Hey everyone,
Since the first allegations of Docās past misconduct surfaced about 10 days ago, the state of the subreddit has changed drastically. This has understandably upset a considerable amount of fans of the Doc.
For context, I have been moderating /r/Kanye for 8 years. I donāt say this as a flex (trust me), but only to convey that I am no stranger to communities navigating huge controversies surrounding the figures they are centered around.
My stance on moderation, which is also the stance of my fellow Dr. Disrespect moderators, is that it is almost always better to let the community discuss the allegations among themselves. Moderators should only intervene when Redditās Content Policy is violated. Given this, the moderators' personal opinions do not matter. The primary goal of the mod team is to moderate and promote engagement. Thatās it.
In cases like these, people often have a personal (and parasocial) relationship with the public figure in question, and itās only fair that they are allowed to discuss their feelings on the matter. For example, many of you miss Doc-the-performer but also condemn the actions of Guy Beahm, which is perfectly understandable. This means you should be able to deconstruct and/or rationalize whatever information that is being reported without having your speech suppressed. But as a reminder: this subreddit is allowed to be the court of public opinion. It is not an echo chamber and was never meant to be one. If you are looking for an echo chamber, you are invited to join one of the other Dr. DisRespect-related subreddits that have recently sprung up (edit: the link to the other subreddit has been removed).
That said, whether you notice it or not, this subreddit is currently being heavily moderated. Many users have been banned, and numerous posts/comments have been removed. We will also sometimes wait for a threadās engagement to die down before doing one big āmoderation sweepā, so donāt be surprised if inflammatory users and posts are not immediately removed. All low-effort posts or posts that bring additional toxicity to the subreddit will be removed.
Lastly, in regards to the threads that are supportive of Doc and get flooded with negativity: the current divisiveness on this subreddit is a clear reflection of Doc's divisive actions (to say the least) and, unless things take a turn and we need to make drastic changes to our moderation style, we will not be taking direct action on the duality of opinions within said threads.
Please let us know if you have any concerns.
TL;DR: You are welcome to engage respectfully. If things take a turn and we need to make drastic changes to our moderation style, we will let you know.
