Hi everyone. I've been a long-time lurker and commenter here. Last week I applied to be moderator of /r/neuro on the basis that the community has been lacking moderation for some time and today I was approved as moderator.

My hope is to keep the scope of the subreddit largely intact. Posts/comments that were acceptable before will still be acceptable (but see below about rule changes). Posts and comments that break rules, mainly seeking and giving medical advice, will now be removed. There are no exceptions to this rule. If you have medical advice requests, you can visit a number of other subreddits:

• /r/AskDocs (General Health Issues & Questions)
• /r/Medical (Questions about medical practices & procedures)
• /r/DiagnoseMe (Similar to AskDocs)

I have added two new rules:

1. Posts must be related to neuroscience, which seems obvious, but we still get the occasional irrelevant post.
2. Posts and comments that make any definite claims about brain structure or function must be supported by evidence from an appropriate source. An appropriate source could be primary research, meta-analyses, reviews (preferably peer-reviewed, but I'm considering allowing pre-prints). Blogs, podcasts, etc. that do not cite any sources listed above are not appropriate sources. Perspective or opinion articles are ok to cite as long as they are caveated as such. I don't intend for this rule to stifle interesting, speculative discussion (i.e, like an opinion article), but rather to prevent people from making unsubstantiated claims about brain function and misleading non-experts. For example, you might say "There's some evidence for X (cite evidence of X) as it pertains to Y, so it's likely that Y is the case" and that would be fine. Making the claim that Y is the case with no substantiation or reasoning will be removed. Generally, asking questions about the brain does not fall under this rule.

I want changes to rules or community scope to be community driven. Please let me know in the comments below or via message if you have an idea for a rule addition/change or if you have any ideas for the sub. I've been thinking about having a weekly/monthly sticky thread for discussing/asking about papers you are currently reading. Also, I'm considering user flair to indicate users who have degrees in neuroscience, similar to /r/askscience. I'd love to hear any other ideas you have.

Finally, I would love to have another couple of moderators to have some extra eyes on the sub and hold each other accountable. I'll make a post for that in the near future, so be thinking about whether you'd like to join the moderation team.

Questions? Comments? Snide remarks? Leave 'em below!