Hey folks,

In the interest of transparency, I want to explain what happened on April 1st and where things currently stand.

Several days ago, the mod team was contacted by Manglisaurus. They requested an unban just for April Fools, and I obliged them, thinking 6 months had given them time to reflect upon their ban. I've previously tried to keep an open mind about allowing banned users to return after some time has passed, especially users that were previously longtime members, and took this as an opportunity to both a) offer them a second chance and b) do something fun for April Fools.

I made several stipulations for their return. They were allowed to post certain content under the NSFW tag, but were explicitly prohibited from posting or linking to sexual or otherwise explicit material that violated our rules. Essentially, shitposty content like [r/SpecEvoJerking](r/SpecEvoJerking). They reassured me that their recent artwork was relatively tame compared to before, which gave me a false sense that we had an understanding. To support the April Fools setup, I also granted them limited moderator permissions so their posts could appear official and not be automatically removed by out-of-the-loop reports. This decision was reckless and made lightheartedly. I did not clearly establish rules for how those permissions could be used, nor did I adequately consider the risks.

Prior to 0:00 UTC on April 1st, Manglisaurus was unbanned and granted the aforementioned permissions, then given the go-ahead after I posted my joke announcement at around 0:00 UTC. While I had initially planned to monitor things throughout the day, I was simultaneously preoccupied with real-life events, and thus only able to assess how things were going intermittently. When I first returned a couple hours later, I saw that some messages on the announcement had been removed. I messaged Manglisaurus, advising them to turn the other cheek, but was not forceful in telling them to stop. Around the same time, I saw their first image post. I am embarrassed to say that I thought it was supposed to be a depiction of headpatting/SFW physical affection (and not cropped explicit content), and didn't look into it further. Later, I noticed a link mentioning a supposed NSFW version on Twitter. Because I could not verify it, I asked them to remove the link, but again, was not direct enough and unable to follow-up to ensure compliance. I then stepped away for a longer period. During that time, an additional image submission was made, and moderator permissions continued to be used inappropriately. Another moderator later identified both the initial and subsequent posts, and acted quickly to mitigate the damage.

I say this genuinely: I did not anticipate that the submissions they would be sharing here would be cropped versions of the same NSFW content that was simultaneously being posted elsewhere (something I learned afterwards), nor that the moderator permissions would be abused. Since yesterday, I've received messages from multiple people regarding allegations that paint the user in an especially alarming way. I would not have proceeded with the unban had I been aware of these, but this again highlights dereliction of my responsibility to properly assess the situation before agreeing to anything. As of earlier today, their permanent ban has been reinstated.

I am rattled that this happened under my watch. I try to hold myself to a high standard of accountability within this community, but I dropped the ball horribly here. I completely misread the situation and let it snowball because I thought what I was seeing matched my expectations. I apologize to those who were caught in the crosshairs of moderator permissions that were being abused, as well as to those who were unwillingly exposed to content that flies in the face of what this subreddit is intended for. I did not properly assess the risks before approving the unban. I did not set clear limits on moderator permissions. These were my responsibilities, and I neglected them.

I am profoundly sorry for the impact this had on the community and on those negatively affected.

With great sincerity,

[u/ArcticZen](u/ArcticZen)

TL;DR — I unbanned and gave limited moderator permissions to a previously banned user for April Fools without proper safeguards or oversight. I failed to act when problems appeared, which allowed rule-breaking content and misuse of permissions to occur.

FAQ

Do I have to do every prompt in order to participate?

Nope! Do as many as you're comfortable with. If you miss a day, that's fine as well.

I like another prompt list better. Can I submit those instead?

Sure! We don't have a monopoly on Spectember, and this is all for fun. Just be sure to use the "Non-Subreddit Spectember Prompt" flair so it's easier for us to catalogue.

Can I get like to the Spec Evo Forum?

Sure: https://specevo.jcink.net/

Can I get a link to the Specposium Discord server?

Sure, here you go: https://discord.gg/4Ez8qmseY9

Will there be a community project/collaborative event this year?

That's the plan! Stay tuned.

Q&A

Do I have to do every prompt to participate?

Nope! Do as many as you're comfortable with. If you miss a day, that's fine as well.

I like another prompt list better. Can I submit those instead?

Sure! We don't have a monopoly on Spectember, and this is all for fun. Just be sure to use the "Non-Subreddit Spectember Prompt" flair so it's easier for us to catalogue.

Can I get a link to the Speculative Evolution Forum?

Sure: https://specevo.jcink.net/

Can I get a link to the Specposium Discord server?

Sure, here you go: https://discord.gg/4Ez8qmseY9

Where's MacArthur Reef?

We're running a tad behind schedule, but rest assured it'll start sometime shortly. Be on the lookout for the announcement!

Hey folks,

We're nearing that time of year again -- Spectember 2025 is just around the corner!

What is Spectember?

Spectember is a community-wide art event that runs through the month of September each year. It's both a celebration of speculative biology as a hobby and an opportunity to refine creative and artistic abilities. A handful of different prompt lists are usually created by individuals throughout the community to provide intrepid artists with creative challenges to tackle. Over the past two years, the subreddit has also held collaborative events that have run concurrently with Spectember, namely Populating Mu and Best in Class; a similar event will be held this year.

We are currently in talks to once again collaborate on a prompt list with the Speculative Evolution Forum and Specposium Discord group this year, but if other community leaders are interested in joining in, feel free to reach out to me here or via Discord so we can coordinate. As it happens, Reddit's r/SpeculativeEvolution is predominantly English-speaking and represents only a small portion of the online hobby space; there are a large number of non-English speculative biology enthusiasts and communities, so it'd be nice to bring as many of us together as we can, even if only for a single month out of the year.

Prompt list suggestions

As a reminder, this community is yours, and the members of the mod team are but humble custodians. We thus want to enfranchise you in any way that we can, so for this year's prompt list, we'd like to take suggestions based on what r/SpeculativeEvolution wants to see and create. Throw out any ideas you have -- we can't promise they'll all make it on the final list, but as it stands, this year's line-up is very much a blank slate still. You can be vague or specific, and as serious or memey as you want (though we will try to avoid repeating prompts from past years). If you're feeling extra creative, you may give your prompt a fun name as well. For your reference, 2024's prompt list can be found here.

Here are a handful of example prompts which may or may not make it onto the prompt list this year:

Intertidal Insect — An insect adapted to life in tidepools and rocky coastal shores

Chicken Jockey! — Create a species with a close association with poultry

The important thing is to have fun with this -- participation is all about seeing what ideas you can come up with to really stretch those creative muscles! As with last year, we'll likely set aside one day per week (probably Sunday) as rest day/catch-up day (but leave an optional simple prompt on the table for those fully committed to making it through the month). We'll post the finalized prompt list on August 31st, so be on the lookout for it then! Additional details for this year's community-wide contest, MacArthur Reef, will likewise be announced in the near future.

Cheers,

Your r/SpeculativeEvolution mod team

EDIT (08/27/2025): SUGGESTIONS ARE NOW CLOSED.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS!

THE FINALIZED PROMPT LIST WILL BE AVAILABLE ON AUGUST 31ST.

Hey folks,

It's that time of year again. After mulling over the results of this poll and considering how frequently certain post types are removed, I've decided to revisit the flair system once more to try and address common issues that still occur with posting. Namely, I recognize how annoying it is to write out a whole entire post, only for the automod to swoop in and remove it because it doesn’t meet some arbitrary criteria.

New Flair System

While well-intentioned, I think the selection of descriptive flairs hasn't necessarily worked as well as intended. There is a a character limit tied to flairs, which prevents minor details from being included that may cause issues with posting. Additionally, over a certain character count, these descriptive flairs are cut-off on mobile, such that they can not even be used for their intended functionality. As a result, the flair system will revert to simple flairs that you will select instead. The following options will be available for selection:

• Alien Life
• Alternate Evolution
• Artificial Evolution
• Fantasy/Folklore
• Fan Art
• Future Evolution
• Jurassic Zebra
• Maps & Planets
• Paleo Reconstruction
• Posthumans
• Redesign
• Seed World
• Simulation
• Uncategorized Speculative Biology
• Media
• Resource
• Meme Monday
• Challenge
• Challenge Submission

As you can see, there are some changes. A list of changes and the rationale behind them is as follows:

1. The crediting of creator(s) (previously handled via "OC" and "non-OC" versions of flairs) is now handled in the title portion of submissions. All non-text submissions now require either "[OC]" or "[Credit: Author-name-goes-here]" in the title. Previously, uncredited non-OC submissions would just be removed outright. Instead, all users will now see an automated message regarding the attribution requirement when making non-text posts, and will blocked from posting until attribution is detected. This change may sound like it demands more of submitters, but actually is just an enforcement measure that will prevent non-compliant submissions from being removed later. Related to this, we've also done away with the distinction between visual and text submissions. There's an understanding that if you're submitting text, you're very likely to be the creator; I don't think the non-OC Text flair was used more than once or twice while it was present. As such, all submissions under content flairs will automatically be assumed to be original, unless stated otherwise. This does not mean it is now permissible to post text that someone else wrote without attribution -- if you are posting text that is not your own, you must credit the original author. However, such submissions do not happen often enough for them to be a point of concern.
2. After some consideration, we will be retiring the Question, Discussion, and Help & Feedback flairs. In the case of the former, there was often confusion between the two, as they conceptually shared a lot of overlap. Meanwhile, the latter-most flair often proved difficult for people to use successfully, and the required phrasing to indicate what specific feedback was desired, though well-intentioned, led to more removals than approvals due to partial matching. To replace the vital roles played by these flairs, we'll instead be instituting a monthly "Question, Feedback & Discussion" thread. For more information, please read the relevant section below.
3. Subgenre flairs are back to being directly selectable again. They always were selectable, but reading the Flair Guide to know how to actually get them is no longer a requirement. "Uncategorized Speculative Biology" replaces the generic Visual/Text flairs and is intended for submissions that do not fall cleanly into one of the arbitrarily defined subgenres. Because of the above changes, it seemed like the best way to leave an option for those who did not wish to ascribe their content to a particular subgenre
4. Project flairs are no longer visible at flair selection. We have fairly few active projects utilizing their flairs these days, but one perk we offered creators previously was the inclusion of their projects on the selection menu. These flairs have been removed in the interest of mitigating flair bloat. Instead, the flair will be automatically applied if the project's name is detected in square brackets in the title of a submission. For example, including "[Jurassic Impact]" in the title will automatically switch the flair over from whatever current flair is selected and result in the post being automatically approved. Please note that this benefit only applies to those with project flairs who are also approved users. In the event that you don't already have a project flair and are interested in picking one up, check out the Flair Guide. Note that while the Flair Guide itself will be rewritten over the next few days to reflect the above changes, the application process for project flairs remains the same.

Many of the filters to get this working properly with the automoderator are currently broken, so posts may get removed stuck in the queue for longer than usual. I will manually approve all compliant submissions at my earliest availability to do so. Patience and understanding is appreciated; this issue should be resolved within a day or so.

Monthly Question, Feedback & Discussion Thread

Starting on Friday (May 1st) at 0:00 UTC, we'll have a monthly recurring thread for folks to ask science questions, discuss speculative biology projects, and get feedback and advice in. This is the fourth attempt we've had at such a concept, but this time around, we're essentially pushing this as the primary place for discussion on the subreddit. The following will be facilitated by the thread:

• Questions related to biology, ecology, and evolution
• Feedback, help, and advice on WIP artwork
• Discussion of concepts/ideas
• Discussion related to speculative biology, projects, and the wider community
• Project advertisement (including Discord server links)
• Commission services

Images will be enabled in the comments of these posts for ease of sharing work as well. This is also intended to elevate the general caliber of the subreddit feed by focusing questions and discussion into one place, allowing the visual and written content that define this hobby to occupy center stage. This is a strong departure from the previous ability to post a standalone question, but the intention is that by focusing it in one place each week, it will enable better monitoring and response time. There is also a much lower barrier to posting a comment, as it will not require flair selection or specific post requirements. We will try this out and see how well it works, and revert to using independent posts for questions and discussions if necessary.

Please note that this will also act as a test of how well image use in the comments works -- we have thus far kept the feature turned off deliberately to ensure discussion is not derailed by memes, but are amenable to allowing its use across the subreddit if it is shown that appropriate and restrained use is feasible.

Prior to this arrangement coming into effect, the Question and Discussion flairs will remain accessible.

Rule Rewrite

For the most part, rule compliance has been excellent lately. We still get the occasional person who doesn't read that we bury people who use LLMs/generative AI in shallow graves, but otherwise the number of reports we get for mis-assigned flairs and disrespectful conduct are down compared to where they've been historically. Still, to ensure the rules are accessible and clear, the Rule Documentation page is getting an update. The rules won't be changing in any major way that requires vigilance or attention to the matter; it's just important that we are transparent and upfront about the coming rewrite.

Moderator Applications

We're currently in the process of finalizing the application template for new moderators. We anticipate that we'll be taking on 2-3 new moderators to help in the near future. I'm waiting on further input from other moderators, but expect this process should begin sometime in early May.

That's all I've got for now. Additional comments, if applicable, are appreciated.

Cheers,

Your r/SpeculativeEvolution mod team

Hey folks,

The Fate of the QFD Thread

For those out of the loop or in need of context, last week a poll was launched to determine sentiments regarding the Monthly Questions, Feedback, & Discussion Thread (aka, QFD thread) experiment we tried back in May. It comes as little surprise that the thread itself had issues with both implementation and usage, as outlined by this post. Namely, discussion was stifled because rather than establishing a central forum, it acted as a quiet corner for any semblance of conversation to go and die. Questions also went unanswered in several instances, which likely left a poor impression. I have already recognized them elsewhere, but I would very much like to publicly thank [u/Sscroul](u/Sscroul) once again for taking on the burden of answering many questions when no one else was able to respond.

The results are clear: respondents prefer questions and discussions as separate posts. As a result, Question and Discussion flairs have been consolidated into one flair, "Question/Discussion" and are now available to use. The QFD thread will be locked and retired on June 12th at 0:00 UTC.

Please also be aware that the Flair Guide will be receiving a rewrite in the meantime to accommodate the returning flair and to clearly outline expectations when posting.

Moderator Applications are now open!

In other news, moderator applications are now open! If you are interested in applying for a moderator position, you now have the opportunity to do so. We are looking to onboard 2-3 new moderators at this time.

Cheers,

Your r/SpeculativeEvolution mod team

Hey! (mods, if it is not okay, please tell me!)

In 2023 I was hyped with prompt lists and, alongside other users, the Spec-Dinovember was created to be a dedicated Dinovember list with SpecEvo twist, trying to deal with possible creatures that could have existed in the Mesozoic but left no fossil record (and some more speculative ones).

Last year I unfortunately I had done nothing, but by seeing how many users (from here and outside) still treasure this themed month, I joined forces with u/Sir_Mopington and u/Blue_Jay_Raptor (formally inviting them with this post) to revive the challenge!

For now, I’d like to hear your suggestions on prompts for us to create the list.

What's going on now?

For those completely out of the loop, thousands of subreddits protested anti-consumerist changes to Reddit's API by engaging in a blackout from June 12th to June 14th. During this time, many subreddits, including r/SpeculativeEvolution, were set to private. We announced our intention to do so in this post last week, but from the volume of modmail that we received during the blackout period, it is evident that not everyone was aware of what was happening.

At this time, Reddit has not chosen to acknowledge the blackout, let alone concede to any of the demands made regarding the API. However, according to an internal memo by Reddit owner Steve Huffman:

"Starting last night, about a thousand subreddits have gone private. We do anticipate many of them will come back by Wednesday, as many have said as much. While we knew this was coming, it is a challenge nevertheless and we have our work cut out for us."

"We have not seen any significant revenue impact so far and we will continue to monitor."

"There’s a lot of noise with this one. Among the noisiest we’ve seen. Please know that our teams are on it, and like all blowups on Reddit, this one will pass as well."

If true, this would indicate that Huffman is cognizant of the concerns which he has continuously ignored, and he is choosing to stay silent and wait for this to wash over. He thinks that most will simply become apathetic to the API changes and that he will be able to get away with this. Perhaps for some of you, this is already the case and you've grown apathetic to the cause, especially if you are not directly inconvenienced. However, is it not infuriating to have this man tell you that he "knows" how you will react? That he "knows" you are either a) easily made complicit through apathy or b) don't care enough to be of his consideration? His behavior regarding this matter is insulting and disrespectful, but not unexpected given his history.

To be perfectly honest, a two day blackout was never going to cause much of a stir. If you were stranded on a deserted island and knew you had to wait two days for rescue, you could realistically hold out because you knew when your hardship would end. Without any certainty of rescue though, perseverance becomes much more difficult, and that's what an indefinite blackout would do to Reddit's management. r/ModCoord has called for blackout participants to continue an indefinite blackout, as a hit to revenue is apparently the only thing Reddit's irreverent CEO seems to understand. Particular communities that are vital to helping others IRL will likely not be able to participate further, but hobby subreddits are encouraged to continue. Regardless of your passion for speculative biology, this is not an essential community.

As a community that ranks somewhere in the top 5,000 largest subreddits by subscriber count, we are in a rather interesting position. We do not have the power that juggernauts like r/aww or r/funny have, but are not inconsequential in our viewership. While our mod team made the previous executive decision to join the blackout, we would be remiss not to take your opinions into consideration now; if we were to continue and join this indefinite blackout, we would only be willing to do so with the consent of this community. We are volunteer moderators - Reddit does not pay us, nor do we own r/SpeculativeEvolution; we just keep things tidy.

So this is what we'll do - the subreddit will be reopened for the time being, and the community will have the next 24 hours to decide what we do. And for the sake of making sure this gets seen, no new submissions will be permitted during this period - they'll join a backlog that will get posted all at once when the subreddit is fully restored. At 12:00 UTC on June 16th, the poll will close and the moderation team will act in accordance with community consensus. Use this thread to discuss your decision and ask questions as you see fit. It is our hope that we do not let Reddit win this; too many missteps have been made against the reason this site works in the first place -- users like us. If we add to the sizable chunk of subreddit continuing the blackout, we can maybe hurt Reddit enough monetarily to make them capitulate. To avoid circular arguments here, I've compiled a list of common dismissive views against continuing the blackout -- this is not meant to invalidate people that believe the blackout should not continue, but rather to attempt to provide perspective.

Common arguments and rebuttals

This won't achieve anything

• We held the blackout for two days and it did nothing
  • This shouldn't come as a huge surprise. Two days acted as a warning to see how Reddit would react; it was never going to be sufficient to harm their revenue. However, Reddit has decided to not even address the blackout. You don't always win the first round of a fight, but that is not an indicator that the match is lost.
  • Are you certain nothing was achieved? News outlets picked up the story. Despite the Huffman memo, ad revenue has already taken a hit in some way.
• Why continue when they obviously won't budge?
  • They might, they might not. However, if we want to show Reddit that they can do whatever they want without any repercussions because the majority of users give up easily and will just grumble discontentedly, then giving up right now would be a great indicator for that.
• Mods can just be replaced and subreddits forced open
  • Yeah, that could happen. It would be hell for them to do logistically though; we're already a ragtag group of volunteers, so we're an inconvenience at best.
• Some communities are giving up anyway
  • Sure, so let's just give up too and make it all for nothing, right? Protests are numbers games, and mental fortitude is a requirement for staging a successful one. Reddit is counting on people giving up; would you still willingly let them win, knowing they're employing that against you?
• Why even bother if this doesn't directly affect you?
  • Whether this is important to you or not is entirely contingent on how much you value your fellow users. Some have disabilities and will be effectively cut off from the site after the API changes. If it were you on the receiving end, would you not want someone to care about your plight and do something, even if it didn't work? There will be an eventual end to this, and regardless of whether we come out on top or Reddit has its way, we can rest our consciences knowing that we tried.

Blackout duration

• So how long do you plan for the blackout to run if we vote "yes"?
  • Not an easy question to answer. It really depends on Reddit. If we commit to an indefinite blackout, the ball is in Reddit's court. There might be silence for weeks, or we might achieve our goal tomorrow.
• So indefinite means the subreddit will be gone forever?
  • Probably not. We like keeping the lights on here. We can't go full scorched earth on the subreddit, and it's likely that an unaffiliated community will just supplant us eventually, so we'll be back eventually. In the meantime, we recommend checking out the Speculative Evolution Forum and its associated Discord server, which is where we will partially relocate to in the event of an indefinite shutdown.

Other happenings

Regardless of the outcome, the following changes will still be made:

• Due to their smaller sizes and less consistent activity, our r/hardspecevo and r/softspecevo will reopen and remain places for their respective type of speculative biology content.
• r/BanArcticZen will reopen for anyone who has choice words for u/ArcticZen's handling of the blackout.
• We will be making an effort to align ourselves closer with the Speculative Evolution Forum. Even if Reddit walks back the API changes, having more people aware of the forum and projects there only serves to strengthen our community. We will encourage creators to link to their threads on the forum if they have them.

TL;DR

New Reddit changes stinky, vote here to decide if we keep the blackout going or not. You have until 12:00 UTC on June 16th to decide.

​

Cheers,

Your r/SpeculativeEvolution mod team

Hey folks,

Last April, we renovated the Flair System in order to try and make it more intuitive. Now that we’ve had nearly a year to demo it, I’d like to collect feedback on satisfaction with using the current flair system in order to assess if flairs currently pose a higher-than-desired barrier to posting.

The goal of the Flair System is twofold. It is intended to:

A) Allow users to search for, organize and view content in a predictable and consistent manner

B) Impose a bare minimum standard for submissions, including the necessary crediting of artists and explaining how posted content might relate to speculative biology

In the attached poll, please indicate your view of the current flair system and whether or not you have read the Flair Guide (even in a limited capacity). I suspect readership remains low, hence the survey, as a better solution can probably be engineered that requires less reading and less strict submission requirements.

Additional comments, if applicable, are appreciated. We know certain flairs cause a greater amount of pain than others, so clear comments help us to know what problem areas remain.

Cheers,

Your r/SpeculativeEvolution mod team

Hey folks,

As a community within the wider worldbuilding sphere of hobbies, we thought it pertinent to inform you all and signal boost regarding the announcement of SpecCon 2026!

The very first speccon is coming Saturday, June 6th, 2026 at the Trinity College Dublin, Ireland!

SpecCon is a one-day worldbuilding conference with talks and workshops on various worldbuilding topics including: fantasy worldbuilding, speculative biology, conlanging, cultures of fictional people, and speculative geography.

You will have the chance to meet some of your favorite worldbuilding content creators

Notably, speakers are set to include:

• Madeline James
• Artifexian
• Biblaridion
• David and Jessie Peterson
• Jake Penny
• Worldbuilding Pasta

More information can be found at the event website here: https://www.speccon.org/

While this isn't specifically a speculative biology event, a rising tide lifts all boats -- the success of inaugural events like these matters a lot as far as determining if they happen again or can expand in scope next time. Even if you can't attend, it would be great if we could all go show Madeline some love on the announcement video!

What's going on now?

Yesterday, we launched this poll to determine sentiment towards continuing to participate in the indefinite blackout to protest Reddit's recent API changes. Regardless of how you voted, or if you even voted at all, the results of the poll speak volumes of this community. With 1,062 votes cast, 55.4% indicated they wished to continue participating in the blackout, while the remaining 44.6% indicated that they wanted the subreddit to return to its usual operational state. As you can imagine, this close of a margin means that no matter what we opt to do, we'll be acting against the wishes of something close to 50% of the subreddit.

As such, and after reading all of the comments left on the poll, we have decided to re-open the subreddit. The subreddit should regain complete functionality within an hour of this thread going live (at the time of writing, no later than 15:00 UTC) as updates and revisions need to be made to our automoderator. We understand that the majority of respondents to the poll may feel like they have had their opinion discarded, but please recognize that this is not a decision we make lightly. In truth, the support required for us to sustain the blackout would have needed to surpass a threshold of 66% of respondents. This value was purposefully obfuscated and left unstated in order to prevent biases in responses. Nevertheless, we apologize to those that are disappointed with this outcome, and hope that you will consider an alternative means of protesting these changes, such as supporting the juggernaut subreddits which remain private. It would appear that regardless of community action, Reddit may depart from its previously stated stance and forcibly remove moderators complicit in running indefinite blackouts.

What's next?

We will continue to run our humble community as one of the largest nexuses for this hobby. We would like to reiterate that we intend to work more closely with the Speculative Evolution Forum, and that you are highly encouraged to check it out and integrate with it. There is also a Discord server, a temporary invite (expiring in 7 days) to which can be found here. Expect to see future partnerships going forward.

Thank you to everyone for your patience during this time of uncertainty; your feedback and support during the two-day blackout alone was more than we could have asked for. We would also like to apologize once more to our regular content submitters and commenters, for depriving you of your community for as long as we have. We hope that you feel that we have been transparent during this ordeal, and that we can continue to offer a pleasant experience here, for as long as the platform allows.

Cheers,

Your r/SpeculativeEvolution mod team

Hey folks,

We'd like to take an opportunity to wish our LGBTQ+ members and allies a Happy Pride Month. While we aren't planning on doing anything special aside from swapping out the subreddit icon, we recognize and appreciate the ethos of this month and what it stands for: tolerance, acceptance, and understanding. Adherence to these values, not only here but in all online spaces and offline, is something that we hope to encourage in our operations not only this month, but all year long.

However, around this time each year, we do normally end up banning half a dozen individuals who don't seem to understand or recognize that this community is home to a much higher number of LGBTQ+ individuals than other online spaces. If, over the span of this month, you identify someone acting contrary to the values and rules of the subreddit, please ensure that they are promptly reported so that we can discuss their behavior with them.

---

Additionally, we will be undergoing changes based on feedback to improve user experience within the next few weeks.

Namely, we will be revamping the current flair system, as it has provided as continuous source of confusion for people who have not read the flair guide. Instead, we'll be introducing something of a litmus test to gain the ability to post in the first place, and submission flairs will automatically be assigned based on responses to the automoderator when content is being posted, rather than requiring manual assignment. This change should streamline posting for everyone, though flair requirements will still remain in effect.

This will also coincide with improvements for those wishing to advertise on the subreddit, be it their project's Discord server, commissions, project announcements, contest announcements, or other items currently restricted to the Megathread. Due to the under-utilization of the Megathread, it will be retired again, thus freeing up a pin that will replace it. Seed lists will, for the time being, be completely disallowed outside of "Question" and "Feedback/Critique" submissions.

These changes should not require us to take the subreddit offline for a prolonged period, but if it becomes necessary, an additional announcement will be made.

​

Cheers,

Your r/SpeculativeEvolution mod team

Hey folks,

Some of you might've noticed the subreddit went private for around 30 minutes earlier today while we implemented some adjustments to the automoderator. We're happy to report that the new flair system is now live. You might be wondering what this entails, so let's take a look:

User flair assignment

By default, users may no longer submit content to the subreddit unless they possess either the "Verified" flair, a vanity flair, or are an approved user. This is being done to empower those that do have unique flairs by giving them a greater degree of freedom, while simultaneously cutting down on low effort submissions from new posters who have not yet familiarized themselves with the rules.

Getting verified

To obtain the "Verified" flair, you must confirm that you have read the rules and other subreddit documents by responding to a question within the Megathread, using an exclamation point, "verify=", and either the word or number answer (if applicable). For example, if you believe that the answer to the verification question is "six", you would type either "!verify=6" or "!verify=six" in this thread; other text is permitted within the comment, but only the correct answer will result in your flair being received. Only responses within this thread will result in the flair being obtained, and kindly note that incorrect responses will be tallied in the event that someone appears to attempt brute-forcing an answer. The verification question will change periodically on an irregular basis to prevent abuse and encourage understanding of the rules.

Vanity flairs

After one is in possession of the "Verified" flair, you may upgrade it to a vanity flair within this thread by typing an exclamation point and the CSS class listed for that particular vanity flair (the rightmost column of the table). For example, if one wants their user flair to read "🐙", you would type "!octopus" in this thread; the quotation marks are not required. You may not obtain a vanity flair without first obtaining the "Verified" flair. Please note that due to issues with automoderator's ability to process emojis in flairs, you may need to revert your flair to "Verified" by answering the verification question if you'd like to change your flair again in the future. We will attempt to fix this if it becomes an issue.

If you have already selected a vanity flair, you will not retroactively need to complete verification. However, vanity flairs may be removed in the event that a user repeatedly demonstrates ignorance of expected procedure, requiring them to re-verify.

The above is no longer accurate. Please view the Megathread for the current reading and intention that has been settled.

Project user flairs

If you possess a project and want your user flair to reflect that, you can now request a custom user flair. You must have at least a "Verified" user flair, or a vanity flair, to be eligible to receive a project user flair. The procedure for how to do this will be shared in the Megathread, which will launch a few hours after this announcement goes live.

Post flair assignment

In the interest of streamlining the flair system, the OC and non-OC content flairs have been consolidated. Some underutilized flairs, such as "Artificial/GMO Evolution" and "[OC] Inspiration" have also been removed, as their contents can be split between other existing flairs (such as "Alternative Evolution" or "Future Evolution", and "Resource", respectively). Going forward, you will now be required to specify whether content is your own (hence, "OC", meaning "original content") or the work of someone else (hence, "non-OC"). Specification that content is OC can be done by including [OC] in the submission title. In this case, the submission will be labelled as original content by the automoderator. Approval will work just as it does currently -- text-only submissions will be automatically approved if they are in excess of the 750 character minimum, while image submissions will still require the descriptive text with a minimum length of 250 characters. For non-OC, you must now name the original creator by including either [Credit:] or [By:] in the title, with the creator's name following the colon. For example, if you were to post a piece of artwork by C.M. Kösemen, your title would need to read as either [Credit: C.M. Kosemen] or [By: C.M. Kosemen].

Previous holders of the "Moderator-Approved Project Creator" (now "Project Flair") have now been properly added to our list of approved users, and now do not need to worry about their posts being approved anymore; their submissions will all be approved automatically. Compliance with the rules is still expected, but lenience will be granted so long as the high level of quality previously demonstrated is maintained.

The Megathread for user flair assignment will be up at 12:00 UTC. If you don't have a user flair, we ask that you wait until it is live to obtain one.

It may also take a day or two to update the wording of subreddit rules to reflect the above changes; leniency will be granted during this time as we get a handle on things.

Hello everyone,

Some of you might have noticed lately that Google Sites links aren't appearing when you're posting them. Rest assured, this is not some evil change we decided on, as we find immense value in free site hosting for this hobby. That said, Reddit administration has, without any announcement, instituted a blanket ban on all Google Sites links in both submissions and comments. Despite moderators possessing the ability to manually approve removed comments, and being able to program the automoderator to detect and automatically approve these links, nothing we've tried has successfully outmaneuvered Reddit's filters. There is nothing we can do. Thus, going forward, you are asked to not include any links to Google Sites, as their inclusion will render your entire comment or submission removed and invisible to your target audience.

Instead of suggesting the use of URL shorteners, which may also be banned by reddit without warning (and would be more difficult to police for content that we do not want on the subreddit), we're opting for a community Google Sheets document. This document will, chiefly, contain links to new updates from projects utilizing Google Sites, as well as a more accessible networking directory and revamped project catalogue. The etiquette for suggesting edits to this document and sharing updates from your Google Site will be explained in further detail when the document goes live later this week. In the meantime, if you have any feedback, recommendations, or suggestions for this community document, please leave it here.

Cheers,

Your r/SpeculativeEvolution mod team