Hey everyone! We’re back with another transparency report. This time we’ve got a whole lot more data to share with you, not only from AYS but also from AYB, and AYR. We have grown a lot in the first half of this year and have a lot to talk about.

Without further ado, here is the transparency report for the first half of 2022.

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Reports

We don’t have the exact data on reports, but we can give a rough estimate. In the second half of the year, we received upwards of 2600 reports from members and staff of bad actors in our community.

How do we respond to a report?

When we receive the report, we will investigate what is going on with the help of the reporter themselves. We will request information as to what happened as well as the evidence they provide.

If we believe the behavior is against our rules we can take a range of different steps including:

• Banning a user
• Muting a user
• Blacklisting a user from advertising
• Blacklisting a server from being advertised
• Warning a user
• Removing content/ads
• Temporarily banning

In cases where immediate danger is present, we will work with Discord to deal with the situation as well as the appropriate law enforcement agencies.

Bans

Here are the top 5 ban reasons for the 1147 bans recorded:

1. Nitro Scams/Account Takeovers
2. DM Advertising
3. Harassment Related to Race or Sexual Identification
4. Scamming & Other Malicious Intent
5. Raiding/Nuking

Unsolicited ads are mainly in the form of DM Advertisements where a user will DM other users with a link to their server or site. This goes against the Discord Terms of Service and is unethical. The main reason this is so high though is due to the lack of understanding of what is and isn’t allowed on the platform.

We also saw a large increase in the number of bans related to nitro scams, and other advertising schemes after compromising another user’s account. These have taken off recently and AYS reminds all members to be cautious when clicking links or joining servers.

We also use a range of auto-moderation tools that help to keep AYS a safe place. Those bans will come under raids.

Warns

Warnings are used to give a member a nudge that their behavior isn’t appropriate. This could include arguing with other members or consistent advertising in the wrong channel. We handed out 390 Warns in the 1st half of the year. The top 3 categories these were issued for were:

1. Repeated Inaccurate Advertising
2. Inappropriate Behavior
3. Arguing/Toxicity

Mutes

If a user continues to break the rules we will hand out a mute which may range from an hour to a few days. We handed out 202 mutes.

Server Blacklists

We blacklist servers for a variety of reasons such as Terms of Service Violations and Invite Rewards. In order to keep our members safe, we blacklist these so they can’t be advertised and members cannot join them. We blacklisted 38 servers in this half of the year.

Appeals

We accept appeals to moderation actions from all of our users. This helps us in case we have made a mistake or there has been a misunderstanding in what has happened.

There were 488 appeals that were made to our staff team.

Of the 488 appeals that were made, 52 (~10.6%) appeals were accepted. Appeals can be made on the basis of the following:

• An incorrect moderation action was applied.
• The evidence at hand is insufficient or incorrect.
• Members who fell victim to a token grabbing scam.

We don’t revoke bans for those who genuinely committed an offense and apologize at a later time. The appeals system is for when we’ve made a mistake that needs rectifying, or a member has been taken advantage of.

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Reports

We don’t have the exact data on reports, but we can give a rough estimate. We received upwards of 253 reports from members and staff of bad actors in our community.

Bans

Here are the top 5 ban reasons from the 35 bans recorded.

1. DM Advertising
2. Raid Threats
3. Bot/User Violating ToS/Rules
4. Toxicity & Arguing with Staff
5. Scamming

Kicks

We handed out 45 kicks in the 1st half of the year. The main reason being: Posting Malicious Websites.

Mutes

35 mutes were given out. Most were for Common Bot Prefixes.

Appeals

There was 1 appeal that was made to our staff team.

Of the 1 appeal that was made, 0 (0%) appeals were accepted.

As with AYS, appeals can be made on the basis of the following:

• An incorrect moderation action was applied.
• The evidence at hand is insufficient or incorrect.
• Members who fell victim to a token grabbing scam.

We don’t revoke bans for those who genuinely committed an offense and apologize at a later time. The appeals system is for when we’ve made a mistake that needs rectifying, or a member has been taken advantage of.

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Reports

Reports on Reddit are generally handled by the automod and dealt with by the spam filter. 5 reports from users were received though.

Bans

Here are the top 3 ban reasons from the 2 bans recorded. Mainly due to constant violations of our Advertising Rules.

Removals

Removals may occur when a post doesn’t meet the Subreddit’s or Reddit’s community guidelines or terms of service. There were over 226 removals in the 6-month period, the majority were handled by the automod.

Appeals

There were no appeals during this period.

To Conclude

Thanks for reading our transparency report! We’re always looking to be as transparent as possible and this time we have a lot more data to be able to share with you all. We’ve recently introduced new guidelines for our moderation team on actions and when they can be taken to keep everything consistent.

Our moderation team works around the clock to keep you safe and we appreciate everyone who helps to achieve that, whether you make a report or are a mod, you have helped keep AYS a safe place.