Hello! Welcome to the first community poll results post and town hall of 2021!

We would like to introduce you all to our current moderators! We’d like to remind you all that we recently had a change in moderators. There have been some inquiries on the background of our moderators, and we’d like to introduce you all to them:

• Toastinmyhead is a Hispanic, cis woman who identifies as straight.
• Sendsomechips is a Mexican-American, cis woman who identifies as bisexual.
• Sleepycaterpillar is an East Asian, straight, cis woman.
• Ishr is a Caucasian, Central European, cis woman who identifies as straight.
• Nhaines is one of our automoderator writers, they do not perform any other mod actions besides cleaning up and adding to automod. We consider him the dad of the group.
• Ofjune-x is a white Scottish, bisexual, cis woman.
• Opentabss is a cis, hispanic woman who identifies as demisexual.
• Bigsudokufan is white and Jewish. They are a nonbinary lesbian.
• Dyeforthehype is a white, nonbinary lesbian.
• Pudgesjellysandwich is a Latin American Mestizo who identifies as pansexual.

Brand New Mods in training:

• Prettycrimson is an American born Pakistani and identifies as straight.

We also have wikimods who only have access to the wiki**:**

• Luv_Nachos identifies as a cishet woman.
• Aryelynet is white and genderqueer. They identify as gay.
• Smerkinmerdberngbers identifies as a cishet woman.

A permanent link to apply to become a moderator has been and will remain on the sidebar, so if you are ever interested in applying, please do so! We will keep your responses on file so even if you are not picked now, you may be picked in the future! We could always use more diversity!

Our community poll was very detailed and a little long; there were some content specific questions we had to ask the community for feedback/input on. In total, we had 2,220 people fill out our community poll, and we thank you for taking the time out of your day to do so! The poll was posted and stickied at the top of our sub from January 1st, 2021, to January 21, 2021. We originally planned for the poll to only be up for two weeks, but we did not gather enough responses, and extended it for one more week. Three weeks was ample time for users here to take the poll and give feedback. We also updated the automod comment to include a link to the poll, posted the poll in the sub’s discord, and a mod also posted a reminder to take the poll every few days so the community had every opportunity to participate.

POLL RESULTS

1a. RESULTS OF MAKEUP CENTERED QUESTIONS:

Do you want to allow posts of NON BG brand announcements/new collections (this will include swatches, user reviews, restock/in stock posts, fictional characters like Sailor Moon, Mulan, Hello Kitty, etc.)?

33.7% voted in majority to allow posts of non bg brand announcements/collections.

From now on, posts of NON BG brand announcements/collections will be allowed to be posted on the sub as a stand alone post. In the comments you may of course also discuss restock dates, and give your user reviews/swatches (but must not be self promo).

Do you want to allow posts that are user reviews and swatches of BG owned brands?

74.2 % voted in majority to allow posts that are user reviews and swatches of BG owned brands.

From now on, posts that are user reviews and swatches of BG owned brands will be allowed.

Note: Self promotion is still not allowed, your post must contain an actual review, not just a post of “I got my package and it’s so pretty!” Please give performance reviews, pigmentation reviews, finish reviews, etc.

Do you want to allow shipping issues/customer service issue posts that are about BG owned brands or collabs?

82.6% voted in majority to allow posts that are about shipping issues/customer service issues from BGowned brands or collabs.

Posts that ask about these issues are now allowed, we will do our best to prevent multiple duplicate posts, and may redirect users to one thread (or create a sticky thread when an anticipated launch/bg collab drops), let us know how you feel in the comments.

1b. RESULTS OF COMMUNITY RULE REVISIONS

Self Promotion

64.5% voted in majority to keep the current self promo practices in place (User flair and dedicated Self Promo Sunday sticky post)

Would you like to reinstate non-biased titles?

71.9% voted in majority to allow biased titles. Please do not have a title that is misleading, or it will be labeled as so. The biased titles also must still adhere to the other rules.

Would you like to allow mental health speculation?

54.1% voted in majority to allow mental health speculation and discussion only If the Beauty Guru has disclosed it themselves.

Comments that speculate on mental health in bad faith, practice armchair diagnosis, or speak down about mental health will be removed.

Would you like to allow physical health speculation?

52.9% voted in majority to allow physical health speculation and discussion only If the Beauty Guru has disclosed it themselves.

Do not speculate someone may be under the influence, abusing alcohol or drugs, claim an eating disorder, or anything of that nature if the bg/creator hasn’t disclosed.

Would you like to allow cosmetic procedure speculation?

59.4% voted in majority to allow cosmetic procedure speculation. (Please note: all comments must still adhere to all the other rules.)

Bashing cosmetic procedures or natural features that a person cannot control WILL be removed.

Should we allow politics to be the main subject of posts (note: must be directly tied to the beauty community i.e. Amanda Ensing)?

83.9% voted in majority to allow politics as long as it is relevant to the post. See: (link to amanda ensing post(s)

Duplicate Posts (Rule 13)

81.7% voted in majority that duplicate posts should not be allowed on the subreddit (ie the same video posted twice, very similar subject matter).

If a topic is being discussed and new, substantial information comes out (Rohini Elyse) you may make a new post. Always check the hot and new feed to be sure that what you are posting has not already been posted. If you are unsure, please modmail us.

Would you like to allow stand alone bg search posts?

36.8% voted in majority to allow stand alone bg search posts.

In the past, these posts were referred back to a dedicated sticky thread, which hardly had engagement. Stand alone posts harbor engagement, and also help the community with discovering new bgs.

Would you like locked posts to remain on the sub or be completely removed?

96% voted in majority to leave posts locked but not removed.

Would you like to reinstate all posts requiring a parent comment to spark discussion?

69% voted in majority to have parent comments optional.

While not necessary, it is helpful to have a summary of what the contents of the video posted are.

Would you like to allow Tik Tok content focused on beauty?

53.9% voted in majority to allow TikTok content focused on beauty.

While this is allowed, we do not want the sub to turn into a TikTok sub. If there are suddenly way too many on the feed, we may (with user approval) dedicate one day of the week where TikToks can be posted as stand alone posts.

Megathreads

60.2% voted in majority that megathreads should be implemented only if a major situation occurs in the beauty community (Jaclyn Hill Cosmetics situation, Dramageddon 1, 2, 3).

If you answered yes to the megathreads, should the posts be capped once they reach a certain number of comments (ex: 1.5k, 3k, etc.)?

62% voted in majority that these megathreads should not have a cap.

Would you like to allow beauty content from Safiya (Should she return to YouTube after her hiatus)?

81.8% voted in majority to allow beauty content posted by Safiya should she return to Youtube after her hiatus.

Would you like to allow beauty content about/from Kat Von D?

39.9% voted in majority to not allow beauty content from Kat Von D the person. Any posts about her will be removed. A reminder that she no longer owns the cosmetics company, and that she does not receive any profits from it as well.

Would you like to allow beauty content from Jenna Marbles (should she ever come back to YouTube)?

83.2% voted in majority to allow beauty content from Jenna Marbles should she ever come back to Youtube.

Should we allow Shane Dawson content?

56.9% voted in majority to allow Shane Dawson content on the sub under these parameters:

Allow Shane Dawson content that is directly tied to the beauty community beauty collabs, appearances in videos with other bgs, tweets directly talking about the beauty community, interviews about the beauty community, videos of himself he has posted of him actually applying and talking about makeup.

Do you want to allow memes on a dedicated stickied post a certain day of the week?

47.3% voted in majority to allow memes to be posted on a certain day of the week.

Going through the feedback portion a good amount asked for a “Shit post Saturday/Sunday” post and now, Shit Post Monday will happen this coming Monday!

What kind of drama channel content would you like to see on the sub?

63.7% voted in majority to allow drama channel videos, tweets, snaps, etc. that focus on BGs.

Should drama channel videos that have major unverified claims be allowed on the sub?

81% voted in majority to allow it but have an unverified(speculation) comment stickied on the post. The user must make this comment; if not, a mod will make it for them to prevent a deletion of the post.

1c. MODERATION RESULTS:

How often would you want to see Town Halls/Metas? These posts allow the community to share their views on subreddit issues and allow us to change, implement or adapt rules.

55.6% voted in majority to have a Town Hall/Meta every 4 months.

35.4 Voted to have a Town Hall/Meta twice per year

9% voted once per year

How often would you like the community to be polled every year?

45.6% Voted in majority to be polled twice per year.

32.1% Voted Poll us 3 times a year

22.3% Voted Poll us once a year

How often would you like us to share the contents of the suggestion box?

42.1% voted in majority to have the contents of the suggestions box shared every three months.

29.3% voted for every month

28.6 voted for every 4 months

Moderation

48.6% voted in majority that the moderation is fine the way it is.

4.4% voted more moderation

47% less moderation

On a scale of 1-5, how would you rate the moderation team of r/BeautyGuruChatter*? 1 - Very Poor, 2 - Poor, 3 - Neither bad nor good, 4 - Good, 5 - Very Good*

1 - Very Poor 8.9%

2 - Poor 15.8%

3 - Neither bad nor good 34.2%

4 - Good 27.7%

5 - Very Good 13.4%

The majority 34.2 % voted that the moderation team of r/BeautyGuruChatter is 3 - Neither good nor bad.

Rules 5&6 (Treat each other with civility; no threatening, bullying and harassing other users and No doxxing, asking for personal information, or revealing confidential personal information) are now under the umbrella of rule 1: Follow Reddit’s ToS and Content Policy, since they always have been. We still will have the report reasons.

We have also updated the FAQ’s

Instead of leaving the FAQ’s stickied at the top of the sub, we felt the automod comment on each post that includes a direct link to it is sufficient, and it is now updated to reflect the current rules.

Beauty adjacent content

After going through all of your responses of what you consider beauty adjacent content to be, we settled on:

Beauty Guru gossip and brand gossip as well as Beauty YouTuber, Tik Toker (this was voted in), Instagrammer influencer produces some type of beauty content or something that would be relevant to discuss in this group (e.g. the Shane Dawson beauty documentary, the D'Amelio sisters involvement with Morphe 2, Celebrity cosmetic/skin care brands, etc) as well as content that falls under the broader umbrella of "beauty" but is not make up (e.g. skin care, hair care, nail care videos, etc). Posts that are about brand owners are allowed, as well as celebrity MUAs and anything directly related to beauty content or beauty brands (e.g. opinion posts, “Has anyone tried X by Y?”).

Feedback

After reading through all the feedback given in the poll, the overwhelming consensus given was to not have posts disappear for no reason, less moderation, stop over-moderating, and this sub should have more engagement. With the newly added allowable content (see: Beauty Adjacent content) we believe this will help the community with more posts, more engagement, and less modding (& removals) on our part since the content rules are clearly set out now. We would also like to address that posts do not disappear for no reason, we do our best to provide a removal flair on every removed post. The OP’s of the posts sometimes delete their posts, we can’t do anything to bring it back once it’s deleted, we can only see the comments if we have the link.

Sub Stats

Below are the sub stats pulled from October 27th 2020 - January 26th 2021. Working out the mod stats was confusing and at times hard to clarify, so bare with us as we share this information.

In total, 16,533 posts and comments were removed, 86% were comments and 14% were posts. 8.6% were removed as spam, 15.7% were removed by the moderators, and 4.3% was removed by flair bot. The rest (71.4%) were removed by automod.

Approved posts: 2430 posts were approved, and these were all approved by a member of the mod team.

Approved Comments: 18,842 comments were approved by the moderators, and the moderators alone. Automod and Flairbot do not approve anything.

Banned users: 123 users were banned, and these were all done by a member of the mod team (NOT automod, we do not have anything in place for automod to perform that type of action on it’s own).

The most were due to spam 26%, followed by Racism 13%, Treat each other with civility 13%, misogyny 11%, self promo 5%, doxxing 2.4%, and finally, malice towards mental health, physical health, and cosmetic surgery 1.6%.

99 were permanent bans (80.6%), and the remaining 24 (19.5%) were temporary bans.

Note: Automod taking this much action is due to how we have it set up, we have certain keywords, domains, and other filters like account age and account karma that removes comments and posts to be manually approved, and we are still in the process of removing the keywords that trigger it the most. These numbers are not absolute, as we end up approving a lot of what automod flags.

A note on a growing attitude of r/childfree vibes

TW: Pregnancy and Childbirth

In the past six months, the mod team has been noticing an uptick in users commenting in bad faith in regards to beauty gurus choosing to share their experiences with parenthood, struggles with infertility, and embracing motherhood. We also see an abuse of the report button on these posts as being off topic. They are not off topic, and are allowed here. While we all know that not everyone likes children or wants to have children, making comments that are shaming a person for choosing to have children in a pandemic or choosing to have children at all will not be tolerated. We have enough filters in place for you to hide this content. We have the flairs (pregnancy/pregnancy announcement and Miscarriage/Infant Loss), the links that work in tandem with these flairs that you can use to hide all the content flared as such, and the ‘hide’ button that is on every single post.

“I’m guessing you have kids. We don’t care about yours either.” - comment by an actual user here. Not only is this commenting in bad faith, it’s also really rude.

“No it’s not. We’re glad you’re gone.” - another comment by a user who we assume does have or is for having children in the recent childfree bg search post.

Both sides (for children and childfree) must stop with these back and forths, and remember to engage with civility.

Covid Posts

When the pandemic happened and everyone learned the seriousness of what the coronavirus is, we don’t think that anyone could have truly imagined how COVID-19 could have affected our subreddit. What started out as a few posts soon turned into weekly posts, then daily posts, then we added a flair, then we added a hide link (much like the pregnancy hide link), and now we have a monthly covid post that goes up on the second of each month to further provide a discussion for the users to talk about bgs, or their own experiences with covid.

That being said, we would like the community to help us with ideas as to how to cut down on these posts. Some users come here to escape or take a break from the reality of the worst pandemic we’ve ever known/experienced. If you would like us to cap posts, or you don’t want us to make any change, please let us know.

Porn Bots

Another growing concern we have noticed on the sub is the increasing presence and posting of pornbots direct traffic to certain NSFW subreddits. More recently, we are noticing the bots (or maybe even actual people) trying to post their OnlyFans content, nudes, or attempt to direct traffic to their user profiles. This is a generally Safe For Work subreddit, so we do not allow any porn. Of course, when a bg does it we allow discussion and flare the post as NSFW. But regular users (falls under self promo and outside topic rule violations) and bots we do not allow. We have entered these certain porn subs into the automod to automatically be removed, but if you see one that makes it through, either as a comment or as a post, please report it!

Spam Filter

Recently, Reddit Admin posted about the ongoing issues with the spam filter. Basically, normal posts that should not be caught by the spam filter or automod are being sent straight to the spam filter and being removed without a moderator ever having touched it. At the same time, spam that absolutely should not be making its presence known (like the porn bots) is being posted freely. This may or may not be contributing to the ongoing issue of lack of posts making it through the approval process. We do have some contingencies in place for anyone to post (karma and account age), as well as some topics requiring manual approval from a mod. If your post does not appear on the sub, or is not givene a removal flair, please modmail as soon as possible so we can review it.

Racism, Transphobia, and Homophobia

The mods of r/BeautyGuruChatter have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to comments that promote that ideology or act of racism, anti-trans rhetoric, or anti LGBTQ rhetoric. We have a few new members on the mod team who have helped us specifically on Transgender/Non-Binary comments and posts, and have helped us with clarity and what is/is not okay.

As described above, the mod team is relatively diverse but still lacking BIPOC voices. Those of us who are less attuned to microaggressions are actively learning to better identify covert racism in comments, and we welcome more applications to continue to grow our team and represent a wider range of perspectives and viewpoints.

We also do see the trend of Black creators and POC creators getting harsher criticisms and judgement in the comments. While we understand your opinion is yours, we also want you to ask yourself, where am I situated in this power structure/privilege?

We do our best to remove comments that can also set the stage for transphobic rhetoric to happen, like we saw in a NikkieTutorials post concerning her and having children.

Bottom line, this is a LGBTQ safe space. Every background, gender, sex worker, and race is welcome.

Tone Policing

(which we consider to really go in tandem with the above topics, but can be applied anywhere)

If you are unfamiliar with the term, tone policing is a personal attack and anti-debate tactic based on criticizing a person for expressing emotion. It’s commonly used against women and people of color. Tone policing detracts from the validity of a statement by attacking the tone in which it was presented rather than the message itself. When you focus on a person’s tone and emotion instead of the person’s merits, you shift the outcome of the argument to not be about the merits, and instead enable the “wrong” side by acting as an authority on what approach is actually acceptable.

Per theinclusionsolution.me:

“In conversations and actions that seek to address injustice, inequity, and other –isms, we must understand where we exist within that power structure. We inherently hold power and privilege, and (can simultaneously) experience oppression based on who we are and the groups of which we belong. We must know what this means for us. We must ask: When I walk into this conversation, where am I situated in this power structure?”

If you need a better explanation, we encourage you to look here:

https://everydayfeminism.com/2015/12/tone-policing-and-privilege/

http://www.theinclusionsolution.me/unpacking-the-conversations-that-matter-if-you-werent-so-angry-people-would-listen-and-the-problem-with-tone-policing/

Some common examples we see of tone policing on the sub include telling an actual POC or person affected by the larger issue or -isms to “calm down”, “you are overreacting”, “the way you’re talking is distracting from the issue”, “I said that because your tone came across as really combative — just like in your reply to me”.

With this being said, we will never tolerate name calling or blatant bullying and harassment. Those rule breaking comments will still be removed. We may ask that you edit out the rule breaking part, or remove it all together.

High engagement off topic posts

These off-topic or rule-breaking posts in the past would be removed, while engagement was still happening, and it would often upset the community. We are no longer removing high engagement posts that make it through. We are leaving them as is, since discussion is happening, and the community obviously wants to participate.

Join the sub's Discord!

A few months ago a community sub discord was created! The community is very welcoming, very fun to communicate with, and quite active! We'd like for you to join as well!

A Reminder To Report

Once again, is our reminder for you to report anything you feel may be breaking the rules. When you report, it goes straight to modqueue, and someone is usually always on, and will see your report. We may discuss with the rest of the team. You can always modmail us as well if you have any questions, want to question a removal, are wondering where your post is, or would like to provide feedback.