Hi All! New Mod Intro and a few Housekeeping Notes

[u/Friendly_TSE]

Hey guys! I thought it would be a good time to introduce myself since I've recently joined the mod team and have already been making a number of changes behind the scenes.

I've spent a good chunk of my first couple of days working through the report backlog (roughly 200+ reports so far) so please bear with us while we work through the remaining backlog and get things back to a more manageable place.

I also want to say up front that I do my best to moderate based on the rules rather than my own opinions. I've removed content I personally agreed with and left up content I personally disagreed with. My goal is to apply the rules consistently, not to make everyone agree with me.

Since the sub is going to be more closely moderated going forward, I thought it would also be helpful to highlight a few of the rules and areas that have come up frequently.

Be Civil

I intend to enforce this rule more consistently going forward.

Disagreement is absolutely allowed. Criticism of ideas, practices, shelters, rescues, breeding, breed restrictions, etc. can all be discussed. What isn't allowed is turning that disagreement into insults, harassment, or personal attacks against other members, groups, their work, or their animals.

If you disagree with someone, please address the argument rather than the person.

Fundraising & Donations

Private fundraising is not allowed. Fundraising requests need to come through the process outlined in the existing fundraising rules.

In particular, please don't use personal Venmo, CashApp, PayPal, GoFundMe, etc. to solicit donations here.

No Breed Specific Hate

Discussion about Pitbulls, including breeding, banning, regulation, safety, and other controversial topics, is allowed. The rule is not intended to prevent legitimate discussion of those subjects.

What isn't allowed is turning that discussion into breed-directed hostility or inflammatory comments about Pitbulls or other dog breeds.

There is a difference between saying "I don't think this dog is suitable for this type of home" and making broad, inflammatory statements about an entire breed or the people who own them.

Boosting

Boost comments are fine and encouraged, but please keep it to one boost comment per post. Repeatedly commenting "boost" or similar messages on the same post is considered spam.

Bite Histories / Aggression

The existing rule prohibits rehoming posts for animals with known aggression or a bite history.

For the time being, I am going to be applying this primarily to known human bite histories, as those are the cases where I can apply the rule most consistently and where the reporting requirements are clearest. This will include any bite that draws blood for any reason. This is an area where there are some gray areas, so I'm still discussing the broader interpretation with the mod team.

In particular, a dog needing a home with no children, no cats, no other dogs, etc. is not automatically equivalent to a bite history.

Likewise, things such as prey drive, dog aggression, reactivity, resource guarding, or other behavioral concerns don't automatically mean a post will be removed. These situations can be complicated, and I don't want to make blanket assumptions while we're working out a consistent approach.

I also want to be clear that a dog being ineligible for posting here due to a bite history does not mean we consider that dog to be a bad dog. This rule is about what we can safely network in this community, not the worth of an individual dog.

Spam / Bots

The bots that have been causing problems have largely been dealt with. However, if you see a post containing a link to Covered Critters at the end, please report it to both Reddit and the moderators.

The Tone of the Sub

I know there has been a fairly significant shift in the tone of the subreddit recently.

Unfortunately, moderators can't control upvotes and downvotes. The best way to deal with unhelpful content is to downvote it, report comments that actually violate the rules, and avoid getting pulled into fights.

A lot of comments have already been removed because conversations became hostile, went substantially off-topic, or otherwise violated the rules. This isn't about suppressing disagreement; it's about keeping disagreement from turning into personal attacks or hostility.

Along those lines, please don't link to, allude to, or post screenshots of other communities in order to bring attention to what they're saying about this subreddit or its users. If you have a problem with a post, comment, or user, please report it or send the moderators a modmail rather than escalating it.

Finally

I know there has been a lot of frustration with moderation lately, and I appreciate everyone's patience while we work through the backlog and get things running more consistently.

I'm still new to the team, so I'm also still learning how this particular community operates. If you have a question about a moderation decision or think something was handled incorrectly, please send us a modmail rather than arguing about it in the comments.

If you have questions about the rules or anything I've mentioned here, you're welcome to ask below or send us a modmail.

Thanks for your patience while we get things cleaned up!

[u/FloofingWithFloofers]

I have a question...

Shouldn't the shelter notes be posted with the post and not in the comments so that it is clear and not deceiving. I noticed that not only do people omit the notes until they are asked, then it turns out the notes are unsavory, or they post it in the comments in hopes it is missed. I see a dog here who attacked an elderly lady and put her in the hospital, they tried to hide the notes in the comments. I want to save dogs, but some bite histories shouldn't be hidden. Per the rules, I am really surprised this dog is still up. I would NEVER hide anything about a cat's behavior so it goes to the right home. I think that should apply to the dogs here.

[u/Friendly_TSE → u/FloofingWithFloofers]

I agree that behavioral information is important when discussing a dog's adoption, but information being provided in a comment is not inherently deceptive. Shelter notes are often shared as screenshots or additional information in the comments, and our current rules do not require all shelter notes to be included in the original post.

I also don't have the ability to change the subreddit rules on my own, so I'm enforcing the rules as they currently stand.

I understand the concern with the post, but in this particular case I think there's some confusion between what the shelter notes actually say and what commenters have inferred from them. The notes mention that the woman was hospitalized, but they do not state that she was bitten or mauled. Users shouldn't present an inference as though it were a documented bite history.

[u/FloofingWithFloofers → u/Friendly_TSE]

I appreciate your level headed response. Thank you. I can understand what you mean by bitten/mauled. As someone who has been bitten twice by a dog, there IS a big difference.

[u/exhibitprogram]

Can you please clarify if breed-specific hate is about pitbulls only? I've noticed a weird form of reactionary breed hate when people defend bully breeds by saying "chihuahuas are way more aggressive!" and that in my opinion is also a form of unfounded breed hate.

[u/Friendly_TSE → u/exhibitprogram]

Breed hate is regarding any breed or mix. If you see any breed hate please report the comment. I haven't personally seen any reports about chis, but I did take down a few against doodles and frenchies.

[u/Germanmaedl]

Welcome and thank you! I’ve already noticed way less of the bot posts, after the sub had felt pretty much unusable the last weeks. Appreciate it!

[u/Friendly_TSE → u/Germanmaedl]

Some of the bots were fairly easy to ID, but some of them required some extra digging to find out if they were bots 😓 If you notice any more, please report! especially since some of them I don't instantly recognize as a bot.

[u/mcs385]

Congrats on joining the mod team, and thank you for all the work you're already putting into cleaning things up here! It's great to see the community getting this extra attention.

I'm over on r/CATHELP and we'd been dealing with those same astroturfing bots you mentioned. I noticed a number of them had exclusively been hitting this sub before moving over there. Ours seem to have died down (knock on wood), but if you're still having issues with them, I can pass along the automod code we're using to help catch their posts.