You may have noticed the emergence of /r/assistance. I thought I might share the story of its inception.
We Get Letters
So, three days ago the r/favors mod mailbox recieved this from the account "solidasarock:"
Somebody suggest i post to r/favors, I did but my post disappeared, Did I do something wrong?, I know i forgot to put [request] at the front.
Should i repost with [request] ?
http://www.reddit.com/r/Favors/comments/d3tco/hi_favors_somebody_suggested_i_post_in_here_can/
Anomander, being the gentleman and scholar that he is, responded with:
Well. This is awkward.
While not "wrong" per se, the problem lies in the request. You'll note the sidebar where we state that "/r/Favors will not manipulate votes for you." This was something the community settled on just after it was founded, and we have held on to since.
Your request falls solidly within the purview of that rule.
There ya go. That's the way we roll 'round here. Your view behind the curtain. Things should have ended there.
But They Didn't
Two days ago, the account "thegoanna" posted a tirade in r/reddit.com about how Reddit is full of wonderful people, and things are great, but obviously all the "newbies" are dragging things down and doesn't it suck and "my friend" was just trying to win a car and evil "wasps" got up in her shit about vegetarianism or some such. This link was included in the post. Obviously, that link has been edited for reasons that are about to become obvious.
Ain't No Drama Like Reddit Drama
Now - I'm a fan of Reddit. And I didn't like seeing it being called a "hive of wasps" (or whatever) because people weren't particularly interested in helping a person win a car. I said as much. Things then went down the shitter with such stunning rapidity that I found it worthy of note. This led to a great deal of drama, lots of namecalling, and the creation of r/assistance which, with exactly one subscriber, started pruning the deadwood.
Down But Not Out
Both thegoanna and solidasarock proceeded to delete their accounts in a cloud of indignation. r/assistance, however, has now set forth to be ["basically r/favors."](http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/d54tt/redditors_helping_redditors_join_our_team_its_the/) I've got a guess as to where thegoanna and solidasarock went, but it's just a guess. Apologies to anyone I have slighted who do not deserve to be.
No Skin Off Our Nose
Obviously, "people helping people" is something we can all get behind. And clearly - if you feel r/assistance is a place you can help out more than r/favors, you should add it to your frontpage. However, I felt it necessary to provide the backstory of how, exactly, it came about...
...because I've seen too many good things happen in this subreddit to see it sapped for vindictive reasons.
Thanks and carry on,
kleinbl00
Posted Aug 25, 2010, 7:37 AM UTC
Hi kleinbl00,
I think r/favors is run very well. Personally, I get burned out on requests to help people win online competitions, so I'm glad for the rules here. But one of the great things about reddit is that the existence of one community really doesn't hurt another. If somebody wants an r/favors with tons of help-my-friend-win-a-competition, more power to them. Don't let it get to you.
Oh, I concur wholeheartedly. Again, I've banned none of them, probably won't, and invite everyone interested in participating to hie themselves over there.
I did not, however, want anyone to go over there expecting great things only to find out exactly why r/assistance exists. My conscience is now clear.