u/MrBub_bles

Over the past few days (week), there have been several heated discussions involving sellers, buyer experiences, moderation decisions, and accusations of bias within the subreddit. Would want to take this opportunity to address the situation openly and clarify the moderation team’s stance going forward.

As this community continues to grow, we are reaching a point where buyers and sellers are existing across various platforms like WhatsApp groups, Discord servers, Instagram pages, private chats, and other community spaces . Deals happen across these platforms on a daily basis. Similarly issues, discussion and disputes happening across these platforms are being brought across and posted on Reddit.

This creates a very difficult moderation challenge.

In many or rather most of the situations:

- Moderators do not and possibly will never have the full context unless they were involved themselves.

- Conversations happen privately or off-platform and not on a place the moderators are an active part off.

- Different people tell completely different versions of events.

- and many claims cannot realistically be independently verified.

At the same time, we also understand why people bring concerns here. Many members see Reddit as a more open and transparent platform compared to private groups or closed communities. Reddit also provides a level of anonymity that allows people to speak more freely about their experiences without attaching their real identities to public discussions.

However, that same anonymity can also make discussions escalate much more quickly. It becomes very easy for conversations to shift from constructive criticism into assumptions, hostility, personal accusations, and blame, including toward moderators themselves.

Buyer awareness and the ability to discuss negative experiences are important parts of maintaining a healthy hobby community. But there also needs to be a balance.

The subreddit cannot become:

- a public courtroom where users can behave a judge, jury and executioner.

- a rumour mill where most of the stories are hearsay and just a matter "he said", "she said"

- or a place where ongoing community conflicts from multiple platforms escalate into personal attacks and factional arguments (Cartel, Mafia etc)

Over the past few days, discussions have increasingly moved away from constructive feedback and toward:

 - Speculation

- Retaliation posts

- Unverifiable third-party accusations

- Hostility between members, who possibly know each other privately are use reddit as a platform to do anonymous mud-slinging.

- Accusations against moderators

- and emotionally charged back-and-forth exchanges, which are borderline childish.

This is not healthy for the long-term growth of the community.

 

We also want to address one point clearly because it has been repeatedly mentioned:

 

The moderation team does not receive compensation, favours, incentives, or “Slabs” and "Free Packs" from sellers or community members. We understand that some moderation decisions may appear unpopular or unfair depending on perspective, especially during emotionally charged situations, but decisions are being made based on what moderators believe is best for maintaining overall community stability and fairness. Also because these things are being overlooked and judged by human beings and not machines.

However,

That does not mean moderators will always make perfect decisions. As the subreddit grows, moderation challenges also become more complicated, and we will continue learning and refining our approach over time. As stated before, no decision will have a 100% approval or happiness rate.

 

Hobby interactions happen within relatively small community circles across the platforms stated. Because of this, some members may genuinely feel uncomfortable publicly sharing negative experiences or screenshots out of fear of social fallout, exclusion from groups, or damaging relationships within the community. I would wager that most of the complain posts being raised can also be done in those same private spaces directly but are not done so because of the fear of being ostracized from belonging to a part of the community or group. Backlash can get real and this also means, losing out of deals and possible connections. 

 

If someone is uncomfortable posting publicly, they are welcome to reach out to the moderation team privately to share concerns or context.

 

However, we also want to be transparent about the limits of moderation in these situations:

private reports and screenshots do not automatically result in public action against individuals, especially in cases where moderators cannot independently verify the full context or where claims remain heavily disputed.

 

Our goal is not to privately “judge” community members behind the scenes, but rather to better understand ongoing concerns while still trying to moderate fairly and responsibly for everyone involved.

 

Going forward, our general stance will be:

 

- Members are allowed to share first-hand experiences and constructive feedback.

- Evidence/screenshots are strongly encouraged wherever possible. Technically this should be a requirement but is understandable in rare instances where providing the proof is not possible.

- Civil criticism is allowed.

- Harassment, mockery, dogpiling, and personal attacks are not allowed.

- Posts based primarily on hearsay, unnamed third-party allegations, or speculation may be removed or locked. Do not post on behalf of your friend, relative or try to be the voice of the voiceless.

- Threads may also be locked if discussions become hostile, repetitive, or impossible to moderate fairly.

 

Importantly:

Locking or removing a thread does not automatically mean moderators are “taking sides” or declaring one party innocent or guilty. In many cases, it simply means the discussion has stopped being productive and has become increasingly difficult to manage responsibly. Community members are free to go back to the locked posts to check the level of language being used by some adults and mature members in the spaces.

We also ask members to remember that moderators are volunteers. We are collectors and hobbyists ourselves trying to maintain a positive and useful space for the Indian Pokemon TCG community. We will not always get everything right, but the intention is to help the community grow in a healthier direction over the long term.

The subreddit has grown significantly and continues to grow every day (currently sits at 2.5k members). With that growth, clearer guidelines and moderation standards will naturally become more necessary. There will be official changes to the rules, with new rules added and existing rules amended with regards to this specific topic.

I and the other moderators wish that some of the highly intense topics in the past few days were handled differently. But we cannot change what has already been done.

Let’s try to move forward constructively from here.

Sincerely, 

Mod Team