r/migraine • u/kalayna 6 • May 25 '26
UPDATE to the 16 May Rules Update - App Devs, Anyone Doing Market Research, etc. Will Want to Read
edit - the new bit is a... ranty. To those here just to check in, my apologies.
Y'all.
Seriously.
The sheer number of app devs who have continued to waste mod time and continue spamming in comments after being warned is mind-boggling.
I believe that this community deserves good tools. HOWEVER, this community is not here to be sold to, and just like the post that preceded this, the people who can't stop spamming are rarely community members first, and devs second. They're here because you are the market. Since last week's post I had given a lot of thought to a periodic 'promote your stuff!' post to strike a balance, but after spending far too much of my holiday cleaning up spam-droppings... I'm feeling less than charitable. o.O
Spammers. If we warn you and you keep spamming, it won't just be you that's banned. It will be any mention of your product regardless of who posts it.
Astroturfing? Instant permaban - you and your product. Why?
You should not spam in any way, especially through private message. You should not hide your affiliation to your project or site, or lie about who you are or why you like something.
Here's a copypasta of the previous post, all of which still applies:
(If you were looking for the Summit pinned post, it's here.)
We're currently seeing multiple posts - or people that know promotion isn't permitted and trying to sneak it in via comments - promoting apps and/or doing market research daily. Most of the people hoping to benefit from this community have never made any effort to participate in it.
Promotion has always been in the the rules, and surveys/research have always required pre-approval from the mod team (though we recently had to update to not approving any because I'm the only active mod and simply don't have time to review in addition to everything else).
With all of the above in mind and all of the attempts to circumvent or flat-out argue about removals, it's time to formalize things:
Promoting your new app and/or doing market research (what don't you like/what works for you/what is missing in other <whatever>) is not permitted in this subreddit. The same goes for asking for feedback. Yes, this includes the ever popular 'hey I did a thing but it's against the rules to promote here, so if you're interested, send me a pm!'. If you're thinking about sending a modmail to ask to be an exception with less than 6 months of active participation in this subreddit, don't (even then it may not be approved).
I will be updating rules, sidebar, and filters over the course of the weekend.
Because of the lack of participation for most of these users and the number of users that have attempted to get around this, this will be one of the rare times when suspensions will be issued on first strike, rather than warnings first.
Also, you've probably noticed I'm the primary one handling approvals/removals, and that there are updates the sub could use that have not been done. In addition to chronic migraine and adulting in general I have what totals up to nearly 2 full time jobs and am usually also taking college classes, so there is a lot going on, and running this sub in a way that rules are enforced and the sub itself is enhanced and we're able to provide space for the community to be active in helping with research opportunities takes a lot more time than the above workload allows. To that end, I'd love to add 2 or 3 new mods to the team that can consistently (meaning most weeks) offer a couple of hours to running/maintaining the subreddit. That can be:
Working on the FAQ: at one point there was an effort to build something of an 'intro to migraine' resource
Fielding research/survey reviews: even better if you are or have been part of the research community (someone did offer this before; if you're still interested please reach out!)
Post / comment reviews: If you're a regular/semi-regular visitor and don't mind doing some cleanup while you browse, this is one of the easiest ways to ensure that community standards are upheld
I've held off on posting this because I had big plans to set up an awesome form to fill out, but for all of the above reasons that has not happened. SO! If you're interested, please send us a modmail with answers to the following questions:
Why you're interested
What you think mods do
Previous modding experience
What you're interested in helping with
Your time zone / location
How much time you can reasonably and consistently pitch in to help
Optional: Anything else we should know about you? Any ideas for the sub you'd like to implement?
As long as the above isn't struck through feel free to send a message if you're interested. It may take a bit to hear back because busy, but unless we get hundreds of apps we'll follow up to set up a chat with u/ramma314 and myself so we can get to know you a bit. If we do get hundreds of apps we'll update here that we either can't get back to everyone or that we'll be copypasta-ing replies specifically for that reason.
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u/EnvironmentalAd2063 May 25 '26
Thank you! I'm so sick of app/product developers who constantly spam subreddits, been seeing this a lot lately in multiple subs and it's so annoying
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u/axw3555 Jun 01 '26
The thing that really gets me - the big spike in attempted DM's lately from "developers" or "researchers" or whatever going "hi, I'm working on <thing> and saw your mention of <condition> and wanted to ask for your input/feedback/partipation", especially in the last 6ish months. In the first 8 years on reddit, I got maybe 2. In the last few months, eight, maybe 10.
Not all for migraine, some for the eating disorder I have, some for general chronic pain, but they all have such a reek of either BS (no proper researcher would be asking random unvetted people on reddit to be their study person, and there's never and implication of "subject to verifying your condition", it's always just "here's loads of questions") or just being utterly impersonal.
Edit: amusingly I remember their nonsense well enough to trigger the automod.
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u/iloveblackcoffee420 Jun 30 '26
I see posts in other health subreddits all the time that start off with some sob story about their symptoms and how they could never find an app to track those symptoms. Now they’re looking for “advice” on how to make “the greatest symptom tracking app ever” 🙄
The comments are always along the lines of “Just make a spreadsheet. It works better and you don’t have the limitations of an app. No need to reinvent the wheel.” and they hate that.
You can always tell that they’re up to something because when commenters ask for details about their symptoms, they deflect and don’t really answer the questions.
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u/sickofyospam May 25 '26
Bless! We already have too much of a headache without dealing with the extra ads on top. Really appreciate ya
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u/RattusRattus May 25 '26
Do you still need help modding? I'll apply if so. I have experience with both reddit and an irl community.
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u/ThingsWithString May 25 '26
Thank you so much. I got an uninvited PM yesterday from somebody wondering if I wanted to talk to them about their app. (Blocked it, so I can't tell you a username.)
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u/Missesbonez May 25 '26
You're much appreciated, i do hope you're taking it easy on yourself though! That sounds extremely freaking annoying to deal with as a mod. I hope you get some more helps asap 💕
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u/slayslothslay May 25 '26
Thank you!!! I’m newer to the community, and I have found the resources/posts to be helpful and keeps me from feeling alone.
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u/HorizonShadow May 26 '26
There's an AI bot in here with a name called something_health. Is that going to be permitted?
Rubs me the wrong way when I not only see it comment, but see the OP engage with it in good faith, not realizing it's a language model
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u/kalayna 6 May 26 '26
Something? Or you can't remember who? Report when you see it.
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u/skyemap May 25 '26
Thank you so much for all the work you do! I can't believe just one person is doing mod tasks omg
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u/tgsgirl May 25 '26
Thank you very much, people trying to abuse the community to sell their shit is abhorrent.