Why was the COVID-19 thread locked on the politics sub?

Hey admins and mods, quick question. Why was the thread about COVID-19 locked under the politics category? Is it because some guy mentioned you guys are being funded by the government to moderate COVID threads? Isn't that just public info released by the Department of Health and Human Services?

Let's be real here—it's a public announcement. It clearly states you're getting a financial stimulus to "better" monitor topics related to the coronavirus... ☕

Anyway, here are my actual questions:

1. Is it against the rules to mention that Reddit received money from the government to moderate COVID-related threads, even though it’s an undisputed public fact?

2. Are we allowed to start a thread about this so users can share their thoughts on it?

I'm asking for clarification because it isn't right if someone—whether it's another user or maybe even me tomorrow—gets a strike just for being uninformed. If it's off-limits, just say so publicly so everyone knows the rules. At least that would be consistent with how things have been handled regarding what's allowed and what isn't... ☕

Thanks in advance.
Amy Rogers6

Amy Rogers6 said:Hey admins and mods, quick question. Why was the thread about COVID-19 locked under the politics category? Is it because some guy mentioned you guys are being funded by the government to moderate COVID threads? Isn't that just public info released by the Department of Health and Human Services?

Let's be real here—it's a public announcement. It clearly states you're getting a financial stimulus to "better" monitor topics related to the coronavirus... ☕

Anyway, here are my actual questions:

1. Is it against the rules to mention that Reddit received money from the government to moderate COVID-related threads, even though it’s an undisputed public fact?

2. Are we allowed to start a thread about this so users can share their thoughts on it?

I'm asking for clarification because it isn't right if someone—whether it's another user or maybe even me tomorrow—gets a strike just for being uninformed. If it's off-limits, just say so publicly so everyone knows the rules. At least that would be consistent with how things have been handled regarding what's allowed and what isn't... ☕

Thanks in advance.
Amy Rogers6

Cut the crap.

Exactly.
Look, I’ve brought this point up more than a few times now, and my posts haven't been deleted—not once. It's not like I'm just some pushover trying to stay on the good side of the admins or whatever.

Even though I don't personally agree with how things are handled, sometimes a topic just boils over if people have piled up too much "off-topic" stuff. We all know that on that specific "paid" PDF thread—which is basically a total nightmare compared to the actual politics section—it’s always been strictly forbidden to comment on the moderation of other subforums, or even just general moderation in general.

@Amy Rogers6

Maria Barnes said:Cut the crap.

https://factcheck.com/2020/05/19/media...virus-website/

“Based on the responses we received, it’s clear that the US Federal Government and the Department of Health and Human Services spent roughly $75,000 of taxpayer money to launch and maintain the CDC.gov website, along with several other supporting materials. This contract was handed directly to the Media Val communications agency without any public bidding process.

The Department of Health and Human Services fast-tracked the creation of the official CDC.gov site and established dedicated social media accounts and profiles on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube—as well as specific threads on Reddit—to ensure the public had access to regular, accurate updates regarding the COVID-19 epidemic. They argued this was essential for protecting the lives and health of citizens across the United States and keeping everyone informed in a timely manner, which they categorized as vital to the national security interests of the United States,” the Department of Health and Human Services stated.

😉

The thread was locked for exactly four minutes, from 14:38 to 14:42 according to the site clock. That’s why we had to start a new one on PŽK ???🤦

Regarding that Coronavirus thread over on the politics sub-forum—out of ten posts, the moderators only missed two. Nothing went wrong with the payment processing.☕

Linda Lee4 said:https://factcheck.com/2020/05/19/media...virus-website/

“Based on the responses we received, it’s clear that the US Federal Government and the Department of Health and Human Services spent roughly $75,000 of taxpayer money to launch and maintain the CDC.gov website, along with several other supporting materials. This contract was handed directly to the Media Val communications agency without any public bidding process.

The Department of Health and Human Services fast-tracked the creation of the official CDC.gov site and established dedicated social media accounts and profiles on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube—as well as specific threads on Reddit—to ensure the public had access to regular, accurate updates regarding the COVID-19 epidemic. They argued this was essential for protecting the lives and health of citizens across the United States and keeping everyone informed in a timely manner, which they categorized as vital to the national security interests of the United States,” the Department of Health and Human Services stated.

😉

If people think Reddit got paid to cover the coronavirus, they're wrong. Reddit never saw a single cent for this.

On Friday, March 13, 2020—the day schools shut down—I was contacted by a former moderator. From what I understood, she had helped organize the media coverage for the Command Center. She mentioned that the only existing thread about the coronavirus on Reddit was occasionally being hit with misinformation, and she offered to take over a specific thread to post accurate info. I told her she could. Let’s be clear: there was absolutely no talk of money. This was about serving the public interest.

In the meantime, I realized that the coronavirus was becoming a massive societal issue with endless topics to cover. Instead of just having their one thread, I decided to independently launch an entire sub-forum. The Coronavirus sub-forum went live on Monday and worked perfectly, covering everything related to the virus and more (it even spawned the Assignments sub-forum due to all the creative activity during the lockdown). All of this happened alongside a very active thread in Politics.

That former moderator never reached out again, nor did anyone from the Command Center. I assume that’s because we did such a good job that they didn't need their own thread anymore. I believe that's why we were included in that list—because Reddit stepped up and handled the job. I'm grateful to that former moderator for the nudge. But again, I repeat: we didn't get a dime, and we didn't ask for any.

We opened the Earthquakes sub-forum for the exact same reason: social necessity and usefulness.

Is this forum basically doing for free what agencies (without even going through a formal RFP process 😬) charge us half a million dollars for? 🤔

And here I was, thinking you actually had to pay to run an ad on this board.