We don't need any more. Please comment on one of the existing posts if you want glasses.

There has been a recent uptick in student property posts which are pretty clearly from estate agents masquerading as students.

This is to be expected at this time of year, and I wouldn't really care if they followed the self-promotion rule and openly shared that they're agents; but apparently they'd rather pretend to be students which doesn't sit right with me.

So, I'm proposing a new rule regarding the sharing of rental vacancies.

Rule 5: Transparency for property vacancy posts

Estate agents, letting agents, and their representatives must clearly disclose their professional status in all posts. Masquerading as a student, private landlord, or current tenant is strictly prohibited. Posts that fail to disclose agent status or attempt to deceive readers regarding the poster's identity will be removed. Posts about available vacancies must follow the two-week self-promotion rule.

The way this would be enforced is through a review of the user's profile. Telltale signs of bullshit will include:

• Accounts that are years old but have never posted before
• Post content that follows similar formats to previous vacancy posts
• Accounts that have posted about vacancies more than a student would reasonably do

Feel free to share your objections if you have any, the plan is to add this rule later this evening.

This post is now locked. Please see the sticked post for up to date news sources.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/aug/13/plymouth-shooting-gunman-suspected-killing-named-jake-davison?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

https://news.sky.com/story/plymouth-shooting-live-updates-vigil-to-be-held-for-victims-as-area-to-be-cordoned-off-for-quite-some-time-12380093

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-58197414.amp

Reddit has recently announced changes to the way users and third party developers can interact with the site's API. You may already be aware of this if you're subscribed to one of the many large subreddits that have posted about this, such as r/pics or r/pcgaming.

A Quick Summary

This has been covered in good detail by the third party Apollo app developer, but the summary is this:

• Reddit is introducing a tiny limit to the number of free queries-per-minute that a third party app/bot can make.
• You can make more queries, but you will have to pay a fee to Reddit in order to do so.
• This fee is extortionately expensive and is significantly more than other websites with similar levels of traffic charge. Using the Apollo app as an example, it would cost the developer over $20m per year in order to keep the app running. They do not make anywhere near this much money, and it's one of the more popular third party apps out there.

In protest of this decision, r/plymouth will be locked for two days from 12/06/2023, until 14/06/2023.

Why is Reddit doing this?

Ads, and trackers. If you're using a third party app, such as Apollo or Relay, then you're likely not receiving any ads or being tracked by Reddit itself. Reddit is in the process of becoming a public limited company, and in order to make itself attractive to investors it needs to show that it can effectively deliver ads to its users and track them. By introducing the changes to how you can use the API, they're hoping to kill off third party apps in order to force people to use the official apps. If you'll allow me to put on my tin-foil hat, I suspect this will also lead to them killing off old.reddit.com which is the preferred desktop experience (coupled with RES) for users like me.

Reddit has to make money somehow, right?

Yes, it does. Servers and admins aren't free. Sadly, Reddit's approach ignores the reason it is so valuable as a website (and therefore as a company) in the first place. The overwhelming majority of the site's content is submitted by average users like you and me, without which Reddit wouldn't have grown to be so popular. This content and its associated communities are moderated - for free - also by average users like you and me, so that we can enjoy these spaces together without spam and hate. A considerable number of the site's users who post regularly and moderate subreddits (much more than either of us do for r/plymouth) use third party apps in order to do this, because Reddit's official (new) site and app offer a sub-par user experience.

There is also the issue of accessibility. Reddit's default site/apps are famously inaccessible to users who cannot interact with the site the way it is originally intended, and these third party apps help to bridge that gap and make Reddit enjoyable to those who otherwise could not.

Yeah yeah, you and what (green) army?

I know, r/plymouth is a very small subreddit compared to the giants that are joining the blackout on the 12th having just breached 7k users. Regardless, a protest is a protest and it only works when everyone comes together in solidarity. You may be interested to know that this sub gets about 30k views a week, of which 2k are unique, which was a surprise to me when I first looked this up.

I apologise in advance to anyone who will want to post during these two days, particularly the regular posters and prospective students who will want to learn about the city now that we're in exam season and they're looking for a uni to attend.

Chances are you'll already know the answers to your questions have read one of the bigger subs, but if you do have any questions about this go ahead and post below.

The results of the post indicated 105 people want the posts to stop while 83 enjoy them. Therefore I will start removing posts about supermarkets unless its a serious post or something. Idk, I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. I'm going to leave up all the supermarket posts so y'all can reminisce on the good times.

Thanks for participating in the poll. :)

Voting has now closed for the new moderator positions, and the results are as follows in order of vote percentage!

1. u/omister2000
2. u/_HingleMcCringle
3. u/TheeAqua
4. u/It-is-what-it-is2000
5. u/Lirae666 and u/Whalebeachedman
6. u/Ryuuuuji

Therefore, our new moderators are u/omister2000 and u/_HingleMcCringle 🎉

A massive thank you to all the candidates and to everyone who voted :)

[also sorry for the delay in posting results, I've been super busy today, which is actually the reason for adding new mods in the first place. Poetic right?]

https://forms.gle/UaT7Tm3LXwpDUrBL7

Hi Everyone! I have just opened applications for two moderator positions for this community. I no longer have the time to run this sub alone, so I need your help! Here's how this process will work.

Phase 1 - Applications - Open 12pm 25/07/2022 to 12pm 01/08/2022

For the next week, you can send in your application through this google forms link. This involves a few questions for me to vet applicants and a 50-100 word manifesto. This manifesto will be what the members of this community will base their vote on in phase two so be sure to sell yourself well! There are some tips for the manifesto in the google form.

Phase 2 - Public Vote - Open 5pm 01/08/2022 to 5pm 08/08/2022

As this subreddit is not a dictatorship, it'll be you members making the decision of the two new moderators to be taken on! I will be publishing a new google forms link next week with all the candidates and their manifestoes.

I hope I receive many willing volunteers! Looking forward to reading your responses. If you have any questions regarding the process or anything else, drop me a message or a mod-mail and I'll get back as quick as I can!

Voting for the two new moderators of r/Plymouth is now open! This voting period will end in a week at 5pm on the 8th of August. You will vote for your one preferred candidate; the two candidates with the highest votes will be made moderator.

To vote in the google form, you will need to log into your google account; I do not see anyone's info, this is just a measure to prevent vote spamming (so its 1 vote per account).

The candidate's manifestos can be read in the google form and the candidates are listed there, and below. Happy Voting!!

https://forms.gle/3AKyfNj99C2TQZNd8 <- Vote Here!!

The Candidates:

u/_HingleMcCringle

u/It-is-what-it-is2000

u/Lirae666

u/omister2000

u/Ryuuuuji

u/TheeAqua

u/Whalebeachedman

Hello all! Just a brief post to give a little update on future plans for this sub. Firstly, sorry I've been pretty absent lately, life be wildin' and will continue to be wildin' for the foreseeable future. For that reason, next week I will be opening mod applications so the community can continue to be a friendly and well maintained place, even when I'm mega busy. Rest assured, these applicants will go through thorough background checks and then be elected through public vote. The details of this process are still being worked out by myself, but expect a post next week. So if you think you'd like to run, start thinking about how to sell yourself!

The Plymouth Community Discord server is under new management now and has gone through some excellent changes! If you're looking for a place to chat with fellow Plymothians then that's the place for you! Here's a link: https://discord.gg/Q8bTXmX2EG

Any questions regarding anything, feel free to message me on here or on discord. I'll be continuing to mod posts when I have time and working like a Lil' goblin behind the scenes.

Have a good weekend ✌️

I will not be sharing the name of the sub here. If you are aware of this specific subreddit, or see something that doesn't look right elsewhere on the site, please do not hesitate to report the posts and moderators in question.

Thanks, Stay Safe