[Mod Post] r/MarvelStudiosSpoilers moderator comments to Redditor feedback
Data from the poll! (direct link) →
“Something Something Madisynn” – Anonymous r/MarvelStudiosSpoilers Subscriber #1
We read through all your feedback and criticisms from the poll last month (even the comment above) and we are here to open up a discussion about how we as Reddit moderators can proceed to make this a better subreddit for you and the 360,000 other weekly users who on average review the sub 3.3 times a day. We will be in the comments below engaging with you all and answering questions as they pop up.
After reviewing your comments, we must first say thank you. The majority of you are happy with the current state of the sub and our moderation. We received uplifting comments such as “Best moderated sub on Reddit!”, “Best sub on Reddit! Keep up the great work and thank you”, “This subreddit has enhanced my Marvel fan experience a lot in the last 3 years”, and “This sub is always my first stop on Reddit and the mod team does a superb job”. To you and the many others who sent us thoughtful kind words we say Thank You. It’s because of you that we put in the effort to run this Sub. But it goes without saying that some of you are disappointed with us, such as the individuals who said, “Reddit mods are scum” and “stop being idiots.” We are listening and we know there are many areas in which we can improve. We hope through this forum we can make our community a better place and safe haven for all Marvel fans who want to know more about what is to come in the MCU.
Posts – What is and is not allowed
“I hope you take into account my answers.” – Anonymous r/MarvelStudiosSpoilers Subscriber #2
Yes, we heard you Subscriber #2. And as such we want to get to the point on one of the subjects you and many others brought up. This topic is rather broad as it is with respect to what posts should be approved from the mod queue. So, let’s break it down into a couple subcategories. The first is posts with comments by actors. Many of you say that what an actor thinks about reprising their role or “some inconsequential quote from an actor” should not be allowed. You say that there should be “less posts about an actor saying something very vague and taken out of context.”
We agree. And we do admit that we have been a little lax as of recently. An actor asking to join the MCU is just wishful thinking. And as we know the actors themselves in many cases don’t even know when they will return. These don’t fit the sub and in many situations moving forward will be left for discussion on other subreddits or in our Free Talk Threads. We do, however, think that some posts are important as they could be indicative of a potential change in the MCU’s future. Such as Iger taking over Disney and how they may lead to changes at Marvel Studios, Chris Hemsworth detecting an Alzheimer’s gene and him scaling back as an actor, or an actor’s death are all examples of reasonable posts suited for this sub and will continue to be allowed. News is allowed on the subreddit, as long as it pertains to something that can change the course of the MCU.
The next subcategory to discuss when it comes to post approvals is that of questionable sources and rumors. We received many thoughts on this subject, and they are across the board on both ends of the spectrum. Here are some thoughts from you:
- “Only confirmed and relevant info should be allowed.”
- “All rumors should be approved. Literally all of them. Discussion/creativity is more important than reliability.”
- “Less of the questionable sources”
- “I love… 4chan and other plot leaks which [are] definitely fake but a fun read.”
- “I wish there was more fake leaks on the sub. There’s this weird mindset that we should only have the most trusted sources on here but even our most trusted end up getting major things wrong. It’s just the nature of the beast. I think more fake shit should be approved”
- “I’d like to see more unsubstantiated rumors, as I really enjoy the conversation here sometimes, and they’re fun to speculate on”
Our opinions on 4chan are rather strong and we don’t want the toxicity of that environment to spill over onto this sub. Which is why links to them are banned. But we accept posts with the text to be submitted with the “4Chan” flair. Feel free to continue to submit these types of posts.
What are your thoughts about rumors? Should all leaks from all sources not on the banned list be allowed? Even if they haven’t been assigned an accuracy tier? This question is hard to answer, even for us. We think that rumors, as long as they are not expressed as speculation or theory, should be allowed from all non-banned sources. We do filter through many random twitter leakers who don’t seem to have a stage presence yet, but we will start to allow more twitter accounts to have their leaks shared and let you decide if you want to trust them when we vote quarterly on banning sources.
“The subreddit called MARVEL STUDIOS SPOILERS not Sony spoilers” – Anonymous r/MarvelStudiosSpoilers Subscriber #3
While the Subreddit is titled “Marvel Studios” we have since branched in accepting leaks to all Marvel-related projects that release via the theater or on streaming platforms. Therefore we will continue to allow Sony Marvel spoilers as well as spoilers from any other Marvel product like we did when Fox was around.
Trolls in the Comments
Moving onto another subject is our moderation of the comment section. A few of your comments read:
- “[There should be] zero tolerance for people who troll, complain about the MCU product, and are misogynist, racist, homophobic, and xenophobic.
- “Please be much more assertive in removing troll comments”
- “There is over saturation of content now and people love to hate marvel after this year's content but can we somehow bring [back the magic]?”
We wish that we were all-seeing and able to remove every trolling comment, but we are not The Watcher. We will continue to do our best to remove and ban trolls as we see them. We would also like your help in this effort. If you see something you do not think is appropriate in the comment sections, please report the comment. This is the easiest way to bring a problem to our attention. Along with this please don’t engage with the trolls and try to bait them into saying something.
Moderator Critiques
“I like to see when the mods comment with their own input on posts, agreeing or disagreeing with the content of the post because of info they have that we don’t have yet” – Anonymous r/MarvelStudiosSpoilers Subscriber #4
We enjoy engaging with you and expressing our fan theories as well. But we are aware that at times this comes off wrong as another user mentions below.
"More transparency between mods and users based on how the sub is run, so as to alleviate further misunderstandings." r/MarvelStudiosSpoilers Subscriber #5
We will try our best to be more transparent with how the sub is run and how modding actually works, because there are a lot of people who do not understand what goes on behind the scenes. We hope this message to you is a first step to our transparency.
"Better moderation should be done when it comes to racism on the sub. When yahya abdul-mateen was cast as wonder-man, the comments on the announcement thread were disgusting. Many of the racist comments stayed up for hours or weren’t removed, and that thread should definitely have been locked. That thread soured my view of the sub." r/MarvelStudiosSpoilers Subscriber #6
We try our hardest to remove and ban all the trolls, xenophobes, misogynists, incels, racists, homophobes, etc. BUT we need you to report them as well or else it is possible we will miss the comments and the users will go unpunished. We have a 0 Tolerance Policy for trolls who act rude against anyone.
Other user feedback to address
“The lurkers are your fan base too.” – Anonymous r/MarvelStudiosSpoilers Subscriber #8
Shout out the 70% of you who said you were a lurker in our poll!
“I appreciate the rules about ensuring original sources are posted only, but I feel this could be enforced further. I also believe that on that note, videos/audio content should be timestamped to the point of the relevant information, and that this should be enforced as well.” – Anonymous r/MarvelStudiosSpoilers Subscriber #9
We like this. Moving forward when you submit a video, please include a timestamp of the leak. Many of us don’t want to comb through a 40-minute-long video for a quick sentence. If you don’t submit a timestamp, we will comment on your post to ask for one before we approve the video/audio. Even better, include this info in the title description of the post.
“Don't put direct plot spoilers in the titles; make it vague and have more information in the post. I might want casting details or plans for unannounced movies, not plot points.” – Anonymous r/MarvelStudiosSpoilers Subscriber #10
This is a spoiler sub, so we will allow spoilers in the titles of posts. That’s just the nature of what we do. We will also point out Rule 6 here: No editorializing of headlines. The headline, tweet, or other content should accurately reflect the title of the post. Alterations, addition, or intentional omissions that change the meaning or impact of the content are prohibited. In many cases, you may have info to share from an article that has a clickbait title. If so, feel free to change it as long as the spoilers/news is worthy of discussion.
“I think a mod post on every leak detailing the leak accuracy rating of the leaker would be useful.” – Anonymous r/MarvelStudiosSpoilers Subscriber #11
As many of you saw in our poll, we asked for participation in keeping our Leak Accuracy Database up to date. We now have a strong team of over 15 individuals discussing leaks and how to track everything in a private discord. What comes out of this will be shared in a post in the near future, but you should know that we will be changing a lot to the organization of our accuracy tiers with a nice refresh. One of our discussions led to what you were recommending. There is a way that we can automatically use automod to comment on a post with the source's accuracy, but this would change the way you have to submit posts, having the source name clearly included in the title of the post. Is this something you think we should move forward with? Comment below.
“Have some more events and competitions, like the main sub did for its one-million subscriber milestones. Banner contests, movie pitches, fan-casting, etc.” – Anonymous r/MarvelStudiosSpoilers Subscriber #12
2023 is a new year and we want to engage with the community more with fun events. We started off with our movie rewatches, which will soon expand to tv show rewatches as well as including other non-MCU Marvel projects to talk about (wink wink Secret Wars). These rewatches will start up again here shortly. KEEP A LOOK OUT! We will continue with a new fresh prediction competition, and will have more frequent topic discussions (such as discussing documented leaks for a project). There are a lot of exciting new ways we want to engage with you all to make this a more vibrant community. If you have suggestions, comment below.
"I have an idea. Doing a big post once a week with links to the shitty scoopers (geekosity/Mikey Sutton and such). I still follow some of them and find some of what they say fun regardless of accuracy so having 1 big post of all the banned sources leaks every week could be fun and also help with the source accuracy rankings." r/MarvelStudiosSpoilers Subscriber #13
While this is a fun idea, something like this will not be allowed. When a source is banned nothing the source says is allowed here, even in a compilation post. We are not going to give them a platform to grow and continue to spread misinformation.
“Can I please be unbanned from the Discord server? I feel I have served my time and I'm ready to respect the other members.” r/MarvelStudiosSpoilers Subscriber #14
While we are partnered with the MSS Discord, we do not share overlap with their mod team and make decisions independent of one another. We can only pass along that you want to be unbanned, the mods there are much more strict with their community though so it may not happen.
Reminder about Rule 5
We have been receiving an influx of posts from sources that are not the true sources of the exclusive information. As rule 5 says: "Many sites or scoopers generate clicks by creating an article from a well known or more official source. To avoid contributing to this problem, please use the original source and avoid reposting the same information whenever possible." One such site that is an example of this is The Direct. They, like many other sources, still link to the original source. You can use that as a way to discover the true source. Please submit that link instead.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we here at the r/MarvelStudiosSpoilers mod team want to make this an even better subreddit then it already is, and to do that we need your feedback, which is why we made this poll. Thanks to the almost 800 responses, we have an idea of what people want to see in the future. We have big plans going forward and one of them is in regards to this poll. Next year around the time this poll was sent out, we will send out a newer updated one including some questions from last year's poll that was left out and will also take the time to have a source accuracy poll included as well.
A few additional side notes. We got many recommended flair additions and will be working on them over the next few weeks. Next week we will be voting again on which sources should be banned or unbanned. We also plan to open up additional Mod spots soon as a few of our team members depart. Keep an eye open for these postings.
We also want to take the time to plug the source accuracy database, and once again link the wiki, and finally want to say
“We Are Groot.” – Anonymous r/MarvelStudiosSpoilers Subscriber #15
Best,
r/MarvelStudiosSpoilers Mod Team