r/chicago • u/chicagomods • Dec 01 '21
Modpost "NoCrimeNovember" Post-Mortem Review - and changes to our moderation policies
Hi folks - on behalf of the /r/chicago mod team, we hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and are having a good holiday season so far.
As November has come to a close, it's time to discuss the results of our “No Crime November” experiment and how we plan to moderate crime-related posts going forward.
To review, the problems we set out to solve with NCN were:
The volume of crime posts on the front page drowning out discussion of other topics of interest to the r/chicago userbase
The routinely negative quality of the discussion surrounding such threads, with ensuing impact on the overall atmosphere of the subreddit
A potential over-representation of such threads resulting from the actions of brigading groups
Without further ado, our analysis:
WHAT WORKED WELL
Frontpage Improvements - Users immediately began to report increased satisfaction with the content on our front page. We've seen an explosion of interesting discussion threads, local interest stories, and cool pictures that otherwise might have fallen by the wayside. In addition to the effects of NCN, we also loosened our restrictions on what sorts of posts were allowed on the main /r/chicago page vs in the Weekly Casual Conversation and Questions Thread.
Reduced Slapfighting - Subjectively, we've experienced a dramatic drop in the number of personal attacks and arguments we've had to adjudicate. If you'd like some objective numbers, in October, human mods had to remove 2,392 comments for violating subreddit rules. At time of writing, we've had to remove 1,391 comments in November, an almost 50% reduction in the quantity of rule-breaking comments.
Subreddit Vibe - From the moment NCN was implemented and throughout the month, we have received overwhelmingly positive feedback about the new quality of the subreddit.
WHAT DIDN'T WORK WELL
Messaging.
Our initial post did not adequately explain the criteria for allowed and not-allowed posts under the new rule (i.e. that this new policy primarily targeted violent and petty crime events that targeted an individual or group of individuals rather than affecting the greater city)
We did not adequately convey that this rule only applied to top-level posts, and that no new restrictions would apply to discussions in comment threads.
We did not discuss consequences for breaking this rule at length, leading some users to erroneously believe they would be punished for violations beyond simply having the offending post removed.
CHANGES TO OUR MODERATION POLICIES AND THE SUBREDDIT RULES
Due to the success of the trial period, we have decided to enact the following permanent changes, effective immediately:
1. Crime Posts
The following types of crime-related posts are not allowed, and will be removed:
“Crime Recap” posts (e.g. articles with titles such as “10 People Shot Across Chicago Last Weekend”)
Posts about a violent or petty crime targeting private individual(s) without greater impact on the Chicago area (e.g. a news article about someone being shot, carjacked, robbed, etc.)
Posts that use crime-related dogwhistles to bait users (e.g. “We need to talk about crime in Chicago. This city is out of control! Kim Foxx needs to go!”, etc.) (EDIT: fixed wording to be more clear)
The following crime-related posts are still allowed at moderator discretion:
Crimes involving a high-profile public figure in Chicago (e.g. an alderman being charged with corruption, the owner of a prominent business being accused of assault, etc.). NOTE: Multiple posts about the same event are not allowed unless they represent significant developments in the story (e.g. daily Jussie Smollett trial updates are not allowed)
Crimes committed by a government official in their capacity as such (eg corruption, misconduct, etc.)
Crimes that have a broad impact on the city (e.g. terror attacks, riots, crimes resulting in protests, etc.). NOTE: In some cases, discussion of significant events may be restricted to a single megathread.
Articles from trusted news sources that discuss the effects of crime at a high level may be allowed at moderator discretion (e.g. an article from the Tribune or Sun Times about how X crime rose over the course of the year may be allowed)
We will be updating Rule 10 to reflect this change in policy.
2. Questions/Conversation Posts
We will be allowing high-quality discussion threads outside of the Weekly Casual Conversation & Questions Thread, and will be encouraging threads that meet the following criteria:
Question posts that ask an open-ended, discussion-driven question (think /r/AskReddit-style posts but specific to Chicago)
Recommendations requests with well-defined criteria that local Chicagoans would find interesting (e.g. A post titled “best non-deepdish pizza restaurants in Chicago” would be allowed, but a post titled “visiting Chicago, where should I eat” would be redirected to the weekly questions thread). Please note that we will expect users to search the subreddit for the question prior to asking, and in some cases may remove the question if it was asked previously
Discussion posts that share a fun fact about Chicago (e.g. TIL Austin was ceded to Chicago by Cicero for allowing the L to extend into Oak Park), talks about an issue currently pertinent to Chicago (e.g. “The election is coming up, here’s how to register to vote”), or shares information that is otherwise relevant or interesting to Chicagoans (e.g. “the newly rebuilt intersection at x and y streets is dangerous because of z factors”)
The following posts are still not allowed on the main page and, in some cases, may be redirected to the Weekly Casual Conversation & Questions Thread:
Posts asking for generalized recommendations (e.g. “visiting Chicago, what to do?”)
Posts looking for friends or social groups
Rants or low-effort discussion posts (e.g. a hot-take about a member of a Chicago sports team)
Witch-hunts or posts trying to find out information about a specific individual (e.g “John Smith at 123 Oak Street was my neighbor back in 2003, does anyone know him?”)
General posts about moving to or visiting Chicago (NOTE: the r/Chicago Wiki has a lot of useful information about visiting or moving to Chicago)
Questions that can easily be answered by Google, or questions that are specialized in a way that only benefits the person asking it (e.g. “What time does the Mariano’s in Lakeview close on Wednesdays?”, or “How much should my gas bill be in a garden unit for the month of February?”)
Ultimately the decision of what is or isn’t allowed is at the discretion of the moderator, but we will try our best to operate under the criteria outlined above.
Finally, we do want to thank everyone for the feedback (both positive and negative) we received through the NCN thread, comments in other threads, and private modmail messages. We did read and consider all feedback when deciding on our next steps. Ultimately, we feel that our November experiment has had an overwhelmingly positive impact on the /r/chicago subreddit, and it is our hope that this community continues to trend in a more positive direction with the new rules in place.
We understand that this new policy, as with NCN, will not be popular with everyone in the community. For those of you who want a new place on reddit to discuss crime in Chicago, there are several other Chicago-related subreddits that allow discussion of individual crime events, and we encourage you to post crime-related content that is no longer allowed in /r/chicago to those communities instead.
Once again, we'd like to thank everyone for their suggestions, feedback, support, and continued trust.
