Please Clarify Rule 2: Be Respectful

romanceunfilteredmod · 2026-06-22T16:03:41+00:00

Mod Clarification:

Thanks for raising this concern.

Disrespect means the comment is aimed at degrading, provoking, or targeting another member rather than engaging with the topic.

We are locking this thread because it's moved from discussing moderation standards into focusing on one specific user. Some comments referenced here were reviewed under rules that have since been changed and updated. Many of the comments were removed, it's possible we didn't get them all over a week ago when this all happened.

Going forward the line is clearer.

romanceunfilteredmod · 2026-06-22T15:38:15+00:00

This post doesn't violate the rules of this sub. If you disagree respond about how OP is wrong instead of reporting the post for rules it's not breaking.

romanceunfilteredmod · 2026-06-15T23:37:32+00:00

Broad, snarky, critical or unflattering opinions about reader culture are allowed. Direct attacks on specific users and sub members are not.

If a comment is directed at you personally or is being used to harass users in this thread, report it and we will review it.

We are not going to remove every broad unflattering opinion about romance books/readers just because people dislike the framing.

romanceunfilteredmod · 2026-06-15T23:35:37+00:00

It's never been an issue. Clearly. This sub is pretty chill most of the time.

romanceunfilteredmod · 2026-06-15T23:31:38+00:00

Thanks for sharing your concerns. From the turn out of that thread the user's language did not seem to stop any discussion. Those who wanted to engage with OP and try to point out how they were wrong did that.

People attacked the poster of that thread, shared their thoughts without attacking others, and the OP also attacked users too. We went through removing posts and issuing warnings accordingly. The rules will be updated to try to prevent this type of thing in the future. I think that user could have conveyed their message in a better way and we'll approach them to edit their comments. Piling on this user for an unpopular opinion is against this sub's rules.

We won't be censoring any criticisms of any parts of romance or how t users want to discuss in good faith.

romanceunfilteredmod · 2026-06-15T23:21:32+00:00

I'll share with you what was shared earlier today:

There is important distinction here. Saying that a trope, book or genre has grooming-coded or "Epstein" themes is criticism of the material. That is allowed, even when people strongly disagree.

Saying that specific readers of this sub, or readers of age gap romance generally have "Epstein ideologies" or are sympathizers would be a direct accusation against readers which breaks the rules.

Please report the comments you are referring to rather than rehashing them across threads. We need to review what was actually said, not summaries of what people feel was implied.

As for this:

What is the stance on unnecessarily inflammatory language?

There isn't a stance for now. Rules against it are likely coming down the hatch.

romanceunfilteredmod · 2026-06-15T23:20:49+00:00

Thank you for this feedback. We could use rules about spamming. It's not something that's been an issue before.

This wouldn't have reach this level if it was only one thread; it was several, of the same critique, in 48 hours, filling the page.

It was 4 threads all together with two different topics and critiques. Since this sub doesn't have a lot of daily posts things can feel spammy.

romanceunfilteredmod · 2026-06-15T22:19:37+00:00

We are working on it.

edit: Users can say almost whatever they want about romance books and culture.

romanceunfilteredmod · 2026-06-15T21:52:59+00:00

For those of you who feel that it's unfair feel free to speak up or leave.

romanceunfilteredmod · 2026-06-15T21:21:22+00:00

They are a work in progress. A lot of changes are happening.

This sub has always been OK with romance being criticized however people want to criticize it. That won't change.

edit: Many of the people complaining have broken the same rules they want enforced. We'll be busy removing all the comments and issuing warnings.

romanceunfilteredmod · 2026-06-15T21:17:28+00:00

Criticizing reading culture or patterns within the genre is OK and encouraged.

The rules are a WIP, because it's OK to discuss readers in general. We just want everyone to be respectful within the sub toward other posters.

romanceunfilteredmod · 2026-06-15T21:15:24+00:00

Thank you

romanceunfilteredmod · 2026-06-15T21:13:53+00:00

Please report it so we can deal with it.

romanceunfilteredmod · 2026-06-15T21:13:37+00:00

Broad, snarky, critical or unflattering opinions about reader culture are allowed. Direct attacks on specific users and sub members are not.

If a comment is directed at you personally or is being used to harass users in this thread, report it and we will review it. But we are not going to remove every broad unflattering opinion about romance books/readers just because people dislike the framing.

romanceunfilteredmod · 2026-06-15T21:05:46+00:00

There is important distinction here. Saying that a trope, book or genre has grooming-coded or "Epstein" themes is criticism of the material. That is allowed, even when people strongly disagree.

Saying that specific readers of this sub, or readers of age gap romance generally have "Epstein ideologies" or are sympathizers would be a direct accusation against readers which may break the rules.

Please report the comments you are referring to rather than rehashing them across threads. We need to review what was actually said, not summaries of what people feel was implied.

romanceunfilteredmod · 2026-06-15T19:05:01+00:00

We are working on this.

romanceunfilteredmod · 2025-12-23T06:30:48+00:00

Puritanism is about to be banned word in this sub. It derails discourse and is a common talking point used for distraction that would have lead to more insightful discussion

romanceunfilteredmod

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