Hello everybody.

The mods received a message from an admin recently. Another 6/20/17.

The sub had been due for a revamp of the rules and a stickie post concerning such for some time now, so this is as good a prompt as any to follow through.

New sidebar: http://imgur.com/a/aAbC7

DESCRIPTION

This subreddit is meant for any and all discussion, story-telling, or information sharing (within the rules) concerning catfish and catfishing (no, not the actual fish). If you choose to participate in this community, you must adhere to all reddit and subreddit rules. The stance of this subreddit is one of anti-catfishing.

Reddit Content Policy

Reddiquette

Clarification: Anything to do with catfishing can be posted here. That can be linked posts (pictures, articles, etc) or self posts (text). Content can come from catfish, victims of catfishing, catfish-hunters, or really just anybody curious about or have information/questions on catfish/catfishing. This sub is NOT pro-catfishing. It is anti-catfishing. That being said, catfish can still come here seeking help with their problem or to tell their story.

What is catfishing?

to lure (someone) into a relationship by means of a fictional online persona.

• Wikipedia

• Urbandictionary: [1] [2]

• movie

• TV show

• Who Coined the Term “Catfish”?

• Catfishing – What is it, where it came from and the Psychology Behind Catfish Online Dating Scams

• Online Dating Red Flags: Warning Signs of a Catfish

RULES

1) Treat each other with respect. Just be friendly and helpful.

Clarification: No name-calling, grating sarcasm, being generally annoying, derailing threads, trolling, or anything else that lowers the value of or redirects the focus from a serious discussion. Letting a catfish know that they're an asshole is probably fine here and there, but if it's all the time or no other constructive feedback is given, then the rule will be enforced.

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2) No sharing of contact/identifying information, whether your own or somebody else's. That includes phone numbers, email addresses, online profiles, usernames, real full names, physical addresses, etc. Exceptions may be made for fake personas.

Clarification: Nobody is allowed to reveal contact information, online profiles, or any other identifying information on a real person, or to provide enough bits of vague/broad information that a real identity could be determined through doxxing. However, fake identities, profiles, and usernames that are used by catfish for their deeds can be revealed. THERE IS A FINE LINE!!! Fake profiles may include pictures of real people (besides celebrities and pornstars or other public figures), real contact information, or real identifying information. So when thinking about posting catfish information and leads, please always check to see if anybody's actual identity will be compromised, or keep in mind this possibility.

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3) No catfishing (obviously). Also no doxxing, stalking, harassing, brigading, or any other obnoxious/malicious behavior.

Clarification: Basically, don't follow people around or exert effort into making their online or real lives harder.

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4) No pro-catfishing sentiment or promotion of catfishing strategies/tactics.

Clarification: Catfishing is a waste of a person's time at best and a detriment to a person's mental state or livelihood at worst. Catfishing is obnoxious, dangerous, and pathetic. This is a place to spread information on catfishing so that there can be fewer victims in the future, or so that victimhood could be made shorter and/or less severe.

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5) No advertising/commerce. This is not a subreddit to buy/sell/trade products or services, nor to drive traffic to a profile/website. Exceptions may be made if the content is still catfish-related.

Clarification: Only exception made thus far (that I'm aware of) has been for the Catfish TV show: https://redd.it/4w6ikj. If you'd like to do any kind of catfish-related promotion, please send modmail.

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6) No low-quality posts or comments, aka "shitposts." Content must be clear, detailed, and easy to read. Format as necessary.

Clarification: There needs to be enough detail for the community to know what you're talking about, and the information needs to be formatted well enough to be readable. Please use proper spelling, grammar, punctuation, and formatting. The wall of text can get really bad here.

Even further elaboration:

No More Pictures With No/Insignificant Context, Follow Rule 6

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7) Mark all NSFW content as "NSFW," whether they be posts or comments, pictures or text.

Clarification: "NSFW" stands for "Not Safe For Work" and denotes some form of sexual, overly profane, or grotesque content. All images and text containing NSFW content must be marked "NSFW." If the post is already marked NSFW, it should be assumed that all comments may also be NSFW.

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8) No content involving the actual fish. The joke has been done to death.

Clarification: Seriously, just don't.

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9) Report all rule-breaking. Use the report button and/or send modmail.

Clarification: It's the community's responsibility and in the community's best interest to keep this place on the level. The community at large has more visibility and is quicker to respond than any one mod; therefore, it's best if everybody were proactive in reporting rule-breaking and suspicious activity. This way, we can do anything from reduce the damage of a Rule 2 violation to preventing the sub from getting shut down by the admins for negligence.

MOD ACTION

A mod reserves the right to, when dealing with rule-breaking or suspicious behavior:

• remove content

• ban users

• question users

• request verification

• lock threads

• report content/users to the admins

A mod may also participate as a normal community member.

Clarification: A mod can do several things to better the community. But while a mod is not performing those actions, they are just a regular community member like everybody else. They are allowed to post and comment as normal.

Moderator Guidelines for Healthy Communities

moderation

YOUR INFORMATION

If you see content on this subreddit that is clearly referencing you, whether it's misrepresenting you, revealing your identity, stealing your content, showing pictures of you, etc, and you need it removed, please send modmail including links and/or screenshots of the offending activity.

Clarification: Pretty simple. /r/catfish should be a place to help the online community prevent or reduce catfishing and other harmful activities rather than promote them. So if you see anything of yours being mishandled here, please let the mods know immediately.

VERIFICATION

If you would like to submit verification, or have been requested to, you must send modmail containing 2 clearly non-identical photos of just yourself (selfies) that contain the following elements:

• your username

• the current date

• this subreddit's name

• your face and/or torso

The message must be hand-written on something within the pictures. The pictures must also be decently lit and non-blurry. Obviously, the pictures cannot be manipulated in any way.

Clarification: This process establishes a real-life physical identity, which is important in some situations. It DOES NOT establish a real-life personal/lifestyle/livelihood identity. That means verification can be used to match a body to a body somebody is claiming to be, but it can't match a personality/lifestyle/livelihood somebody is claiming to have. Since most catfish build a different body into their fake identity, this process can assist with revealing those catfish, but it can't assist with revealing only those catfish that are pathological liars.

ANYTHING ELSE?

If there's anything else that should be addressed or clarified, you can leave comments on this post or send modmail.

^{6/9/17 6:40PM CST GMT-5}