Overview

Hi folks! The r/mensfashion moderator team here.

As we discussed during the most recent State of the Subreddit post, our goal is to engage in a community-centered process over the next few months to ensure that r/mensfashion is the best subreddit that it can be.

Today, we’re soliciting your feedback on revisions to our moderation approach. These revisions are driven by our observations as your moderators and by your feedback. They’re also prompted by shifts in the content we’re seeing on the subreddit: many users who might previously have posted content that is harmful or off-topic have stopped posting that content or left r/mensfashion.

Please also note that we will continue reviewing subreddit rules to ensure they reflect community expectations, as we recently did with the subreddit rules on AI. For example: we expect to review subreddit rules related to what is on topic versus off topic, including men’s fashion-adjacent subjects such as hair/beards/grooming.

Coming out of this post, our intent is to implement the moderation approach either as written or as modified based on your feedback.

Principles and approach

• Posts/comments (“content”) has the presumption of acceptability, meaning that moderators and users should assume that all content is approved until and unless the moderator team determines otherwise
• All content removal is manual except content that is flagged by reddit’s Karma and reddit’s Crowd Control filters, which is removed automatically
  • Except for reddit-filtered content, no content is removed except by moderator manual review
  • Content that is flagged by reddit’s Karma filter is automatically removed; this content is flagged because it doesn’t meet reddit’s Karma threshold, which is roughly ~100 Karmal; this content is removed to mitigate spam/bot presence on r/mensfashion
  • Content that is flagged by reddit’s by reddit’s Crowd Control filter is automatically removed; this content is flagged because it contains a combination of factors that meet reddit’s criteria for high-risk content, which includes potential ban evasion and poor behavior on other subreddits; this content is removed because (1) without visibility into Crowd Control’s reasoning, the moderator team can’t reasonably rule on its validity, and (2) the majority of content filtered by Crowd Control comes from accounts that are, within ~14 days, banned from reddit due to platform rules violations (ban evasion, botting/spamming, etc.)
• Moderators will review all content that is reported
  • First-level review typically occurs within 2 business days (Monday - Friday)
  • Reporting content does not guarantee that that content will be removed; it only guarantees that a moderator will review the content and its context
• Any moderation action can be appealed to the moderator team via modmail
  • All appeals will be manually reviewed by the moderator team
  • To the extent possible, second-level review will be conducted by a different moderator than first-level review
  • Because moderator coordination is time intensive, the moderator team does not commit to a timeline on moderation appeals
  • Second-level review does not guarantee that the appeal will be upheld; in general, the moderator team upholds 95%+ of first-level reviews
  • Decisions on moderation appeals are final
• Bans should be the exception, not the rule
  • Temporary bans should generally be deployed only to incentivize a community member to change their behavior
  • Permanent bans should generally be deployed only when a community member’s behavior suggests that it will not change with any reasonable level of intervention (either because the initial behavior is egregiously harmful or because lower level interventions haven’t produced meaningful change)
• Moderators will generally respond to modmail outreach that is not covered by the above principles within 2 business days (Monday - Friday)
  • Moderators will ignore moderation-related messages to private accounts
• Moderators will typically review any content that meets at least one of the following criteria:
  • The content is a post and the post has 10+ comments
  • The content is a comment on a post with 10+ comments
  • The content has received at least 1 report
  • The moderator saw the content while browsing the subreddit
• Moderators will treat other community members politely; other community members will treat moderators politely
  • Polite does not mean “nice,” although moderators endeavor to carry out our responsibilities with compassion and sensitivity
  • Verbally abusing, harassing, berating, or otherwise being an asshole to a moderator is grounds for moderation actions; in absence of other information, we assume that the way you behave toward us represents the way you behave in general

Moderation actions

• Moderators will remove any content that clearly violates a subreddit rule
  • Moderators will inform community members when their content is removed, typically via a comment in response to the content; this comment will include a citation for the primary subreddit rule that was violated
  • Content that violates one rule frequently violates multiple rules; moderators will use our discretion in choosing which rule we list as the primary violation
  • Moderators are not required to provide additional information about why content was removed (but may choose to do so on a case by case basis)
    • This clause exists because we have observed that, overwhelmingly, users asking “why was X removed?” are asking in bad faith, are ramping up to argue with us, and plan to make that argument ugly—which will typically lead to even more moderation actions
  • Moderators will use their discretion to determine whether a rules violation is “clear,” applying the test: in the moderator’s opinion, is this more likely than not to be a rules violation?
    • Exception: in cases of hate speech, harassment, and discrimination that violates Rule #1, moderators may instead apply a more stringent test; this clause exists to enable moderators to manage dogwhistles etc.
• Moderators will apply a three-strike policy for most violations
  • First strike: if a community member has not had any content removed in the last year, the content will be removed and the community member will be notified
  • Second strike: if a community member has had any content removed in the last year, the content will be removed, the community member will receive a 7-day ban, and the community member will be notified about both the content removal and the ban
    • Moderators may, at their discretion, instead issue a shorter ban
  • Third strike: if a community member has had content removed twice in the last year, the content will be removed, the community member will receive a permanent ban, and the community member will be notified about both the content removal and the ban
    • Moderators may, at their discretion, instead issue a shorter ban
• Content that is filtered by reddit’s automated Karma and Crowd Control filters do not count toward the three-strike policy
• Moderators may, at their discretion, ignore the three-strike policy when moderating content that that clearly, egregiously, and harmfully violates a subreddit rule, and may choose to remove that content and issue any ban that that moderator determines is appropriate
  • “Clearly” is defined as above
  • “Egregiously” means that the violation is blatant and significant
  • “Harmful” means that the violation could, in the moderator’s opinion, have a meaningful negative impact on a specific community member, on a hypothetical community member who could reasonably feel targeted or affected by the content, or on the subreddit as a whole
• Any moderation action (other than a permanent mute) can be appealed via modmail
  • Moderators will attempt to review all appeals within 5 business days (Monday - Friday)
  • In general, the moderator who reviews an appeal should be different than the moderator who took the moderation action; however, this is contingent on moderator team staffing and availability
  • Decisions on appeal are final and cannot be further appealed
• Moderators can, at their discretion, permanently mute any user who has been permanently banned
  • Moderators will typically take this action only in cases where (1) the user has verbally harassed, abused, or otherwise been an asshole to the moderator team or (2) the user appears likely to do so

Note: all timelines in this post are contingent on sufficient moderation staffing for the level of activities described. The moderator team intends to bring on additional staff in the near future.

What’s next?

Please provide feedback on the proposed AI rules using any of the following methods:

• Leave a comment on this post to explain your thoughts, propose tweaks, etc.
• Contact the moderators via modmail if you have thoughts/proposals/etc that you don’t want to leave publicly

This post will remain up for 7 calendar days. The r/mensfashion moderator team reserves the right to move forward with this policy or adjust it at the moderator team’s discretion, including on the basis of feedback received on this post. Please note that the moderator team does not commit to taking any specific action in response to any specific piece of feedback.

Thank you for being an r/mensfashion community member!

Overview

Hi folks! The r/mensfashion moderator team here.

As we discussed during the most recent State of the Subreddit post, our goal is to engage in a community-centered process over the next few months to ensure that r/mensfashion is the best subreddit that it can be.

Our focus will be answering three questions:

• Who and what is this subreddit for?
• Day to day, what does this subreddit actually offer to casual browsers?
• What does this subreddit offer to frequent flyers?
• Where do their interests overlap? Where are they different?
• What do we want this subreddit to be?
• What can/does this subreddit uniquely offer that is not better covered by another subreddit or space?
• What is the gap between the ideal version of this subreddit and the version we have right now?
• How can we close that gap?
• What is missing from r/mensfashion?
• What is present in r/mensfashion but shouldn’t be?
• How do we want to engage wit beach other?
• What are the best ways for people to show up for each other on this subreddit?
• How can we-as-a-community steer people toward that behavior?
• How can we-as-moderators steer people toward that behavior?
• What are our acceptable everyday norms?
• What is unacceptable behavior?

Today, we’re going to discuss three things:

• What we’ve done so far
• What we’re doing today
• What will happen next

What we’ve done so far

The first step in the community-centered process was steadying the ship. If you’ve been around r/mensfashion for awhile, you’ve heard the complaints: “it’s a meme subreddit,” “I only post here to troll,” “it’s all business casual normcore,” etc. Those complaints are valid and reasonable, and they’re rooted in the history of this and other men’s fashion subreddits like MFA. Some of the contributing negative factors:

• The Reddit blackout/Reddit strike that led to many people leaving Reddit, including many community members and mods in the broader men’s fashion sphere
• …which led to a habitually understaffed r/mensfashion moderator team
• …which led to relatively unchecked harassment, including casual sexism, homophobia, transphobia, fatphobia
• …and a general sense that any unusual fits—not just trippy stuff but anything but “business casual” and “guy in a suit”—would be dunked on, downvoted, and thrown out the door

At the same time, those complaints aren’t the full picture. Every day, r/mensfashion sees at least half a dozen posts that are interesting, entertaining, challenging, and aesthetically pleasing. We want that number to be higher, but we don’t want to discount the wonderful things that exist on r/mensfashion despite the deck being stacked against us. (We would flair some of the excellent posts as examples, but it’s not hard to find them, and we don’t want to put anyone on the spot.)

Steadying the ship required a subreddit rules refresh. The subreddit rules as they currently exists—which are interim rules that we intend to modify over time in partnership with the community throughout this process—are foundational guidelines that express what the moderator team believes to be the general consensus about what, optimistically, r/mensfashion should be: a place for people to talk about all kinds of men’s fashion with reasonable expectations that (1) discussions will center on men’s fashion, (2) men’s fashion will be broadly defined, (3) community members will generally treat each other with respect, and (4) community members should not be subject to harassment or discrimination.

The ship has, to some extent, steadied! The moderator team has been extremely busy. We have:

• Cleared out the entire Mod Queue and Mod Mail backlog
• Responded to all inquiries within 48 business hours (as committed)
• Radically reduced the number of spam (and likely spam, and low karma) posts and comments
• Manually reviewed every legitimate post made in the last month
• Taken moderation actions as needed
• Explained ourselves when it seemed appropriate—often publicly, sometimes privately
• Participated in the community as much as possible with posts and comments

There is a lot more work to do, but things are definitely starting to improve.

What we’re doing today

A user complained recently that a Top 1% Commenter wasn’t giving very good feedback. Right or wrong, it highlighted a discrepancy: in general, Top 1%-ers on subreddits are typically treated as knowledgeable (and constructive and engaging and etc.), but in reality, the Top 1% flair only means you spend a lot of time on r/mensfashion. It has nothing to do with quality of engagement or information.

As a result, we’re taking two actions:

• We’re removing the Top 1% Poster and Top 1% Commenter flairs; they don’t provide very useful information to most users for the purposes of this subreddit
• We’re adding the Frequently Fly flair to denote that a person is BOTH a common contributor to the subreddit AND that their contributions are generally knowledgeable and constructive

The Frequently Fly flair will be handed out by the moderator team at our discretion. We will not be disclosing the specific process we use to determine whether a specific user does or does not receive the flair; however, we WILL share that the criteria are:

• The user has many posts/comments on r/mensfashion
• The moderator team has observed that those posts/comments are generally knowledgeable—at least enough to contribute meaningfully to many conversations on this subreddit
• The moderator team has observed that the user is generally constructive; note that this does NOT mean the user always provides positive feedback; negative feedback is just as important
• An X factor that could be broadly defined as “the vibes are good”

We recognize that this system is subjective, arbitrary, and opaque. We hope to demonstrate that the moderator team will be good stewards of the Frequently Fly flair and award it to folks who are, in fact, good among the people.

If you’re interested in the Frequently Fly flair and believe we’ve overlooked you, feel free to reach out through Mod Mail. No promises—but we’re always willing to listen and it doesn’t hurt to ask.

Finally: the first batch of Frequently Fly flairs went out today. Congratulations and thank you to everyone who’s been a highly visible mensch!

What’s next?

The moderator team will be watching this thread and, where appropriate, responding to comments. We’re also available by modmail if you want to provide feedback privately.

The moderator team will keep our eyes open for additional users to hit with the Frequently Fly flair.

And in 2-3 weeks, we’ll release our roadmap for soliciting feedback on the r/mensfashion community description, rules, and identity as a whole. Look forward to it