[Meta] Rules II & III: Policy Proposals and Non-economists

[Meta] Clarification on Rules II & III: Policy Proposals and Non-economists

Hello everyone,

We’ve noticed an increase in posts that violate our community rules, so the r/Economics moderation team would like to clarify these rules and provide examples of common infractions. To aid this, we’ve included links to the Rule II Roundtable and the Rule III Roundtable where we thoroughly discuss the purpose of each rule and the moderation strategies we employ. Since these roundtables are somewhat dated, we welcome feedback and suggestions for updates or revisions. Please note that comments indicating a failure to read the roundtables will be removed, as understanding these is crucial for productive discussions about subreddit rules.

Rule II: Economics Relevance

Rule II is intended to ensure that posts are centered on the discipline of Economics rather than just general discussions about “the economy” or business. Consequently, we will continue to remove posts focused on stock markets, individual stocks, or specific firms. However, we do allow deep analysis of entire industries. Additionally, the individuals featured in posts—authors, quote sources, or interviewees—must be economists. Posts about influential traders, businesspeople (like Jamie Dimon or Warren Buffet), or politicians (such as Donald Trump or Kamala Harris) are interesting but not suitable for this subreddit. Instead, we recommend exploring communities like r/business, r/investing, r/politics, and related subreddits for those topics.

Another frequent rule-breaking post we encounter involves economic policy proposals from candidates, bloggers, or organizations. Moving forward, these proposals will be removed under Rule II. However, we will still permit in-depth analyses of policy proposals and discussions about the implementation of specific policies. For instance, articles stating “Politician A supports this policy” will be removed, while posts examining “The effects of this policy” using economic methods or analyses will be welcome. We will also allow policy proposals from practicing academic economists—those who are actively conducting high-quality research. This distinction helps us differentiate between economists acting in an academic capacity and those in political roles, as it can be challenging to determine, for example, whether Janet Yellen is speaking as an economist or as the Secretary of Treasury. More details can be found in our Rule II Roundtable, linked above.

Rule III: Original Source and No Editorializing Titles

As a reminder regarding our 90-10 guideline for submissions (including both posts and comments), we urge users to familiarize themselves with this principle as outlined in our Rule III Roundtable. We have taken action against several official media outlet accounts for breaching this guideline. If you see users violating it, please report them and reach out in modmail. We’re also now able to remove text posts linked with submissions; this was previously exploited by users to circumvent Rule III by editorializing their posts instead of engaging in comment discussions. Our content rules have been updated accordingly.

Finally, we encourage everyone to revisit Rules IV and VI, which also includes a recently updated rules roundtable. We appreciate spirited discussions that adhere to the community rules. Thank you!