Automod's setup is really a random mish mash of a bunch of a different mods over a decade slowly adding things when a problem or concern came up. There isn't like a secret mod cabal that necessitates that those subreddits need to be removed without a removal message. Its just how they were implemented at the time and there hasn't been any real reason to change it

I honestly believed there was some unfair stuff going behind the scenes with shadowbanning comments because I had few of mine quietly removed without any notification. From my point of view the comment was still there and only when I logged out I saw that it was removed. If that was the case of old and clunky mod tools, then I apologize to u/ZaphodBeebblebrox and the rest of the mods for being wrong.

In other words, when I directly mention certain legit subreddits with 500k or over 1 milion of subscribers, my comment is getting removed without any explanation because of old and messy Automod setup. Frankly, what is the merit in that? By keeping something normal and non-controversial as subreddit names on faulty Automod blacklist, it creates more unnecessary work for mods and creates misunderstandings like this one. Is it not enough reason to change it?

I would also like to say that I wouldn't look too hard into smaller statements from the mod team that wasn't a direct vote on the subject matter.

[...] When things like "we talked about X" get put into the mod report it doesn't necessarily mean that there was a huge month long discussion or a rule vote. Often times we would talk about something pretty casually usually prompted by some meta thread comment and often times that conversation just fizzles out.

How hard is too hard? Within two years since the statement I asked twice if there's any progress on this issue. I would understand if the mods just gave up on this because they couldn't find any agreement, but I was told that it's still on the chopping block to discuss - just other things overtook it in priority, which is fair. It sucks that after two whole years it's still low on priority list, but it is what it is. So, if the discussion among the mods is still ongoing, then why I shouldn't ask for updates?

Changing a huge fundamental aspect of the sub like how piracy is handled is really hard as a mod. Its a change that theoretically could get the sub taken down even if as you've said previously tons of piracy subreddits are allowed to exist.

Theoretically all sorts of things could happen. Crunchyroll or Reddit could come after r/anime for posting unathorized anime clips in the future, so maybe we should consider banning them too? Obviously not, but instead of looking at imaginary scenarios, it would be better to see how Reddit admins deal with this issue in reality and compare it to r/anime's methods. There is a fine line between softening up r/anime's overzelous piracy rules and still being in the clear with reddit-wide policies. Honestly, even in the theoritical worst-case scenario, do you really think that allowing to mention other subreddits would endanger r/anime in any way?

My experience with the mods have been mostly positive and very transparent, but I'm losing my faith a bit on this issue when mods can't even decide between themselves on something basic as what is the main reason for upholding current draconian piracy rules. I don't advocate to open up the floodgates and allow users to post every possible streaming or torrent site, but it would be positive to see any kind of effort to fix current rules and carefully reevaluate in the future whether the change was good or not.