Essentially there's a lot of bots running around Reddit now. We have measures for low karma/age accounts, what are the thoughts about increasing the requirements? This is likely the easiest way to catch bots.

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(Fyi: we use both I and we to describe ourselves so apologies if it gets confusing, also i've been meaning to post this for a few days but I've been so burnt out with this site and social media in general.)

Hi all,

Let us first go over what happened last weekend. Over the past few weeks an increasing number of men have come into this subreddit and claiming women talking about their issues to be misandry. Most recently, where a man claimed women discussing getting assaulted and raped on dates to be bullshit, fake, and misandrist. After this and the discussions in modmail I posted in frustration. In a controversial post, about many issues over the last few weeks, including racism, misandry, satire, etc. we made a complex issue (misandry) very simple and hurt people who our message was not intended for.

The overarching definition for misandry is hatred against men. There are, however, two ways this word is used, both in active use which complicates things. On one hand there is the discussion of the harm cis men and trans mascs face under the patriarchy, for example:

• Minimising abuse and violence against men.
• Custody outcomes and sentencing not being fair
• Trans men being pushed out of queer/support spaces
• Trans men's masculinity being treated as performative and being accused of transitioning to escape misogyny

These issues are legitimate, there is legitimate discrimination of men and trans mascs. The patriarchal harm to men is something that needs to be talked about. There is a lot of established feminist literature on this including The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love by bell hooks.

On the other hand, you have some men, using it to defend against misogyny. For example:

• Claiming any discussion of misogyny/feminism is reducing the rights of men and being misandrist.
• Denying legitimate issues such as women being assaulted and raped on dates as fake and misandrist.
• Shutting down conversations on structural sexism by using “not all men” and misandry as a shield to protect themselves from criticism
• Calling women spaces and support groups misandrist for existing.

This definition is also used by women. As far back as the suffragette movements, women have had misandry thrown in their faces to defend against misogyny and prevent them from gaining rights and equality.

When I made the post in response to men using misandry in the latter definition, we attempted to bring a stop to its use in this subreddit. Our post didn't discuss what groups we were targeting and used general language which is on me for that. I do apologise for the harm this caused people in our community. As well as the harm caused to people forced to deal with the subreddit in flames for over a weekend of heated arguments. The post wasn't well thought out and was mostly reactive.

I would also like to take the time to apologise to the new moderators as they were thrown into a fire over this situation. They did not deserve this and do not deserve some of the comments from this community. They deserved a nice learning opportunity not immediate suffering and that's my fault for making this post without consulting anyone.

Going forward,

• I will review all bans as some might not have been applied correctly in the chaos, feel free to DM me if you need.
• Our main priority is to make this space safe for people, to engage in so we are also slowly going through the previous threads to make sure people who engaged in discrimination or harassment are banned.
• Bans will be handed out a little more earlier in situations during misogynistic behaviour to ensure people remain safe, and then we can discuss with the banned member in modmail about their behaviour

Trans men and transmasculine people are welcome here. That should have been clear from the start.

Our recent post about misandry was not as clear as it should have been, and we understand why it caused concern. We apologise for that.

Trans men and transmasculine people face specific forms of bigotry rooted in transphobia, misogyny, sexism, and bioessentialism. Their experiences are real, they deserve to be discussed and taken seriously, and they should not be dismissed or treated as less important.

Discussions about misandry, misogyny, patriarchy, or gender should not be used to misgender trans people, reduce trans men to their assigned sex, or invalidate transmasculine experiences. Whatever someone’s view on the term “misandry,” trans men and transmasculine people should not become collateral damage in those conversations.

We moderate comments that use gender discourse as a cover for transphobia, bioessentialism, misgendering, or dismissal of transmasculine people’s lived experiences.

We sincerely apologise to everyone who was concerned about whether this subreddit supports trans men and transmasculine people. We want this space to be welcoming and actively moderated for you.

Edit: also we will not be banning men for speaking about their negative experiences and issues but we do not accept people dismissing women's issues or voices by claiming misandry as in regards to the recent r/whenwomenrefuse

So like a few weeks ago we did moderator applications, and we have now officially demoted 5 people from being users to moderators.

Anyway they can introduce themselves or they won't, up to them. Anyway be nice to them for now as they are new.

u/Western-River1386

u/dwarf_bulborb

u/SirBananaOrngeCumber

u/wasraelx

u/CrimsonVixenPixie

We are also merging rules 12 (ban evasion), 8 (report abuse) and 11 into one rule called no discrimination or breaking Reddits rules. This allows us to add 2 more rules in the future!

Anyway enjoy idk I'm bad at this shit.