TL;DR: read the revised rules; more organized moderation

Good evening (or morning for you Eastern Asian and Australian folk),

As you know, we are on the last 18 or so hours of a subreddit lockdown. I am taking this time to outline a public handbook for moderators. As commoners of the subreddit know, we hand mod out to a ton of people. However, as is the case with any meme subreddit with over 50000 subscribers (thanks a bunch guys), we seem to have imploded and need guidelines for this stuff. So, starting today, moderators will be required to follow punishments along the following guidelines. Don't worry if you are afraid of moderator abuse, these are being written down in the event of a rogue moderator, which we seem to have had after sifting through permanent bans (there were like five people banned for saying the word "horse" uncensored and like ten more for showing a bit of sympathy to Haru Urara around the time of her death). All permanent bans three months or older have been unbanned (except for bots and more serious offenses) and newer bans have been reduced to, at most, seven days. From this point on, all bans will be handed out based on the following conditions. Please refer to this post if you have been banned and want to appeal or if you are a moderator with decision paralysis.

Category I: No Horsing Around

• Criteria for punishment: you posted NSFW or NSFL content. Please do not post that on Reddit for your own safety and for the sanity of others. Go to a 4chan alternative or something if you really need the itch. This is also a blanket ban option for general harassment and other generally evil and intimidating behavior.
• Punishments:
  • First offense: At least, a removal and a warning; at most, a seven day ban
  • Second offense: At least, a seven day ban; at most, a thirty day ban
  • Third offense and onward: At least, a thirty day ban; at most, a permanent ban

Category II: Horses Must Be Decimated

• Criteria for punishment: you post a plain picture of a horse for no reason. Please keep in mind that this is all entirely roleplay, but we are not going to post horses to ragebait a ton of people into hating on horses or on you.
• Punishment (all offenses): Removal of content and, if repeated, a one day ban
  • Note that offenders who try to intentionally replicate this will be banned at senior moderators' discretion (see below for more details on senior moderators)

Category III: Suspected Horses Temp Banned

• Criteria for punishment: you are roleplaying as a horse or as a stereotypical horse girl. This section is meant to be moreso as a joke, in line with the humor of the subreddit. This is not a serious rule. Punishment will not be heavy. This is more of a social punishment. You are to lightheartedly joke about comedically decimating content posing as such; however, serious harassment will be punished under Category I.
• Punishment (all offenses): At least a (joke) warning, at most a three day ban (only under most extreme cases of antagonization, may escalate to Category I)

Category IV: Pro Lesbian Rule

• Criteria for punishment: homophobia of any kind. Please try to keep this place free for all. As we look down on people who are posting legitimate hate towards horses, we look the same towards the LGBT community. So as to not get political (see: category VIII), we will be monitoring this rule closely, especially due to the "evil and intimidating horse" meme.
• Punishments:
  • First offense: At least (in joking situations), a removal and warning; at most (hate), a seven day ban
  • Second offense: At least (in joking situations), a one day ban¹, at most (hate), a thirty day ban
  • Third offense and onwards: At least (in joking situations), a week-long ban¹, at most (hate), a permanent ban

Category V: Brigading

• Criteria for punishment: you are posting hateful content on horse-related subreddits or similar or are generally trying to get people to spam another subreddit. An example of brigading is going on r/horses and encouraging people from this subreddit to raid comments wishing death to all horses. Another example is going on a similar subreddit and posting comments about r/horse_decimator_9000. A non-example is going on a meme subreddit on a post about horses and posting the link to this subreddit. We are very serious about this rule, you can get the subreddit taken down if you do it enough (please do not do that).
• Punishments:
  • First offense: Thirty day ban. Non-negotiable (except in cases of overzealous moderation, please read examples before you try appealing)
  • Second offense: Permanent ban.

Category VI: AI Is Cringe

• Criteria for punishment: Post AI images as posts or comments. This is moreso for posts, but can apply to comments if slopified enough. This is to reduce spam of fake images, including that one of the horse vomiting (see: Category VII).
• Punishments (all offenses): At least a removal, at most a week-long ban (POSTS ONLY)

Category VII: Reposting

• Criteria for punishment: You repost something that has been posted in the past two weeks. You will be banned from posting for a week. This is, again, spam reduction, because popular posts on general Reddit oversaturate this area if they even mention a horse.
• Punishments (all offenses): A week-long ban

Category VIII: No Politics

• Criteria for punishment: You try to get political about horses. I mean, seriously, how do you manage to do that??? Just don't talk about politics or stuff like that. Mention a prominent historical political figure in passing, at most. If you mention anyone in the current United States executive administration (or, for good measure, the previous one), you will be banned. Also, the rule mentions not mentioning Epstein. This is good policy, it will be enforced.
• Punishments (all offenses): At least a removal, at most a week-long ban

OTHER CHANGES:

I am announcing an adjustment to how the moderation team will work. There will now be a senior moderation team for long-time moderators with good behavior. They will be able to enforce punishment more intensely if needed and can go outside the bounds (within reason). The following are hereby given more leniency with how to moderate, as I trust them, they have been active moderators for at least six months, they have shown good judgement, and as I am the highest ranked active moderator, I feel it necessary for the well-being of the subreddit to highlight these individuals and allow them extended leniency with moderation ability:

• u/RTX-4090ti_FE
• u/Neither-Phone-7264
• u/GiraffeGuru993
• u/Waffle-Gaming
• u/luseArchbtw97543

This list will not change except if one of these users leaves the subreddit. Finally, please do not request to be an approved poster. You will be denied and possibly banned. If the subreddit is locked down, there is a reason.

The subreddit will hopefully open by end of day tomorrow. Every issue on my mind has been cleared up and I am hopeful we get this back together. Every moderator will be pinged via comment so as to read this, apologies for the spam in the inboxes, but we need to clear this up.

Remember, decimate more horses,

-cs

>!¹^(You may notice that this is a pretty light punishment for such an offense. I am extending mercy to those who are uninformed, as I was for the longest time. Don't get me wrong, trans suicide jokes are a full permanent ban, no appeal, but there were a couple of permabans for "homophobia" that seemed... way too lighthearted? This is the only bit of the rules I'll personally take flame for, but otherwise, treat it as it is part of rule 1.)!<

Hello,

I regret to inform you that this community is being shut down for the next 48 or so hours because I genuinely am exasperated at what has been going on for the past 48. During this time, all non-approved members will not be allowed to post or comment. I also request that approved users do not post any new content just to let the ""drama"" settle down a bit.

We seem to have forgotten the plot of the subreddit over the past few months, especially as of recent. Moderators don't need to make five posts about no posting NSFW (gore), and users should not complain about every little thing the mod team does. I checked Reddit earlier today and the first thing that I see is three new items in the reports queue. One is of a moderator using strong language. I've approved it for the time being because I don't want to deal with that right now, but one item stood out. The "mod team" (read: maybe a person or two) approved a post with naked cartoon women in it.

I am done with this. I have too much going on with finals and other stuff in my life and I'm sure that the mod team also feels the same way for the most part. So, over the next couple of days, I will try to periodically clean the subreddit a bit. What will this mean? I will clarify rules and report reasons, go through some modmail and try to resolve issues, unban certain permanently banned users who have been unfairly banned, and probably other issues that I cannot think of off the top of my head.

And, for the millionth time, you are allowed to post about whatever you want in this subreddit as long as it falls under the rules listed. Post decimated horses (no gore please), post your yuris (no nsfw please), and post your memes, I do not care. Don't post outside of the rules, and don't harass people for posting something that's not strictly about horses. This subreddit is meant to be a funny place for posting memes (think like r/clamworks or r/ppnojutsu), not for hating on each other.

Moderators, I call on you to help with modmail if you can. If you cause trouble, I will remove you from the team. Some of you take this a bit too seriously and that makes me have to post stuff like this.

I am eating Mexican for dinner tonight, don't ask for his name,

-cs