Hello and welcome to today’s episode of “what are the mods good for anyway”, a game where the rules are made up and karma doesn’t matter.
Now that we’re almost at the end of the summer break, we think it’s a good moment to discuss some things related to the subreddit. There are a couple of things we’d like to discuss with you all, but feel free to bring up any other topic you want. Everything from simple remarks to thorough discussions is welcome.
Moderation of this community
First of all, we’d like to ask all of you how you feel about the subreddit and the way we moderate it. We’ve put together a short poll with a couple simple questions. If you could all fill that in, it’d be very much appreciated.
Daily Discussion Threads
As you may have noticed, we implemented the Daily Discussion Thread that is posted every day at 0700 UTC and pinned to the front page of the subreddit.
The Daily Discussion thread is expected to be the first place to post common topics of conversation such as
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General discussion of current topics
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Casual questions or new user questions (finding a team/driver to support, rules, general questions)
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Questions about going to a race
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Memorabilia and goodies received from teams/drivers
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driver/personalities’ Interactions,
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Member pictures of drivers/tracks, selfies with F1 personalities, parts of cars/tracks/etc. found during GPs, car collections, your kids watching Formula 1
We’d love to hear your feedback on the Daily Discussion posts so far in the comments below!
Silly Season Guide
We’re piloting a r/formula1 silly season guide to the 2019-2020 championships, hosted at the wiki. As a reminder, the wiki is open to be edited by any of the sub’s members! Therefore users are invited to help us maintain and grow this page.
Rather than collect all of the wild speculation and rumour out there, the guide is currently populated with citations and quotes direct from team personnel (which will inevitably be contradicted anyway whenever Dr. Marko decides to spin his wheel of fortune again, but what can you do!).
We hope it may help new users keep track of the official word on contractual situations in Formula 1, and will continue updating it as movements occur.
Updated posting guidelines and content rules (and some reminders!)
Several updates have been made to the posting guidelines and content rules (link to be added) and we encourage all members to read these before posting.
Low quality posts have been more specifically defined. Among other things, artwork and fanart including lego models are now only allowed to be posted outside of race weekends.
We have also updated the guidelines about Off-topic Social Media. Social media posts will be judged on their relevancy to F1 and must either announce breaking news or be highly newsworthy themselves.
We do allow content related to sim-racing, official or otherwise if: (a) more than 1 current F1 driver is involved in the event; or (b) it’s major news regarding Formula 1’s official esports ventures.
There are also new guidelines about:
Linking to the source – Always link to the source. Instead of posting a link to a tweet linking to an article, post a link directly to the article instead. Instead of posting a screenshot of an Instagram post, link to the post itself. Please do post the link and add any commentary you would like as a separate comment in the thread.
Political and Religious discussions – This is a Formula 1 forum, not a political platform: all posts and discussion threads must fit within that context.
Offensive usernames – Usernames will be treated the same as posts/comments. If something is not permissible as a post/comment, it will not be allowed as a username. This goes for anything purposely offensive or any username deemed overly offensive.
Creepy behaviour – We all understand some drivers/personalities are attractive. However, this is not considered appropriate content for this subreddit. Please do not post “look at this attractive person” posts of a sexual nature, whether they are drivers, grid girls, drivers’ partners, etc. Comments which are lewd and do not add to the discussion may also be removed.
We hope these updated guidelines will help r/formula1 have the best content and subscribers.
Updated source rating / measures against plagiarism
We believe it’s important to stand behind F1’s hardworking press as best we can, and promote the highest quality news sources available at r/formula1. While there’s no perfect outlet above the occasional gaffe, error, or ill-advised hot take – the media are as human as everyone else – we’d generally prefer our clicks and attention are spent on more reputable, well-accredited, and preferably independent journalists, who originate content informed by attending races in person at considerable sacrifice, than the unscrupulous “churnalists,” “scrapers,” and/or “bottom-feeders” out there, lifting and repackaging that same content from the comfort of their bedrooms (while frequently introducing errors of their own due to lack of firsthand insight!). Not even to speak of those who, for instance, choose to treat unverified rumours from this subreddit concerning Esteban Ocon and Valtteri Bottas’s Instagram accounts as newsworthy article fodder – nonjournalistic sloppiness at best, misleading for the community at worst!
Curating a platform with over 600,000 subscribers, supporting the former group against the latter types is the most responsible approach, and mutually beneficial for fans and professionals. This is one of the reasons why we first implemented the source tagging system a little over a year ago; to establish and highlight each source’s track record.
GPFans ban
The topic returned to the fore with a bang this week, with Crash.net digital editor Luke Smith rightfully expressing frustration with GPFans.com for willfully plagiarising articles without including so much as a credit. In fact, we were separately alerted to serial plagiarism on GPFans’ part by another outlet a number of weeks ago, and would like to announce our unanimous decision to block that site. We interpret the pattern of behaviour they’ve engaged in as malicious, and the measure is in line with our longstanding policy against content misappropriation.
Luke’s comment in the thread highlights some of the pressures this unethical practice places on victimised journalists more cogently than we possibly can, and we’d like to encourage users and lurking members of the press alike to report any future, or current, instances of endemic plagiarism you may be aware of by sending us a modmail in confidence. We’ll evaluate each situation case-by-case and act accordingly if sufficient evidence is there.
Source tagging revamp
It’s also an appropriate time to address the future of the source tagging system. We’ve taken the system under review to get the currently dysfunctional rating process back on track and ensure it won’t fall foul of inactivity again, as it’s been dormant for a number of months.
Though it’s still some time out right now, we’re looking to collate all past source ratings, update and flesh out the core points according to common sense principles, and publish these as more comprehensive reviews to the r/formula1 wiki. With the added standards and transparency, users will be able to periodically appeal and challenge the findings, as we look to judge sources as fairly and objectively as possible (within reason).
As we come closer to nailing down this system, we’d love to involve the wider community more. If you take an interest in the F1 media and would like to join in to speed up the initial work, please modmail us, but be advised we’re demanding care and commitment to ensure it’s done right. We’re supporting anyone who wishes to help evaluate non-English language sources, and non-text based media, such as YouTube channels. Your feedback and suggestions are also more than welcome. For example, we’ve been eager not to engage in outright censorship, but have observed anecdotal demand for no-nonsense measures against some of the lowest-quality sources out there. How far should sanctions be taken against these – is the low rating always enough? Should content aggregation sites which produce little to no material of their own be shown the door? Please let us know your takes.
They say no news is good news, but we can make it continue to make it easier on ourselves, with any luck!
Cheers, /u/Effulgency
Us and FOM, sitting in a tree…
As has become customary in the last few “State of the Subreddit” posts, we’ll catch up on the relationship between /r/formula1 and F1. And it’s good news, everyone! We’re attracting more awesome activities, such as the recent AMA with Daniil Kvyat – and if we know anything about statistics, we can determine that 100% of times when a Toro Rosso driver does an AMA, they end up on the podium. So, we’d call that a smashing success.
Apart from the activities you got to see on the sub, we also got to use our contacts to help out a few fans behind the scenes, like the guy who lost his flag. You’ll be happy to know that he’s now the proud owner of a brand new flag, signed by all the British drivers.
We’re working to bring you more activities and stories exclusive to Reddit, and get you closer than ever before to the drivers and teams. On that note, if you have an interest or experience writing editorial content, you might want to keep your eye on the sub for some exciting opportunities. Also, if you have any ideas for specific content you’d love to see, AMA requests, or something you’d like to float by us, shoot us a modmail. We’re always open to good ideas!
But, we also need to address something else.
Gather around children, and let us tell you the tale… of the tinfoil hats!
A small group of users seem to believe there is a conspiracy being concocted between FOM and the mods, and it usually goes something along the lines of: “Mods removed a post I liked! They must have been paid to do so by F1!”
So, to reiterate our stance on outside influence on moderation: If we were asked to remove or ban content solely to please a third party, we would refuse and break off our relationship.
Luckily, we’ve seen nothing but support and understanding from everyone we’re talking to, who value the passion of all of you. And that passion is exactly what’s bringing them here.
If you have any questions about any of this, we’re here to answer as best we can.
This is your friendly neighbourhood /u/jeppe96, signing off.
Community awards
Some of you may have seen the announcement about community awards. In short, it allows us to create custom awards, showcasing the uniqueness of r/formula1, and as an added bonus, any awards made will contribute 20% of the coins to a community bank which will allow for mod-exclusive awards (for example, during community contests).
We plan to add six community awards, with 2 of those being based on user suggestions. Please comment your suggestion as a reply to the mod-comment below! Suggestions for award names must be accompanied by a description of what it seeks to reward. It would also be great if the suggestion could be accompanied by an image or icon.
Going to a GP – Community resource
We propose to expand the current Wiki resource “Circuit guide” with links to ONE thread per GP.
Here users can post:
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Requests for information or questions about tickets, seats, travel etc
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Help others with information from their experiences
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Pictures of their tickets, prep for the GP etc
We hope that this will help users to more easily find help from the community!
Again, if there are any other topics you’d like to discuss, or if there’s something you’d just like to mention, feel free to do so in the comments below.
Kind regards,
The /r/formula1 mod team.
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