Edit: I'll be compiling a list of suggestions in this thread late Friday to bring up to create a discussion with the rest of the moderators over the weekend. Thank you guys so much for all of your input!
We promised it so here it is, another State of the Subreddit type post. A lot has gone on in the past week, and some minor changes have been made. This will probably be much larger than we were expecting so we just want to warn you now to buckle in, there's a lot to discuss.
Fundraiser Drama
We hope that we don't have to remind you that this shocked all of us as much as it did you. We were extremely disappointed this even happened given the people involved, we expected much better from all of them. The fact that it was brought up over a flair removal was just sad. As glad as we are that this was exposed eventually, we wish it was brought up as soon as it happened. As the majority of you would know, the longer you hide the issue the bigger the fallout.
Some of you have noticed that the thread discussing it was removed Tuesday. This wasn't a rash decision and some of us disagreed with that decision, but we hope you will believe us when we say that it was not due to malicious intent. We wish we could tell you the reasoning behind it, but it is not something we can bring up at this time nor do we think we ever will be able to. But don't think just because the thread was removed that all was forgotten, we can assure you it is not.
We've been in contact with /u/-lobali, although sporadic due to issues that we cannot discuss. She has stepped down as of yesterday. This brings on the topic of who will take over the top moderator spot. Just so you can get a better idea of what exactly the top moderator spot is, they have the same powers and rights as the rest of the moderators, albeit they cannot be removed from their moderator role by any of the other moderators. They need to remove their selves. For the meantime, the gracious and glorious /u/AutoModerator will be taking that spot until we decide what to do, although this doesn't solve the top mod problem for us as the next human mod in line is essentially top moderator here.
Trappy_Pandora
Some of you might noticed that /u/Trappy_Pandora was banned for a period of nine days. He was originally banned for two reasons.
He implied that we the mods of /r/darknetmarket had offered him "compensation" of some sort in the past. The idea of this was brought to our attention because he was asking for compensation in a different subreddit, in the form of putting his bosses name in the sidebar. After requesting some screenshots from the user who brought this to our attention we decided to ban Trappy. We then asked him to explain why he would say this. Trappy posted his entire version of the chat log to which we then concluded it was possible it was a misunderstanding between the /r/darknetmarkets mods and Trappy. This also gave us time to discuss the second reason why he was being banned
He was clearly shilling for the marketplace he was working for, and popping up unneeded in threads that didn't require him recommending users to use Alphabay. Although he does work for Alphabay and has a presence here in a support role, it his not his place, his job, or his right to blatantly shill for his bosses marketplace.
As we said above, he was banned before the fundraiser issue was brought to light. We were discussing what to do, and due to the fact that we aren't all in the same timezone and all have responsibilities in real life these discussions can sometimes take a while. It was still unresolved when the fundraiser issue was dropped on us all. /u/Trappy_Pandora would send us mod mail asking what we're doing, or for updates on what our decision was going to be. We felt it unfair that he be left in limbo while we deal with our own issues so we unbanned him, but under certain conditions. So he will remain unbanned for the time being as this resolves the issue with him and others in a PR role, which leads into the next topic.
Monitored Users
We've implemented a new function for our beloved and benevolent /u/AutoModerator. This will force us to monitor specific users, and will mainly be used for those in a PR or support role for markets to make sure they stay within the rules. /u/AutoModerator will look for new posts submitted by the monitored users and report them with the tag "monitored user". These will all show up in our mod queue so we'll be forced to read them. This gives us the obvious ability to approve or remove posts by these users quickly, but due to their importance in the community it will not hinder their ability to post and address issues in a timely manner that users may bring up. This does increase our workload by a bit, but not enough to make it too big of an issue.
/u/Trappy_Pandora is currently in this monitoring program, and we'll continue to add PR people in the same program as we see the need arise. If you would like to see what this looks like, just click the following link.
https://anonfiles.com/file/b7b7635837369339fe124f745929fb35
New Users
It should be common knowledge by now that user accounts under 6 hours of age are restricted from posting, and all of their posts require moderator intervention in order to be seen by the rest of the community.
However there is still a common issue of users creating throwaways to troll users, spam, and throw around accusations towards users and moderators. Not much can be done about but, but we did implement yet another function into the amazing /u/AutoModerator. All user accounts that make a comment will be flaired with "Fresh Account" if their account age is under a week old. Said flair will then be removed after the one week threshold once they comment.
To read more about this, you can read the thread /u/IGetDankShit typed up by clicking the link below.
State of the Subreddit
It's been pointed out many, many times that this subreddit is in a state of disarray. Many of those users that point this out like to blame the moderators, but we would like to point out something that many of you may not be aware of.
In the past 80 days, around 26525 moderator actions were carried out. That's around 331 actions per day. /u/AutoModerator does sort of help out with this (4889 actions), but the majority of them (2516 actions) are thread removals that require our intervention, mostly due to the restriction on 6 hour old accounts. This is nuts, especially when you factor in there are currently 6 moderators who are active, the rest have responsibilities else where for the moment.
So we're busy, some more than others. This is totally unfair to those that are doing more work. Although none of us have designated roles and these moderators have voiced their opinion that they don't mind, it's still unfair and incredibly stressful. It's even more so when the user base we dedicate our free time to likes to blame us for everything. What you don't realize, for one reason or another, is that you also share part of the blame for the current state of this subreddit.
You complain about posts that break the rules aren't being removed, yet don't do anything yourselves to bring them to our attention. You complain about the quality of the submissions, yet fail to mention to the OPs of said threads that the quality isn't up to par to that you are looking for. You whine and moan about things yet you don't bring up any possible solutions.
Your input
We care about this community, and so do you guys. We need to actually work together to get this subreddit into a state where we can all enjoy it, and it's trove of useful information. We can't be having pissing contests and arguments back and forth with each other. If that continues, this subreddit may never recover.
So please take the time in this thread to comment on something that you can see improved on, changed, added, or removed to make this subreddit a better place for us. It can be about the rules, current threads that are (not) allowed, certain posters, or anything else you can think of. If you can think of a possible solution to a current issue then please post about it, and how it could be implemented. While ultimately it will be up to the moderators if they'll be added, any reasonable solution will be considered.
I shouldn't have to add this, but any posts that are not on topic and are inflammatory will be removed without warning. Users continuing to post such comments in this thread after removal will be banned.
I would like to put forth a motion to discourage theft and other DNM material that is not conducive to a well functioning marketplace.
There seems to be a lot of people here who think we should not judge nor prohibit people from talking about theft. I disagree. This place should have a set of certain morals.
If theft, carding, and other is allowed to flourish, then we shouldn't complain when a vendor exit scams, defrauds, or deceits us.
Why should vendors, MODs, or frankly anyone be truthful and reliable when people are buying paypal accounts and we are openly discussing how to steal from others.
My 2 cents.