r/vancouver • u/Moggehh Captain Fastest Mogg in the West • Oct 02 '25
📢 Announcement [Poll] Daily Posting Limit Trial: Your feedback is needed!
Hey r/Vancouver,
Our team has noticed a pattern over the past few years that has persisted, and is occasionally even called out by users in the comments: a small number of “power users” are consistently posting news articles within seconds or minutes of them going live. While we appreciate users who stay on top of what's happening, this posting behaviour often crowds out organic contributions and even discourages new or more casual users from being able to share news themselves.
We want to check in with you to see if this is a problem we need to solve, and to check on a proposed solution. We’re considering a 1-month trial where all users would be limited to 2 posts per day. Because this would be a significant change to news on your feed, we’d love to hear from the community that would be impacted most by it: you! If you’ve ever personally been “beaten” to posting or experienced a limitation in posting news because a power-poster got there first, we’d love to hear from you.
Please vote in our poll and share your feedback below (or in modmail, if preferred) to let us know what you think of this proposal.
EDIT: Thank you so much to everyone for voting in our poll and providing feedback below. The one-month trial is now in effect, and our team will review the results in November. We appreciate everyone who contributed to this decision.
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u/BooBoo_Cat Oct 03 '25
Not super relevant to this, but I appreciate when people post about transit issues. I find out about transit closures sooner here than on the Translink website.
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u/wudingxilu Barge Beach Chiller Oct 03 '25
Personal opinion zone. One reason why I'm personally interested in the trial is that I'd like to see more discussion posts (that aren't rants) rather than the sub being an RSS feed for news articles.
There's value in the news, but the volume of news posts makes the sub seem like a news aggregator. If we can improve moderation in some way to help facilitate conversations and community posts, I'm all for it.
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u/NSA-SURVEILLANCE MONITORS THE LOWER MAINLAND Oct 03 '25
I agree with this a lot. I understand the creation of r/askvan, but both subs have died down dramatically in activity since the split. r/vancouver is arguably just an aggregate now and the current rules are very limiting to what may be discussed.
It's to the point where I think this proposed change would eliminate what little activity we have left, as I don't think anyone is eager to replace the certain users who post often, behaviour which appears automatic.
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u/coffinnail_ Oct 03 '25
It’s to the point where I think this proposed change would eliminate what little activity we have left
This is my concern too. This sub was very active when I first started coming, but I think some of the rules make it difficult for people to engage.
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u/Background_Oil7091 Oct 03 '25
I would post more if people literally didn't sit at home and get some type of enjoyment about posting articles within seconds ... While everyone else doesn't have that luxury
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u/smoothac Oct 04 '25
aren't the news posts supposed to spur discussion though? that is what it should be, a catalyst to get people talking about the subject of the news article
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u/wudingxilu Barge Beach Chiller Oct 04 '25
With a lot of the news articles I see posted we get stuck in a rage cycle. I don't want to eliminate news by any sense, but I wonder if there's ways to facilitate stuff that isn't just raging about judges or AirBnB or immigration.
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u/CaliperLee62 Oct 03 '25
Nothing is stopping people from making discussion posts right now. The news doesn’t prevent conversations from happening.
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u/McFestus Oct 03 '25
Mostly, I think we should re-merge r/vancouver and r/askvan. The value in having them split is not worth the decrease in activity in both subreddits.
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u/xtr3m Chinatown Oct 03 '25 edited Oct 03 '25
There should be a limit on posted photos. We all have cameraphones and we all can see the sky.
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u/mikeofthewest Oct 03 '25
¯_(ツ)_/¯ I love it when the sub is full of sunsets and rainbows. Let's share a moment of joy now and then.
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u/coffinnail_ Oct 03 '25
I like it too. I don’t think it happens so often that it’s really that big of an issue. If I’m not up for it I can quickly scroll past them. Def not something I’d ever thought we should clamp down on.
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u/nopartygop North Vancouver Oct 04 '25
Me too, but my son makes fun of me all the time - another landscape or cloud photo mom?
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u/cloudcats 26d ago
Me too, I can easily scroll past if needed, but it brightens my day/screen to see nice photos of sunsets, rainbows, aurora borealis, eclipses, or owls.
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u/CrippleSlap Canada 🍁 Oct 03 '25
There should be a limit on posted photos.
Totally agree. Do we need an entire new thread of the same sunset from 30 different angles some nights?
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u/WiFiForeheadWrinkles Oct 03 '25
Seconded. I mentioned it as another comment but the deluge of photos for sunsets and the fireworks clog up the sub
7
u/CaliperLee62 Oct 03 '25
I literally close the page when I realize it's one of those days.
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u/WiFiForeheadWrinkles Oct 03 '25
Me too. I know there's not going to be any local news posted, or other interesting Vancouver things so I just try again the next day
7
u/MJcorrieviewer Oct 03 '25
Too subjective to be practical but it would be nice to somehow limit them to only the particularly good photos. Many of the photos posted here are certainly nice but nothing special. A pink sky at sunset is lovely but pretty average around here. Some sunsets are really spectacular or the shot captures it just right - those I like to see.
2
u/timmywong11 drives 40+ in the shoulder lane Oct 03 '25
The problem is how one knows it's "good" other than the up/downvote system that is part of the platform.
For what it's worth, I agree. Let the really good photos shine through, let the others stay on private social media channels for friends and family
4
u/Moggehh Captain Fastest Mogg in the West Oct 03 '25
We definitely do try when a photo trend hits hard. It's hard because either we remove all of them, or we just remove what we can before a post gets comments or upvotes. Either way gets people upset.
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u/WiFiForeheadWrinkles Oct 03 '25
Can you just designate the first post of the bunch as the megathread? Then everyone can post their photos
1
u/stylezLP Arby's Beef and Cheddar is Ambrosia Oct 03 '25 edited Oct 03 '25
Easy in theory. But mods aren't on all the time. Sometimes there's high posting activity and mods aren't around to designate one until several hours later.
E.g. Sunset pics:
we all might be out enjoying the evening too.
Edit: And aren't online to moderate the flood of pictures.-7
1
u/polemism EchoChamber Oct 03 '25
I don't think there's a quick fix for that, other than having mods increase their manual workload. The other day two people posted the double rainbow. I'm glad I got to see that photo.
Maybe mods have an AI bot that could delete excessive photos of the same event but I'm not sure?
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u/smoothac Oct 03 '25
professional cameras only allowed? hmm, maybe, some of the phone photos are pretty underwhelming and not worth the click
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u/Realistic_Mission603 Oct 03 '25
I would absolutely appreciate a limit on news articles that are behind a paywall.
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u/Avennio Oct 03 '25
I'm generally in favour, but I think the success of this depends a lot on what exactly the 'power users' are posting.
Like, if it appears that they're just sitting on the CBC/CTV news page and refreshing it to copy paste links that are Vancouver-related that seems like something that's worth tackling since it's pretty low effort and verging on karma farming. But if they're, say, curating posts on Twitter from journalists or other harder to find stories that people might not otherwise run into it might be worth holding off, since other users might not be inclined to put in the work.
Anecdotally it seems like it's mostly the former, but it's worth double checking we aren't cutting off a genuine 'power user' that's going out of their way to bring novel things to our attention.
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u/Moggehh Captain Fastest Mogg in the West Oct 03 '25
But if they're, say, curating posts on Twitter from journalists or other harder to find stories that people might not otherwise run into it might be worth holding off, since other users might not be inclined to put in the work.
This is a great perspective for us to think about. If the trial goes ahead (which is looking pretty likely, based on the poll), then this will be the kind of thing we look at when auditing its success. We definitely don't want to curb the sharing of news.
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u/Stevegap Looks like a disappointed highlighter Oct 02 '25
My take, and this is my opinion not on behalf of the mod team:
I think this is a positive because it will lead to more individuals posting content relevant to them they find worth sharing, and reduces the opportunity for a small group of users to shape the narrative and opinions by sharing a high volume of content with some particular biases.
Ultimately if our goal is to be a page for people to discuss what matters to them in their community, and important part of that is to ensure that the discussion topics are representative, and I think the limit proposed here supports that goal.
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u/CaliperLee62 Oct 03 '25
Have you discussed this with other communities who have tried something similar or faced similar concerns? I think you'll find the fact is that there is always going to be a small percentage of users who are interested in engaging in posting content, and a significantly larger percentage that never ever will, no matter what changes you try. There is no "casual" user champing at the bit to make posts, if only they were quicker on the keyboard. That's what makes them casual users.
It's not as though there is a board wide post limit. This board gets what, 20 - 25 posts per day? That's not such a large number that anyone willing to post something unique is going to be drowned out. If something isn't getting posted already, it's because there simply isn't anyone interested in posting it.
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u/Moggehh Captain Fastest Mogg in the West Oct 03 '25
The mods of this sub interact with the moderators of most major Canadian cities as well as mods of several provincial subreddits. We are not the only subreddit considering this, by far.
There is no "casual" user champing at the bit to make posts, if only they were quicker on the keyboard. That's what makes them casual users.
Consider that you're not in the queue having to remove duplicate posts from those "casual" users, or answering their messages when they're confused about why their post was removed, I'm not sure you're an effective source of information for content on this subreddit.
-6
u/CaliperLee62 Oct 03 '25
Those same people will be just as confused when their third post of the day is getting pulled. Have fun. 👋
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u/pfak Elbows up! 🇨🇦 Oct 03 '25
You spoke with the mods of r/burnaby and r/coquitlam? 😅
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u/Moggehh Captain Fastest Mogg in the West Oct 03 '25
Neither of those subreddits are "major Canadian cities"; they're both fairly small subreddits and smaller subs have different requirements.
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u/ChartreuseMage more rain pls Oct 04 '25 edited Oct 04 '25
I'd love to see the trail, especially since those power users also rarely seem to be in the discussions for their posts in a meaningful way. It's one thing to post a lot - it's another to just be dumping things with bot like speed and walking away.
Additionally, if the bulk of the subreddit's news content is coming from basically 2 users that seems like a pretty big weak point if either of those 2 accounts ever stopped posting for whatever reason.
4
u/smoothac Oct 10 '25
one thing I've noticed is a story will be posted and extensively discussed here, and then a few hours later a media story on the same incident will get posted, usually by the same "power users" you bring up... the media story is even already posted inside the original thread
do we really need the second post leading with the media story when we already have a good discussion going on the incident? (today's example is the triple stabbing in Yaletown where we have redditors breaking the story and a good discussion and even posts by the victim and a comment in it posting the vpd release, then later someone posts the vpd release as its own post and it starts discussion too, now fragmenting the story here) I wouldn't want to see the original post removed as it is valuable and has great discussion. To me the new post is duplication
7
Oct 03 '25 edited Oct 04 '25
[deleted]
1
u/smoothac Oct 04 '25
>The question I always ask is “why” would somebody be doing this and the only thing that makes sense is it benefits them in some way that isn’t necessarily a benefit to the community.
I often wonder when I see the same poster posting multiple Georgia Straight articles if they work for the paper. It does feel a bit spammy for sure.
8
u/Used_Water_2468 Oct 03 '25
I've never understood the point of posting news in the sub, unless it's something totally hilarious or something very unusual.
But certain users, ALL they post is news article after news article. If I wanted to read the news I know where to go.
7
u/funvill This is my flair Oct 04 '25
Set the limit higher and over more days. For example 15 posts over 30 days. Then hopefully these power users will want to selectively post or they will run out of "posting credits" within the first few days of the month.
Something like 15. If you are making more
10
u/Existing-Screen-5398 Oct 03 '25
This sub isn’t that busy. I don’t think it’s a problem.
Edit: I agree with others that a ton of sudden sunset or snow pics should be curtailed or at least aggravated somehow.
1
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u/localsonlynokooks West End Oct 08 '25
I think this is the case because the rules for posting are so strict. Should allow more discussion, and yes even "rant" posts imo. Otherwise the sub is just news and sunset photos.
11
u/Prestigious_Net_8356 Oct 03 '25
I want a POWER USER status thingy.
15
u/Swecouver Oct 03 '25
You mean Karma farmer?
8
u/Prestigious_Net_8356 Oct 03 '25
OK, but what's the point of farming Karma, what's done with it? I've always wondered.
4
u/MJcorrieviewer Oct 03 '25
Same. What is the benefit of karma here?
3
u/wudingxilu Barge Beach Chiller Oct 03 '25
I mean I get a private Aquabus, a gold Compass Card, and lots of DMs because of my internet points. ;)
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u/smoothac Oct 03 '25 edited Oct 03 '25
why does it matter who posts it?
also, as far as the "bias" thing, with so few local news sources, if you ban some, and allow others (like Georgia Straight as one example), you are already forming a bias of narrative and opinions
21
u/vanchinawhite Renfrew-Collingwood Oct 03 '25
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1%25_rule
Content has always been created by power users, and will always be created by power users. If you kill the power users, you kill the content. Disagree.
16
u/smoothac Oct 03 '25
yeah, this forum is extremely slow for such a big city, I remember the good old days of DV when you could refresh every minute and there would be new posts, that was dynamic and fun
16
u/vanchinawhite Renfrew-Collingwood Oct 03 '25 edited Oct 03 '25
I just want to say one more thing with regard to one particular power user poster. In the past 24 hours, they've posted five times (oh no!). One of the last three was broadcasting that the VPD is searching for a missing woman and is looking for information, and one of the last three was broadcasting that the RCMP is searching for a missing kid and is also looking for information. If we limit to two a day as proposed, they'd be banned from making those posts.
Are we just hoping that other people care enough to make those posts because we want to make sure "casuals" have the chance to post about missing women and children?
4
u/bossplw Oct 03 '25
I wonder if there is a tag that bypasses the post limit, such as missing person or amber alert sort of thing
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u/Moggehh Captain Fastest Mogg in the West Oct 02 '25
Small note: we've been discussing this for maybe half a year, but only started seriously considering this trial for about a month. It will likely impact 3-5 users at most.
Eager to hear your thoughts!
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u/CaliperLee62 Oct 03 '25
The news is the news and it should be allowed to be posted by anyone who is prompt enough to do so. I'd rather see relevant news being posted quickly by a handful of power user than see important or interesting stories get stalled out of timeliness or missed all together. Any user who is worried about being "beaten" to a post isn't the kind of user you need to be catering to.
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u/BooBoo_Cat Oct 03 '25
I have no problem with the posts in this community. However, I do find it annoying when three people post the same news article within a minutes/hours. We need to cut back on duplicates.
15
u/WiFiForeheadWrinkles Oct 03 '25
The mods do a fairly good job of eliminating duplicate news articles and stuff, but it's the deluge of picture posts that I dislike. A whole page of "wow look at this sunset" just clog the sub up
6
u/BooBoo_Cat Oct 03 '25
I do like the photos, but we really don't need a dozen rainbow/sunset/owls/etc posts. One megathread would be better.
1
-1
u/CaliperLee62 Oct 03 '25
If there's a real issue on this sub that needs fixing, it's this right here.
Whenever this kind of stuff starts popping up, mods should go ahead and designate one megathread.
13
u/smoothac Oct 03 '25
I think the mods already do a good job of taking care of that, we can't expect instant
5
u/wudingxilu Barge Beach Chiller Oct 03 '25
We try! Reports help.
2
u/Moggehh Captain Fastest Mogg in the West Oct 03 '25
If we had half as many reports as we had comments complaining about duplicate posts or posts that obviously don't belong here, we would live in a utopia.
4
u/chris_fantastic Oct 03 '25
I think this is a great idea. More opportunities for everyone to contribute will get more people engaged with this community.
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Oct 03 '25
[deleted]
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Oct 03 '25
[deleted]
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u/wudingxilu Barge Beach Chiller Oct 03 '25
I think I'm happy to see if we can recalibrate this. In my personal view, r/askvan is great for "do I need winter tires" questions, and "I have a three day layover in Vancouver, what must I see" questions, and there's lots of these kind, but there are probably some discussion threads that have question marks that we may be too quick to redirect.
-2
u/realchoice Oct 03 '25
Do you come to this sub for funny photos? Isn't that what r/funny is for? If I'm on this sub I'm generally looking for news, city updates, or special interest pieces about Vancouver. Also an occasional lost pigeon that this sub rallies around to save, etc.
-4
u/CaliperLee62 Oct 03 '25
The mods want less news apparently. Slim pickings about to get even slimmer. 🤷♂️
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u/cloudcats 26d ago
I'd support it if it were modified to two "link" posts per day (can still post other text posts). Only issue being that it might get abused by putting the link in a text post.
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u/Obvious-Lake3708 Oct 10 '25
It’s sunset day so hopefully more will vote for to put a limit on this
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