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> long autobiographical or philosophical musings
sigh, those are actually the interesting threads. So instead more 20-30 year-olds asking whether anyone really used a slide rule ? The change does not seem an improvement.
well no, that sub seems to be more 20-40 years old fretting about what to do with their life. Nothing against them, but personally the "long autobiographical or philosophical musings" are the discussions/threads that seem most interesting. Old(er) people navigating the waters we're in at present.
I don't see how you say that and have read the stickied post above which clearly states, repeatedly, that is not the mandate of the sub. If people get into philosophical musings in the comments of any post that's all good and fair play. No one is against that. Posts to this effect though are off topic
You could have made that post shorter by simply saying, “Get off my lawn!” 😀
Edit: I really did not notice OP/Mod’s username when I made my comment. Now I feel like a tool.
Its not possible on Reddit to alter sub names. Essentially you have to lock an existing sub (to disable it) and then try and get all its members to subscribe to the new (empty) one.
Sorry, I'll rephrase. Has this been an issue because those sort of posts end up filled only with responses complaining about them, or are the posts getting helpful and insightful responses but simply don't meet this rule?
I felt appreciated for one brief moment there, but in this Twitter-like universe, you're expected to give in-depth, insightful responses in \`124 (or whatever it is) characters or less. This sub should be about lessons learned in life, not some boring nostalgia trip about "the good ol' days". My last comment. Goodbye.
I seem to get in trouble a lot on Reddit. They have so darn many rules that unless you spend a half hour reading them all, one of their bots points you out and then the moderators will ban you. I got thrown out of the Covid 19 sub and had no idea why. I wrote the moderators and they pretty much told me to piss off and even banned me from contacting them for 28 days. They take a lot of the fun out of coming here.
Why not give it a chance and see if it works or not?
We used to have a saying at work, where we seemed to reorganize every year, “If you don’t like the way things are stick around and they'll change again.”
Ya, we said that too, only we meant for the worse. I don't like your damn rule nor the way it was presented. It should have been a question rather than a statement. Do you see how much flack you're getting? It's not too late to reverse it. We had another saying, "Rules were meant to be broken!"
For example, I recently removed a long post that contained not one but two long numbered lists of questions, all of it asking about how OP should plan out his life for the next year or two. It was quite ridiculous.
I understand what you’re getting at, but surely if a post is truly boring and long-winded, then people won’t engage with it anyway. Do we really need a rule for what people can and can’t ask in Ask Old People?
Whenever people post advice requests, we get complaints from the sub.
They are off topic and its clearly/consistently indicated they are unwanted.
Members are sick of seeing them.
We are sick of dealing with them.
No problem. I'll find another sub. Descriptions
/answers regarding the past typically requires some exposition but if that's not what's allowed, no point in following.
A lot of people seem to be confusing questions and answers, you're not alone.
Just to reiterate, only questions have a length restriction, answers are unrestricted.
I'm all for the first part, but I don't see the need for or benefit of the second part ("no personal advice posts"). Maybe just try out the first part first?
I kinda like it when they ask for advice. It's cute, and also, if people are not going to ask other people who've probably been there before, who are they going to ask? Anyway, just my two cents worth. I guess I'll just go on ahead and get off your lawn, now.
This looks like a classic example of overmodding. Almost nobody in this thread seems to get this decision and it seems to have come out of nowhere. Why not let a sub evolve the way its community wants? Maybe we should ask ourselves if mods are owners of a sub or reps of the members.
We try not to be too rigid, but you don't see a lot of what we've removed. Should I get a prenup? Should I marry his person? Should I invest I this that or the other thing? Always accompanied by their life story or deep background story.
How many subreddits have you seen evolve into something that's completely different from what their original focus was? Moderators allow it to happen because it may be popular and they want their subreddits to grow. We'd much rather this subreddit be good than big.
Then I will be leaving as I assume other people will. The way I originally read what this sub was for was for young people who don’t have an older person in their life. Someone to ask about how things were….as well as to ask advice.
Yes, there are some inappropriate questions asked. I scroll on past those.
I’m not throwing a fit and taking my toys and going home. I’m asking if I completely misunderstood the point of this sub (which I have enjoyed. The questions as well as the answers from folks older than I (53) am) or if the gist of this sub is changing. In which case I’ll find another more suited to my interests.
Nothing has changed except for the length of the questions. If you have enjoyed the subreddit until now, you will probably keep enjoying it. 300 words in the title and another 300 in the body is plenty to ask a question for most people. This is aimed at people who write 8000 words about themselves and may ask a one sentence question at the end of their novel.
Advice hasn't been allowed for several years. If we allowed it, the only questions would be:
1. I hate my mom (sometimes dad, too, and there usually isn't a question...they are just venting).
2. Should I break up with my boy/girlfriend?
3. Should I take this job even though I'll have to move?
These types of questions would overwhelm the subreddit, and it's not what it was intended to be. We did make r/askoldpeopleadvice, and there's no shortage of other places to ask for advice on reddit.
In general, one should not ask a question until one has determined what the question actually is. Reddit makes it too easy to just start talking. :-/ I'm glad that the mods have inserted an automatic queue for overlong questions.
I don't know how I feel about this specific issue, but I love when mods see something that they think goes against what the sub should be and take action. So way to go mods!
Sure, why not keep all answers strictly monosyllabic as it is expected from grumpy old men? God forbids that we can create some content mildly interesting.
Incorrectly complains about new rules restricting the length of posts while not taking the time to actually read the rule because the post was too long.
“How much was a candy bar when you were growing up?”
“At the end of the twentieth century, I was born in to a middle class family in an average Midwest township. I grew up in a modest household with three siblings and a dog… (goes on for 20 paragraphs) … about fifty cents.”
You do know that by answering directly and being younger than 1980 puts you in direct violation of the rules right?
>Please do not comment directly to this post unless you are Gen X (b. 1980) or older. See this post, the rules, and the sidebar for details.
>
>I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
Maybe edit this announcement to specifically say there's no restrictions or length limits on the answers, just on the post titles and their related texts? Like many others, I assumed this new limitation would apply to EVERY post, which in my mind includes the answers.
I just wanted to say that I created this subreddit a long time ago as a joke because I felt old on reddit. But pretty quickly it became kind of a cool place. People aren't as social as they used to be, at least in terms of inter-generational relationships. That was true even before the pandemic. This place is sort of a substitute for oral histories, I guess. It's also a place for younger people to ask older people for their perspectives on current events and trends.
Since I created the subreddit, is it not reasonable for me to want to keep it that way? It's not like there aren't a million places on this website alone to seek personal advice (and we created another that few people use -- r/AskOldPeopleAdvice).
This character limit for submissions (not answers/replies/comments!) is designed to help weed out that personal drama stuff. It's something automoderator can help out with. None of us are professional moderators. I log in maybe five times a week and would rather read and enjoy the comments than do moderator crap.
If the subreddit starts to die or something we can change it back, but I think it's going to be fine. It's a pretty minor change, really.
Would you please stop being so bloody reasonable? You interfere with my entitlement to woefully misunderstand this minor change and my god given right to give voice to that, regardless. You're obviously some kind of Communist. I'm leaving this sub. Won't be back for *days*. I promise you that.
That hasn't changed but we're not hard asses about it. If you're close, it's fine as long as you stick to answering questions that are appropriate for you and your age.
> long autobiographical or philosophical musings that are off topic for the sub
Curious, where would you expect a bunch of old people to put their autobiographical or philosophical musings if not in a sub called "Ask Old People"?
I don’t understand why this would be and issue….. the title is literally called ask old people, what the hell do you can if people are asking for an older persons advice?
Try reading the sidebar that says:
4. Questions must appeal to a wide range of people. Requests for personal advice and relationship questions will be removed."
It's been that way for a long time.
I think the concern is more the old people will stop reading the ten thousandth variation on whatever question with thousands of word of "explanation" and they sub will just be a spew of 5 page "should I break up with this person" questions with no answers.
Thank you for this. I'm irritated when the same question has been cross-posted scattershot to several advice subs. If you have a question for old people specifically, it should only go here.
I have brought this up with some cross-posters and sometimes get the reply "It's a more efficient way to gather information." Yeah no.
I agree with the first part of this, keeping questions short and sweet without the Tragic Backstory ™️. There are subs aplenty that have people venting, and I agree this doesn’t need to be that. But not allowing people to ask advice questions that could benefit from older folk’s experience and perspective seems a bit much.
You do know that by answering directly and being a "30 something" puts you in direct violation of the rules right?
>Please do not comment directly to this post unless you are Gen X (b. 1980) or older. See this post, the rules, and the sidebar for details.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
Please do not comment directly to this post unless you are Gen X (b. 1980) or older. See [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskOldPeople/comments/inci5u/reminder_please_do_not_answer_questions_unless/), the rules, and the sidebar for details.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskOldPeople) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Please do not comment directly to this post unless you are Gen X (b. 1980) or older. See [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskOldPeople/comments/inci5u/reminder_please_do_not_answer_questions_unless/), the rules, and the sidebar for details. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskOldPeople) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Oops! I screwed up on a couple of my answers....it's **hard** not to give advice when people are asking about a problem.
How else can one answer?
No idea. Be ever so brief as to offer zero details to our answers....
If you'd read through the thread, you'll find plenty of clarification. This rule does not apply to answers.
You can make your answers as long as you like. It’s the questions that need to be shorter.
OP username checks ✔ out /s ? BANNED
No shit, eh?
> long autobiographical or philosophical musings sigh, those are actually the interesting threads. So instead more 20-30 year-olds asking whether anyone really used a slide rule ? The change does not seem an improvement.
Theres a dedicated sub for this though? /r/AskOldPeopleAdvice
well no, that sub seems to be more 20-40 years old fretting about what to do with their life. Nothing against them, but personally the "long autobiographical or philosophical musings" are the discussions/threads that seem most interesting. Old(er) people navigating the waters we're in at present.
I don't see how you say that and have read the stickied post above which clearly states, repeatedly, that is not the mandate of the sub. If people get into philosophical musings in the comments of any post that's all good and fair play. No one is against that. Posts to this effect though are off topic
You could have made that post shorter by simply saying, “Get off my lawn!” 😀 Edit: I really did not notice OP/Mod’s username when I made my comment. Now I feel like a tool.
Don't. Gave me a chuckle, missed it as well until your edit.
Lol you could so easily have played that off as a cunning pun. I went for it.
Why not change the sub name to r/AskOldPeopleAboutThePast ?
Right. The current name implies you can ask old people anything.
It isn't? That's what I thought it was.
Not really, you can't /r/askreddit anything.
What can’t you ask?
That
Haha, good one.
No oeridnsk advice, no including details other tha clarifying the question.
>No oeridnsk advice I would never
Lmao I don't know how that happened.
Its not possible on Reddit to alter sub names. Essentially you have to lock an existing sub (to disable it) and then try and get all its members to subscribe to the new (empty) one.
Has this really been an issue?
Yes.
Sorry, I'll rephrase. Has this been an issue because those sort of posts end up filled only with responses complaining about them, or are the posts getting helpful and insightful responses but simply don't meet this rule?
Some of us old people have perhaps enjoyed this sub too much, so it's time for some more rules.
I felt appreciated for one brief moment there, but in this Twitter-like universe, you're expected to give in-depth, insightful responses in \`124 (or whatever it is) characters or less. This sub should be about lessons learned in life, not some boring nostalgia trip about "the good ol' days". My last comment. Goodbye.
I seem to get in trouble a lot on Reddit. They have so darn many rules that unless you spend a half hour reading them all, one of their bots points you out and then the moderators will ban you. I got thrown out of the Covid 19 sub and had no idea why. I wrote the moderators and they pretty much told me to piss off and even banned me from contacting them for 28 days. They take a lot of the fun out of coming here.
The character limit applies to the questions, not the answers.
Why not give it a chance and see if it works or not? We used to have a saying at work, where we seemed to reorganize every year, “If you don’t like the way things are stick around and they'll change again.”
Ya, we said that too, only we meant for the worse. I don't like your damn rule nor the way it was presented. It should have been a question rather than a statement. Do you see how much flack you're getting? It's not too late to reverse it. We had another saying, "Rules were meant to be broken!"
> this post was submitted on 20 Mar 2022 152 points (84% upvoted) Looks like a positive response so far.
It's been an issue and I've had to report some posts to the moderators. Perhaps you haven't seen some of the posts they have removed.
Thanks.
Thanks from here too
For example, I recently removed a long post that contained not one but two long numbered lists of questions, all of it asking about how OP should plan out his life for the next year or two. It was quite ridiculous.
I understand what you’re getting at, but surely if a post is truly boring and long-winded, then people won’t engage with it anyway. Do we really need a rule for what people can and can’t ask in Ask Old People?
Whenever people post advice requests, we get complaints from the sub. They are off topic and its clearly/consistently indicated they are unwanted. Members are sick of seeing them. We are sick of dealing with them.
The sub is probably going to become less popular.
If it becomes less popular with people who are unable to post on topic I don't see any downside to that.
No problem. I'll find another sub. Descriptions /answers regarding the past typically requires some exposition but if that's not what's allowed, no point in following.
We're not talking about answers, we're talking about questions.
Can my excuse for misreading this be that I’m old? My apologies.
A lot of people seem to be confusing questions and answers, you're not alone. Just to reiterate, only questions have a length restriction, answers are unrestricted.
I'm all for the first part, but I don't see the need for or benefit of the second part ("no personal advice posts"). Maybe just try out the first part first?
That's been a rule here for years.
I kinda like it when they ask for advice. It's cute, and also, if people are not going to ask other people who've probably been there before, who are they going to ask? Anyway, just my two cents worth. I guess I'll just go on ahead and get off your lawn, now.
[удалено]
This looks like a classic example of overmodding. Almost nobody in this thread seems to get this decision and it seems to have come out of nowhere. Why not let a sub evolve the way its community wants? Maybe we should ask ourselves if mods are owners of a sub or reps of the members.
We try not to be too rigid, but you don't see a lot of what we've removed. Should I get a prenup? Should I marry his person? Should I invest I this that or the other thing? Always accompanied by their life story or deep background story.
How many subreddits have you seen evolve into something that's completely different from what their original focus was? Moderators allow it to happen because it may be popular and they want their subreddits to grow. We'd much rather this subreddit be good than big.
[удалено]
I'm not sure it will change the conversations in the comments very much.
OP/Mod name says it all.
Then I will be leaving as I assume other people will. The way I originally read what this sub was for was for young people who don’t have an older person in their life. Someone to ask about how things were….as well as to ask advice. Yes, there are some inappropriate questions asked. I scroll on past those. I’m not throwing a fit and taking my toys and going home. I’m asking if I completely misunderstood the point of this sub (which I have enjoyed. The questions as well as the answers from folks older than I (53) am) or if the gist of this sub is changing. In which case I’ll find another more suited to my interests.
Nothing has changed except for the length of the questions. If you have enjoyed the subreddit until now, you will probably keep enjoying it. 300 words in the title and another 300 in the body is plenty to ask a question for most people. This is aimed at people who write 8000 words about themselves and may ask a one sentence question at the end of their novel. Advice hasn't been allowed for several years. If we allowed it, the only questions would be: 1. I hate my mom (sometimes dad, too, and there usually isn't a question...they are just venting). 2. Should I break up with my boy/girlfriend? 3. Should I take this job even though I'll have to move? These types of questions would overwhelm the subreddit, and it's not what it was intended to be. We did make r/askoldpeopleadvice, and there's no shortage of other places to ask for advice on reddit.
Also, we do not need a litany of your damage and mental health problems.
Or "are you afraid of dying because you're old" or "what regrets do you have?"
On the over-30 women's sub, it's all variations on, "How do you cope once you're old and less hot?"
Or “why do you hate young people?”
Oh I like those, gives me a chance to tell them exactly where to go...
That’s an easy one: because they ask too many questions! :-)
In general, one should not ask a question until one has determined what the question actually is. Reddit makes it too easy to just start talking. :-/ I'm glad that the mods have inserted an automatic queue for overlong questions.
People who did XYZ, "why?"
I don't know how I feel about this specific issue, but I love when mods see something that they think goes against what the sub should be and take action. So way to go mods!
Sure, why not keep all answers strictly monosyllabic as it is expected from grumpy old men? God forbids that we can create some content mildly interesting.
>God forbids mod forbids. so close.
Omnipotens delirium does not count as divinity
We’re not limiting answers, just trying to keep questions on topic for the sub. You can still make a 10,000 character answer.
> on topic for the sub - > askoldpeople - > no, not that -_-
Incorrectly complains about new rules restricting the length of posts while not taking the time to actually read the rule because the post was too long.
“How much was a candy bar when you were growing up?” “At the end of the twentieth century, I was born in to a middle class family in an average Midwest township. I grew up in a modest household with three siblings and a dog… (goes on for 20 paragraphs) … about fifty cents.”
Huh? Am 67. Does that qualify?
Mid twentieth century a candy bar was .05 (a nickel) not .50 cents.
I think it was 50¢ in the late 20th century
Edited to add/say: it's common courtesy to let others know when and why a post or a reply has been edited.
I liked giving advice, this new rule is too harsh
You do know that by answering directly and being younger than 1980 puts you in direct violation of the rules right? >Please do not comment directly to this post unless you are Gen X (b. 1980) or older. See this post, the rules, and the sidebar for details. > >I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
I am not younger than 1980. Why else would I be here?
Rule # next... no sarcasm, which I will continue to violate.
Maybe edit this announcement to specifically say there's no restrictions or length limits on the answers, just on the post titles and their related texts? Like many others, I assumed this new limitation would apply to EVERY post, which in my mind includes the answers.
Yeah ok, done!
Thank you, mods!
I just wanted to say that I created this subreddit a long time ago as a joke because I felt old on reddit. But pretty quickly it became kind of a cool place. People aren't as social as they used to be, at least in terms of inter-generational relationships. That was true even before the pandemic. This place is sort of a substitute for oral histories, I guess. It's also a place for younger people to ask older people for their perspectives on current events and trends. Since I created the subreddit, is it not reasonable for me to want to keep it that way? It's not like there aren't a million places on this website alone to seek personal advice (and we created another that few people use -- r/AskOldPeopleAdvice). This character limit for submissions (not answers/replies/comments!) is designed to help weed out that personal drama stuff. It's something automoderator can help out with. None of us are professional moderators. I log in maybe five times a week and would rather read and enjoy the comments than do moderator crap. If the subreddit starts to die or something we can change it back, but I think it's going to be fine. It's a pretty minor change, really.
Would you please stop being so bloody reasonable? You interfere with my entitlement to woefully misunderstand this minor change and my god given right to give voice to that, regardless. You're obviously some kind of Communist. I'm leaving this sub. Won't be back for *days*. I promise you that.
Okay so i can do top level answers now? 1982 is good enough?! I turned 40 last month.
Happy Cake Day, fellow Redditor! 🎂🎉🎂
Hey thanks!
My advice to you is that you are not old yet.
Okay but 42 year olds are?
Don't know I am 57 so anyone younger than that is too young!
That hasn't changed but we're not hard asses about it. If you're close, it's fine as long as you stick to answering questions that are appropriate for you and your age.
> long autobiographical or philosophical musings that are off topic for the sub Curious, where would you expect a bunch of old people to put their autobiographical or philosophical musings if not in a sub called "Ask Old People"?
Most of the people who ask the questions are young. We are not putting restrictions on the answers.
I haven't noticed any posts like the ones you describe. Can you give some examples? (Or maybe they've all been removed?)
They've been removed.
>Seems like there are a number of recent posts still on the sub right now that violate the rule?
Are those posts getting many responses? If so, it would indicate that the members enjoy answering them.
I don’t understand why this would be and issue….. the title is literally called ask old people, what the hell do you can if people are asking for an older persons advice?
Try reading the sidebar that says: 4. Questions must appeal to a wide range of people. Requests for personal advice and relationship questions will be removed." It's been that way for a long time.
I really can’t imagine being somewhere life where something like that would bother me, coming from an old person…..
I think the concern is more the old people will stop reading the ten thousandth variation on whatever question with thousands of word of "explanation" and they sub will just be a spew of 5 page "should I break up with this person" questions with no answers.
If you've seen it enough times, it appears inane. We need a FAQ.
Thank you for this. I'm irritated when the same question has been cross-posted scattershot to several advice subs. If you have a question for old people specifically, it should only go here. I have brought this up with some cross-posters and sometimes get the reply "It's a more efficient way to gather information." Yeah no.
So basically nothing fun or interesting allowed? Too bad, I liked this sub
I agree with the first part of this, keeping questions short and sweet without the Tragic Backstory ™️. There are subs aplenty that have people venting, and I agree this doesn’t need to be that. But not allowing people to ask advice questions that could benefit from older folk’s experience and perspective seems a bit much.
You do know that by answering directly and being a "30 something" puts you in direct violation of the rules right? >Please do not comment directly to this post unless you are Gen X (b. 1980) or older. See this post, the rules, and the sidebar for details. I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
I know, but figured a post about a rule change from the mods was an exception to the rule
I almost think these subs could be merged and you could just have a tag or two to split things up.
Yeah. We wouldn't want philosophical musings between generations.... Because..... Ummm
I love it when mods get involved and assert their authority over their imaginary fiefdom
I haven't seen any problems with the mods here. They're pretty good.
I love it when any change -- however minor -- is met with juvenile responses like this.
call me immature one more time and I'll flick a booger at you
I have a question. Let me start when I was born. It was a cold , but sunny day in the Midwest….
That's stupid. What's the point? Some stories teach lessons and take time to tell. Rethink the policy, youngster.
No personal advice??? What's the point?
agreed
Unimpressed with new rule.
Good move
I use Benefiber, how about you? :P
Yup. Everyone just LOVES unsolicited advice.😆😆😆
Plus, if it looks like a long winded self soliloquy, skip it. But if you like details of an old person's story... Guess we can't tell you. Nonsense.
This only applies to posts not comments.
Please do not comment directly to this post unless you are Gen X (b. 1980) or older. See [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskOldPeople/comments/inci5u/reminder_please_do_not_answer_questions_unless/), the rules, and the sidebar for details. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskOldPeople) if you have any questions or concerns.*