The State of the Subreddit (and Our New Rules)

Esteemed subscribers of /r/Pics,As many of you are aware, the moderation team has been busy refining and updating the subreddit's rules in order to address many of the concerns voiced by users. This has led us to disallow "progress pictures" from the community, and has also seen us adjusting our title-specific expectations. Most recently, we have been examining the impact that /r/Pics has on both the site and the greater Internet... and after much discussion, the decision has been made to raise our overall standards for quality.While we have always encouraged users to contribute to the very best of their ability, our ever-increasing subscriber count has required that we issue specific mandates about the types of content and conversation that we wish to feature here. To that end, we will be replacing our current set of rules with the following one.All posts must be unaltered, first-party original content.No reposts, no images taken from other sources, no digitally altered photographs, and no posts featuring screenshots or superimposed elements.No forbidden material.Gore, pornography, depictions of cruelty, memetic content, photographs taken without the subject's consent, and submissions which the moderators personally dislike are all disallowed.No personal information.Any personal information – whether expressly identifying or not – about an individual, group, or entity is forbidden in both posts and comments.Post titles must be well-written, concise, accurate descriptions of the specific event depicted.Additional information may be included in the comments section. Emojis, emoticons, typos, misspellings, and other such mistakes are not allowed in post titles.All posts must consist of a single, directly linked photograph.No animated images, no digitally constructed content, and no links to albums or forbidden hosts. Link-shorteners are similarly disallowed.Comments must be well-written, civil, and contributory.Personal attacks, bigotry, fighting words, incitements to harass, and other such inappropriate behavior will not be tolerated. Comments containing typos, misspellings, and memetic redditisms (such as "this" or "/r/ThatHappened") will be removed at the moderators' discretion, as will any comments deemed to be non-contributory.No submissions featuring personal accomplishment, growth, or achievement.No submissions featuring dull, uninteresting, or otherwise not-noteworthy content.MODERATORS RESERVE THE RIGHT TO SELECTIVELY ENFORCE ANY AND ALL RULES.In short, all submissions to /r/Pics – whether they be posts or comments – must be unique, contributory, and offered without errors. We understand that some of these expectations may concern certain subscribers, but anyone who makes an effort to offer original content, proofread their text, and engage civilly with other Redditors will likely find their activity remaining unimpeded. With these new rules in place, our hope is that the subreddit will come to be seen as a welcoming and entertaining community for anyone who would choose to visit... provided that they're willing to make a modicum of effort.Finally, our last rule ("Moderators reserve the right to selectively enforce any and all rules") is not intended as an excuse to shirk our responsibilities. Rather, it is being included to allow for qualitative analysis of submissions. As an example, if a non-English-speaker has a typo in one of their comments, moderators may choose to approve it so that the user in question can learn from their fellow subscribers.There may be some initial difficulties as these changes are rolled out, but as always, we encourage you to report any rule-breaking content that you see.Thank you for being a subscriber to /r/Pics! via /r/pics https://ift.tt/2VctBYE