Transparency Report: 11th July — 31st December 2021

Hey everyone! We’re back with another transparency report. This time we’ve got a whole lot more data to share with you, not only from AYS but also from AYB, AYR and AYG. We’ve had a massive year of growth, especially in the 2nd half of the year and there’s a lot of data to share.

Without further ado, here is the transparency report for the second half of 2022.

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Reports

We don’t have the exact data on reports, but we can give a rough estimate. In the second half of the year we received upwards of 2,200 reports from members of bad actors in our community.

How do we respond to a report?

When we receive the report, we will investigate what is going on with the help of the reporter themselves. We will request information as to what happened as well as the evidence they provide.

If we believe the behavior is against our rules we can take a range of different steps including:

• Banning a user
• Muting a user
• Blacklisting a user from advertising
• Blacklisting a server from being advertised
• Warning a user
• Removing content/ads
• Temporarily banning

In cases where immediate danger is present we will work with Discord to deal with the situation as well as the appropriate law enforcement agencies.

Bans

Here are the top 5 ban reasons for the 1042 bans recorded:

1. DM Advertising
2. Nitro Scams
3. Racial Related Harassment
4. Scamming Users/Malicious Intent
5. Harassment and ToS Violations

Unsolicited ads are mainly in the form of DM Advertisements where a user will DM other users with a link to their server or site. This goes against the Discord Terms of Service and is unethical. The main reason this is so high though is due to the lack of understanding of what is and isn’t allowed on the platform.

We also use a range of auto-moderation tools that help to keep AYS a safe place. Those bans will come under raids.

Warns

Warnings are used to give a member a nudge that their behaviour isn’t appropriate. This could include arguing with other members or consistent advertising in the wrong channel. We handed out 297 Warns in the 2nd half of the year.

Mutes

If a user continues to break the rules we will hand out a mute which may range from an hour to a few days. We handed out 189 mutes.

Server Blacklists

We blacklist servers for a variety of reasons such as Terms of Service Violations and Invite Rewards. In order to keep our members safe we blacklist these so they can’t be advertised and members cannot join them. We blacklisted 65 servers in this half of the year.

Appeals

We accept appeals to moderation actions from all of our users. This helps us in case we have made a mistake or there has been a misunderstanding in what has happened.

There were 232 appeals that were made to our staff team.

Of the 232 appeals that were made, 23 appeals were accepted. Appeals can be made on the basis of the following:

• An incorrect moderation action was applied.
• The evidence at hand is insufficient or incorrect.

We don’t revoke bans for those who apologise at a later time. The appeals system is for when we’ve made a mistake and it needs to be rectified.

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Reports

We received upwards of 24 reports from members of bad actors in our community.

Bans, Warns and Mutes

When a report comes to us, we will evaluate it and determine the correct course of action. 86 Moderation actions were handed out during this period.

Here are the top 5 moderation action reasons

1. DM Advertising — 36%
2. Nitro Scams — 28%
3. INAP Behaviour — 8%
4. Harassment — 6%
5. Homophobia/Selling Accounts — 3%

Overall there were 86 bans.

Appeals

There were 2 appeals that were made to our staff team.

Of the 2 appeals that were made, 0 appeals were accepted.

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Reports

We don’t have the exact data on reports, but we can give a rough estimate. We received upwards of 40 reports from members of bad actors in our community.

Bans

Here are the top 5 ban reasons from the 71 bans recorded.

1. DM Advertising
2. Spamming
3. Raiding
4. Raid Bot
5. Nitro Scams

Warns

We handed out 10 Warns in the 2nd half of the year.

Mutes

10 mutes were given out.

Appeals

There were 5 appeals that were made to our staff team.

Of the 5 appeals that were made, 2 appeals were accepted.

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Reports

Reports on Reddit are generally handled by the automod and dealt with by the spam filter. 2 reports from users were received though.

Bans

Here are the top 3 ban reasons from the 71 bans recorded.

1. Inappropriate and Adult Content — 2
2. Miscellaneous & Other — 1
3. Scams & Phishing — 1

Removals

Removals may occur when a post doesn’t meet the Subreddit’s or Reddit’s community guidelines or terms of service. There were over 150 removals in the 6 month period, majority were handled by automod.

Appeals

There were no appeals during this period.

To Conclude

Thanks for reading our transparency report! We’re always looking to be as transparent as possible and this time we have a lot more data to be able to share with you all. We’ve recently introduced new guidelines for our moderation team on actions and when they can be taken to keep everything consistent.

Our moderation team works around the clock to keep you safe and we appreciate everyone who helps to achieve that, whether you make a report or are a mod, you have helped keep AYS a safe place.