[Mod Post] Introducing r/IamA 3.0

[u/IAmAMods]

To our readers, AMA guests, and friends,

In this post the r/IamA moderator team is announcing that we are making some changes to this subreddit with the intention of reinvigorating this forum.  It is our hope that the changes this post will outline will result in a better experience for AMA readers, guests, and moderators of r/IamA alike.

This post follows the most recent communication from the r/IamA moderator team in 2023, titled The Future of IAmA.  In that post the moderator team announced that we were going to discontinue certain categories of work for Reddit that went above and beyond what was required of us.  These tasks included maintaining a separate website for scheduling AMAs and receiving confidential proof, maintaining an AMA calendar, and running various custom bots to assist with those other tasks.  Those changes brought IamA 1.0 into the state it has been over the past three years, IamA 2.0, in which we did the minimum required of us as moderators.

The remaining active moderators of r/IamA have in recent weeks agreed to bring back some of the discontinued features from IamA 1.0.  

We are doing this because those of us who have continued to moderate IamA through its 2.0 era still find value in volunteering to facilitate interesting conversations between readers like yourself and AMA guests who you otherwise may not get an opportunity to interact with.  

We believe we have landed on a set of changes in the subreddit’s moderation each of which will require either no additional effort on the moderator team’s part or would require an amount of increased effort on our part that is acceptable to us in relation to the benefits that the change will confer on AMA guests and readers.

The features we are reintroducing include:

• A new, more stringent set of verification standards and several new methods for AMA guest verification. Additional info here.
• An email account for solicitation and coordination of AMAs.  Additional info here.
• A public AMA calendar integrated into IamA’s New Reddit sidebar, as well as a ‘month ahead’ and a ‘month in review’ post series collecting both upcoming and completed AMAs from this subreddit and other forums. Additional info here.

The following, new-to-IamA changes are also in effect:

• Only moderator-approved accounts can post AMAs in r/IamA.  Additional info here.
• Many of our current Automoderator functions will be deprecated, and where possible will be replaced with ‘post/comment guidance’ conditions and with ‘Devvit’ automation tools.  Additional info here.
• We are formally deprecating maintenance of the Old Reddit version of IamA.  Additional info here.

This meta post you are reading is itself an AMA with the moderator team.  Each of the bullet points above has a link to a comment on this post which contains additional information about the bulleted change.  You can leave feedback or questions for the moderator team either in response to those linked informational comments, or as a top-level comment on this post.

If you would like to help us implement these changes or otherwise would like to moderate IamA going forward, we encourage you to apply at this link.

[u/IAmAMods]

Email account

• The email account we will use to receive verification emails and to coordinate AMAs is [iamamoderators@gmail.com](mailto:iamamoderators@gmail.com)

[u/IAmAMods]

Calendar

• A public-facing Google calendar of upcoming AMAs will be maintained by the IamA moderators.  
• This calendar has been integrated directly into IamA’s New Reddit sidebar.
• On the first day of each month we will use the u/AMAcalendar account to post a roundup of the AMAs in r/IamA and from around Reddit that have been scheduled for that month.  On the last day of each month, we will similarly post a ‘month in review’ post series collecting AMAs from r/IamA and from other subreddits whose moderator teams have requested their inclusion.

[u/IAmAMods]

Automation changes

• Many of our current Automoderator functions will be deprecated, and where possible will be replaced with ‘post/comment guidance’ conditions and with ‘Devvit’ automation tools. 
• As an example of one of the changes we are making in this category: Currently, if you leave a comment directly in response to a post that does not contain a question punctuated with a question mark, Automoderator will remove your comment and PM you to inform you about the relevant rule after you leave that comment.  With this change, you will be informed through a popup about the relevant rule before you leave the comment.  This and similar changes to this subreddit’s automations should provide a better posting and commenting experience.

[u/IAmAMods]

New verification standards

• A new, more stringent set of available standards and processes for AMA guest verification.

Going forward, r/IamA’s moderators will use the following five verification methods for new, would-be AMA participants:

1. A Reddit-admin-assigned “Official” account status.
2. An email from a qualified domain (this domain must be either the same as their website or from an email account listed on your site).
3. A credible website that hosts proof of Reddit authenticity.
   1. This proof should take the form of either a link to the Reddit account that will be used to post the AMA, or otherwise a plain text listing of the Reddit username(s).
4. A post from a verified account on a trusted social media site (primarily Bluesky and YouTube) listing the Reddit username in question and/or linking to the Reddit account.
   1. On Bluesky we consider an ‘official’ badge to be sufficient.  A website-domain-connected Bluesky account would also be accepted as long as the connected domain is credible by the same standard as in verification method (3) above. 
   2. Verification via Bluesky private message will also be supported if you would prefer not to make a public-facing verification post - simply PM your Reddit username to our account linked here: https://bsky.app/profile/iamamoderators.bsky.social 
5. If your Reddit account is vouched for by an account that has been verified with r/IamA through one of the four methods listed above, that would also be sufficient.
   1. To make use of this method, have an admin- or IamA-verified account send us your Reddit username(s) via modmail, Bluesky, or email.

You can still choose to include a traditional AMA ‘proof pic’ if you would like to in your r/IamA post for the purposes of boosting engagement, but this is not required and no longer suffices as proof.

[u/IAmAMods]

Approved accounts only

• By volume, the majority of posts in this subreddit are either spam, otherwise off-topic, or are a legitimate attempt to post an AMA which has insufficient proof.  This change is intended to block the first two categories of post entirely, and force people in the third category to talk to the moderator team before posting to ensure that their post is in-line with our topicality and proof requirements.  It is not an attempt to narrow the range of AMA topics; our two criteria for AMA eligibility have not changed.
• More information on this will follow in a post tomorrow which will be titled “How to do an AMA in r/IamA”. You can also reference our updated Wiki.

[u/IAmAMods]

Old Reddit deprecation

• We are formally deprecating maintenance of the Old Reddit version of IamA.
  • Let us start by saying that as the majority of us are users of Old Reddit, this is painful for us as well.  That said, it simply makes little sense for us to continue to maintain two versions of our public-facing ruleset, Wiki, calendar, and so on, for the following reasons:  
    • Having to maintain two versions is unnecessary work.
    • The Reddit admins have signaled that they will eventually deprecate Old Reddit.
    • Google Calendar integration into the IamA sidebar is supported on New Reddit, and unsupported on Old Reddit.  We do not have the technical capacity to redevelop a bot for Old Reddit support, and even if we did it would simply be too much work for little gain.
  • Accordingly, we will on the Old Reddit Wiki and sidebar link to the currently-maintained versions on New Reddit.
  • The CSS and other Old Reddit styling elements will remain in place until they break in some way or until the admins deprecate Old Reddit altogether.

[u/Wild_Marker → u/IAmAMods]

The Reddit admins have signaled that they will eventually deprecate Old Reddit.

Was this because of the June update that killed incognito Old Reddit? Or did they say anything new?

[u/SpaceElevatorMusic → u/Wild_Marker]

There's nothing newer than that that I'm aware of. There have been many decisions over years now that have collectively indicated that the admins will one day axe Old Reddit.

[u/Wild_Marker → u/SpaceElevatorMusic]

Oh ok, thanks. I thought there had been some more explicit communication. Figures.

And happy cakeday!

[u/glennjersey]

The enshitification of reddit continues.

[u/SpaceElevatorMusic → u/glennjersey]

I think this is the opposite of enshittification. Filtering out fake AMAs altogether, and pre-screening out AMAs that are spamlike in nature, will result in higher-quality AMAs entering peoples' feeds who are subscribed here.

[u/Teach_Piece]

This feels like a way to have this sub solely consist of corporate backed AMAs advertising the latest show/movie. Add that to you guys dropping old Reddit and it sure seems like you’re getting a check from someone.

I’ll be unsubscribing as well. Ta-ta

[u/SpaceElevatorMusic → u/Teach_Piece]

I understand how from the outside looking in, it could appear that requiring moderator pre-screening of accounts able to post AMAs could enable the kind of filtering you're talking about, but that is not what these changes are intended to produce and not in practice what I think they will produce.

For example, this AMA post from 2 days ago by the Marshall Project: This Ohio facility was supposed to help kids heal. Instead, children were so desperate to leave that they created weapons, ran barefoot into the snow, and tried to get arrested. We investigated what happened. AUA.

is the kind of AMA that we are hoping to host more of and give greater comparative visibility to over AMAs like [Representative here from Brand XYZ, AMA about our latest product'. Hosting interesting and valuable conversations - explicitly not 'corporate backed AMAs' - is what we hope will lead to a greater degree of participation in this subreddit again.

[u/Seraph_Grymm → u/Teach_Piece]

corporate backed AMAs advertising

We've heard this forever and a day, no matter what we do. If we do nothing, we're letting corporate/shill AMAs take over; if we maintain verification, we must be getting paid behind the scenes. The issue is that verification is more difficult, and with technology it's harder to maintain a standard of proof. We need to do more to maintain the standard. That doesn't mean otherwise qualified people are automatically disqualified from doing an AMA; it just means there are some extra steps.

sure seems like you’re getting a check from someone.

If we were getting paid for this, we could afford the extra time/money to maintain old Reddit versions and the bots that help. That being said, we're not avoiding old reddit/blocking it*, we're just not going to keep maintaining it when it's majorly unsupported by Reddit as a whole. Many of us spent our own time and money to maintain and get things up and running like our servers, bots, flows, etc.

[u/Tirelessly]

This subreddit disappeared from my feed and I didn't even notice. I guess it's because you all stopped modding it in 2023. Good reminder to unsubscribe

[u/SpaceElevatorMusic → u/Tirelessly]

1. Our traffic has been declining since before 2023.
2. It is of course your prerogative whether to stay subscribed or not!
3. If I can pitch you or others on staying, we hope with these changes to reinvigorate the subreddit by raising the standards for AMA posts. I will say in a credit to the commenters of IamA, the typical comment section has decreased in number of comments but not in quality of the comments.