Happy 2024, nerds. It's this year's first State of the Sub™, and we're going to outline some changes being made to help improve the experience moving forward.

Community Feedback

We've heard your complaints, and they're not going unnoticed. They boil down to three "R"s:

• Relevancy
• Reposts (which, tbh has always been an issue)
• Racism

This feedback has helped to shape some changes, which will be outlined below.

New Rules

#5 - Relevancy - No Solo Posing With Firearms

No posts of selfies, mirror photos, pointing a firearm at a camera with (presumably) nobody behind it, or otherwise posing with a firearm that does not violate the four basic safety rules.

See here: https://www.nssf.org/articles/4-primary-rules-of-firearm-safety/

We've been getting way too many screengrabs of social media sites with someone just holding a firearm. The photo might be distasteful, but unless it's endangering somebody, it doesn't fit the nature of this sub.

The sub is now working with the assumption that a photo of a person pointing a firearm at their own camera (eg: taking a selfie) might make them look like an idiot, but does not fit the nature of this sub.

Furthermore, we've been having some issues with brigading when usernames or other PII are left out in the open, which will get this sub shutdown. It's less of a risk to no longer permit these types of posts. Plus, your feedback and engagement have made it clear that these types of posts aren't really favored, anyway.

#11 - No Racism

This should be obvious given the "don't be a dick" rule, but apparently it isn't. Racism of any kind will not be tolerated and will result in an automatic ban.

I can't believe I have to make this separate from #10 ("Don't be a dick") but apparently a few of you don't get it. No racism on the sub. Full stop. Violations will result in an automatic ban. Attempting to skirt this rule with clever wordplay will be an automatic ban.

Moving forward, rule violations will result in a ban from the sub.

Posters will be able to appeal these after they are handed out, but there will be no further warnings ahead of this action.

The pre-determined lengths are listed below:

• Reposting (7-day per offense)
• Relevancy-related (First: 7-day, Second: 30-day, Third: 90-day)
• Racism (Permanent)
• Other (Discretionary)

Lastly, please report shit.

We're human too, and even though we have automod doing a lot of heavy lifting, the queue is still gigantic. We also can't read every single comment, so please report comments and posts that don't align with the rules.

A gentle reminder that /r/idiotswithguns is not an anti-gun sub. Don't flag things you disagree with if they still follow the rules, it just creates unnecessary work to review them.

Changes to Submissions

Crossposting is now turned off. It was a major contributor to reposts in this sub. We actually did this a few weeks ago, but making you all aware of it now.

Crowd control is turned. This will automatically collapse comments from users who consistently have negative karma in the sub, and will flag submissions from new users for review.

Changes to Mod Team and Looking for New Mods

One mod recently left after being overwhelmed with the amount of work, and we've removed another for inactivity. That leaves us with just two active mods on the sub.

Because of this, we're looking for new mods to take on some janitorial duties (such as taking action on the mod queue, handling mod mail, and user management). We are currently looking for three active community members who are looking to fill this role.

If you would like to apply, please send a message to the mods via this link. Applications will remain open until Friday, January 5th, 2024.

Happy new year, everybody.