Dear neighbors --

I have some concerns that I think you might share. Like you, I’ve been seeing a lot of discussion of politics and the primaries in the fiat thread. I’ve seen a lot of newcomers here. Frankly, I’ve seen a lot of all around shady economics.

Don’t get me wrong, I welcome everyone that wants to come and post here. But when ridiculous eyesore posts fill the fiat thread and the RI comment sections, well, it pushes down the value of the good economics discussion in their midst. It’s a serious problem!

So, in order to preserve the character of our neighborhood, the time has come that we must implement a zoning regime, to be kept in place starting July 20th until further notice (but not past the end of election season).

Here’s how things will work:

We will have one sticky, the Single Family Homes Sticky, zoned so that anyone can post in it, provided their post is about economics. And when I say economics, I mean actual legitimate good economics -- not hot takes and ideology masquerading as the real deal. All eyesore posts in that thread will be torn down by our very own legion of builders and destroyers. If your post feels like a historically out of place shed, a fence just above regulation height, or a boat parked on a lawn for 3 nights in a row or more -- if it’s like that, it’s gone.

The other sticky, the Mixed Use Development Sticky, will be zoned to be a bit more permissive… but only if you have a permit to post there. With a permit, you can post about things more loosely related to economics and topical political developments, albeit with some limitations on pure shitposting and the like.

How do you get a permit to post in the Mixed Use Development sticky? You can do any of the following:

• Post an RI that we grade as sufficient -- meaning it must contain references to the economic literature, or some other high quality work of your own with theory and data
• Post a policy proposal for the r/BadEconomics platform that we grade as sufficient (it doesn’t necessarily have to be accepted into the platform) -- sufficiency standards are similar here to an RI
• Contribute to the REN FAQ
• Provide a number of well thought out answers to questions on r/AskEconomics (and message modmail pointing them out)
• Make a number of helpful contributions on r/Economics (and message modmail pointing them out)
• Win one of the periodic r/BadEconomics contests

Once you do one or more of the above, we’ll issue you a permit to post outside just the single family home zone and you’re good to go for 6 months, after which your permit expires. You'll get a PM from our Homeowner's Association Bot letting you know when you have earned a permit. Note that permits can also be revoked when users post exceptionally bad takes and other things that pollute our community, but perhaps fall below the threshold of deserving a full purge.

In the interest of historical preservation, users will be granted permits for their contributions of the above sort that they have already made over the past 6 months and between now and the start of exclusionary zoning. Some particularly historically important users -- cough mods cough -- may be granted permits by default.

With this new system of zoning, I am confident that we will keep our community a blossoming and pleasant place for all for years to come.

tl;dr -- new rules: starting July 20th anyone can post serious content about economics in the Single Family Housing Sticky, but discussion more loosely related to economics must go in the Mixed Use Development Sticky. You can only post in the MUD Sticky if you post an RI, a policy proposal, or make some other positive contribution to the Reddit Economics Network. The MUD Sticky will also be more heavily policed and kept closer to economics and politics than the Silver Sticky of old.