Update: Click here for part 2 of this Announcement.
We've been busy behind the scenes thinking up ways to improve the subreddit experience for everyone involved and today we will be setting the foundation for these upcoming changes.
Sourcing and advertising rules on this subreddit have always been a point of contention for our subscribers, but also one of the riskier things that we allow in administration's eyes. Maintaining that balance has been a constantly evolving process and we want to do all that we can to ensure we don't accidentally miss the straw that breaks the camel's back.
The original reasoning behind the limitation of those posts was that, too often, they would become an invitation for people to make direct deal proposals - which is the type of activity that would get this subreddit shut down. Let us be very clear: this subreddit is an informational resource only, and should mainly be used as a harm reduction tool. It is not a marketplace of any sort and absolutely no transactions of any kind should be taking place here. This is for your own good - and for the sake of the subreddit's longevity.
Our upcoming changes will be focusing on how we can better serve the sourcing and advertising needs of this community while also allowing us (mods) to be able to reasonably and effectively monitor the subreddit for activity which doesn't belong here.
In order to prepare for these upcoming changes to our sourcing and advertising rules, today we are introducing some new policies which will allow us to further improve the quality of this subreddit as well as make it easier to monitor. The following two changes will be taking effect immediately.
1. Accounts less than 6 hours old are now restricted.
Accounts less than 6 hours old will have their submissions automatically hidden from view unless a moderator manually approves it from now on.
This will help us create a higher quality subreddit with less trolls and less rule violators. Throwaway accounts who have something important to say, such as a a scam warning, can continue to post under a throwaway and then message the mods for manual approval (or we'll eventually see it and approve important posts even if you don't message us).
The reasoning for this change is that the majority of people using brand new accounts are using them in order to post something that is against the rules or they do it to harass another subscriber of this subreddit.
At this time the restriction only applies to submissions, but we may extend it to comments as well if we think it's necessary. Also note that this change is experimental, and we may increase or decrease the time duration required to be able to submit a new thread in the future.
2. Properly title your posts.
If the title of your submission does not do a reasonable job of explaining the contents of your post, it will be removed.
For example, if you want to ask the community which vendors have the best stealth and you title your post "Vendor inquiry", it will be removed. Instead, you should title your post something along the lines of "Which vendors have the best stealth?".
If you want to know which vendor is better for product XYZ and you title your post "Product XYZ", it will be removed. A proper title would be "Which vendor has better product XYZ? Vendor A or Vendor B?"
This rule will be enforced by moderator discretion. If we feel you didn't properly title your post, it will be removed and you will be told to resubmit with a more specific title.
These two rule changes will help us prepare for the bigger changes focusing on sourcing and advertising (which have now been announced on 8/13/2015). We realize this may not be the most popular change that we have made to the sub, but the number of throwaway and one-off accounts being created here just to cause a disturbance has gotten out of hand and has definitely begun to create an environment that we will never permit this subreddit to be. We have the singular purpose of remaining an educational resource to help people stay safe in the use of these markets. Please feel free to use this thread as a discussion thread and ask any questions you have, both about the changes being made today and what we are working on in regards to the sourcing and advertising rules.
Update: new sourcing and advertising guidelines have been released. Please click here to read them.
Good, but maybe there should also be a karma restriction since anyone can make a dozen usernames and they're all good to go after 6hrs.