We're making some changes to try to streamline a few things in the way these subs are handled. Most of these changes are not public-facing, it's a lot of rewriting and trying to clean up the automod code we're working with (spent the past 4 days sifting through it and rewriting it (ಥ ͜ʖಥ) ), but we've made some quality of life changes to the way posts are handled to try to cut back on the amount of spam that's let through.

• LIVE - We've instituted an "Age of account" filter. You will no longer be able to comment or post using brand new accounts. A lot of our spammers would create and post using throwaway accounts. This does mean that if you're a genuine person and create a throwaway account, you will not be able to post right away. In the past few days of trialing this out, we've had well over 100 accounts being filtered out, with a good 50-60% of them getting suspended before they hit the 48 hour mark. We believe this to be an effective countermeasure to the spam bots.
• LIVE - We've added code to auto-remove any comment saying DM me. Now, if you choose to !Unlock your post, and people make low-effort comments, they will be automatically removed. (Use your imagination people.)
• LIVE - Emojis will not be allowed in titles or bodies. 9/10 times, they are put in by spammers/scammers/bots trying to appear like actual people. We've only had very few actual users using emojis. They will just be filtered from now on. The first rule's verbiage has been updated to reflect this change.
• LIVE - We're streamlining rules. You'll notice we have fewer rules in our sidebar now, this is to help a more universal implementation across the board and to allow fewer chances for inconsistent moderating among the team. Some of the rules were from before we were mods and we needed to get them all on the same page across our network of personals subs. This extends to removal reasons, which, for some unknown reason, are still separate in Reddit's back end code. So now, if your post is removed by a moderator, it should have a reason attached to it.
• IN PROGRESS - We'll be putting out an application for new mods soon, be on the look out for that. We just wanted to get everything tidied up before bringing on new help. A separate announcement will be made when applications are open. You'll need to have some activity on Reddit, no blank profiles will be considered; a familiarity with how modding works would be fantastic.
• IN PROGRESS - We're also creating a welcome message that will be sent out to every new subscriber. We're growing at about a rate of 400 users per month, steady growth over the past 12 months.
• IN PROGRESS - We're creating a wiki and adding pages on common problems. The main one is the title requirements. We will not be changing the title requirements, they will stay the same. You must still use the format provided. The wiki will just go into a little more depth of explanation because we have a very select few that still can't seem to figure it out. They will be directed to this wiki page. (This is mostly to make our lives easier.)

If you're still reading, congrats 😂 As I mentioned before, we completely overhauled Automod's code, so if there's something wonky over the next week or so, just shoot us a modmail and let us know what you ran into so we can pull out the shovels and go digging. YAML takes some getting used to.

What we need from you, our community, is feedback. We are hoping these changes will eliminate the need for a verification system, because, quite frankly, it's super not easy to do and implement. We'll be bringing on additional moderators to the team here in the next few weeks to try to distribute the work, and getting all of our shit in order needed to happen before bringing on more mods.

I know it sounds like a lot for just a hookup sub, but we're really trying to improve each sub into something useful for the community. Thoughts, questions, concerns? Drop them below.

PS - sorry to anyone that got caught in the over-zealous emoji filter. I've given it some warm milk and a blankie, so it should be a little more relaxed now.