We have yet to receive an explanation for how the post "How Reddit was Destroyed" was placed in the spamfilter by someone who was not a moderator.

74  2013-12-13 by AssuredlyAThrowAway

No explanation has been provided and mods seem as confused as some of us.

The story goes that the post "How reddit was destoryed" made it to the top of /r/conspiracy. At 9AM EST (after the story had 586 upvotes and was top of /r/conspiracy) the story somehow ended up in the spamfilter.

Mod Sarah_Connors confirms that,

...I saw it was removed and I approved it.

Not sure why it was removed as it did not at which mod may have removed it..

And here is the conversation I have had with the mods, where the possibility of the spamfilter being tripped by an edit to the OP is discussed and rejected (by me) as plausible.

I think the admins pulled that post and I think the mods of this sub have been conspicuously quiet about this subversion of the organic curation of content.

37 comments

14  Flytape 2013-12-13

Here is the thing bro. And it factored into me quitting as a mod.

The mods here in /r/conspiracy really are just normal dudes trying to enforce the rules. I checked the mod log every day, it was actually my biggest curiosity when I first became a mod. The mod log shows exactly which mods did what. Removed comment, approved comment, removed post, approved post, ban user, unban user, edit wiki, edit CSS. Everything.

Most of the time when something was removed by mistake it was automoderator and if I clicked on the post, which I could still see because I was a mod, it would say [removed] automoderator.

If Mr. Dong removed something it would say [removed] mrdong.

But every blue moon it would say [removed]. No name of who removed it, nothing.

At first I thought it was the admins, it seemed a fairly logical conclusion. But then we had a post with someone's personal info in it and it was removed [removed] Bitcrunch. It showed which admins removed it.

So I never figured out who or what was removing stuff when it just said [removed] "with no name attached".

Maybe their spam filter? Maybe some other filter. Maybe there is a way for admins to stealth delete things. I just don't know.

8  AssuredlyAThrowAway 2013-12-13

Interesting, thanks for sharing. Was wondering why you quit.

Here's what drew my attention to the removal of this post.

When Sarah_Connors reapproved the post from the spamfilter it somehow went into the new queue.

When mods over on /r/soccer used to reapprove match threards that would get shadowpulled without leaving a record in mod log those posts would be right back in the "hot" queue.

I think something new was used to pull the how reddit was destroyed post and, in general, I think the shift the admins have allowed towards shadow-deletions via automod (and other like practices) is nefarious and a sign of things to come.

At this point I'm pretty much done trying to raise awareness of what's been going down with regards to insider manipulation of reddit. Now feels like the time when we get to watch her burn.

5  Flytape 2013-12-13

That is by far, not the reason I quit. But it factored into it.

1  Orangutan 2013-12-13

You were the only admin I trusted. lol

3  Flytape 2013-12-13

Well thanks for your confidence in me but the rest of the mods are fine people too.

-6  Purimfest_1946 2013-12-13

I'm glad you quit, you were an awful mod.

3  Flytape 2013-12-13

Glad I could make you happy.

Lol judging from your post history you're probably upset because I didn't let people call each other niggers or Jews.

0  Purimfest_1946 2013-12-13

No, I'm happy because you were a ban-happy mod that banned users when they don't even violate the rules.

3  Flytape 2013-12-13

A.k.a. "I got banned because I don't know how to behave like an adult"

1  Purimfest_1946 2013-12-13

I checked flyape, that's not on the rules.

2  Flytape 2013-12-13

1,3 and 10 cover most instances.

0  Purimfest_1946 2013-12-13

Well then you should be banned for saying the N-word

fuck off.

0  Flytape 2013-12-13

Don't start a slap fight if you aren't woman enough to get slapped.

1  [deleted] 2013-12-13

I just don't know.

http://www.reddit.com/wiki/moderation#wiki_why_do_some_removed_items_not_specify_who_removed_them.3F

nothing sketchy, just reddit's automatic spam filter :)

1  [deleted] 2013-12-13

[deleted]

1  Flytape 2013-12-13

Sounds like a fair test.

1  Sarah_Connor 2013-12-13

Done - I hit spam, it did ask for me to confirm yes. Checking log...

1  Sarah_Connor 2013-12-13

Nopes. That gets logged

1  madeanotheraccount 2013-12-13

What would the code of a mod log page say, I wonder?

7  Deimorz 2013-12-13

Sorry to disappoint, but it was just removed by the spam-filter when the OP edited in a bit.ly link (labeled as "research point concerning the net worth of reddit.com") at the bottom of the post. All self-posts/comments containing a link from most url-shorteners (except site-specific ones like youtu.be) are auto-removed, and the spam-filter rechecks things whenever they're edited.

This is pretty basic knowledge about how the spam-filter works. You should probably create a subreddit and test some things out before jumping to conclusions based on incorrect assumptions. You could have easily copy-pasted that post's text into a self-post in a subreddit you're a mod of and seen it be immediately auto-removed by the spam-filter.

4  AssuredlyAThrowAway 2013-12-13

Not disappointed, actually quite relieved.

We did indeed know that was how the spamfilter worked.

What we didn't know was weather or nor OP did indeed edit his post before it was caught by the filter the first time. This was reflected by /u/weedtastic saying that he was only able to see "edited two days ago" when we researched the issue.

You should probably create a subreddit and test some things out before jumping to conclusions based on incorrect assumptions.

Or you know, you could have said this two days ago rather than leaving mods and users alike scratching their heads.

But thanks for clearing that up.

Perhaps a suggestion would be to have the spamfilter leave an entry in the modlog.

5  Deimorz 2013-12-13

Or you know, you could have said this two days ago rather than leaving mods and users alike scratching their heads.

I would have, if anyone had asked. I just checked the /r/reddit.com modmail back through the time that that post was made, and nobody bothered to send a message actually asking what happened.

Perhaps a suggestion would be to have the spamfilter leave an entry in the modlog.

Probably not a bad idea, but I'm not sure how simple it would be to add. I think the mod log is set up so that every action has to be associated with a user, so it might take some reworking to be able to handle that.

1  AssuredlyAThrowAway 2013-12-13

I would have, if anyone had asked. I just checked the /r/reddit.com modmail back through the time that that post was made, and nobody bothered to send a message actually asking what happened.

Can't fault you there I guess; but, to be fair, since the summer of 2011 I, myself, have never expected a response from that modmailm and I have a feeling many others feel similarly.

I think the mod log is set up so that every action has to be associated with a user, so it might take some reworking to be able to handle that.

I would say looking over the way in which the modlog functions would be a wonderful idea if it means more accountability!

Quick aside though, I am a bit concerned with the ability of automoderator to remove comments without leaving a deleted tag and I wish to voice my concerns here.

3  Deimorz 2013-12-13

Quick aside though, I am a bit concerned with the ability of automoderator to remove comments without leaving a deleted tag and I wish to voice my concerns here.

Assuming I understand what you're talking about, that's nothing special with AutoModerator. Any comment that's deleted or removed that doesn't have any replies to it doesn't leave a marker.

2  AssuredlyAThrowAway 2013-12-13

Any comment that's deleted or removed that doesn't have any replies to it doesn't leave a marker.

Was it always this way?

3  Deimorz 2013-12-13

It's worked like that for as long as I can remember, at least several years. Someone could probably find out if it ever didn't work that way by digging into the comment-tree code, but it's pretty difficult code to understand.

2  [deleted] 2013-12-13

Quick aside though, I am a bit concerned with the ability of automoderator to remove comments without leaving a deleted tag and I wish to voice my concerns here.

Automoderator cannot do that. Automod functions just like a regular mod. What you're thinking of is reddit's automatic spam filter. Read here: http://www.reddit.com/wiki/moderation#wiki_why_do_some_removed_items_not_specify_who_removed_them.3F

3  AssuredlyAThrowAway 2013-12-13

I was under the impression that automod could be targeted to send comments to the spamfilter based on their author and/or specific keywords in the post.

Please correct me if I am wrong.

4  [deleted] 2013-12-13

The words that you use to talk about this stuff is important, and I think that's why you have this impression.

The automoderator bot can be set, either by /u/deimorz or the moderators of this subreddit in the wiki, to automatically do things that a normal mod can do. Two of the things that it can are to automatically remove comments or submissions based on their author or specific keywords in the post, yes.

There's a difference between "sending commentings to the spam filter" and removing them, though. When I say something is caught by the spam filter it means that it has been removed by something that is not controlled by the moderators. When something is caught by the spam filter it looks like this. No moderator is listed as removing it. When something is removed by a moderator, it looks like this.

To answer your question: yes, /u/automoderator can remove comments, but when it does so whatever it removes would say "removed by automoderator" and that action would be listed in the mod log.

3  AssuredlyAThrowAway 2013-12-13

Very helpful and syntactically precise. Thanks.

1  Sarah_Connor 2013-12-13

Awesome, thanks.

4  ManWithoutModem 2013-12-13

Dude, it was put in the spam filter because the OP edited in a fucking bit.ly link.

2  silvertoof 2013-12-13

Perhaps because if you're not paying attention, any asshole can vindictively abuse the system and report you as a spammer, as I myself recently discovered when a moderator who banned me from /r/gay then tried to report me to /r/reportthespammers saying that I was "spamming hate" to make it really stand out:

http://www.reddit.com/r/reportthespammers/comments/1sphbt/overview_for_silvertoof/

fortunately the moderators at /r/spam/ are rational and able to distinguish what is really spam. However, if you are not paying attention, it is possible to fly under their radar (a dirtbag move.)

You must be vigilant and actively monitor your posts and/or reputation, especially if you butt heads with the resident control freaks.

disclaimer: I made fun of your 6+ "censored" posts making to the top of /r/conspiracy in another subreddit

update: i updated that post with a retraction to keep myself honest

-4  1298734 2013-12-13

You mean the thread that gets posted more than once a day got confused for spam? You don't say!

6  Ambiguously_Ironic 2013-12-13

This is disingenuous to the point of being blatant. You either don't know what you're talking about or are choosing to misconstrue OP's point (which is referring to the one original post).

Some of us notice.

1  1298734 2013-12-13

His original "point" was that stuff isn't always on the front page. He got all pissy when his post disappeared off of the front page...just like every single thread on this site. He just wants karma while circlejerking the users here.

1  AssuredlyAThrowAway 2013-12-13

It got reposted a few times in protest of the original removal of the OP.

Also, go away david.

1  thefuckingtoe 2013-12-13

Spambot

-6  [deleted] 2013-12-13

[deleted]

0  [deleted] 2013-12-13

[deleted]

-1  [deleted] 2013-12-13

[deleted]