u/Independent-Ice-2211

I run a subreddit r/Transportopia. It was never a loud sub. Very moderate. People post videos, links, memes relating to transport and anything on the road. Then a few months ago, traffic picked up. A ridiculous amount of traffic. It didn't seem natural. I found myself moderating full time removing all types of hateful and racist messages. When I started to focus on who was bringing the traffic, I realize it was stemming from a few accounts:

I followed them to a sub that kept crossposting to my sub multiple times a day from r/VideosAmazing

What I realized was users were posting a video, then following up with comments resulting in ridiculous upvote numbers. None of it seemed natural.

I zeroed in on 2 profiles that seemed to be more suspicious than the rest and banned them. In the ban I made sure the Ban Evasion rule was mentioned. After that, the abusive traffic ceased.

When I visit their sub now, I find this rule #13:

Videos earning less than 25 upvotes in 24 hours will be removed.

Videos that don't get upvotes will be removed after 24 hours.

Is that a rule meant for karma farming or quality building?

Was my subreddit attacked in some twisted karma farming scheme?

I contacted the moderator MisterShipWreck that started the sub after they posted this on my sub yesterday:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Transportopia/comments/1twmofq/comment/opqs378/

Karma that is earned

After my reply in the comments, MisterShipWreck deleted the post. Maybe because they realized they had been caught screwing around.

Here are our inbox messages (copy / paste removed tagged profile accounts) : Independent-Ice-221110:32 AM

Hi. Is u-Working-Fig5566 one of your people?

MisterShipWreck10:33 AM

Why?

Independent-Ice-221110:33 AM

That profile slammed my sub with 10 posts from your sub in less than 2 hours a few weeks back.

MisterShipWreck10:34 AM

I am at work. Give me a little while to look into this and I will get back to you

Independent-Ice-221110:34 AM

In case you were wondering why there was an issue with your sub. I wasnt sure what was going on but thats what happened.

Now if these were original posts, I would be ok with it. But we all know all these videos are taken from somewhere else and used to farm karma. Karma farming that means more moderator work for me for someone elses selfish benefit.

MisterShipWreck11:27 AM

Ok. So, let me understand. Someone else has been crossposting our stuff into your sub? I will admit. I crossposted 1 video into your sub this morning. I do it on occassion. But not often. I am a member of your sub. I enjoy your sub. If that is a problem, I will not do ita gain. As for this person - I have no idea at all who they are

I am amember of all the video subs. I see people taking our content and reposting it all the time. And, sometimes they crosspost it. Obviously, as a mod, I like when people crosspost our comment vs just taking it and reposting it. But such is reddit.

I am sure you see the same

I actually started the sub I run because I was having fun posting videos to different subs. But, I got tired of having stuff pulled down for being a repost on certain subs. Honestly - if something was posted in a sub 8 months ago, how could I possibly know that? Anyway, I started a sub of my own, with a wider range of videos being allowed. Believe it or not - in 12 weeks time (tomorrow), we will be at almost 100k... Or at least by Sun morning (I think that is the projected date). So, we are a fast growing sub. I ran the place by myself for 7 weeks, until I just could not do it anymore. Then, I brought some people in.

Independent-Ice-221112:09 PM

I love your sub. You guys find videos that are truly Amazing.
You can post whenever you want. I wasn't sure what was going on. This place is full of so many bots, it's difficult to tell who is real and who is not. I'm sure you can understand when someone posts that many crossposts from the same sub in such little time, it can appear malicious and spammy. I appreciate the response and feedback. No harm, no foul, no love lost. Thank you!

MisterShipWreck12:17 PM

Cool Joe gif. Thanks. Glad you like our sub. And yea, I have my own problems. We have to ban lots of people too - because certain people dont know how to act, unfortunately. I just had a conversation this morning with 1 of our mods about someone. He is banned for name calling, and now he wants to be a moderator on our sub. Can you believe that? And, we have the same problem of repeat posters posting stuff that doesn't belong in our sub, and they just don't get it. Know, that unless it is me, any reposts are not sanctioned. But, like I said, I like when people crosspost from our sub and give us the credit. But yea - it gets to be spam after a while... I understand that... But, they are doing it themselves, without me even knowing....

I also run an 80s sub that is growing pretty well. I started it the same day. But, I crosspost occassionally into my sub, but that way the original sub gets the "credit." Anyway, hav a nice day, and if you need anything, let me know.

Independent-Ice-221112:40 PM

10-4

MisterShipWreck12:57 PM

FYI - I just saw your question on my cross post into your sub, and I replied there

That was a change I did a few days ago. In fact, I had to ask for help on how to make that change on the mod question sub

It is called something else in the settings apparently...

Independent-Ice-22115:37 PM

Well, based on what I see about your sub which is visible to everyone, it was brought to my attention from complaints by redditors that you dont let anyone crosspost over there but seem to have built your sub by crossposting to everyone elses. In the end, most every video posted on both of our subs is not OC. One can make a case that your sub is strictly for karma farming as its noticed your members download and reupload videos posted from other subs rather than crossposting which goes against what you told me earlier on how you do things. I instruct them to block anyone they see doing this (if it bothers them that much) as it's not a banning offense in my opinion. We can do whatever we want as long as we stay within Reddits TOS but one has to note how cringy and disrespectful it is to do that to people in general.

Like I mentioned in the beginning, issues began with a member from your sub that was crossposting continuously from your sub making me work overtime with moderator duties. I want to have fun on Reddit too. I do have to admit, ever since these issues began and were stopped, the hate in this sub has gone down. The racism, bogitry and reportable offenses have greatly reduced which is a big relief. In hindsight, it all seemed very coordinated. I'm not saying it was. I'm merely stating what it seems like.

MisterShipWreck5:40 PM

Well, it is interesting you bring this up. We have discovered some crazy things today effecting our sub. My reply to you is the same as what I wrote on the open board. We just instituted the no crossposting thing. I saw it on certain other larger subs. I even asked a few days ago on the modhelp how to do it. Itw as getting to the point that as I scrolled thru the posts, every time we got a crosspost from someone, the original source is gone within a few hours to a day. And, when it's a few videos down, I sometimes don't even see it for days.

There is nothing nefarious going on.

And yes - when I first started the sub, I did crosspost. That is how you gain visibility. I have done way less of that. I saw some complaints, and now I don't hardly do it at all. But like I said, I am on all the subs. And, I constantly see posts from our sub crossposted to other subs. Yes, I like it. Am I behind it? No.

I am a 54 year old that works in criminal justice. I have health issues, and am suing my builder because we bought a brand new house last year - and it made me sick in 2 months. I am being treated for mold poising, everything we own has been thrown away, and I am sleeping on a twin matress on the floor of a 1 bedroom apartment that I am charging on a credit card every month, while I pay the mortgage for a house I cannot live in. And, I'm not charging the attorney to sue the builder... Why am I telling you all this?

I started the sub as a distraction. However, I never had a clue it would turn into 3-4 hours a day of work.

Just a little over 2 weeks ago, I brought in some mods as I couldn't do this solo anymore. I will be honest - had I know it would be like this, I never would have started this sub. The pllitics, the drama, the insults, the messages, the hatemail, etc. I get death threats in real life for my job. I don't need this crap on social media

I actually enjoyed our talk earlier, because I thought itw as nice to make a friend from another sub. Now, it seems this has gone the other direction. I am sorry to see that

I am open to crossposting if we didn't have the posts disappear all the time. One opf my mods has given me a reddit eductaion on some things I never even knew about. I trie dto be open and less restrictive, as some of the comments reddit flags is just dumb. But, it has been brought to my attention that if you let too much go, it can have neg consequences for the sub. So, we're having to proceed a little differently.

Anyway - this is all a headache. Sorry you are having issues with racism and such. Man, That is why I was spending 4 hours a day dealing with this by myself. We don't allow any politics because it breaks down into chaos, name calling, insults, threats, etc

I think we ecah have some of the same issues. I am sorry you don't like our no crossposting rule. If you were dealing with the same problems, you might put the same rule into affect too

Anyway - I promise not to cross post on your sub. I enjoy your sub. But, I am not looking to cause any problems with anyone

MisterShipWreck5:59 PM

Sorry for the typos. I tend to type while loking at the keyboard and I forget to go back and look back at the screen to fix things... If something didn't make sens,e that's why...

MisterShipWreck6:13 PM

Actually, I reread what you wrote and I thought about this some more. I was busy at work earkier. I used to directly cross post from other subs onto mine. But the videos are disappearing every single day, that's why we're uploading directly to our sub, because it's got to be a Non-Stop issue every day. Even if I saw something great on another sub and cross-posted it to my sub, myself, it's gone the next day or 2 hours latet. It's ridiculous how often that happens, and that's why some of the other videos subs don't allow it either.

So let's say you just started your sub yesterday, and you see some interesting videos and other subs. So you cross-post them to your sub. But 2 hours or 4 hours or 24 hours later, it's gone on the original source. And that happens day after day after day. What would you do?

In the queue that you deal with on your own sub, you see these comments all the time marked as spam. It took me awhile to figure out we don't even have to do anything with these comments because those are people that reddit has suspended or banned already. I have no idea what these people are doing to get banned, because the comments are innocent and shouldn't be pulled by themselves. But it must be something they're doing somewhere else on some other sub. That's what's happening with the videos I believe, that's why I think a lot of them disappear because the people that are posted them originally are getting banned.

There's nothing to nefarious about me growing a sub and now stopping cross-posting. Make of it what you want, but that's the explanation, and I told you on the open forum why. If it upsets somebody or you no longer like me or our sub, I'm sorry to hear that. Apparently there's always someone upset about something. You wouldn't believe the two or three crazy things we've had to deal with today from other people over this sub. Social media gets ridiculous sometimes, and it's not even worth it half the time. I'm tired of putting out fires all the time and then there's another thing that we get confronted with that we don't even have anything to do with.

I found out today we're having a lot of negative comments coming about us because we ban all political activity. We're an entertainment sub not a political sub. And political talk always degenerates into more work for us. But apparently we're racist and right-wing or whatever because we banned all political talk. That's the central idea apparently in some of the other subs about us, and it's ridiculous. And I'm really getting worn out dealing with the next conspiracy theory that seems to come along every day

MisterShipWreck6:35 PM

We even received some giant, unbelievable moderator mailed today. By some guy that basically wrote a Manifesto and demanded that we change our behavior on political comments. And he went on some Page Long rant about the whole thing. That's a new one, and just another headache that makes this not even worth it sometimes

Independent-Ice-22117:58 PM

The no crossposting rule doesn't bother me at all. You have your own ways of running it. I don't see a need to disable crossposting as I appreciate traffic from other subs. Whats not appreciated is the abuse.

What I brought to your attention earlier is spam abuse.

Each one of those was a post from your sub all within 2 hours on Mothers Day morning when most people were busy with family.

My mother died years ago and I'm as old as you are, so Mothers Day is just another day for me. My kids are older now with kids of their own. Like I stated earlier, this seemed very coordinated. It's hard to believe that a single Reddit user would abuse our sub like this from your sub when there are thousands of other subs that share the same type of content.

My main goal for this subreddit was to be a hub for transport topics and was hoping for memes, not videos. Unfortunately, people started sharing accidents, police chases, crack heads and if thats what they want, thats what it is. This subreddit is not mine because I rarely post in it. I simply moderate. This subreddit belongs to the people so when I speak on behalf of the sub, Im speaking on behalf of the people who participate in it. I didn't create this sub. There was someone in charge of it but doing nothing with it. I reached out, asked if they needed help and they gave it to me. It's my responsibility to keep this space safe.

MisterShipWreck8:34 PM

I am out walking at the mall when I see this... Two things. I am not all those people. And two, look at the dates. They are not all on the same date, so I don't kniw what you are tslking about... i do not remember what day was Mothers Day... But, those posts are on numerous days... There are listed as 26, 28, and 29 days ago, and several are at 1 month (1 mo - there is no way to know the exact day). They were not all one Mother's Day. So, you are mistaken. And, as for the post themselves... Some of those were me. The ones with my screen name. The rest are not. And as for the "I am a Libertine" guy, I banned him from my own sub.

Honestly, believe what you want, because Ive explained a lot of stuff to you today, and sent you some long messages earlier today. But apparently, you're convinced that all these people are me. At the start of this conversation, this chat was going totally different. So believe what you want, I don't care anymore.... I'm tired of the drama and this is not the day for this, after much other drama... There's been enough drama from this Reddit sub that I'm running already today, that I'm tired of it. If you're upset with me, then good for you. Because at this point I don't care because you don't believe me anyway.

MisterShipWreck

It is a bit infuriating to be accused of something I did not do, but what else is new, I suppose

END.

“I picked that beautiful flag up off that ground.” - Marine veteran Tony Mullis

Anyone confused with roundabout right-of-ways?

Ford recalls 500K Bronco vehicles due to fire risk

Speed limits explained. Follow the rules or get tickets

I have some great memories on bench seats

How to check for vehicle recalls - Toyota recalls over 5,000 vehicles.

Toyota recalls over 5K vehicles. Recall includes Grand Highlander & Lexus TX hybrid vehicles

Ford recalls over 740,000 vehicles

What models are included in the recall?

I preferred the 'Way Back' seat because there was more room to play

Use protection when deciphering these hieroglyphs 𓂀

No payments, just insurance

Now you married to the grass [Mute if you don't want to hear AI music]

Was my subreddit victim to malicious activity?

Who had one of these?

What's wrong with you!

4 hours+ in traffic got that man doing crazy things

Why people act silly sometimes, then get mad when sprayed with water

Are we running out of missiles or something?

A message to Redditors spamming this sub from r/VideosAmazing and r/DashCams