Source
r/dogswithjobs•
ClementineChime

/r/DogsWithJobs new rule: Silly/Fake jobs will only be allowed on Saturdays & Sundays

Pinned

#Starting today silly/fake jobs will only be allowed on Saturdays and Sundays.

Real working dogs can be posted every day of the week (police dogs, search dogs, detection dogs, herding dogs, livestock guardians, etc.)

We are going by mainland USA time (PST - EST) since that is where most redditors are located. We'll give a few hours of leeway to account for posts that are made late Friday nights or early Monday mornings. Other than that, all silly jobs posted Monday - Friday will be removed. The user will be asked to post on the weekend or you can post to r/aww or another dog sub.

Plenty of other subs have day of the week or weekend only rules in place for certain posts - r/PowerWashingPorn and r/Woof_IRL for example.

I know many people like the silly jobs. That's why we're not getting rid of them entirely. But it has become far too frustrating trying to decide each day what should or should not count as a silly job. I've tried tweaking the rules here and there, but it's not working out. The simplest solution is to restrict these posts to the weekend. It's also frustrating because these posts frequently drown out real working dogs. I don't think it's fair when a user posts their highly trained herding dog or truffle hunting dog and it's drowned out by a dog laying in an office. Now the real working dogs will have a much easier time getting points and being seen.

To show you why it's so frustrating, in the last week alone, these are the silly job posts that either received a few reports or were outright removed:

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17 - 18 - 19 - 20 - 21 - 22 - 23 - 24 - 25 - 26 - 27 - 28 - 29

Quite frankly, I'm tired of dealing with these each week. People dump absolute nonsense in this sub. And unfortunately, I guess due to the amount of people on their phones not paying attention to the sub, any pic of a dog will get upvoted. Literally any pic. It could be "My cute pupper" and it's a pic of a dog on a couch, yet it gets 4 points in the first 3 minutes. Point is, if we left all these posts up, that's all you'd be seeing on your front page. Relying on users to upvote and downvote does not work.

The same rules we have now will still apply to silly jobs that are posted on the weekend. Meaning, if you post your dog laying on the couch and say "His job is to sleep", it's still going to be removed. There still needs to be some basic effort to the silly job posts.

If you'd like to post real working dogs check out our wiki guide on finding new content. In addition to instagram hashtags you can find new articles, pics and videos every day by searching different types of working dogs under the Google news tab. For example, I googled "police dog" the other day and there was a 12 hour old article about this dog so I searched the dogs name on Twitter and found those pics. It's very easy to find interesting content for this sub.

Posted Mar 4, 2020, 11:13 PM UTC

3.4K130
Arctica23•

This is a perfectly reasonable compromise. And I'll still look forward to the weekend silly jobs posts

441
Faelinna•

I love seeing trained dogs do their job, from hunters to service dogs to police dogs. The silly job doggos are cute but not really what I'm in this sub for so I love this new rule! Thanks for trying to find a good compromise that suits everyone.

348
[deleted]•

It's the difference between

"Happy dog because it's done what it was trained to do"

and

"hey look at my dog"

66
sammoreddit•

After seeing the truffle dog I later decided to post a video of my protection dog who trains at the same place they train special forces dogs, the training takes years and is expensive and my dog is an unorthodox breed for the training so I thought it would be a good fit as doesnt really fit anywhere else even though its fucking awesome. I got less than 10 upvotes then got buried by posts that belong in r/aww which have no jobs at all and top post that day was dog wearing a Krispy creme hat. Was going to repost but just decided against it as it's literally just full of cute dogs with no job.

u/Clementinechime was a total champ though and super helpful as I am new to posting videos and also checked rules with him multiple times before I posted as didnt want to break the rules. The clue really is in the name of the sub, and I look forward to seeing more trained dogs as you said! Anyone annoyed by what he has done needs a therapy dog.

58
Mahemium•

Bravo. The amount of subs that grow in popularity then lose what made them special to begin with as relevance starts sliding unabated is always disappointing. Left to user curation alone, this sub could have easily just continued to devolve into another r/aww or r/doggos just like r/animalsthatlovemagic and r/animalsbeingderps did. I'm glad we have a team actually wanting to maintain things. Had to unsub from r/cursedimages recently because it was just becoming r/creepy 2.0

78
icyflakes•

r/whatswrongwithyourdog has completely devolved into just pictures of dogs lying on their back. It's absolutely garbage and used to be hilarious :(

As a user above pointed out, it's the difference between meeting the subs requirements and "look at my dog"

43
Mahemium•

Oh man, yeah that's definitely another that really went down the drain.

I mean, I get it, people see a cute or adorable animal on their feed, they launch the upvotes. That's just how it works. But without moderators sticking to the theme of the sub, every animal oriented sub is reduced to just another r/aww, taking and making the lowest common denominator appeal of 'cuteness' the cream that universally rises to the top and rendering the very concept of unique subs entirely moot.

15
icyflakes•

It sucks, because there's so many subs to just show off your dog. I went to that subreddit because I wanna see dogs being weird fucks (seriously, some of the posts there have had me in tears from laughter). Now people posting collages of their dogs, their dogs just staring at them etc. It's so frustrating, especially when you provide feedback and people just say to "ignore it". Well yeah, but I ignore the hundreds of subreddits that are for exactly what you are trying to post, let me have this one sub.

Similar thing happens with memes. Poor moderation and a sub (especially gaming subs) devolves into lowest common denominator memes without fail. r/UFC vs r/MMA is the best example of moderation differences across similar sub topics. UFC is hot garbage, shit memes all the time, terrible comments etc. MMA is by far the best moderated sub I've seen on the site, and the memes (which are relegated to comments and dedicated threads) and way funnier, simply because people are doing it to be creative, not to get their post upvoted. I manage to get all the latest news, great discussion and technical analysis, and if I head into the comments I can laugh my ass off at some of the funniest memes going around.

11
Kittycat-banana•

There is literally a sub for it too, r/lookatmydog !

4
Clocktopu5•

Those dogs used to be weird, now they just look tired

3
derpotologist•

That sucks cause I have a lot of good content to post there (I've got a couple dogs that are absolutely mental) but alas, procrastination

2
jacurtis•

I’m glad I’m not the only one that noticed that. I used to love r/whatswrongwithyourdog but it has just turned into another r/awww or r/doggos lately. Was thinking about unsubbing, especially because most of the posts are cross posts now. Maybe I’ll give it some time to see if it starts getting curated by mods

1
icyflakes•

I'm just going to complain for a while to the mods and in threads - if they don't change I'll unsub soon. It's been garbage for a while, and only recently am I seeing people complaining in the comments

1
somersettler•

Well said. Subreddit devolution is such a thing.

r/animalsbeingderps

I reckon about 30% of posts here i look at and think "That's...just a cat?"

25
Gabagool_ova_heeah•

Add r/rarepuppers to that list. Went from a place full of wholesome doggo speak posts to a r/aww alternative

8
Emotional-Address•

#3 is silly and/or fake? Dude has a name tag - unskilled labor is still labor!

48
steal_it_back•

Your ideas are intriguing to me, and I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

But really, yeah, 3 seems like an on the cusp post. He seems like more of a dog with a job than that ring bearer.

7
allonsmari•

AGREED.

5
dklo13•

This is like Wednesdays on r/powerwashingporn. Good choice by mods here.

30
ClementineChimeOPMOD:Silly: •

Yes, exactly. That was one of the subs which put us onto the possibility of this new rule. I'm subscribed there and I like that they allow the occasional "washing" or "oddly satisfying" type post, even if it isn't true power washing.

15
Error_404_Account•

As a redditor that recently joined this sub, the real jobs are why I joined the sub in the first place. I don't mind seeing silly jobs, and I agree it's a good compromise to limit those posts. There are plenty of places to post silly jobs all day every day. The fact is, you can still post them here, but only on the weekends. Honestly, it's easy for real working dogs to get buried with these silly jobs, and ultimately, I surmised from reading about the sub the original vision is true working dogs. I applaud this rule change and strongly disagree with comments about this being some kind of power trip, especially if it's a rule to limit something instead of straight up banning.

26
[deleted]•

[deleted]

24
DoctorPepster•

That sounds like a silly job to me.

48
Zapparoth•

It just sounds like a dog to me.

42
Skyedye•

“Love your job and you’ll never work a day in your life” - puke eating dog

8
Zapparoth•

"Give man a ball and he'll have fun for a day, teach him to fetch and he'll have a lifetime of happiness" - Dogrates

2
Rpanich•

Can we put the ministry of silly walks in charge of silly jobs as well?

6
[deleted]•

[deleted]

1
Queentroller•

That sounds like something I'm fine with only seeing posts about on the weekends.

18
particle409•

Only serious jobs on weekdays, like bomb sniffer, accountant, etc.

5
bigby2010•

As a dog returns to his own vomit, So a fool repeats his folly.
- Proverbs 26:11 (it's in the Bible)

1
[deleted]•

[deleted]

5
mev426:Service: Service Dog Owner •

Sounds like a great solution!

24
Nach0Man_RandySavage•

What about bat dogs. They are listed as silly now but that still seems like a job.

15
ClementineChimeOPMOD:Silly: •

Yea that one is allowed whenever. The question should be: Is this dog specifically trained to carry out this job? Bat dog is trained to pick up the baseball bats. Dogs laying in offices, stores, wearing an outfit, sitting in a car, etc. are just pet dogs and should be posted on the weekend as a silly job.

38
KoalaKommander•

Further I think job should be defined as something along the lines of: a task whose purpose is to fulfill or aid in reaching a productive goal. A complex trick is something that has to be specifically trained, but is not a job.

13
ClementineChimeOPMOD:Silly: •

Yes exactly. There was a dog doing a trick in a video posted the other day. That won't count as a real job.

10
FiliKlepto•

Thank you for saying this! As a baseball fan and an r/DogsWithJobs subscriber I felt bad for the good boy who got tagged with a Silly Job flair recently. It’s a legitimate job, people!

5
neveradullmoment72•

Good rule! I applaud you, mods.

14
LilUmsureAboutThis•

I’ve seen dog actors considered a “silly job” even thought they are still doing a job and not just being dressed up like most other silly jobs, can there be a tag for working dogs that don’t fit under the other categories but aren’t silly?

14
ClementineChimeOPMOD:Silly: •

Actors dogs will be allowed as real jobs every day of the week. So dogs in movies, tv shows, broadway plays, etc.

can there be a tag for working dogs that don’t fit under the other categories but aren’t silly?

What should it be? I could add a separate "Actor" flair. Then should we have a Miscellaneous or "Misc." flair? That won't really tell us anything though. Flair hasn't been required for every post due to this issue. There's too many random real jobs that we can't account for with separate flairs.

25
LilUmsureAboutThis•

Perhaps “Other Jobs”?

It still doesn’t say much, but it’s at least a split from the silly jobs

7
ClementineChimeOP:Silly: •

Okay I will consider this. I'm still debating how best to go about this new rule. Probably will just end up having to manually remove all the silly jobs posted Monday - Friday. I can't think of any solid way to automod it. It will still be much easier than things have been though since the deliberation phase will no longer exist. It's just a simple removal with a link to this post.

8
scroll_of_truth•

good, i hate the non job posts

11
plantonio_banderas•

This is the cutest most reasonable goal add I've ever seen on reddit.

10
shillyshally•

Well reasoned. Clementine puts a ton of work into this sub as a mod, trying to keep it relevant so it doesn't turn into another r/aww. Thank you, Clementine.

10
ClementineChimeOP:Silly: •

:)

8
sherm39•

Good decision by mods. I'm really interested in the many different things for which dogs are deployed and employed. Pointless cuteness deserves its own sub. I post on a sub for a particular breed of dog renowned for their great skills. But now the sub is taken over by people who buy them for their looks alone and post pics of these fine animals languishing on couches. The result: overbreeding, loss of characteristics that took decades to perfect.

9
kosherhamm•

Best headline ive read today.

9
wheresthatcat•

This is the reason why I left catswithjobs so I'm glad you're doing this! No one is paying you to care about the quality of this sub so we really appreciate the hard work you're putting in.

8
ClementineChimeOP:Silly: •

Thanks :)

Are there cats with real jobs? Lol. I thought every post in that sub was a fake job?

4
mev426:Service: Service Dog Owner •

I haven't browsed that sub, but I do know of a few legitimate service cats in Canada! I didn't even know that cats could be trained to heel, let alone task, before I saw their videos.

3
ClementineChimeOP:Silly: •

Huh interesting. I suppose there might be pest control cats as well? To take out mice maybe.

3
mev426:Service: Service Dog Owner •

One of the Instagram accounts I’ve seen is Joker the Service Lion it’s really interesting to see some of his training!

2
BlackisCat•

The only job I can think of for cats is if they're a barn cat. So possibly not super friendly to humans but they'll wipe out any vermin in their farm or possibly warehouse.

2
6tardis6:Service: Service Dog Owner•

Thank you!!!

7
Pantalaimon_II•

This is great! I wish more subs would mod on quality.

7
rjtoca821•

r/dogswithsillyjobs

6