Malicious Compliance

Here are the r/Pics mods comments.

##Well, I'll be damned: r/PICS is NSFW now.

Hello yet again, /r/PICS!

A week ago, we asked everyone to refrain from offering anything NSFW in non-NSFW threads. This request was made in order to adhere to Reddit’s policies, which state that “content that contains nudity, pornography, or profanity […] should be tagged as NSFW.” Similar polices mandate that we are expected to “ensure people have predictable experiences on Reddit by properly labeling content […] that is graphic, sexually-explicit [sic], or offensive.”

Now, some people managed to restrain themselves by offering only vulgarity – terms like “shit” or “TikTok influencer” – which was great: The aforementioned policies do not say anything about vulgarity, after all, suggesting that Reddit views sentences like “That fucking choad is such a shit-headed, ass-piss-guzzling cunt!” as being completely work-safe. Unfortunately, we did also see a lot of profanity (which is terminology with religious or blasphemous connotations, like “What the hell was that example?” or “By the bloody nails of the cross, I hereby curse thee to ‘make a joyful noise’ whenever thou art proximate to one whose favor thou might seek!”). Moreover, there was a lot of content that could conceivably have offended someone.

We therefore have no choice but to mark the entire subreddit as being NSFW.

We really, really tried to avoid this. By marking /r/PICS as NSFW, we’re depriving Reddit of advertising revenue, and we feel awful about that: It’s a fast, drastic step that could adversely affect the site as a whole, and it’s being done without any input from our administrative counterparts. We did ask Reddit to communicate with us, but since no response was forthcoming, we’ve been forced to assume that a gargantuan monster has been terrorizing their headquarters. (Why else would they appear to be rushing out lackluster replacements for third-party tools, many of which have proved to be worse than nothing at all?)

Still, whether we’re dealing with an actual monster or just an anachronistic dinosaur, the point is that /r/PICS can’t wait any longer: We simply cannot risk NSFW content showing up in non-NSFW threads, so – in the immortal words of 17th-century philosopher Tuliddle Tulate – “No path remains but that of making the community NSFW… and on an unrelated note, Android-users can still make certain third-party applications work if they follow a few simple steps.”

He was rather ahead of his time.

Anyway, here are some things to keep in mind:

• Gore and pornography are still not allowed in /r/PICS.
• Remain civil toward one another.
• Do not violate the site-wide rules.
• This link directs back to this comment.
• It is normal to experience special feelings while looking at John Oliver.

Thank you for your attention!

You may now resume your regular John-Oliver-posting activities!

##(from 8 days ago) On The State of /r/PICS: Profanity, Offensive Content, and An Open Letter

Hello yet again, /r/PICS!

Things have never looked better (or sexier) here, have they? Honestly, the moderation team was a bit skeptical about only allowing media featuring John Oliver… but that’s what you voted for, and we have to admit that you were right to do so!

Unfortunately, it turns out that we overlooked a small problem.

According to Reddit’s policies, “content that contains nudity, pornography, or profanity […] should be tagged as NSFW.” While we did ask the community to tag anything even remotely NSFW, we’ve nonetheless seen a lot of swearing in non-NSFW threads. Since Reddit has officially stated that we are expected to “ensure people have predictable experiences on Reddit by properly labeling content […] that is graphic, sexually-explicit [sic], or offensive,” this democratic approach to tagging is putting the community in jeopardy. Additionally, since a distressingly large number of people have expressed that they are offended by the sight of John Oliver, we are forced to conclude that media featuring the man is regarded by some as “offensive.”

Now, we really, really don’t want to mark /r/PICS as being NSFW. Doing so would mean that we were no longer discoverable, that we would no longer show up in Reddit’s main feeds, and that millions of people would be deprived of John Oliver’s presence on their screens. It would also have the effect of keeping Reddit from showing advertisements alongside our posts, which we feel would be unfair. (After all, Reddit generously hosts our little community, and we’d hate to adversely affect them by making an immediate, detrimental change to that arrangement.) However, unless things here change, we may have no choice.

We therefore have two simple requests for you:

Please do not use any (a NSFW link follows this parenthetical) profanity in non-NSFW threads.

If you post anything that could possibly offend anyone, please tag it as being NSFW.

As we do not have time to put this to a vote (since Reddit is moving very quickly against communities that it deems to be problematic), we are pleading for all of /r/PICS to behave in a responsible manner. The continued inclusion of profanity or offensive content in non-NSFW threads will leave us with no option but to mark the entire subreddit as NSFW, which – as previously stated – we do not want to do.

Before we sign off, we want to address some potential concerns:

Q: Will making /r/PICS a NSFW subreddit result in the moderators being removed? A: ¯_(ツ)_/¯. Moderators were removed from communities that were “encouraging sexually explicit content,” and some were threatened with removal if they “incorrectly” marked communities as NSFW “as a form of protest.” /r/PICS has always mandated against pornography (and that will remain unchanged), but has allowed tasteful nudity, profanity, and content that might be defined as “offensive.” Therefore, /r/PICS will not be made NSFW as a form of protest: Any such change will be enacted in order to comply with Reddit’s policies. If Reddit were to remove moderators from /r/PICS, that action would go against their own publicly affirmed guidelines.

Q: Wait, is /r/PICS NSFW right now? A: No. We're just asking that if you have to post something NSFW, please tag it appropriately. Do not post pornography – that rule is unchanged – but ask yourself if you're offering either profanity or anything that could be construed as “offensive” by anyone.

Q: Can we still post media featuring John Oliver? A: Yes. However, again, please tag all submissions – be they posts or comments – appropriately.

Q: Do you – the moderators – have anything that you’d like to say directly to Reddit’s administrators? A: What an amazingly prescient question! Yes, in fact, we do have something to say. We’ll include it as a comment!

That’s all for now, folks! Thank you for making /r/PICS and Reddit great!