https://www.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/k60vti/another_update_on_subreddit_classification_efforts/
created by 0perspective on 03/12/2020 at 16:49 UTC*
365 upvotes, 27 top-level comments (showing 25)
Hello, Mods!
We’re back with another one of those block rockin’ updates[1] on our subreddit classification efforts. Since our last post[2] in September, we’ve made substantial progress thanks to feedback from all of you and the trial program we’re running with a variety of communities. The trial communities are a diverse group of subs from across Reddit, and have been instrumental in testing, giving feedback, and influencing improvements to the community content tags and this entire effort. Today we’d like to share some of our findings, latest happenings, and next steps with you:
1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTxOKsyZ0Lw
2: https://new.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/ikpgpp/an_update_on_subreddit_classification_efforts/
Originally, our proposed tags were General, Mature, Violent & Disturbing, and Sexually Explicit. However, after hearing from the community and subreddits in the trial program, we agreed that our original set of tags weren’t there yet.
Overall, they were too general and too limiting given the range of communities that exist on Reddit. As a result, some subreddits that didn’t quite fit into any of the four tags, ended up with a tag that didn’t appropriately reflect the content in the community (specifically a lot of our drug-related communities). To address this, we’ve expanded the tags from four to five, so that they better represent the variety of content and communities on Reddit.
In the last round, we also found that putting certain categories together to make the survey shorter, really just made things more confusing. Also, some of the survey answers needed more nuance to help the tags be better representations of different communities. Here’s an overview of what changed:
3: https://66.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mdqj3z9Sma1qd6hino1_500.gif
Now that there’s a new set of tags and an updated survey, we’re rolling out this latest iteration to a larger group of communities to gather more feedback. Similar to last time, this will happen in two ways:
https://preview.redd.it/wbrm6p9o60361.png?width=1712&format=png&auto=webp&s=e13f40d1d054912141571ef07cf3165badfbb6ba[5]
4: https://i.imgur.com/mVW5yrz.gif
https://i.redd.it/v7p98cfg40361.gif
Thanks again to everyone who hammered away at the system and helped us improve the tags and the survey. We’ll have some additional updates to share in the new year, after rolling out this version to more communities and getting even more feedback. Once the content tag survey is rolled out to all mod teams, we’ll be able to shift our focus to the user-facing experiences that will use this information (e.g. showing content tags on communities, etc). Until then, content tags will continue to be private and only visible to the mod team.
Please feel free to ask any questions or share your thoughts in the comments below!
Updates: Formatting and additional images (9:01 AM PT)
Comment by namer98 at 03/12/2020 at 16:50 UTC
133 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Something went wrong while trying to render this
The most meta reddit update ever
Comment by sunzusunzusunzusunzu at 03/12/2020 at 17:12 UTC
55 upvotes, 1 direct replies
I can see this being an issue if this stuff just pops up when you visit a sub, as during a brigade people would definitely click the wrong tags. I see you only prompted some users - is there a way to only prompt those active in a community?
Comment by MagnusRune at 03/12/2020 at 16:59 UTC
28 upvotes, 2 direct replies
what one would somthing like /r/LondonSocialClub choose? we dont have any nsfw posts, but we do require anyone going to events (once were back to normal, and pre-covid times) be 18+.
most of our stuff is going to the pub, so should we go for M?
Comment by remedialrob at 04/12/2020 at 07:27 UTC
19 upvotes, 1 direct replies
I'd care about this if it weren't a bald faced attempt to categorize subs more specifically not for users sake but just to offer clarity to advertisers so they can more easily order from a buffet of subs that suit they're advertisement needs. Anyone helping to further this project outside of reddit employees should know that they are toiling in an effort to more effectively and efficiently serve us; the users/public, up as the product we are in this arrangement. Furthermore I find the admin posting this as some kind of "let's all work together to improve reddit, rah rah, go team!" project pretty disingenuous. All this does for users is offer a small amount of information on a subreddit they may be considering before they really consider it and may instead warn off users who may have received a better or more thorough introduction to the subreddit by doing what we've all done in the past... read the sidebar. In sum this project just allows capricious users to be lazy in their subreddit choices but mostly it greatly expands filtering and categorization of subreddits for the sake of more targeted advertisements which is almost never a good thing. These categories will almost certainly be a part of the offers made to advertisers (100k impressions on "Mature" rated subreddits for X Dollars" for example) as soon as the tags go sitewide.
Comment by [deleted] at 03/12/2020 at 17:36 UTC
18 upvotes, 2 direct replies
What's sad is that this is only accesible via reddit mobile.
Could you add support for desktop? At least redesign? Old reddit can wait; I can press the "open in new reddit" button in toolbox to check.
Thanks.
Comment by reseph at 03/12/2020 at 17:24 UTC*
23 upvotes, 1 direct replies
This still isn't clear to me. How do video games fit into all this? Many video games have a combat system, even some that are rated E (Everyone) by the ESRB. Combat systems involve violence. Does this mean potentially those subreddits about a video game with a combat system should be classified as V?
What about T (Teen) games that have moderate violence and blood? Does this mean they have to fit into the same classification as a subreddit about gore imagery/situations IRL? That seems misguided.
What about simulator games like RimWorld? It has violence, drug use, dismemberment, etc.
Or another example Guilty Gear has: Blood, Language, Suggestive Themes, Use of Tobacco, Violence. And this is not a game rated as Mature.
Comment by FinallyRage at 03/12/2020 at 19:34 UTC
12 upvotes, 2 direct replies
Why is there no PG 13?
/r/FortniteBR has some of those things but we don't allow mature content... Would we be Everyone? Or are we automatically disqualified since we have guns and violence/gore (no gore buy apparently all violence has gore to reddit??)?
Comment by starfleetbrat at 03/12/2020 at 17:42 UTC
6 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Just curious, but what if a community has more than one of these classifications? Like Violence and Gore for example, or Sexual content and Drug Usage?
Comment by CheCheDaWaff at 04/12/2020 at 08:31 UTC
5 upvotes, 1 direct replies
I've asked this before but I'd like confirmation / clarification: how is this intended to apply to identity and support communities? One of the subreddits I moderate, r/asexuality, regularly discusses sex and sexuality in explicit detail (though never with pictures). This is vital to our functioning as a support community, but it falls under the "X" category as defined in this post, even though I would suspect "M" would be more appropriate for us.
Comment by AkaashMaharaj at 16/12/2020 at 22:44 UTC
4 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Communities that were given a tag from mod contractors...
What is a "mod contractor"? I am going to guess that it is not a moderator tasked to hunt down and liquidate rogue Redditors or subreddits, though that would make an interesting premise for an RPAN film.
It sounds like moderators who have been tasked by Reddit to carry out specific activities. If that is the case, can u/0perspective tell us if there a way for us as moderators to browse open activities and to express an interest in taking them on?
Comment by [deleted] at 03/12/2020 at 17:42 UTC
10 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I mod a sub that discusses science and politics, so references to a wide range of things come up, but none of these things are major topics of discussion
Also, what if you get occasionally references to both prescription and recreational drug use, which do you click? And if there are occasional references to both guns and non-gun weapons?
And does talking about deadly injuries or illnesses in a primarily scientific context (eg explaining why covid is serious) count as violence with serious injury or death?
And I have no clue what to put for nudity, as there has never been a nude image that I can remember on the sub
And what about brigades? If users other than the mod team are able to do the survey they will abuse it to create false tags, I know a few antivaxers on reddit who would report me for encouraging drug abuse by saying vaccines work
Comment by validemaillol at 03/12/2020 at 18:32 UTC
11 upvotes, 0 direct replies
reddit admins stinky
Comment by scuffling at 08/12/2020 at 03:27 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
What about communities that consistently allow users to break their own sub rules by allowing harassment, racism, death threats, and misinformation posts? Looking at r/ActualPublicFreakouts. This would just be ... Mature?
Comment by cyrilio at 08/12/2020 at 20:14 UTC*
3 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Love how you guys listened to my feedback. While I'm very happy with what you've already done I still have a couple of issues. Let me start with a quote from your post.
We don’t want to stigmatize communities that are providing judgement-free spaces or addiction support, but we also want to make sure that people discovering these communities have a heads up about the content first.
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1: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28967320/
6: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/16066350601176957?journalCode=iart20
7: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0269881108099672
8: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/feb/11/drugs-alcohol-drugs-policy
9: https://i.imgur.com/8OKzrlL.jpg
10: https://new.reddit.com/r/Drugs/about/rules
11: https://new.reddit.com/r/Drugs/about/sidebar
12: https://harmreduction.org/about-us/principles-of-harm-reduction/
13: https://youtu.be/x9f5rz75swE
Comment by DrinkMoreCodeMore at 17/12/2020 at 00:55 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Why is "guns & weapons" a category?
What impact will this have on the firearm communities on reddit? Advertisers already cannot use the reddit ad system to place ads on any firearm related sub so why is this being asked? Is reddit considering changing their stance on this? IIRC the only firearm related sub that ads can be placed on is /r/hunting.
Comment by Splinter1591 at 04/12/2020 at 03:30 UTC
5 upvotes, 0 direct replies
What about recovery subreddits. There are several (I mod opiatestrcovery, but there are a ton for different drugs and eating disorder etc....) I don't think we belong in the same category as drug subreddits.
Comment by YannisALT at 03/12/2020 at 21:30 UTC*
5 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Am I reading this wrong? It sounds like you are letting other, outside redditors decide for you and a particular sub what tag that sub should have. . . even if they are not a mod in that sub?
And is the reddit admistration and sub mods on the same page as to what constitutes "violence and gore." r/HadToHurt works hard to be a sfw sub and automatically removes a post if it is marked NSFW so that a human mod has to review it. This sub even has a "no gore" rule. Practically no NSFW posts get mod-approved in r/HadToHurt. Yet there are similar subs (like HoldMyFeedingTube, MakeMeSuffer, etc) with far worse content and content that is marked NSFW on the Front Page Top 200 every day.
EDIT: would you say a sub like r/HadToHurt would be categorized under the "General" tag? I would. And I liked your 4 original tags because I thought there was no way the other tags would apply to it.
Comment by SeValentine at 03/12/2020 at 20:33 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Looks a neat update.
specially the tags, but ... ¿How is this gonna affect the posting of mobile users on NSFW subs?
Can this feature be re-enabled for users using a browser?
I believe when this update start to rolling out, many subs related specially to Nudity and sexually display. how can users interact when posting this kind of content?
Comment by Borax at 08/12/2020 at 15:47 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
This seems like such a big improvement over the prototype system
Comment by SolariaHues at 19/01/2021 at 23:21 UTC*
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Is an animal consuming another considered gore? Like a sparrowhawk eating a pigeon?
Or how about things like an injured hedgehog?
A few of my subs have these things, but only occasionally. There doesn't seem to be an option that fits this yet.
Comment by scubahana at 12/02/2021 at 21:56 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I’ve been getting a fair number of the shorter-form questions regarding sub content, especially the one about profanity. I presume that the average Redditor drops colloquialisms of varying colours along the maturity spectrum regardless of their ‘location’ on the site, so the ‘no, no profanity at all’ option feels like an unattainable standard.
Where does one draw the line in terms of profanity and it’s frequency? Is ‘damn’ a profane word, or does that slip under the radar? How frequent does clear profanity (like f-bombs/c-words, scatological synonyms) have to occur to transit categories?
My apologies in advance if this sounds trolling, but my Aspie brain needs to know better parameters and is trying to be precise in my explanation.
Comment by [deleted] at 03/12/2020 at 17:13 UTC
9 upvotes, 0 direct replies
[deleted]
Comment by happybeaner at 04/12/2020 at 00:58 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I have some concerns that subs with less “desirable” (non advertiser friendly) tags may suffer from this. Will this be used to only promote subs admins prefer or will subs be promoted regardless of how admins feel about them?
Comment by cyrilio at 09/12/2020 at 05:08 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Looks like the FAQ help page needs updating btw /u/operspective
Link: https://www.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/360048185132[1] In my other comment here I asked about the high risk question. I guess that's acceptable. After some thinking still more issues:
1: https://www.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/360048185132
As for the two other questions, it might be better to ask:
Either way, doesn't mater if a drug is prescribe or not. Will a subreddit discussing anti-depressants a lot get a D content tag too? What about food related subs? or subreddit about music?
2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug
Like music[3], nicotine[4], chocolate[5], love, fear, etc. Where do you draw the line? Following US laws isn't a good answer considering how arbitrary the laws are set. The United Nations just reclassified Cannabis as a less dangerous drug[6]. There are literally dozens of clinical trials done researching drugs often used recreationally. It's only a matter of time before MDMA[7], psilocybin[8] , ketamine[9], LSD[10], etc get rescheduled.
3: https://www.thrillist.com/sex-dating/nation/music-and-the-brain-same-effect-sex-drugs
4: https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotin
5: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10524390/
6: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/02/world/europe/cannabis-united-nations-drug-policy.html
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Did you know that people possessing cocaine get different punishments than someone with identical amount of crack? Crack and cocaine are the same substance[11]. Reason for the difference is because mostly white people use/posses cocaine, white mostly black people use/posses crack. Clear example of institutionalized racism.
11: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crack_cocaine
Feel free to message me or even if you want call.
Comment by [deleted] at 03/12/2020 at 20:16 UTC
-1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Hey, sorry for the totally unrelated question, but I’ve asked this on some of the r/redditmobile releases and never got a response, so I was hoping I could ask here.
Can you guys add a feature to opt in and out of A/B tests? A lot of times people want or don’t want to try out a new feature, and adding it as just a non-optional test, doesn’t feel right. I think you should add an option into the settings section to opt in and out of “Feature Previews” (That’s what GitHub calls them, they did a good job with that) so people can try out your new features, and if they don’t like them opt out. Even with that you can still get the “do people like this feature” information because if they opt out, it’s probably because they don’t like it, and vise versa.
Once again, sorry for the unrelated request, I was just hoping to get at least something back this time.
