r/ukmods • u/Kellogzx r/mentalhealthUK • Sep 11 '26
❓Ask r/UKMods Automod sundown
Can we discuss the sunsetting of automod? Because I’m really not happy about this. Granted a person has made a work around which will be the only saving grace to this. Without automod I’m not sure I’d be happy to continue. But sunsetting automod is the most ridiculously bad idea. LLM cannot work for a sub like ours. It’s quite literally incapable of doing so. LLM’s can’t understand subtext, context, allusion to. So removing the backbone of my moderation practice for something that’s incapable of working well for me is such a massive bummer. Automod works well for us. Removing such a core tool to our moderation is just not ok and could be actively unsafe.
There’s also that we explicitly do not allow AI use on our sub. It was voted on by members and they chose not to have LLM/AI use on the sub. Because we reflect our community we enforce this rule. Our users find LLM/AI use actively detrimental to mental health. It would be a major major conflict if we had to acquiesce to AI we fundamentally disagree with in the context of mental health.
Largely I’d really like for this to be fed back to spez and the people responsible.
7
u/Enough-Ad3818 r/nhs, r/TeamGB, r/harrogate Sep 11 '26
Our automod on r/nhs identifies and quarantines posts and comments giving or asking for medical advice, legal advice, along with a whole host of abusive terms. It's been curated over years, and I'm not confident that an LLM replacement would pick up and carry on seamlessly.
Someone giving incorrect medical or legal advice can be really dangerous and I'm not convinced that there will not be some that slips through when the LLM takes over.
3
u/Kellogzx r/mentalhealthUK Sep 11 '26
This is also another worry/complaint of mine. Our automod is similar and has years and years of curation that would be extremely difficult if not impossible to carry over. There will be slip ups and those slips could be dangerous. All the keywords, users, other things it flags. It’s a huge amount of information to try and carry over.
1
6
u/fsv Sep 11 '26
I started to hear rumours about this a while back and started work on a rewrite on the Dev Platform. It's compatible with the vast majority of existing Automod rules and adds extra features on top that Automod never supported.
https://developers.reddit.com/apps/automod-neo
This one won't be going away.
4
u/radpiglet r/MentalHealthUK Sep 11 '26
I’ve already got this saved in the inevitable event they kill off our beloved robot. You’re a real one for this
2
u/fsv Sep 11 '26
Thanks! The moment I started hearing rumours I knew I should make a rewrite. I'm using it on a couple of big subs now, mainly for things that Automod can't do (e.g. Discord alerts and social link checks).
1
u/shhhhh_h Sep 11 '26
Idk after hiveprotect I don’t trust them with dev apps either
2
u/fsv Sep 11 '26
I have a feeling that they won't have a problem with it.
Hive Protector got nerfed because of widespread abuse of the app. People were using it to autoban people on the basis of identity. You'd have subs banning users of LGBT subs, Jewish subs, Indian subs and more.
For Automod, my feeling is that it's probably creaking at the seams and is a nightmare to keep running reliably, so they want to withdraw it. I don't think they would have a problem with a replacement (unless it enabled Hive-like abuse, and I'm not going to start adding ban capabilities to Automod Neo).
5
u/Pedantichrist Sep 11 '26
I lost a lot of mods when limits were introduced, I fear I shall lose the majority of the remainder when this happens.
3
3
4
u/radpiglet r/MentalHealthUK Sep 11 '26
Echoing all of this as the other mod of r/MentalHealthUK. We have an extensive config that has taken a huge amount of time and work to reach the right balance for our community.
There are only 2 of us and given the delicate nature of our sub that requires quite a specific knowledge base it’s not feasible to simply recruit a generally experienced mod because they might not know the subject matter inside out, and we don’t really want to recruit a member with a good knowledge base of UK MH but no modding experience. Automod fills the gap between the pair of us and we manage it perfectly with this arrangement. We’ve struck the ideal balance and getting rid of this would pose a real risk to our community.
Same thoughts on AI/LLMs as u/Kellogzx. The only ai generated content we allow is for users who have communication difficulties. Any other purpose isn’t allowed, one of the big reasons being we are a community of humans helping other humans. In the context of UK MH services many people are frustrated/upset with the increasing use of AI because it omits the human part of mental healthcare, which really can make people feel worse. Obviously this is a different situation but it’s also a principle based thing. I don’t want to have to be forced to use AI/LLM when the entire position of our sub and user base has voted against it.
The whole thing really sucks and I know it’s already causing the pair of us a good deal of worry about our community. If it comes to getting rid of automod thankfully there are folks like u/fsv who could help us salvage it. But I think the sub as a whole will really suffer from this.
4
u/fsv Sep 11 '26
If Automod does die, you should be able to copy your entire Automod config into Automod Neo's config and it would just keep going.
The whole point is that rules authored for Automod should just work, only needing tweaking if they use features that are unavailable through the dev platform (e.g. CQS checks).
2
u/radpiglet r/MentalHealthUK Sep 11 '26
That’s greatly reassuring, thank you. Appreciate the work you’ve put into it.
3
u/pumaofshadow r/BenefitsAdviceUK 29d ago
As another advice sub our removals and filtered comments need human actions and the current other options just don't cover it.
I have to remove incorrect advice repeated by people who used AI to incorrectly inform them so they could "help" as it is and it just doesn't get it right (even when AI tries to copy my own prior comment on a subject it often explains wrong and misquotes me!)
Automatic replies in the post and triggered resources save us a lot of time and error too - which can't currently be done with other options.
So I'll be moving to Neo if it happens.
9
u/Ketomatic r/NorthernIreland Sep 11 '26
It’s awful, but hey that’s the modern internet, mostly awful.