Moderation changes in /r/php

TL/DR:

• the main moderator left, new moderators have been added
• we plan on clarifying rules of /r/php (see below)
• rules will actually be enforced: use the report button!
• this is a 3-month trial

Hello /r/php

Over the past months, there have been several discussions on the state of this subreddit, which many of you participated in. It became clear that the only active moderator at the time was /u/jtreminio, who themselves weren’t interested in continuing doing so. Consequently, /u/jtreminio reached out to a few people who were interested in helping out. /u/mnapoli was given moderator access, who in turn asked, /u/brendt_gd, for help.

In this thread we want to discuss the current vision and goal of /r/php, shed some light on the existing rules, and most importantly ask for your feedback. It’s the community that allows this subreddit to exist, so we think it’s essential that these kinds of conversations and changes are discussed in the open.

Our vision

/u/brendt_gd and I discussed our own vision on /r/php, and would like to hear yours. We’re proposing some changes to the rules — which we’ll discuss here first.

We want /r/php to be a reflection of the modern PHP community, with all its strengths and differences. We think that respecting each other’s differences is absolutely a must. We want /r/php to be a place known in the wider PHP community as a place where informative discussions happen, and where quality PHP content across the web is shared.

As already stated by the rules, /r/php is not a support group for people with PHP problems, and we will take close care that this, and all other rules, are followed.

We believe that moderation and quality management isn’t only the task of a few moderators. We ask you, the community, to help improve /r/php by having respectful discussions, and properly using the tools Reddit provides: up and down votes should be used to indicate whether posts are relevant to the subreddit, not to express your own opinion; and the report functionality should be used to indicate posts that break the rules. We will actually follow up on these reports, something that has often lacked in the past.

We know in advance nothing will be perfect. We are not looking for perfect rules, we want to start by improving things step by step. We have some rules that work already, let’s adjust what doesn’t and figure the rest along the way.

Future plans

After a 2 week discussion in this thread, we’ll make the changes to the rules listed below. Mind you: we can still make changes to them, based on your feedback.

/u/brendt_gd and I agreed to invest some of our free time to moderate this subreddit for the next three months, and will evaluate afterward, both internally, as well as with the community. We might open a call for new mods to help out or replace us, or we continue the work. It’ll all depend on this three months period.

Changes to the rules

• 1. No direct, personal attacks

Before: Do not attack anyone personally. Criticisms, strong language, and even insults about a person’s work are allowed, but attacking a person’s character or calling them insulting names is not permitted.

After: Do not attack anyone personally. Criticisms and strong language about a person’s work are allowed, but attacking a person’s character or calling them insulting names is not permitted.

Changed: insulting a person’s work is no longer allowed, as it conflicts with the next rule: “Remain civil”.

• 2. Remain civil

The line where a heated discussion becomes uncivil is not always clear, but moderators have discretion to remove comment chains where personal attacks, insults, or excessive profanity come to the forefront. Avoid petty bickering, and you’ll be fine.

This rule is unchanged.

• 3. Excessive self-promotion renamed to No spam or low-effort content

Before: It is okay to post links to your own content, but be sure that this is not primarily what you are doing. Engage the PHP community on a larger scale by commenting on others’ posts, linking to content made by others, etc. If your purpose in using /r/PHP is primarily to draw attention to your own work, we’re not interested.

After: Spam and low-effort content is not allowed and will be removed. Judging whether a post is spam/low-effort is based on community input, which is a combination of: reports, upvotes/downvotes and comments. It is okay to post links to your own content, as long as the community finds it valuable. On Reddit, the community will tell you with upvotes and downvotes: take it into account. Posts that have low scores will be considered as “spam” and removed.

Changed: We want to explicitly address spam. We also want to leave more room for the community to moderate itself: removing content should be based on what the community likes/dislikes.

• 4. No help posts (not including discussion) renamed to No help posts

Before: /r/PHP is not a support subreddit. Please visit /r/phphelp for help, or connect to ##php on Freenode IRC (nickserv registration required). A good rule of thumb is that if you’re asking how to do something, instead of why something’s done, or how to better do what you’re already doing, you’re probably asking for support.

After: /r/PHP is not a support subreddit. Visit /r/phphelp or StackOverflow for help. A good rule of thumbs: posts about a problem specific to you are not allowed, but posts and questions that benefit the community and/or encourage insightful discussions are allowed.

Changed: Send users to StackOverflow instead of Freenode. We clarified which questions/posts are not allowed to encourage discussions benefiting the community.

• 5. No memes

Before: Meme/image macro posts are generally considered low-quality/no-content. Please refrain from post them

After: Meme/image posts are generally considered low-quality/no-content. Please refrain from posting them.

• 6. Google your title renamed to Avoid duplicates

Before: Some topics are so well-covered that they’re frustrating to see asked over and over again.

After: Some topics are so well-covered that they’re frustrating to see asked over and over again. Avoid posting content or asking questions that have already been covered in the last months. Here is a search template you can copy-paste in Google to search on /r/php: site:reddit.com/r/php your post title.

Moderators should support the community, not drive it. This is why we consider 2 categories of rules:

• Hard rules are rules 1 and 2. These rules will be strictly enforced, no exceptions.
• Soft rules are rules 3, 4, 5, and 6. These rules will be applied unless the community decides otherwise: for example posts violating these rules that have more than 5 upvotes will not be removed.

Repeated rule violations will lead to users being banned:

1. As a first step, moderators must warn the user.
2. If the user continues violating rules, they will be banned for 90 days.
3. If necessary, moderators can also ban users permanently.

Please use this thread to discuss these changes, ask questions, and provide feedback.