Greetings readers of /r/DarkNetMarkets! We've been growing quickly and the mod team has some things we'd like to talk to all of you awesome people about.
First of all, we really want to clean up the content that gets posted and commented on here. We are going to start moderating the sub more heavily and there will be new, stricter guidelines on what is approved to get posted. As a result of the above plan, we are going to be more stringent in our requirements of ALL posts, but vendor reviews in particular. This includes:
• Piss-poor and vague reviews. We do get a lot of fantastic reviews that are in-depth and well-thought-out. The mods and, I would venture to guess, a large segment of the community have grown tired of reviews resembling "looks dank, only took 3 days". These posters often conclude with "can't smoke any until this weekend but it looks pretty dank". That isn't particularly helpful. So, poorly constructed vendor reviews will be removed and a comment will be left by a moderator giving the reviewer the opportunity to edit the review to pass our standards.
• If you are unsure of whether or not your review is up to par or if you simply need help writing a better review, please check out Hugs' guide to writing vendor reviews. Furthermore, although it will not be required since, for one, we do not want to force everyone to use it, we still encourage you to use the vendor review template submitted by/u/entactoBob. The bottom line is that if you feel that it will improve your review please use it.
For most reviews we would like the reviewers, especially those that are posting a review for the first time, to keep in mind the vendor review template. If you choose to use the template, including a personal touch would make your review better.
• A quick side note: You don't need to include a flair tag in your title like [WTF] or [Vendor Review]. It is unnecessary since the mods add that flair manually.
• We get a lot of general questions regarding product and vendor inquiries. The biggest examples are similar in nature to "What vendor has the best [enter drug here]" or "Is [enter vendor name here] any good?" These questions have most likely been answered in one of the D.D.D's, Moronic Mondays, Western Wednesdays, or a user has posted the same question before.
USE THE SEARCH BAR! If you can't find anything, or the post is more than a month old and outdated, then feel free to post.
• Suicide posts will no longer be allowed. We understand some people are very serious about killing themselves and will figure out how to obtain the correct materials to do so without this subreddit's help (this is the internet after all), but after clarifying things with the reddit admins we learned that direct discussion of suicide methods/requisition of suicide materials is against reddit rules. We already walk a fine line due to the nature of this subreddit and we don't want to tread on anyone's toes. Although many of the mods feel that providing advice in this area is important, we do not want to jeopardize this subs' existence. For this reason, any posts related to suicide methods will be referred to /r/SuicideWatch and removed.
• Any post relating to poison, weapons with murder allusions, or allusions to violence, will be removed at moderator discretion. We're drug users, not violent criminals. The whole point of DNMs is to make drug use safer and we want to distance ourselves from such content.
Secondly, we have resolved to cut down on the amount of hate and general rudeness that is sometimes posted here. I do not believe we can make any static rules here but we can certainly try to promote a welcoming and respectful atmosphere as well as ban trolls and people that refuse to play nice. To be clear, we're not banning swearing or even name calling; there is certainly a time and place to use strong words, but remember to practice sound judgment. Calling someone an "idiot" is different than calling that person "fucking stupid retarded noob". We want /r/DarkNetMarkets to be a cool and positive place to hang out, not one where people are assholes to each other and beginners feel uncomfortable posting. Remember to follow the golden rule!
I'd like to stress that we are not about to become moderation Nazis! For the most part, everyone here is great so this will not affect most of you! This is beneficial; nothing is really going to be lost. We appreciate hearing input, feedback, and concerns from the community.
Third, we'd like to bring up the issue of mod interaction with the community. All of the mods would like to address the occasional issue that arises within the subreddit of the Mod Team voicing our personal opinions. Most of the readers here at /r/DarkNetMarkets don't have a problem with it, but there is a vocal minority that comes out every once in a while to argue with us that a mod should not voice any opinions here. Let me get one thing straight, we all started as completely normal users. Those of us who started the sub then reached out and pulled in exemplary users in the community to become mods as well. We certainly recognize that we do have a position of power here, but none of us abuse it or are shills. Especially after a large scandal we had with a past mod accepting bribes, we are all very careful not to "endorse" any product or market. Any review, opinion, or comment we post is our own and not an endorsement from the Mod Team or subreddit itself.
If a mod is speaking officially, we will "distinguish" our comment so it says [DNM moderator] in a green font next to our name so you'll know we are speaking for the whole Mod Team.
● Finally, we would like for the community to comment on this post with any input or concerns you may have for the subreddit; we love to get constructive suggestions from you all and hear your concerns. Remember to keep the conversation civil, and everyone stay safe out there! :)
~INFINITE and the whole Mod Squad
Wow this post looks really dank. Probably took like 3 days to write. Unfortunately, I can't read it until this weekend but like I said - totally dank post dude!