r/canadaguns • u/Cre_AK47 Name Prohibited by OIC • Jun 08 '26

Announcement Photo Comments and GIFs Are Now Live!

As per popular request, photo comments and GIFs are now live! Reddit is also rolling out video comments too very shortly. We will make an announcement when that goes live, as well! Enjoy!

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15

u/MBGLK Jun 08 '26

How’s the progress going on not having to approve every single new post ?

https://giphy.com/gifs/GyRX93ai5DdsI

2

u/airchinapilot Jun 08 '26

Among the other things that have been happening behind the scenes:

  • Having flairs being used properly is encouraging
    • this has made allowing political/news posts as their own threads more manageable
  • We have been granting approved poster status every day to regulars
  • we have been populating automated hints to redirect users
  • I'd like to see the Wiki be rejuvenated. Recently, we pruned all of the old/404 links from it. However, it needs some additions because of new regulations and new information. A lot of the good contributions done by OG members is sadly outdated
  • number of reports outside of high interest events (aka Tumbler Ridge, the election) has been low
  • we ban around three users a month outside of high interest times
  • From my reckoning, the number of postings we need to redirect is around 10 per cent. I'd like to see that go down even lower
  • On the con side, automated Reddit admin actions have been going up - this is outside our control. Associated with this is malicious reporting by bad actors trying to remove other users. That has happened more than a few times.

Our goal is to see the community act responsibly during events such as the unfortunate Tumbler Ridge shootings. Unfortunately, that also overlapped a period when new mods were being onboarded. A real possibility is to open up posting on the regular and then clamp down during such events.

When fall rolls around again there will be an increase in traffic probably so it would be a good time to reassess.

2

u/MBGLK Jun 08 '26

I appreciate the update, but honestly I think the logic is kind of backwards?

Everything you listed sound slike evidence that the community is functioning well enough to move away from manual approval, not evidence that it should continue.

Reports are relatively low outside major events, only a few users are getting banned each month, flair usage is improving, automod is handling more redirects, you're granting approved poster status regularly, and only 10% of posts need intervention - your words

Those are all signs of a mature community, not one that requires constant approval to post even the most mundane of things

The thing I don't understand is why r/canadaguns is being treated differently from basically every other major subreddit on Reddit. Communities much larger and far more controversial than this one don't require moderators to manually approve every post before anyone can see it.

At some point it starts to feel like the moderation team has convinced itself that the subreddit is uniquely incapable of functioning without constant oversight. That seems hard to reconcile with the actual numbers you're presenting.

The Tumbler Ridge incident gets brought up a lot, but major news events happen everywhere on Reddit. Most moderation teams respond by tightening things up during those periods, not by keeping emergency measures in place indefinitely.

To be blunt, the current system feels less like moderation and more like gatekeeping, it's not the right word but it's like (the metaphorical) you can't let go of this responsibility for the greater good or some illusion of grandeur, you're treating the community like a group of children who can't be trusted to make posts unless a moderator signs off first. Meanwhile the moderators are spending their time manually approving TM22 posts all day, which seems like a self-inflicted problem.

If the subreddit is healthy enough that only 10% of posts need redirecting and only a few users get banned each month, then it's probably healthy enough to let people post normally and deal with issues as they arise, like virtually every other successful subreddit does.

1

u/airchinapilot Jun 08 '26

With respect, we appear to be getting to the same goal - though the accusations of gatekeeping will still be there even after the removal of the approval queue since mods will still be responding to flagged posts and comments right? You just want it to happen immediately but also ascribe some motivations to the mod team that suit your bias - it's an assumption that is wrong. We are not monolithic and each of the actions I listed are moving toward that goal and are a result of discussions we have to get to that goal. I'm glad that you agree that it is looking healthy.

-1

u/MBGLK Jun 08 '26

Mate. It’s been years the sub has been suffocated by this nonsense policy. I appreciate you may be new and unaware of the history. However saying I want it immediately is disingenuous.

I also said it feels like gatekeeping. I didn’t say it was. I even said it wasn’t the right word.

Don’t take it personally. You put yourself in the position to have your decisions questioned. No need to get defensive

2

u/airchinapilot Jun 08 '26

Just to clarify another thing you assume. I may be a newish moderator but I'm one of the OG members here. ;)

1

u/MBGLK Jun 08 '26

You should be more eager to see change then.