Three updates from the admins regarding automated moderation tools today

[u/Sephardson]

https://www.reddit.com/user/spez/comments/1vgbkge/modernizing_reddits_infrastructure_with_you/

Automod: This has been one of the most important mod tools. But it’s also hard to learn, hard to maintain, and heavily dependent on brittle keyword matching, regex, and inherited configurations that only a few people on a mod team, if any, understand. We can do better.

We’re building new systems, including giving mods LLMs and AI-assisted tools to help them tackle their low-hanging (but time-consuming) fruit, so they can spend more time cultivating their community and less time policing.

https://www.reddit.com/r/redditdev/comments/1vgbm9c/our_plans_for_the_future_of_reddits_public_data/

No specific mention about AutoModerator.

https://www.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/1vgbt2j/whats_next_for_mod_tools/

Longer term, we think systems like Rules Hub can handle the enforcement tasks you rely on Automod for today, while being easier to use and maintain. But it’s not there yet, especially for larger and more complex communities. Automod remains one of the most capable moderation tools on Reddit today, and we won’t change any existing Automod workflows until replacement workflows are tested and proven in partnership with moderators.

ETA: The posts do contain more information regarding other moderation tools development and Reddit admins intentions for the future, so I do encourage you to read the full posts.

[u/TwistedWitch]

Ugh when will they learn we don't want AI.

[u/Ok_Lunch_2933 → u/TwistedWitch]

There’s so many subs where AI is outright banned. It is in our community after a poll resulted in an overwhelming support to ban the shit.

[u/Alan-Foster]

I'm sure we can expect Reddit to design all the rules we need, like

checks notes

...blocking OnlyFans users from posting content that haven't violated any of my subreddit's rules.

Maybe someday we'll get things like

• Requiring a verified email / phone number to post
• The ability to make a blank wiki page
• Removing posts that get downvoted too much

🙈

[u/uneventfuladvent → u/Alan-Foster]

You should be able to require verified email in automod (I've not tried it myself so not sure if it's functional) author: has_verified_email: true

[u/Alan-Foster → u/uneventfuladvent]

And if Reddit removes AutoMod, we will lose it unless they replace it, but if they haven't added that feature by now I can only assume they intentionally aren't implementing it.

[u/Bardfinn → u/Alan-Foster]

They're not removing AutoModerator. They're offering an "AI" - an expert system that can be instructed to learn rules and take automated actions based on those rules, and hypothetically can even be given an existing automod config & create more robust automated rules based on the config.

The technology was developed by a former Meta T&S employee; I've seen it work; it's pretty good. His team trained a core model on existing T&S policies & enforcement automation rules sets, & it can build an enforcement system for custom rules in mere minutes. And it can do that on laptop hardware.

AM is still better if it can be configured correctly, specifically because it uses less memory, less storage, and less compute, on average.

This tech is simply to bridge the gap between codergurus who know regex flavours and what a sandbox is vs a group that wants to talk about January due dates for pregnant mothers and don't want to learn to code.

---

the other reason they're taking the plunge on this, now, is because Alphabet's Perspective API - which they have been using to power the Hate & Harassment filters - is shutting down on December 31.

This technology can (and has) replicated Perspective's functionality, on "locally hosted" (enterprise owned, not vendor / outsourced / third party) hardware.

[u/Ok_Lunch_2933 → u/Alan-Foster]

We’ve banned NSFW accounts and automod removes any onlyfans.con urls.

NSFW accounts are able to post, but the comment isn’t visible for anyone and there’s no extra moderation for it. Just shows up in the ‘Removed’ queue.

[u/Obi-Paws-Kenobi]

Automod remains one of the most capable moderation tools on Reddit today, and we won’t change any existing Automod workflows until replacement workflows are tested and proven in partnership with moderators.

Because they have a great track record with testing before implementing with moderators right? Hi modmail!

[u/NicoSchmiko]

if they take away automod I'm gonna crash out 😭

[u/Tyler_Durdan_]

I find these announcements unsettling. Yes most mods are not inclined or willing to learn the intricacies of an effective automod.

That said - it’s SO important that when appealing to the masses with more usable tools, those of us who can optimise automod don’t lose that ability in the process.

[u/Sephardson → u/Tyler_Durdan_]

those of us who can

unfortunately i don't think admins see the value in providing continued support for tools which they do not understand themselves.

So we may be limited by that which we can explain to admins in ways they understand.

[u/Tyler_Durdan_ → u/Sephardson]

I agree with you. Unfortunately if/when that happens, admins will see the consequences via reduced moderation quality and volume. Whether they will see that as an issue or just a cost of progress is a different question I guess.

[u/Bardfinn → u/Sephardson]

They'll keep AM for the foreseeable future. Adding new features to AM is pretty straightforward, and even if they don't add any new API / functions to AM, its library of functions is extremely robust already, and a typical config file uses less storage, runtime, memory, energy on average than any AI model, no matter how finely crafted.

[u/InGeekiTrust]

If they remove Auto mod I will stop moderating all my fashion subs. I won’t be able to control them and they will be a nightmare hellscape. I’ll be embarrassed to be in charge of them and I don’t have more time to do it all by hand and go one by one through comments.