Mistakes made and apologies

###See the original message to the community post here

#I've been a big idiot.

I owe you all an apology and an explanation.

##Mistake 1: Modmail visibility

One of the main things I keep expressing is how the mod team wants the community feels like they can reach out to us so we can address issues one by one.

For context, I still use the old Reddit UI, mostly out of habit and familiarity. When you click the little snoo icon in the top left near your profile and regular mail, you get your modmail page.

Here's what I see today

Little odd, isn't it? I'm mod for the r/PvZHeroes sub as well and can see the messages there, though the last one is still from a year ago. Could there really be no other messages?

Sure enough, this entire time I've been ignoring the unread tab in the top right, assuming the all tab would contain new and old messages right?

...RIGHT???

Turns out this was wrong, and I clicked the tab for the first time in probably months

I facepalmed harder than I ever have in my life; I'll have a nice palm-shaped bruise on my forehead for the next couple days. Now I could say that the old UI doesn't indicate anything and the all tab is misleading, but I really should be using the new mod mail system anyway, which looks something like this

##Mistake 2: Automod Settings

As it was raised to me in the comments of the last post, people thought by the way I framed the example, most of the removals and "censorship" were manual bans. The truth is, again, I've been a big idiot.

Manual moderation has waned significantly in the past few months and I found myself not really tending the sub much anymore either. One of the last things the team did when they were still active was set up some basic rules for automoderator to help keep the sub clean.

Given that manual enforcement of the rules wasn't going to be feasible for a mostly inactive team, I thought I'd add some extra rules for automatic post removal when a post hit a threshold for reports and downvotes. It's essentially a system where the community moderates itself.

Turns out these settings were WAY too sensitive and posts were getting tagged left and right with only a few reports. Here's what the removals in the moderation log currently look like. Pile on me missing the mod mails and well, you have the very justified feelings of a neglectful mod team.

##Fixing the issues

First one is simple: I'm going to go into the mod mail and reply to everyone in the last 48 hours and reinstate posts where appropriate. I figured any posts older than that are past their due, but people are free to repost them as they like. I've still got to head to work though so I probably won't finish until later today.

Next, I've readjusted the automoderator settings to make much more sense. Hopefully the new rules will manage the community a lot better.

After that, I'll be checking in with u/wardendstrange if they're still active to get new mods added. If not, I'll make a request to r/redditrequest to gain permissions. We'll then do a major mod recruitment call.

Once all that's done, I'll be stepping down as mod. While I had good intentions and wanted to improve the community, clearly I'm not cut out for the job. You all deserve better.

##And of course finally...

I want to apologize to everyone in the community for my poor efforts and shortsightedness. At the very least, I hope you had laugh at my gross incompetence.