Moderator u/Left4pillz had a friendly chat with Bored Panda about r/Rarethreats and its origins. They revealed to us that the post that started it all was a man's threat on social media to tape more fish to ATMs until they were fixed. You can find that post right over here. The situation was so bizarre that it formed the "original start of the sub."
Bored Panda was interested in getting the mod team's opinion about the biggest challenges that they face when managing the community.
According to moderator u/Left4pillz, it's time. Or rather, the lack of it. And it's an issue that affects the moderators of all subreddits.
"Between my job as a cycle courier, and the hobby of porting and recreating older videogame maps for Pavlov VR, I don't really have much time to spend moderating here. Thankfully, the report system makes it easy enough to see the posts that break the rules more easily without having to spend tons of time looking at every post," the mod explained how Reddit's system makes it easier to manage online communities and catch instances of rule-breaking.
Mod u/Left4pillz shared their opinion about what makes a good online threat, one that's worth sharing on the sub. "Creativity and brevity," they said, are the key to quality. So you'll want to avoid posts and threats that "go on for paragraphs." Humor is always a plus, as well!
"Generally the best posts are threats/warnings that are found naturally, rather than ones made specifically for the sub. And IMO the real best of the best ones are found in real life as they're typically much rarer, like these two," the mod said, referring to two posts over here and over here.
The ‘Rare Threats’ subreddit has weathered a few years already, having been founded in early 2019. Since then, the community has grown to house 58.8k members who love sharing the freshest and most bizarre threats they spot while strolling through the digital landscape.
If you spend enough time on the internet, you’re bound to see and read some really weird drek. What helps us keep what remains of our faith in humanity is the fact that among all of the ‘super important’ jousting and rage-filled dueling we see on social media, there are some very self-aware individuals who put humor above everything. A simple insult or rebuttal just won’t do. They go the extra mile.
These people take the time to craft delightful responses that are so unusual that their opponents have no choice but to one-up them. Others are just so brutal and shockingly specific that there’s no way forward except to lay down your arms, change your name and address, and move to some remote corner of the world.
The moderator team running r/RareThreats has a set of ground rules for the members of the subreddit. Obviously, the posts you share have to be related to the main topic of the sub. In other words, if it’s not a rare threat or warning, it shouldn’t be shared in the community. Avoid low-effort nonsense, aim for quality instead.
The mods also urge community members to avoid reposting content. Meanwhile, posters should crop their pics ‘appropriately’ which means there shouldn’t be any reaction comments after the threat in the image itself.
What’s more, if the content isn’t safe for work or civilized company, it should be marked as such. Spoilers for movies and games have to be tagged, too. In other words, be aware of others, not just yourself.
And speaking of keeping the audience in mind, anyone posting on r/Rarethreats has to make sure that the text in the image is readable. “This means no deep-fried posts, and no text too small to read. Non-English threats are fine, but must have a translation in the image,” the mods write in the sub’s sidebar.
This type of content can see a lot of popularity online. For instance, another subreddit, r/rareinsults has 2.2 million members and focuses on—yup, you guessed it!—rare insults.
Redditor u/Blank-Cheque, one of the mods at r/rareinsults, told Bored Panda a while back that cursing has its upsides. “Cursing has been observed by scientists to alleviate pain, and insult-like gestures have been observed by researchers even in chimpanzees,” they said.
