I know subreddit moderation can be a sensitive subject. This is true for the mods who put in plenty of unpaid (and often underappreciated) time and effort into doing it, and for the sub members who often have strong opinions, particularly for communities they are heavily involved in. That, I'm hoping this post can open up some respectful and honest dialog about posting on this sub, and maybe we can get some clarity from the mods about what are, at least in the opinions of several people I've seen today alone, some issues on this sub.

I love this subreddit/DL in general. I spend a fair amount of time around here answering questions and viewing/commenting on posts. That's why it's been so frustrating to me recently to see posts frequently removed without explanation or clarity from the mods. Many times on other subs when a post is removed, the OP is at least left with a message about why the post was removed. Conversely, if an issue is minor, they may be asked to fix the post with a delay before removal, or an appeal process. Posts on this sub are removed without explanation all the time, and the number of posts that have an explanation are relatively rare.

A few examples (I have access to them mostly because I commented on them; otherwise I don't know of another way to find removed posts):

1. This post asking about Victor in mHMC

2. This post asking people to learn HDT fights before trying them

3. This humor text post about Notte's event lines

4. This image post of an MG 55 team that works for multiple elements

5. This post asking why the previous MG 55 post was removed

Now, just for the sake of fairness, here is a Question post that was removed and a reason was left. Fair enough. That tells the OP why the thread was removed, and gives them a means of getting the post reinstated. However, assuming I haven't somehow ended up finding the only 5 posts on this sub that were removed with no explanation, while every other removed post had reasons given (which I doubt), that means the majority of removed posts are being removed with no reason given.

Now, I think another thing to consider is whether these post removals are fair; can people understand why their posts are being removed and feel OK about the post removal? I would argue the answer is "no". In the majority of these cases, it's not clear which rule was violated or whether one was violated at all.

In the case of the first post, it's a question that could be asked in the daily question thread that's pinned each day. Ok, fine, that's fair; these question posts can clutter up the sub. However, I think this highlights an issue in the sub right now: there's actually no clear rule in the sidebar stating that simple questions that can be answered in the daily thread will be removed. The mods say that "low effort" posts can be removed, and that posts must "offer or contribute to discussion" but neither of those conditions outright ban questions. We have a Question flair for crying out loud! Of course people who are new/come here less often are going to use the flair that's available to ask a question. It's unreasonable to expect otherwise. If the mods don't want people doing this, perhaps a) adding a rule to the sidebar and b) removing or changing the question flair would help solve this problem.

In the case of the second post, I genuinely have no idea why it was removed. It wasn't a popular post, but it certainly spurred a lot of discussion about what should be expected of new players in HDT. Why was it removed?

Post 3 is admittedly kind of low effort, but is it really any more low effort than other posts that don't get removed every day? What about this post? It's just a screenshot and a funny title. Or this one, which is just a screenshot a question about wyrmprints? Now, I'm not trying to suggest these posts get removed. My only point is that enforcement of this rule is not very consistent.

Posts 4 and 5 are about the same thing; the MG clear was removed for no good reason, and isn't even a single screenshot; it's a manipulated image, with build descriptions in the comments. Post 5 has discussion about why Post 4 was removed, but no clear answer since the mods don't respond. And then post 5 is removed as well, also with no explanation, despite having over 30 comments and almost 40 upvotes. AND it takes almost 9 hours for Post 5 to be removed, suggesting either the mods aren't very active or there aren't enough of them to handle the time commitment of modding a sub this size. Here's a post from 12 hours ago that is also an MG clear, but it's not removed. Perhaps the mods consider this more high-effort since it's a video? But we have no way of knowing that, since the mods don't explain post removals.

My point is, rules are not clear, not consistently enforced, and not explained when posts are removed. A number of people in post 5 expressed frustration with their own posts being removed, and I can only assume it makes casual players/casual posters less likely to post since rules are not clear. This is problematic for the health of the sub, since I assume we all want fresh content here each day, rather than no new posts/new people joining.

I'd also like to turn a little attention to our mod team, because I wonder if it isn't part of the problem. To be clear, I think a number of mods here do an excellent job; several of them consistently leave explanations about why posts are removed and participate in discussions with other players and are visible in the community. Other mods literally haven't posted in this sub and/or on reddit in months. Again, I understand that modding is a volunteer job, and that this is a sub for a gacha game; obviously real life responsibilities should come first, and people might not have time all the time to moderate or post as much as they would like. That said:

Yumekaze hasn't posted on this sub in four months, and that comment was a post removal.

Dragoon893 hasn't posted on this sub in a month, and that comment was a post removal.

Ryoukai hasn't on this sub in two months, or on reddit at all in a full month.

ThatGreyPenguin hasn't been active on reddit in 8 months

Again, it's fine if people quit this game, or don't have time to mod, but if the mods aren't able to handle consistently and transparently enforcing the rules with the active team they have, perhaps they should consider opening up mod applications again, and updating the rules to make life easier for everyone involved. I just want to say again that I believe there are several people on the mod team that do a great job. But at least a few of the mods are not doing well at explaining why posts are removed, or enforcing rules in a consistent and timely manner.