scrape_r_rational/data/cache2/5txn75.md

## [META] Check out our newly condensed sidebar and rules!

* Author: u/PeridexisErrant  *put aside fear for courage, and death for life**
* URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/5txn75/meta_check_out_our_newly_condensed_sidebar_and/
* Score: 15

* Created: 2017-02-14T03:07:38

### Post:

OK, it's basically the same as before, but a little shorter and simpler.

The only real change is to the rules, which are now written down.

- 'on topic' is less subjective, which is important as the community grows.  
- limiting author-posting should ~~share out the karma~~ make updates a bit more organic, and focus /r/rational on discussion rather than announcing updates.
- moderator discretion covers stuff like memes, copypasta, doxxing, harassment, removing porn adds, etc.  I don't want an explicit rule against everything!

Comments and suggestions welcome.

### Comments:

> **u/over_who** [+7]  *Aleph you are going to die* (an hour later)
> 
> Thanks for the work you do, moderating a community is thankless work!

>> **u/PeridexisErrant** [+7]  *put aside fear for courage, and death for life* (2 hours later)
>> 
>> > Thanks for the work you do,
>> 
>> You're welcome!
>> 
>> > moderating a community is thankless work!
>> 
>> ...you may wish to re-read the first clause of your comment ;p

>>> **u/over_who** [+3]  *Aleph you are going to die* (2 hours later)
>>> 
>>> Exception proves the rule ;)

> **u/ElizabethRobinThales** [+4]  *Practically Perfect in Every Way* (50 minutes later)
> 
> "Self-promotion limit: one post per month."
> 
> What if, for example, you plan on posting a new chapter on April 1st, April 8th, and April 15th? Does this mean you need to wait until May 1st to post the chapter you posted on April 8th, and until June 1st to post the chapter you posted on April 15th?

>> **u/PeridexisErrant** [+10]  *put aside fear for courage, and death for life* (an hour later)
>> 
>> Reading the discussion (and checking a few submission histories in more detail), the rule is either too loose or too strict depending on interpretation.  Given that pre-publication announcement posts would be disallowed by another rule, I've changed the rule to read
>> 
>> > Post your own work at most weekly.
>> 
>> to match the most common regular schedules.  If you're publishing chapters more frequently (and occasionally if not), let your loyal readers post some of them to /r/rational!
>> 
>> ^(ping /u/xamueljones /u/owenshen24)

>>> **u/ElizabethRobinThales** [+2]  *Practically Perfect in Every Way* (an hour later)
>>> 
>>> Thank you for the clarification. That seems like a very rational rule.

>> **u/MagicWeasel** [+4]  *Cheela Astronaut* (an hour later)
>> 
>> I think the sidebar has had the self promotion limit rule removed, and it now says "post your own work at most weekly". 
>> 
>> I think that's a good limit. If you really want to share your work more than once a week you can post it in the off-topic thread as well (assuming that wouldn't count as using your "one post" allowance?)

>>> **u/PeridexisErrant** [+3]  *put aside fear for courage, and death for life* (2 hours later)
>>> 
>>> Correct on all counts!

>> **u/xamueljones** [+3]  *My arch-enemy is entropy* (55 minutes later)
>> 
>> I strongly doubt posting a link to a chapter qualifies as self-promotion. Self-promotion would be something like posting more than once to the same book/chapter when there is no new material to read.
>> 
>> The boundaries can be a little fuzzy between promotion and update posts, but generally posting chapters don't qualify as self-promotion.

>>> **u/ElizabethRobinThales** [+3]  *Practically Perfect in Every Way* (an hour later)
>>> 
>>> > I strongly doubt posting a link to a chapter qualifies as self-promotion.
>>> 
>>> You might be right, but u/PeridexisErrant or one of the other mods might disagree, so I'd still like an official response from a mod.

>>>> **u/thrawnca** [+5]  *Carbon-based biped* (an hour later)
>>>> 
>>>> If the moderators try to delay MoL chapters, I'm starting a revolt!

>>>>> **u/PeridexisErrant** [+9]  *put aside fear for courage, and death for life* (2 hours later)
>>>>> 
>>>>> Whoa, it's not a revolt if the mods are in on it!
>>>>> 
>>>>> The only way this could slow down MoL chapters is if
>>>>> 
>>>>> - they were published more than once per week (yes please), AND
>>>>> - nobody else wanted to post a link (...unlikely)

>>>> **u/PeridexisErrant** [+5]  *put aside fear for courage, and death for life* (an hour later)
>>>> 
>>>> For what it's worth, when something happens we usually just explain what we think should be done differently.
>>>> 
>>>> eg. I haven't removed a good-faith comment or post on /r/rational for ages (ie I think two or three last year) and only perma-banned one human troll (and many shitty bots).  A human with poor sidebar comprehension got a temp-ban once.  That's it - over the years I've spent more time debugging automatic threads than enforcing rules!

>>>>> **u/ElizabethRobinThales** [+5]  *Practically Perfect in Every Way* (2 hours later)
>>>>> 
>>>>> > I haven't removed a good-faith comment or post on /r/rational for ages
>>>>> 
>>>>> That seems like a good way to do things. Until I started getting serious about my own fic, I would occasionally briefly glance at this subreddit after checking the r/HPMOR sub; I had assumed that people would post "rational" fics there, and that discussions about "rationality" would be posted here, and I didn't notice for an embarrassingly long period of time that this sub never had posts about "rationality" and that it was almost exclusively fic recommendations and updates.
>>>>> 
>>>>> It would appear that the vast majority of activity on this sub comes from people sharing fics and announcing updates, and curtailing either of those activities seems like an easy way to turn this into a dead/inactive subreddit.

>>>> **u/None** [+2]  (an hour later)
>>>> 
>>>> Agreed I would like confirmation.

> **u/None** [+2]  (15 hours later)
> 
> [removed]

>> **u/PeridexisErrant** [+2]  *put aside fear for courage, and death for life* (22 hours later)
>> 
>> Surely through, you approve of Kafkaesque caprice?  Imagine rules invented on the spot and immediately forgotten, paperwork which must follow paradoxical rules or face rejection, and behind it all the faint shrill laughter of a mad god...
>> 
>> ^(nb: not to consume energy fields larger than own head)

> **u/None** [+1]  (a day later)
> 
> >moderator discretion covers stuff like memes, copypasta, doxxing, harassment, removing porn adds, etc. I don't want an explicit rule against everything!
> 
> Just to note, Automoderator is mostly helping us to take care of porn ads and that sort of thing, but they do show up.  Hence the rules.

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