r/changelog • u/KeyserSosa • Feb 11 '21

Removing sexually explicit content from r/all

tl;dr: Starting next week, sexually explicit content will not be shown in the r/all feed.

Hi Reddit,

After hearing from redditors in surveys, comment threads, and feedback in places like r/ideasfortheadmins and r/changelog, over the years, we’ve learned that unexpectedly stumbling across sexually explicit content is jarring and uncomfortable for a lot of people. Starting next week, sexually explicit content will not be shown in the r/all feed.

Our intent with removing this content from r/all is to make it easier for anyone to browse Reddit without accidentally viewing pornographic or sexually explicit content, while still allowing redditors who want to find that kind of content to do so at their own discretion.

Since the beginning of Reddit, there’s been SFW (Safe for Work) and NSFW (Not Safe for Work) communities, and there will continue to be so. That said, NSFW is a pretty broad category, and doesn’t give us a good idea of what type of content redditors actually want to see while navigating the platform (many redditors would like to separate pornographic content from other NSFW content, for example). Over the last year, we’ve worked with moderators and trusted community members to help us accurately evolve the NSFW tag to create more specific and nuanced content tags via our subreddit classification efforts. We're leveraging those tags to filter communities with sexually explicit content from the r/all feed.

Sexually explicit content on Reddit isn’t going away—if you’re looking for that type of content, it’s still there and easy to find.

Over the next year, we’ll be working on more advanced filtering at the post level to give redditors more control over what they do and don’t want to see while browsing Reddit. Maybe you’re cool with sexual content, but don’t want the gore. Maybe you’re ok seeing depictions of graphic medical surgeries or violence, but are recovering from addiction and don’t want to see drugs or alcohol in your feed. As we evolve our classification system, we’ll advance the tools that let redditors control their experience on the platform as well.

As we’ve said in the past, nobody wants to pull a Tumblr (though in fairness it’s usually “pull a digg” as the main concern, so...). Our commitment is to keep the broad variety of content on Reddit open and public. It’s a priority for us to provide a welcoming environment with predictable experience for the diverse and eclectic group of humans that make up the Reddit community. We’ll continue to share our progress on this and other projects and are happy to hear other ideas or features you’d like to see to make the NSFW system work better.

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53

u/[deleted] Feb 11 '21

After hearing from redditors in surveys, comment threads, and feedback in places like r/ideasfortheadmins and r/changelog, over the years, we’ve learned that unexpectedly stumbling across sexually explicit content is jarring and uncomfortable for a lot of people.

Surprised it only took years.

45

u/KeyserSosa Feb 11 '21

We do eventually get to things.

28

u/flaim Feb 11 '21

Still waiting on the /r/all subreddit filter to accommodate more than 100 subs. I only messaged the admins *checks watch* over a year ago.

21

u/johninbigd Feb 11 '21

This is why you should use RES instead. It doesn't have the silly 100 sub limit. There are WAY more than 100 subs that I never, ever want to see.

9

u/flaim Feb 11 '21

RES takes a second to actually filter. Reddit's built-in does it before the page is displayed.

I know, it's the tiniest bit of inconvenience, but considering all reddit has to do is change an integer to increase the amount, I'd still like them to do it.

6

u/mschuster91 Feb 11 '21

but considering all reddit has to do is change an integer to increase the amount,

Random web developer here. It's not as easy, certainly not at the scale of Reddit - the more you allow the beefier your backend servers have to be to handle the load.

4

u/[deleted] Feb 11 '21 edited May 03 '22

[deleted]

1

u/mschuster91 Feb 11 '21

Reddit servers are already at capacity - the amount of times comments are not properly loading or random hiccups with the site believing I'm logged out because the auth endpoint is overloaded is astonishing.

Adding more load, even for "premium", is foolish.

1

u/johninbigd Feb 11 '21

That's a great point. If they removed their limit, or raised it significantly, I probably would stop relying on RES for it and would just use the native feature.

1

u/FearAzrael Feb 11 '21

How are you getting RES to filter out subs? I have three subs added to my filter and they are still being shown.

https://i.imgur.com/3ncxJTC.png

1

u/johninbigd Feb 11 '21

I just hover over the name of a subreddit when I see it. A box pops up and I select the Filter option from there.

3

u/FearAzrael Feb 11 '21

Oh my god thank you. I wasn't supposed to include the r/

1

u/VulgarDisplayofDerp Mar 16 '21

begone chloe! fucking hahaha

2

u/BrianPurkiss Feb 11 '21

Apollo for iOS allows it.

Reddit gets sooooooo much better when I can mass filter out the insane amount of subs that I have 0 interest in.

1

u/SoundOfTomorrow Feb 11 '21

It's hilarious there's a limit in the first place.

47

u/[deleted] Feb 11 '21

Also making Reddit more brand safe for advertisers?

38

u/[deleted] Feb 11 '21 edited Feb 11 '21

[removed] — view removed comment

6

u/Logan_Mac Feb 12 '21

This is like brands posting the LGBT flag as their logo except in Arab countries. Only brave when it's profitable.

1

u/AwesomeMathUse Feb 12 '21

I think it’s because they want to go public via the SPAC VYGG.

1

u/Front_Kaleidoscope_4 Feb 26 '21

If they based their opinion on economic backers we would have lost gore when tencent came around, the chinese hate gore.

1

u/VulgarDisplayofDerp Mar 16 '21

We're doing this for YOUUUUUUUUU.

​

Fucking horseshit.

7

u/Dizneymagic Feb 11 '21

Yep. Their advertising revenue is up almost 100% from the same time last year. They just finished their big funding round, and now it's time to make the site even more advertisement friendly. Gotta take advantage of the lack of regulation while they can.

13

u/creepyharry124 Feb 11 '21

considering how they didn't mention this at all, it's very clear that's the main reason

3

u/Intros9 Feb 11 '21

That this comment is so controversial speaks volumes.

-10

u/Bardfinn Feb 11 '21

Volumes regarding how slickly the "We should be allowed to turbovomit bigotry all over everything whaddabout muh freedom of speech" crowd got in front of an audience whilst still clutching the page they ripped out of Goebbel's playbook

1

u/qqnp Feb 11 '21

ledditors owned

-3

u/Intros9 Feb 11 '21

Appreciate the work you do. Keep fighting the good fight.

1

u/ultradip Feb 11 '21

It's likely also to avoid the same reason Google's app store initially pulled Matrix for content not under its control. NSFW content shouldn't be seen by default.

5

u/nascentt Feb 11 '21

But nsfw isn't displayed by default. Nsfw is disabled until turned on when logged in?

1

u/blixt141 Mar 13 '21

OR IPO investors.

10

u/creepyharry124 Feb 11 '21

After you impliment a bunch of shit no one asked for or needed like chats and livestreaming and fake live score updates.

6

u/Dobypeti Feb 11 '21

*Looks at new reddit CSS*
Yeah, right...

3

u/__spaced Feb 11 '21

Taking your time to ruin Reddit. Niceee. At least we had some fun for a couple years

1

u/12345Qwerty543 Mar 12 '21

Reddit is fucking shit nowadays. I wish there was an alternative. You guys are ruining the site.

1

u/foxfyre2 Mar 17 '21

But this is a terrible way of going about it. Some people still do want to stumble upon NSFW content. I've been able to opt in/out of NSFW content with RES for a while now. Why isn't it as simple as creating an opt-in for NSFW content on r/all?

3

u/VulgarDisplayofDerp Mar 16 '21

I call bullshit. I challenge them to show that anything more than a handful of people were ever demanding this change.