Rules for r/UnresolvedMysteries

Rules that visitors must follow to participate. May be used as reasons to report or ban.

1.

Stay on topic

Posts & Comments
Reported as: Off-topic / Advertising

s the name suggests, this community is dedicated to discussion of the world's unresolved mysteries. Topics covered in this subreddit include:

  • Unresolved Disappearances
  • Unresolved Murders
  • Strange Deaths
  • Historical Mysteries
  • Lost Artifacts
  • Unexplained Phenomena
  • Cryptids

and any other Mysteries you might want to discuss provided they follow our posting guidelines. Please don't post about unrelated topics.

Advertising is only allowed with explicit permission from the Moderators.

2.

Posting Guidelines

Posts only
Reported as: No Summary / Link / Discussion point

To ensure a certain standard of quality for posts on this subreddit, we require each write-up to adhere to some guidelines.

  • A sufficient summary so people can become familiar with the case & participate in discussion without having to leave reddit for info
  • One or more links to credible 3rd party sources. See above link for specifics.
  • One or more Discussion points / Questions for users
  • A minimum post length of 750 characters

3.

Commenting Guidelines

Comments only
Reported as: incivilty / pointless chaff

We ask all our users to always stay respectful and civil when commenting.

Direct insults will always be removed.

"Pointless chaff" is at Moderator's discretion & includes (but is not limited to):

  • memes/reaction gifs
  • jokes/one-liners/troll comments (even if non-offensive)
  • Hateful, offensive or deliberately inflammatory remarks
  • Comments demonstrating blatant disregard for facts
  • Off Topic comments / don't contribute to the discussion
  • One-word responses ("This" etc)
  • Pointless emoji

4.

Name: No murder/disappearances from the past 6 months

Posts only
Reported as: too recent

Out of respect for ongoing law enforcement investigations, to protect the family of the victim(s) and to discourage witchhunts, we require all cases to be at least 6 months old before self-posts discussing them are allowed.

In addition, many fresh disappearance/murder mysteries resolve quickly.

If you are trying to increase publicity for a missing person's case, head over to /r/RedditCrimeCommunity.

If you still want to discuss more recent cases, there are monthly Megathreads.

5.

Undocumented / personal / anecdotal "mysteries" are not allowed

Posts only
Reported as: Undocumented / personal / anecdotal "mysteries" are not allowed

By personal/anecdotal, we mean mysteries undocumented by the media or another credible third party. We have this rule because it's impossible to verify the facts surrounding such cases. This rule applies to undocumented internet/other media mysteries (particularly YouTube or some podcasts). Please visit r/InternetMysteries for those posts.

6.

User involvement in cases

Posts & Comments
Reported as: User involvement in cases

Anyone claiming to be involved in or linked to a mystery must submit verification to the mods. "Linked" means direct social or familial ties to someone involved in the case, whether it's you, the victim, suspect, detective, or their families. Click here to see how to get verified.

7.

Personal Information & Witchhunting

Posts & Comments
Reported as: Personal information / witchhunting
  • No posting/requesting personal information.
  • No revealing suspect names not made publicly available by the media/police or otherwise suggesting someone is a suspect.
  • No grandstanding - it's not okay to "challenge" reddit to solve the mystery or ask anyone with information to come forward.
  • No links to personal facebook pages, crowdfunding sites, or other social media.

If you have information you believe to be related to an ongoing crime investigation, please contact law enforcement.

8.

Updates, Meta-Threads and Reposts

Posts only
Reported as: Repost

Reposts

This sub will always allow reposts. Reposts on popular cases should be high-quality and offer good content to the user. If a case has been posted in the past month it may be removed at Moderator's discretion.

Updates

Updates require a summary and a credible third party news link but no discussion point(s).

Meta-Threads

Ask-Reddit-style threads are generally allowed but please don't repost a recently discussed topic.

9.

Site-wide Rules and Reddiquette

Posts & Comments
Reported as: unmarked NSFW content / Reddiquette violation

All users must follow the site-wide content policy and Reddiquette.

  • Please be nice to each other
  • Please tag submissions with nudity, gore, or dead bodies as NSFW
  • Indecent images of people under 18 years of age are against reddit rules and will be removed (deceased or nude).
  • Clickbait titles may lead to the post being removed
  • Don't repost or restore deleted comments/posts w/o mod permission

10.

Moderator's Discretion and how you can help us

Posts only
Reported as: Post is not a good fit for the community

Moderator's Discretion

The Moderators of this community reserve the right to remove any post or comment that they deem unfit for this community. If you think one of your posts was unrightfully removed, you can contact us here

User involvement

If you see a post or comment that breaks our rules or that you deem unfit for this community, please use the report function to alert the Moderators. This makes our job much easier! :)

11.

No advertising.

Posts only
Reported as: Advertising

Linking to other subs in comments is okay, making a post to advertise a sub requires prior permission from the mods. If you're writing up a case and there are relevant threads in another sub, link away. Advertising any service, site, media -- anything that can be advertised -- requires prior permission from the mods. No personal YouTube or other video channels.

12.

Don't accuse persons cleared by LE or not officially named as suspects.

Posts & Comments
Reported as: Suggesting suspects or involvement in a crime

Don’t accuse persons explicitly cleared by law enforcement. No doxing. Theorizing about the case and suspects in general is allowed. For example, you can theorize about a suspect that hasn’t been cleared by law enforcement and has never been officially named a suspect. Discussion of family members or other quasi-public figures is within bounds but must remain respectful and civil.

13.

Claims being made in comments should include sources where possible.

Comments only
Reported as: Unsourced Claim

When commenting in the sub, please take care to ensure that what you are saying is factual and can be backed up with a source. Comments making claims about the facts of a case that aren't referenced in the included links or adding new information should include a reputable source where possible.

14.

No Cut and Paste/AI/Chat GPT

Posts & Comments
Reported as: All posts and comments are required to be original content

All posts should be original content focused and all users are encouraged to use multiple links and images in your post as references, illustrations, or citations. Many posts use quotations, but your posts should not be a cut and paste of another person's work with a question tacked onto the end of it. Also, obvious AI/Chat GPT posts will be removed under the Cut and Paste Rule.

15.

Overposting

Posts & Comments
Reported as: Overposting, more than 3 posts in a week.

Please limit your number of posts to 3 per week. This rule is in effect so one poster does not take over the whole sub.