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

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

Hello everyone,

Due to a rise in posts that violate our subreddit rules, the r/Economics moderation team would like to clarify these guidelines while providing examples of common violations. In this post, we’ve included links to our Rule II Roundtable and Rule III Roundtable. These roundtables provide an in-depth explanation of the rules’ intent and our moderation strategy. Since these discussions are somewhat dated, we’re open to feedback and potential updates if the community desires. Please note that comments demonstrating a lack of engagement with the roundtables will be removed, as understanding them is essential for productive discussion on subreddit rules.

Rule II: Relevance to Economics

Rule II aims to ensure that posts are centered on the discipline of Economics, distinct from broader discussions about the economy or business as a whole. Consequently, we will continue to remove posts focused on stock markets, individual stocks, or specific companies. However, comprehensive analyses of entire industries are acceptable. This rule also applies to the authors and quoted persons in a post; they must be economists or have relevant qualifications. Therefore, posts centered on prominent traders (like Jamie Dimon or Warren Buffett) or politicians (such as Donald Trump or Kamala Harris), while interesting, are not permitted here. We suggest exploring other subreddits such as r/business, r/investing, r/politics, or others tailored to those topics.

Another type of post that frequently violates this rule includes Economics policy proposals from candidates, bloggers, or organizations. Moving forward, such proposals will be removed under Rule II. Conversely, we will allow in-depth analyses of policy proposals and announcements regarding the implementation of specific policies. For instance, a post stating “Politician A wants this policy to happen” will be removed, whereas a post like “These are the effects of this policy” that uses economic methods or analysis will be accepted. This topic is nuanced; we will permit policy proposals from practicing academic economists engaged in producing high-quality research. This distinction enables us to differentiate between economists who have transitioned into politics, as it can be challenging to determine if figures like Janet Yellen are speaking in their academic or official capacities, as elaborated in our Rule II Roundtable.

Rule III: Use of Original Sources with Unbiased Titles

In light of the increasing presence of official media outlet accounts, we wish to remind users of our 90-10 guideline regarding submissions (this applies to both posts and comments), as outlined in our Rule III Roundtable. We have banned several official media outlet accounts for breaching this guideline. If you encounter any users violating this rule, please report them and reach out via modmail. Additionally, we can now remove text posts that appear beneath link posts, as users were misusing this feature to evade Rule III guidelines by editorializing instead of engaging in the comment section. Content rules have been updated accordingly.

Finally, we encourage everyone to review Rules IV and VI, the latter of which has a recently updated rules roundtable. We welcome robust discussions as long as they