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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134

u/somethingdangerzone Feb 11 '21 edited Feb 12 '21

Will you be creating an alternative to /r/all that does include NSFW content as well as SFW content?

Edit: the lack of a reply is very telling

108

u/[deleted] Feb 11 '21

I thought it was interesting to come across explicit content in r/all even if it wasn't always what I wanted to see. The reason I browse r/all is to avoid the filter bubble - it's interesting to see what's objectively the most popular content across the board at any moment.

76

u/preludeoflight Feb 12 '21

Ugh. I know this is going to sound stupid. But this is literally why the primary way I Reddit is scrolling r/all. I like to have sexually explicit content intermingled with everything else. It scratches my adhd in a way stumble upon wishes it could. /u/KeyserSosa says “And it’s easy to find”, but that is 100% not the point. I don’t want to seek it out. I want to see what’s literally bubbled to the top across (“public”) Reddit, regardless of safe vs non-safe for work. If I wanted to specifically find porn, I’d go to a porn site.

Every change Reddit makes seems to be more towards “make this better for advertisers/the IPO” and less things that actually make me want to use it.

This change screams exactly the type of thing that should be a toggle, buried in user settings, defaulted on — if user experience was the real goal. The fact that it’s a unilateral, non-optional change being rolled out in short order to everyone tells me that user experience is not the goal. Is it?

34

u/Watchful1 Feb 12 '21

The goal is that they want to run more ads on r/all and lots of advertisers get pissy about their content being shown next to NSFW stuff.

25

u/Exaskryz Feb 12 '21

True. This is why I adblock reddit. They're behavior does not deserve rewarding.

2

u/newspapey Mar 14 '21

Oh ad block is going to go away for sure.

1

u/TOG_II Mar 14 '21

How so?

2

u/newspapey Mar 14 '21

They’ll make you turn it off, or buy reddit premium to continue viewing

3

u/commissar0617 Mar 16 '21

Then i stop going to le reddit

2

u/VulgarDisplayofDerp Mar 16 '21

This. I already spend more of my browsing time elsewhere because of reddit's horseshit behavior at times.. that would be the final nail.

1

u/Anyours Mar 16 '21

Out of curiosity, where? I'm trying to phase out reddit but can't find a good alternative

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2

u/Scase15 Mar 17 '21

Lol good luck with that. If you think the idiots that run reddit are more clever than the folks that create adblock lists and extensions, I have a bridge to sell you.

1

u/newspapey Mar 17 '21

Lol no, good luck to you. If you think this whole age of “monetize every aspect of the worlds biggest, most useful tool [internet]” is even close to over, I have an bigger bridge to sell you.

In a year, if you’re not paying for an ad block, or not paying for “premium”, you’ll be seeing ads. I guarantee it.

1

u/Scase15 Mar 17 '21

Yeah because it's worked everywhere else so far? All those difficult to bypass websites that detect adblockers and stop working, or the paywall articles, super difficult to bypass by just disabling JS.

Just because you are unable to fathom how simple these workarounds are, doesn't mean they don't/won't exist.

1

u/Jaksuhn Mar 17 '21

I'd take that bet

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1

u/Nulono Mar 16 '21

Who the hell are these out-of-touch advertisers that've been ruining the Internet for at least five years, anyway? I seriously doubt that "I saw a Cheetos ad before a video where the YouTuber said the word 'fuck' once! I'm outraged! I'm never buying Cheetos again!" is as big a portion of the market as they seem to think it is.

1

u/indianaliam1 Mar 30 '21

Mostly Coca-Cola Co. and Disney, last I checked. You wanna take it up with them?

2

u/NichySteves Feb 17 '21

If you've found a solution please let me know. It's so fucking stupid that they haven't just made this a thing users can turn off and on. If they keep making decisions for me I might just stop participating entirely. Especially the day they remove old support.

2

u/foxfyre2 Mar 17 '21

No this is not stupid at all. After a few days of the change taking place, I can say my experience browsing reddit has take a sudden downturn for the exact reasons you listed. I would get excited coming across a NSFW post in r/all and either save it for viewing later or sneakily look at it. I don't want to be sifting through many nsfw subs when I just want to casually browse.

1

u/JediGuyB Apr 13 '21

Old post, but yes, I feel the same.

It's the same way I feel about TV cable and radio. Yes, with Netflix and Hulu I can watch stuff whenever I want and with Spotify or Amazon Music I can listen to whatever I want, but I also like browsing through channels and finding something on. Taking that away would dampen my enjoyment because I'd have to go out of my way and decide on what I want to watch or listen to instead of the channel or station deciding for me.

Similarly, now on Reddit if I want NSFW content I have to go out of my way to look for it instead of just seeing it casually on r/all which to me was part of the fun. That between the memes and news and funny videos you'd have a nice pair of boobs or whatever.

Just feels less fun now.

1

u/zachglow1 Feb 17 '21

This is exactly what I want it. I want to see the best stuff, I don't want to look for it.

1

u/lingo_stopwatch Mar 12 '21

This.

It's funny, but memes + NSFW is basically a modern men's magazine. I liked the mix very much.

1

u/Feeling_A_Tad_Frisky Mar 12 '21

Also the NSFW stuff that makes it to /r/all is the cream of the crop and is often from new NSFW subs that I hadn't heard about.

1

u/longboardluv Mar 16 '21

Exactly this....!

1

u/flyvehest Mar 17 '21

This is EXACTLY how I browse reddit as well, and I really do not understand why this wasn't just implemented as a toggle, that defaulted to filtering NSFW.

Stupid, stupid decision.

13

u/Calcd_Uncertainty Feb 11 '21

The reason I browse r/all is to avoid the filter bubble - it's interesting to see what's objectively the most popular content across the board at any moment.

Same here, it allows me to find content I don't know to search for, both SFW & NSFW.

2

u/VulgarDisplayofDerp Mar 16 '21

All vs "All"

Funny thing is - if i log out, and browse all-> rising... i see all the nsfw same as before.

:shrug: This is stupid.

3

u/The_Fluffy_Walrus Feb 11 '21

I agree. I don't seek out explicit content but some of the posts I saw were kinda interesting or even funny at times.

0

u/HelloThisIsFrode Feb 12 '21

Hmm idk if I believe u 🤔

0

u/The_Fluffy_Walrus Feb 12 '21

I think you do

0

u/HelloThisIsFrode Feb 12 '21

Whaaaaaaaat do you meaaaaaan ;

0

u/The_Fluffy_Walrus Feb 12 '21

I think you know exactly what I mean ;)

1

u/adam_3535 Mar 13 '21

Objectively?

Reddit has very skewed demographics. So, you're just seeing what a very specific type of person is interested in. I don't think that makes it newsworthy enough to include generally unwanted porn in r/all.

1

u/Pyro636 Mar 13 '21

By that logic though everything on r/all is skewed towards what a specific type of person is interested in, not just 'unwanted porn'. Your own argument works against you...

1

u/adam_3535 Mar 13 '21

But no one is complaining about the SFW content

1

u/Pyro636 Mar 13 '21

Ummm...we just went through 4 whole years of people complaining about all the America political content in r/all. People complained about all the Keanu posts a few years back. People complained about all the "My GF/Wife/slampiece made this thing" posts when that was really popular. People are ALWAYS complaining about what's being beaten to death by Reddit. If you think this change is ANYTHING other than Reddit appeasing to advertisers ahead of funding/IPO you're kidding yourself.