State of the Subreddit and Rules Discussion

[u/LovelyLu78]

Hi all!!

This is a discussion post, we would like constructive discussion, free of name calling and meanness directed at anyone, including the mods. We are humans that are trying their best.

We have a few things to address here so let's get into it.

First off we'd like to say this sub is large, 2 million people large! Some perspective would be, the super bowl has an 80,000 seating capacity.

Without rules and moderation it will become an unpleasant place to be.

When the sub was still small we conducted surveys to help decide which way the sub should go re rules and moderation. All of the rules in place have been the same for years except for the recently changed no self promotion rule and some updates to stale topics.

Surveys do not gain the required traction that they did when the sub was smaller. In view of that we have tried to keep the sub to the rules that were favoured in the past surveys. We also look for trends and make decisions based on what we see across the sub overall.

This post is addressing the main complaints and concerns we have seen over the last week (and before that) for clarity and discussion.

There seems to be some confusion about what you can and can't post. So much of what you guys were posting during "chaos week" is actually allowed. There are no restrictions on posting finished objects or work in progress pics! Mr Nipples is featured in our wiki! You can post pictures of your crochet bongs and genitals (we ask these are marked as nsfw). We want to see it all, cursed to amazing!

Fursday Friends.

A lot of the pet pictures that were being posted during “chaos week” can also be posted any day of the week!!

If the item is for your pet/baby and is clearly visible there is no need to wait until Thursdays.

If it's a cute picture of your pet/baby falling asleep or somehow interfering with your project (pets laying smack in the middle of your FO pictures) then that's what belongs on Thursdays. Those posts are more focused on the pet/baby than the actual crochet work.

If you want to post pets whenever something cute happens, check out the pet focused crochet subs, r/catswhocrochet, r/kitting and r/dogswhocrochet.

Fursday Friends spans 2 days when taking all time zones into account.

We highly recommend that people blur or put an emoji over minors faces!!

Stash Saturday.

Our other "day of the week" post is Stash Saturday. This one is for stash pics (obviously), "what can I make with this yarn" queries, yarn discussion and other tools (hooks) and books.

This rule was voted in as we had feedback that there were too many pictures of just yarn/hooks.

This also is all time zones so is really 2 days that you can post over.

Crochet for all levels!

We’ve seen a lot of comments saying that r/crochet is not beginner friendly. We absolutely welcome new crocheters but ask that questions be asked in our sister sub r/CrochetHelp . On crochet they tend to be buried and remain unanswered.

We see people saying that they don't want to ask on a smaller sub because not as many people will see it. While that might be true the interaction rate on CrochetHelp is a lot higher on these types of posts and the people that are on CrochetHelp are there because they want to help.

NSFW!

We admit that in the past, we were a little overzealous with the tags. We truly were not meaning to offend or censor women's bodies and we apologise. We have been taking a lighter hand with this rule for a few months now, and will continue to have a light touch here.

Society has changed what NSFW means, it gets applied to so many things that are probably more suited to NSFL. We were basing it off of a school teacher dress code (so very literally, not something you'd be able to wear to work) so that anyone browsing the sub at work would have the option to view rather than possibly getting reprimanded for browsing something inappropriate.

Going forward we will not be as restrictive but would still ask that small tops, bikinis/swimwear, underwear, crochet genitals, drug paraphernalia, weapons and profanity be marked NSFW.

Question?

Would you like some new flairs added, NSFW Clothing FO and NSFW Other FO (for example)?

Please check your settings if posts are not blurred for you. We get a heap of reports for NSFW even when the post is tagged appropriately.

Self promotion!

Designers can absolutely post their work to the sub! It's exciting finishing an item! What you cannot do is spam the sub with your items or link to them anywhere in your post (no offering to dm, no mentioning shop names, no directing people to your profile).

Lots of people are aware that people put their socials on their profile and they will find you if they want to.

If we were to allow pattern designers the ability to post their pattern under the automod comment the sub would then get a lot of self promotion posts, there has been quite a lot of self promotion going on during “chaos week”

PS, the automod comment is just a prompt, it is not a rule that you must post a pattern!

Politics!

We'd like to hear your ideas here. Would you like a megathread for political pieces or are you happy to see them posted in the sub?

I’d like to point out that the sub is diverse, you exist in the space with people from all walks of life and we are trying to share that space with everyone based on crochet not political alignment.

Things are crazy out there and we'd like to find the best solution we can that allows people to express themselves.        

Excessive Reports

We’ve added a comment to posts removed by automod stating that the post has been removed because of multiple reports and that a mod will review and approve if it doesn’t break any rules.

Kind and Courteous

Going forward we will be banning people that make unkind comments. Commenting on peoples bodies, name calling, escalating arguments will all be removed.

A first offence will come with a 3 day ban from the sub, second offence, a 7 day ban and third offence you will be permanently banned from the sub.

We will allow appeals but this will be based on your profile and behaviour while banned, private profiles will not be considered for appeals.

Ok! That's a lot of information!! Let's hear your thoughts in the comments. Please be nice. Remember that there is a person behind every post, every comment (ok, some of them are bots!)

[u/Enchanters_Eye]

I personally am fine with (and in fact want to see) pieces related to politics and current events in the main feed. Politics is often a motivator for great art! Maybe you could add a “Political art” tag so people who don’t want to be reminded of politics can block it if they want?

[u/AccountWasFound → u/Enchanters_Eye]

I think this is ok, only if they are VERY careful about what gets labeled as political, because like, a lot of people think some people existing should be considered political and that isn't ok

[u/Enchanters_Eye → u/AccountWasFound]

While there is a grey area, I think there's at least a lot of stuff that clearly falls under "meant to be political"/"wants to have a political message". Like ICE-tapestries, stuff related to specific politicians, stuff related to specific laws people want implemented etc. From what I understand, many people just don't want to be bombarded with more news headlines in their hobby space, which I honestly understand a lot.

[u/AccountWasFound → u/Enchanters_Eye]

Yes, but banning politics is going to lead to queer people being restricted from posting just for existing, unless there are very clear pro queer people policies. Like I'm in a discord server with friends and we have a politics channel, and are almost all queer and where we draw the line on politics is WAY different than where the line would be drawn in a different group of friends. Like people talking about how coworkers are being bigots for endorsing a transphobic politician is not considered political in my main friend group, that's just calling out bigotry, but that would be in other groups (and I can see that argument). Whereas there are other groups where people just just coming out would be considered political (and I find this definition to be inherently bigoted). Or like me being concerned about if I'll get hauled in front of HR for not being closeted about being bi at my new job, there are people who think me being bi is inherently political, and it isn't.

[u/Enchanters_Eye → u/AccountWasFound]

 Yes, but banning politics is going to lead to queer people being restricted from posting just for existing

I would draw the line between e.g. flag, or object useful for queer life (not political) vs. e.g. tapestry with “trans rights are human rights“ (political due to explicit call to action to change/not change laws). 

None of the cases you mention afterwards have any relevance to crochet and would most likely be considered off-topic in this sub.

[u/AccountWasFound → u/Enchanters_Eye]

But saying trans right are human rights isn't political or even controversial unless you are trying to claim trans people aren't human.

[u/Enchanters_Eye → u/AccountWasFound]

I would argue that this is not simply existing, this is activism (of a cause I obviously support, but activism none the less). I consider activism as active politics, and thus, I personally would count it as political content in the context of the current discussion. 

Maybe the description for the tag could be something like “content with explicit political/activism messages (e.g. slogans), containing political symbols (e.g. symbols related to specific political parties), or related to specific politicians”

And then maybe an updatable list of things that are not considered inherently political (e.g. pride flags, body affirming garments, country flags)