Keeping Reddit Real: Subreddit content classification

https://www.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/hoac3v/keeping_reddit_real_subreddit_content/

created by woodpaneled on 09/07/2020 at 20:10 UTC

433 upvotes, 68 top-level comments (showing 25)

Hey all,

u/woodpaneled here, Director of Community at Reddit.

Since the dawn of time, there were two types of subreddits: SFW (Safe For Work) and NSFW (Not Safe For Work). And it was so.

But...“NSFW” is a pretty broad category, and there have long been requests for more granularity (just look at the use of “NSFL” in post titles over the last few years[1]). What might not be safe for your work is fine for my work. (I mean, I work[2] at Reddit, so I have to look at all sorts of wild stuff for my job.) You might be into porn but really not want to run into a gory horror movie clip while enjoying your naked people. An experienced redditor logging in and seeing what the kids call a “dank meme” is very different from a first-time user loading up the app. And, frankly, Deadpool 3 might want to advertise on a subreddit dedicated to knockout punches, but Frozen 3 probably doesn’t.

1: https://i.redd.it/d6xwbfv9zv951.png

2: https://i.redd.it/ueu5cvvsk5551.gif

*That’s why, this year, we’ve started a massive effort to apply more granular tags to subreddits.** Instead of NSFW or SFW, we’re beginning to take account of the differences between, say, occasional references to sex vs. nudity in the context of displaying body art or tattoos vs. porn. This lays the foundation for redditors to have the ability to choose what kind of content they want to see on Reddit and not be surprised by content they don’t want to see (while allowing that content to exist for those who do want to see it).

While we’ve previewed this for our moderator Community Councils, I wanted to give the larger mod community a heads-up on this work, answer questions, and make sure we’re thinking through all the angles as we continue moving forward.

*How are we doing it?**

We’ve taken this process extremely seriously. We know that this is a very complex task, so we didn’t just hire an intern and buy a case of Redbull—we hired three! (Kidding, kidding.)

All tags so far have been applied by actual, experienced Reddit mods on contract specifically for this task—who better to review subreddits? Each subreddit received three separate evaluations so we could ensure we’re avoiding the bias of a single rater. The final tag was selected based off of some fancy statistics work that combined these evaluations. Because our contractors were mods, they did a fantastic job in tagging with context and with care, and so we were really pleased with the quality of these tags. In the near future, we’ll also be looking at how we can crowdsource this on a larger scale with trusted redditors so we have even more data points before we apply a tag.

*What should I expect to see?**

We aren’t close to having all subreddits categorized yet, so all of this will be coming in phases.

The first places these tags will be used are recommendations (so your boss doesn’t see “We thought you might like r/SockMonkiesGoneWild” on your screen) and in logged out and partner surfaces (so r/GoodWillHumping doesn’t pop up in the suggested links on some dad’s search engine while their kid is watching).

You may also start to see some increases in traffic to some of your communities as they’re recommended in more places. As a reminder, if you ever feel the need to remove yourself from discovery, we have options for that[3].

3: https://mods.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/360044230532-How-can-I-control-how-people-find-my-community-

As we get further along we will start exposing your current tag to you for your review. We’ll be doing this in batches, both because the effort is ongoing and because we want to make sure to get feedback and make improvements as we go.

Finally, we’ll also start building out more tools for users to filter their experience, so everyone can choose the Reddit experience they want.

*Can I change my tag? What if my subreddit doesn’t actually have this content in it?**

This is where we want to partner with you. Especially as Reddit reaches more people across the world with a variety of interests and standards, these changes *need* to happen. Both for redditors and so we can keep the broad variety of content on Reddit open and public. We are all on the same page here: nobody wants to pull a Tumblr.

We know that we’ll make mistakes and subreddits change over time, so we want you to be able to inform your subreddit tag. However, we also want to avoid the fallout of a porn subreddit suddenly switching to SFW and getting our app taken off the app store.

We have a few ideas, but I wanted to raise these questions with you all. What do you think is the right balance for allowing tag changes in good faith while avoiding sudden, inappropriate changes?

I’ll be sticking around to answer questions along with the rest of the team working on this. Cheers!

Comments

Comment by reseph at 09/07/2020 at 20:16 UTC*

163 upvotes, 3 direct replies

You might be into porn but really not want to run into a gory horror movie clip while enjoying your naked people.

Don't call me out like that.

We have a few ideas, but I wanted to raise these questions with you all. What do you think is the right balance for allowing tag changes in good faith while avoiding sudden, inappropriate changes?

What about basing it around the Steam tag system? https://store.steampowered.com/tag/

Or what about allowing mods of their subreddit(s) to edit tags that would trigger an approval request; these changes would be sent to the admins or a mod committee (the contractors maybe) for approval?

Comment by skeddles at 09/07/2020 at 20:15 UTC

53 upvotes, 2 direct replies

Why isn't it something subreddits can choose? What if a subreddit changes it's rules?

Comment by [deleted] at 09/07/2020 at 20:19 UTC

24 upvotes, 1 direct replies

[deleted]

Comment by [deleted] at 09/07/2020 at 20:18 UTC*

80 upvotes, 6 direct replies

[deleted]

Comment by abrownn at 09/07/2020 at 20:20 UTC

79 upvotes, 1 direct replies

nobody wants to pull a Tumblr.

Shots fired 😂 Admins confirmed madlads

Comment by ThaddeusJP at 09/07/2020 at 20:37 UTC

17 upvotes, 2 direct replies

Is there a chance that extremely graphic content (all the way from pornography to death), once categorized, would be subject for complete removal from reddit?

Comment by [deleted] at 09/07/2020 at 20:23 UTC

15 upvotes, 2 direct replies

So... are we going to get NSFL post flairs?

Comment by ultradip at 09/07/2020 at 20:35 UTC*

14 upvotes, 2 direct replies

So, if I don't want my sub to be recommended, I should remove all the tags? :)

Serious question though, I have a sub I want to keep 18+, but is otherwise actually safe for work but kids have caused issues for us in the past.

It's there something that fits this circumstance?

Comment by kyleclements at 09/07/2020 at 20:36 UTC

13 upvotes, 1 direct replies

I mod a very small art-themed sub.

Nudity in art is always a contentious issue with some seeing as perfectly fine, others may not see it as suitable for work viewing. The intentions of the artist also play a major roll, I wouldnt put 17th century academic painting in the same category as erotic art, for example.

While I think this is a good move overall, I will be very curious how this rolls out along the fuzzy edges between categories.

If I had maybe 10% of my posts containing artistic nudity, I wouldn't want my whole sub labelled NSFW, but I also wouldn't want to manually label all posts on the off chance one user has an overly conservative work place.

Comment by canipaybycheck at 09/07/2020 at 22:08 UTC

20 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Where's the list of tags?

Comment by adeadhead at 09/07/2020 at 20:19 UTC*

23 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Neat. Step in the right direction.

Will moderators of a subreddit be able to make new tags, and change them, down the line?

Things that come to mind include the majority of subreddits relating to TV shows, where distinct subs for exist for discussion (spoilers) versus just fan art.

(For example, /r/makingamurderer versus /r/Stevenaveryisguilty or /r/gameofthrones versus /r/freefolk)

Comment by Erinmore at 09/07/2020 at 21:19 UTC

7 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Please make it fully accessible to and useable by **Automoderator**.

Being able to tell when a tag or tag group changes and be able to read the tags at any time (not like flairs that can only be read at creation time) would be great.

Comment by Fantomfart at 09/07/2020 at 22:13 UTC

8 upvotes, 0 direct replies

On All/popular, where an unsubbed sub has a + sign to add, why not have a - sign to the right to never see that sub again?

Comment by ShadowedPariah at 10/07/2020 at 00:33 UTC

6 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Thank you. I run a medical sub where people post pictures and they are generally NSFW, but I didn’t want the whole sub NSFW. I wanted the pictures hidden by default, so I went with Spoilers on all pictures. That way the thumbnails don’t show the images. Hopefully this can be a good middle ground.

Comment by Simon_the_Cannibal at 10/07/2020 at 05:45 UTC

6 upvotes, 3 direct replies

Sorry if my phrasing is poor; I've had a drink or two tonight.

/r/vexillology uses the NSFW tag as a kind-of spoiler tag so folks browsing in countries where certain symbols are illegal don't get a screen-full of a swastika &c. in a public place. Literally "may not be safe for work".

We encourage an over-cautious approach - if you're not sure, mark it. This leads to a lot of conflict (e.g. "why is the confederate flag NSFW!?") - especially as people click expecting porn!

It would be great to have a "controversial" tag or something of the sort.

I know this is super specific, but I don't want to get overlooked.

^(p.s. while we're at it - dear Santa, we need a streamlined voting system for contests)

Comment by [deleted] at 09/07/2020 at 20:25 UTC

17 upvotes, 1 direct replies

We are all on the same page here: nobody wants to pull a Tumblr.

Oof[1].

1: https://i.imgur.com/GAD3Wma.jpg

Comment by haykam821 at 09/07/2020 at 20:20 UTC

6 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Will these specific NSFW categories eventually come to posts as well?

Comment by Awaake at 09/07/2020 at 20:22 UTC

5 upvotes, 1 direct replies

How will users choose what they want to see on reddit?

And what about subreddits like mine (r/TikTokCringe) where there’s all kinds of different content posted and not just one category? How would you give that a certain tag?

Comment by mokiboki at 09/07/2020 at 21:01 UTC

6 upvotes, 0 direct replies

You might be into porn but really not want to run into a gory horror movie clip while enjoying your naked people.

Good that you're thinking of this. It's the opposite for me, here's an example: On r/IdiotsInCars often people tag posts as NSFW because there is a bad car crash. On that subreddit I don't think twice before clicking on those posts, until one day for some reason a naked woman fell out from a truck

Comment by o11c at 09/07/2020 at 21:27 UTC

6 upvotes, 1 direct replies

I'm not sure how /r/gonwild will like the "keeping it real" requirement. Some of the content there is ... complex.

Comment by chaos_a at 09/07/2020 at 22:42 UTC

4 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Where can we see what tag our subreddit has? Or is it a secret?

Comment by kronkeldewonkel at 09/07/2020 at 21:07 UTC

3 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Will there be a different tag for nsfw images and nsfw words? For example there are sometimes nsfw post on r/askreddit because they contain an nsfw word but that doesn't make r/askreddit an nsfw sub.

Comment by bowiz2 at 09/07/2020 at 21:09 UTC

5 upvotes, 0 direct replies

I think the biggest thing here is having a quick, responsive flow for tag revisions. With that, the default "start off" tags could be aggressive (lean more towards sfw and vanilla stuff), and then subreddit moderators would reach out and attempt to refine it further with Reddit's assistance.

At any rate I'm sure this flow is going to exist in some form, but I really see it becoming a point of resentment if it's non responsive or slow.

Maybe some kind of "peer review" could work. So instead of Reddit's team approving or disapproving tag changes, it could be sent out to a number of other subbredits moderators who would "do their civic duty" and approve or disapprove the proposal (hopefully also going over the subreddit content as they do).