The mods of /r/sex make it our policy to review the rules of the sub on an ongoing basis, tweaking items as necessary. In an effort to stay abreast with the growth of the sub and with the evolving moderation that requires, we have decided to re-sticky the updated rules to serve as a reminder for our membership.

The description of this subreddit, as presented on all platforms:

r/sex is for civil discussions pertaining to education and advice regarding your sexuality and sexual relationships. It is a sex-positive community and a safe space for people of all genders and orientations which demands respectful conduct in all exchanges. There is ZERO TOLERANCE FOR CREEPY/HARASSING BEHAVIOR here — in posts, comments, messages, or any other contributions. No exceptions.

Rule listing preface:

This is a large community dedicated to an extremely popular topic. If you wish to participate, it is your responsibility to familiarize yourself with our rules of conduct BEFORE you participate here. Failure to do so will result in your removal from the community. PLEASE READ the FAQ with the most asked and answered questions - BEFORE POSTING!! Posts that do not follow the posting guidelines in the FAQ will be automatically removed.

The rules of /r/sex:

1) ENGAGE CONSTRUCTIVELY AT ALL TIMES This means ensuring that ALL of your contributions here are constructive, on-topic, mature, sex-positive, civil and respectful. Disrespectful conduct will see you banned from the community on the spot. Hitting on other people, asking for pictures (joking or not), making any sort of sexist comment or insult, body shaming, or trolling of any sort will result in your immediate ban.

Treat everyone else with respect, or go elsewhere.

2) DON’T SKIP THE FAQ OR THE FORUM RULES We’re serious about this. Dozens of posts get removed every day because they’re covered in the FAQ or violate the forum rules.

Some days, less than 10% of what is posted is completely within our rules.

3) DON'T OVERLOOK PAST POSTS We’re serious about this, too. Many questions may be new to you, but are very common in our community. Before you submit a post on a common topic, search the forum.

Use the search function first. We appreciate when you actually try.

4) ALL CONTRIBUTIONS MUST BE SEX POSITIVE We demand that consenting adults be free to express their sexuality as they see fit. Kink shaming, slut shaming, and similar conduct will not be tolerated. Links or references to sex negative communities or websites (No Fap, Porn Free, etc) will not be tolerated. Attacks on the lifestyle of other consenting adults will not be tolerated.

If you need to tell someone that what they are doing is w r o n g, chances are huge that you are a poor fit for our community.

5) POSTS SEEK ADVICE, COMMENTS PROVIDE IT The main forum is focused primarily on posts seeking specific actionable advice for distinctive personal situations. Giving advice should primarily be done in the comments. General discussions are often allowed, so long as they adhere to the group rules and restricted content guidelines. If you want to make an exception, please request approval from moderators.

Anyone wanna guess what this rule is for? Yep. It's the catch-all that near-all post-removals are based on. When you shitpost, this is what's wrong with you.

6) DO NOT TROLL OR ENGAGE WITH TROLLS HERE Don’t try to challenge, question, tease, fight, or outwit trolls here. Instead, use the Report button to alert moderators, who will review every single reported item. Trolling of any sort merits an immediate permaban.

It was bad enough when we had one troll to deal with. When you troll back...we have TWO trolls, when we would have preferred to have ZERO.

7) ALL DISCUSSION MUST BE DIRECTED INTO THE PUBLIC FORUM Do not seek private conversations here, via Private Message or any other method. And do not seek to draw attention or clicks to an outside site of any type (unless you have received prior moderator approval, such as for academic research projects). Every comment here must be a clear attempt to engage with an ongoing public discussion in the forum. Violations of this rule will result in permanent bans without notice.

Seriously, folks. We have literal hundreds of testaments from users who claim to never again want to post in our forum, because of the creepy assholes who lurk here. If we spot you, we boot you. No exceptions.

8) RESTRICTED CONTENT This sub is generally only for seeking advice, education, or discussion about sex and sexuality. We restrict or forbid many types of content here. See the list below of examples of content we restrict.

Examples of content restricted in /r/sex:

I) PROMOTIONAL POSTS This means any post containing any kind of promotional element, especially one which seeks to lure traffic to another site or promote a product. Links to specific product descriptions are permitted if they’re PRECISELY on-topic in the context of the post, AND the post itself is clearly seeking advice in good faith. If you're trying to sell something, conduct market research, etc - these posts will get you banned. Linking to sex-positive blogs or podcasts is allowed, provided you make an effort to start a conversation here about the topic and use the link as supporting material.

If you are here to promote, we will treat you like a spammer. If you are here to talk and in the talkative context want to recommend a product or business that you are obviously somehow afiliated with, chances are that we will treat you like a spammer unless you actively restrain yourself. If you tone it down, we will treat you less like a spammer and more like a person.

II) LINK POSTS Linked material must be sex positive and precisely on-topic to stay up here, and needs to be introduced with a workable framework for discussion. Please see the posted Link Policy BEFORE you post links! Bare links to youtube, images, blogs, podcasts, etc are prohibited.

This, of course, works in tandem with Example I above.

III) ACHIEVEMENT POSTS These include appreciation, humblebrags, “I just had to share,” “I just want to say,” etc. These belong in the Weekly Sexual Achievement Thread (reposted on thursdays), not in the main forum. Posts which are JUST sex stories belong somewhere else entirely — like r/sexstories or a similar forum.

There are subreddits solely for posting sex novels. We are not one of them.

IV) LOW EFFORT MATERIAL “Does anyone else...?”, “Is [X] normal/weird?”, “Is [y] wrong/bad/okay?”, and so forth. Human sexuality is incredibly varied; yes, someone else likes what you like, and labels like "normal" or "weird" are meaningless - and in a sex positive community, we do not allow any moral judgments against sex acts or behaviors that are consensual. Title-only posts, posts with no effort at an actual conversation will be removed and may get you banned. Comments that consist of nothing but memes, "this", "lol" and such are highly disfavored. If comments do not further the discussion, they may be removed; a pattern of these may result in your ban.

People who post here want advice. If you have no real advice to offer, do not comment.

V) SEEKING FAP MATERIAL Do not ask for sex stories, do not ask for the hottest/strangest/most unusual/etc encounter someone ever had. Do not ask for lists of other people's kinks.

Since we do not allow sex novels, see Example III, we as a consequence also do not allow users to ask for them. As you can imagine, this was an obvious loophole that had to be dealt with even though the initial rule was perfectly clear.

VI) PORNOGRAPHY, EROTICA, OR PERSONALS You may not post or link pornography or erotica here. You may not share pictures of your genitals here - even if you are seeking medical advice (if you need to post a picture, you need to be going to a doctor). You may not recruit sex partners here, look for dirty chat, ask for someone to private message you, etc.

This is kind of an over-clarification that runs hand in hand with Rule 7, plus, of course, we do not want any of the advertising. Apparently it wasn't made clear enough in Rule 5.

VII) DISRESPECTFUL CONTENT Personal attacks, insults, name calling, or disrespect of any sort are not allowed here. Sexism, racism, or any type of hate speech will result in your immediate ban. This is a community for ALL GENDERS - refusing to acknowledge a trans individual's gender flies in the face of this, and will result in your ban.

Even though Rule 1 is pretty clear on the type of engagement we expect here, we still had to add this additional clarification. Says a lot about people, doesn't it?

VIII) OPINION SEEKING, POLLS, VALUE JUDGEMENTS, OR VALIDATION POSTS This forum is not for simply collecting opinions - "do you think [X] is hot?", "Women, do you like [Y]?", "What is your favorite sex position?" and so forth. This is not a forum to discuss your penis size, breast size, labia size, ask about other body image issues, or ask for feedback on your photos. See the /r/sex FAQ for help regarding body image issues. Do not post your pictures and ask people to rate or critique you. Do not ask if given consensual sexual interests are good/bad/okay/wrong, etc.

Some people will agree with you. Some will not. Others are indifferent about it. And therefor you will get answers that span over these three possibilities, no matter what opinion you ask for.

IX) ACADEMIC SURVEYS These require prior moderator approval. Moderators will review the question formats and will review the documentation of institutional ethical oversight (please provide). Non-academic surveys are seldom allowed. Please contact the moderators BEFORE you post a survey or study.

When a moderator flairs a survey post as approved, you can be sure that the moderators have read through the quesitonaire AND there is documentation of ethical oversight.

X) GENERAL RANTS, ESSAYS, EDITORIALS, VENTS, CONFESSIONS, PSAS, AND AMAS These don’t belong in the main forum unless you have obtained prior moderator approval. Save them for story-based forums. Or Tumblr.

How many people get laid for the first time this week and want to tell everyone on Reddit about it? Well. Hundreds.

XI) FREQUENT/FAMILIAR TOPICS These are addressed in either the FAQ, past posts, or both. In case you are confused, this means that we do not do penis size posts here.

The FAQ is undergoing quite some work and more things are added to it all the time. If something ISN'T in the FAQ, maybe you want to write up a draft of what you think is missing and submit to the moderator team for review?

XII) VAGUE TITLE/TOPIC If a moderator can’t identify your issue or the type of advice you’re seeking, your post will be subject to removal. Titles should be at least several words long and adequately express what your post is about.

Titles that are not identifying what the post is about, somewhat, is disrespectful towards our readership. You will get the attention of significantly fewer of the really substantial advice-givers of our forum if you treat them like their time is not important to you.

XIII) NONCONSENSUAL OR ILLEGAL CONTENT /r/sex is for the discussion of consensual sex among adults. We do not permit posts that advocate pedophilia, bestiality, rape, or incest here under any circumstances, nor do we allow these topics at all in most instances. Note that BDSM and CNC (consensual nonconsent) are perfectly valid topics in /r/sex.

It should come as no surprise to you that the jurisdiction of Reddit Inc. is non-optional on this website and as a consequence also non-optional in this subredit.

XIV) OTHER OFF TOPIC ISSUES This is not the place to discuss politics or religion, to seek dating advice, to ask for how to pick up women, to rant about how you have never had sex. Posts that appear to be dedicated to stirring up arguments - particularly about hot button topics like circumcision, the evils of pornography and/or masturbation, and other toxic subjects - will be removed and will result in swift bans.

Fun fact: there are quite a few subreddits that you are not allowed to mention here in our subreddit.

XV) IMPORTANT NOTE ON DISCUSSIONS OF SEXUAL ASSAULT Sexual assault is an important and emotional topic which can be discussed (constructively) in r/sex. But posts which simply seek opinions about whether a given scenario counts as sexual assault do not do well here. This is true for several reasons, including the fact that assault laws vary by jurisdiction, and we don't encourage debates about jurisdiction issues here. Therefore, we ask that you refrain from describing a scenario and then simply asking “Is this rape/assault?” Instead, ask for specific advice: About how to respond to the scenario, how to avoid it, or how to proceed with next steps. Posts which simply ask “Is this rape/assault?” are subject to removal without notice.

The legal definition of a non-consensual situation differs depending on where you live in the world. Subtly mostly, but the simple fact is that the line is drawn differently. Different boxes need to be ticked, so to speak. And to figure all that out, you need to ask where OP lives, something that you are not allowed to do in this subreddit. The whole thread derails. Instead of offering OP support, mental strength and coping mechanisms, most people think that the most important thing is to shove THEIR understanding of their own legal defninition down everyones throat. As if that was helping OP any in their situation.

XVI) POST LENGTH For ease of reading and reviewing, please get to the point of your post quickly — in the post title, first paragraph, etc. Consider adding a tl;dr to long posts. Posts which are inconveniently long — over 600 words, approximately — are subject to automatic removal. Also, line and paragraph breaks are VERY HELPFUL for readers and reviewers — walls of text that lack these are subject to removal for readability.

For hilarious reasons, this is also surprisingly awesome spam protection.

Further information about the /r/sex rules and policies can be reviewed on the rules page.

A few notes on how the moderator team operates in this subreddit:

• The diversity of the moderator team can be better, we truly do have a bit of an overweight on white men in their 40's to 50's, but we ARE from different continents, have different ages, have different orientations and there are at least three gender identities among the mod team.

None of us are here to fill some sort of quota. Yet another white guy born in the 70's who's a reliable work horse WILL have a place among us.

We DO want more diversity, even if it's just because that person encounters slurs IRL that none of the rest of us have ever heard of. Hive knowlege is super-important.

Genereally speaking, there is a moderator awake that is watching with half an eye at all hours of the day.

• We make heavy use of AutoModerator for our day-to-day operations. Nearly 85% of all content removals in this subreddit are fully automated. The accuracy rate on the automations is around 95% or thereabout. There is conscious choice behind every line of automation in this subreddit but how the automations communicate with the users could see some work.

This means that, yes, if you try to circumvent the automation, we will ban you.

• We pride ourselves on our internal team accountablity. We look at what the others are doing (to learn and become uniform, and sometimes to question) and we constantly chat with each other about sightings that we want second opinions on. There are no rogue mods here who play by their own rulebook, mods who have personal pet peeves and exercise personal discretion need to confine them within the boundaries of general consensus.

As a consequence of this, we expect all communications with the moderator team to be addressed to Modmail, the collaborative communication tool moderators use when messaging as the subreddit. Do NOT send us personal chats or DM's.

If you question a moderators integrity here, another moderator WILL look at it. But, seriously, I don't even remember last time I disagreed with the moderator actions of another moderator.

• The way we look at it, when one person is rude and disrespectful in our subreddit, we have ONE problem to deal with. If you feel an urge to respond by being rude and disrespectful yourself, we all of a sudden have TWO problems to deal with. Two entirely separate problems that we will deal with as perfectly separate events.

Blaming someone else for your own wrongdoings is NOT a good defence in this subreddit. Yeah. Someone else called you a \***** with a ***\ and that's WRONG. But you called them a **** born with their ********* tied too hard, and that's WRONG too. You totally deserve a ban, since you are clearly not equipped with good enough brakes.*

• Nearly all bans in this subreddit are permanent. If you get a temp-ban that expires in a set number of days, it's because a moderator has decided to use personal discretion in your case.

• Despite the permanent nature of our bans, we DO belive in second chances. However, we do NOT believe in thirds.

We ban permanently, and if your appeal process shows that you deserve a second chance you'll get one.

• The moderator team has no time for personal vendettas. We are not targetting you personally. We are only trying to uphold the rules of this community, for the better of the community. Try to fit to belong, or find out that you do not belong.

This community has fifty-five thousand (!!) banned accounts. Yes. Really. We ban around 50 acounts per day on average and we are not going to remember your account name in half an hour, so we are CLEARLY not singling you out for anything we do.

• If you find yourself banned in this subreddit and want to show the moderator team that you have been reading up on our rules before appealing, follow these simple steps; begin your appeal process by volunteering a) an explanation as to what you did, b) which rule it broke c) and why we can trust that you will not do that again.

Ongoing things behind the scenes:

Comment minimum length limit We are actively trying to increase the quality of help offered in this subreddit. We are therefore testing out a comment minimum length limit. It turns out that it did not just require help to be more substantial, it also practially rid us of all types of slurs and irrelevant shitty oneliners. And also some spam, while we were at it. This means that the minimum char length on comments is here to stay, the results are excellent, even in comparision to what we were hoping for. (That said, the exact limit is not somthing we are willing to disclose because a) we don't want to tell people how to circumvent the filter and b) we are still evaluating it anyway and whatever we communicate may or will change in the future.)

We've had it with AI written responses For some reason, we are a popular sandbox for AI bots. We have noticed that they are sometimes misreading context, give unsound advice, offer advice that is dangerous and so on. With absolutely no accountablity at all. For that reason, accounts that offer AI content in our subreddit will be permanently banned.

The rules document this post is based upon is currently undergoing internal review. Changes will be communicated once finalised.

EDIT 1: spelling error. 1 minute after posting. Bah.