SEATTLE—The area subreddit r/Seattle, an online community composed of more than 75,000 subscribers that is a part of the larger Reddit website, has been identified by many as an excellent place to meet other locals, share news and discussion in a forum-style setting, and participate in the jackboot authoritarianism of an out-of-control moderation staff’s draconian rule.

“It’s great,” says r/Seattle subscriber Daniel Torres. “As a photographer, it allows me to share my work with a wider audience. Visitors on the subreddit especially enjoy my photographs of the city’s skyline from Gas Works Park. As long as you don’t talk about the moderators or ask any questions at all, it’s a really chill place.”

Reddit is a content aggregate where links from outside sources are provided by the website’s users, similar to an online bulletin board. Once something is submitted, other users can “upvote” or “downvote” the item to help increase or decrease its visibility. Users can then leave comments on the item to discuss how it makes them feel or engage in lighthearted debate. r/Seattle subscribers are free to submit any link they wish, as long as they haven’t previously been banned from the community for undefined offenses without warning.

“It used to be a pretty bad place,” Harriet Palmer, 26, said. “Back in 2010, there were topics about all kinds of things. Politicians getting their word out and upcoming events and lost dogs and stolen bicycles and a bunch of junk about Seattle itself. Moderation was very lax, and it showed. It was the sort of garbage that really clutters up what could be used for talking about walking trails in the Cascades, you know? I don’t want to hear about some dumb award the city just received.”

Palmer continued: “And then the current mods stepped up, forced out those that disagreed with them and rid the sub[reddit] of all the other junk. Now it’s a wonderful safe-haven for pictures of sunsets and links to Seattle Times articles.”

But those troubled days aren’t all behind r/Seattle.

Despite the recent reform to better the community, a number of users still wish to discuss upcoming events happening around town and will make posts about activities that interest them. This is expressly against the rules. Fortunately, the moderators are quick to respond: first, deleting the offending post and then shadowbanning the user. (Editor’s note: A “shadowban” is a fun term for users who require their posts to be approved manually before they are displayed, effectively preventing them from joining the discussion unless the moderators allow them to do so.)

As a show of good-will, moderators will then direct these rule-breaking users to purchase advertising rights on the subreddit, at which point they can submit their original post again.

The sterilization really makes for a warmer community.

“There’s a lot of talk about the Seattle Freeze being real,” Torres said, describing the idea that Seattle residents are cold to newcomers to the area. “But I just don’t see it on r/Seattle.” He explained that any threads created by new residents or visitors are immediately downvoted or removed outright and never appear on his feed, preventing him from seeing them.

“The sterilization really makes for a warmer community.”

Users of the website are encouraged to forget banned users ever existed and to regard their complaints of mistreatment—if you see one before it’s deleted—as the ongoing drone of the unclean. If you should find yourself on the receiving end of a ban, you are invited to contact the moderation staff at any time to voice your complaint. They will explain to you that you are beneath them using condescending language, threaten you with further punishment on a site-wide level because you are harassing them through private messages, and then remind you that you cannot avoid the ban by creating a separate account because that violates another website rule which they will pursue the punishment thereof. You will be then cordially invited to go fuck yourself.

At press time, it was learned there are definitely no other Seattle-specific subreddits and that you absolutely shouldn’t go looking for them.

Seattle online community leading example of regional engagement, cultural diversity, tyrannical dictatorship