anomaly in the end. Included because the mod making that post is a repeat offender in other subs and this is likely not a coincidence.

8: http://i.imgur.com/1xvomdP.png

r/imaginarylandscapes[9], small sub where one mod seems to boost new posts.

9: http://i.imgur.com/46f0XTC.png

r/beamazed[10], potential mod abuse on multiple occasions

10: http://i.imgur.com/SujtZqo.png

I will make another comment simply saying "Requests". In order to ensure that you don't think I am being selective about the presented results I will try to get to all top-level replies to that comment and show the results of the asked subreddit. If the amount of subs is way too large I will first do the more popular ones and I'll try to get to all the other ones over the next few days.*

Comments

Comment by Th3_Admiral at 02/06/2017 at 20:20 UTC

12 upvotes, 0 direct replies

I don't have much knowledge about the other subs, but the mod of evilbuildings has been awful about this. There have been several posts about this in other subs recently, but basically he would delete his own top post every time he made a new post. Since it's a small sub and usually only one post makes it to /r/all at a time, this would allow his new submission to make it through. Then he would restore his old post and no one would ever notice. When he was first called out for the mod abuse he completely denied it. Then when strong evidence was provided he admitted it and apologized for it, claiming he was just doing it to help promote the sub (even though it was only his daily post that he was boosting). After apologizing, more users pointed out that he was STILL abusing his powers to boost his own content. After a small amount of outrage, it seemed like most of the users either didn't care or actually defended him. As far as I know, he is still doing it to this day.

Comment by Sabremesh at 02/06/2017 at 20:44 UTC

19 upvotes, 1 direct replies

OP, I am sure the users of /r/conspiracy would be particularly interested to see your analysis of this sub, since this is an issue which is frequently discussed here.

Comment by One_Giant_Nostril at 02/06/2017 at 20:58 UTC

3 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Hi u/newTypeOfShitposting, I'm One_Giant_Nostril, creator and top-mod of r/ImaginaryLandscapes. I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have.

Comment by [deleted] at 02/06/2017 at 19:47 UTC

4 upvotes, 1 direct replies

I suppose they think they're doing a good thing by suppressing any positive news or positive comments regarding Donald Trump? In fact, I presume that most of the "mods" here would rather simply ban or otherwise censor any sub promoting a positive outlook of President Trump rather than provide any semblance of an open forum. Likely most of the SJWarriors would support such action. In other words, why are certain subs using bots? Because they think they are "in the right" and any contrary opinion is therefore "in the wrong" thus to be discounted from the main page.

Comment by barc0debaby at 03/06/2017 at 00:51 UTC

2 upvotes, 0 direct replies

I wouldn't be surpised with manipulation on r/conservative. Despite the name that subreddit is geared toward a very specific branch of conservative ideology and they are extremely liberal in handing out bans.