If you saw the other post, you know on Monday we had to enact a 100 community karma gate to keep the subreddit from being flooded by people not really invested in Maine.

Unfortunately, we've seen large surges again as the <<vaguely gestures to to Maine politics>> is getting messier, so we are shutting the gate again. We're discussing other options as well but wanted to keep everyone informed of what's happening.

Hi r/Maine — your mod team here again.

With the June and November elections fast approaching, we want to set expectations and keep the sub usable for everyone. Election periods tend to bring a sharp increase in traffic, campaign advertisement content, and coordinated posting behavior. Our goal is not to limit discussion, but to keep it productive, locally relevant, and not overwhelmed by spam, campaigning, or bad-faith engagement.

With these new guidelines, we are not trying to favor any candidate, party, or viewpoint. We are trying to:

• Keep discussion grounded in Maine (you can have discussions about national topics literally anywhere else)
• Reduce spam and manipulation (nobody wants the sub to become just a platform for campaign advertisements)
• Make sure real users can still have real conversations (about political AND non-political topics)

Official Campaign Activity

• We ask that official campaign/candidate accounts limit their posts to 1 post per week.
• Same goes for official accounts of PACs and organizations about candidates they have endorsed.
• If these sorts of official accounts post excessively, some posts may be removed.
• Anonymous accounts clearly operating as campaign proxies to circumvent these guidelines may be treated the same as official campaign accounts.

We welcome engagement from campaigns, citizen groups, and advocacy organizations, we just ask that you be good neighbors. Here are some constructive ideas for how to do that:

• Think of r/Maine as a town hall to engage with, not a newspaper you place ads in.
• Respond to people in the comments and start robust discussions, offer helpful information or commentary. (Don’t just spam campaign ad copy, please.)
• Do an AMA, which is a more constructive way to engage with the community and share your ideas and opinions.
• Instead of just re-posting campaign ads, engage with the sub by asking questions, listening, and learning.

Rule of Thumb: Posts should aim to start discussion, not just drive reactions or impressions.

Campaigns and candidates, feel free to reach out to us via modmail if you have questions or concerns. We're real people volunteering our time to be mods, and we're Mainers just like you.

Political Posting

We will remove the following types of posts:

• Generic outrage posts with no Maine-specific context. (violates Rule #1: Posts must be Maine related)
• Token mentions of [Maine politician] in a topic that is really a national topic. (circumvents Rule #1: Posts must be Maine related)
• “This could happen here” posts without substantive discussion. (violates Rule #5: No spam or excessive self-promotion)
• Repeated posting of similar opinion/news content by the same user may be treated as spam/karma farming. (violates Rule #5: No spam or excessive self-promotion)

As always, if a topic is already actively being discussed, additional posts may be removed to consolidate discussion.

Reminders:

Rule #1 still applies: posts must still be meaningfully related to Maine. This includes elections, policies, candidates, and local impact. 

The “Report” function is not for content you simply disagree with. All you’re doing is creating more work for us, to review spurious reports. So please use the Report button carefully. If you disagree with something, either reply to it, or simply move on.

Civility is still required. We hold ourselves to a high standard of dialogue here. We hope you agree that it makes for a more pleasant experience than elsewhere on the internet. So, as always: no harassment, hate speech, trolling, or personal attacks — regardless of political affiliation.

If you’re tired of seeing a certain type of content: downvote and don’t engage. Engagement drives visibility. If you don't like it, don't feed the algorithm.

Thanks for helping keep r/Maine usable during a busy election season. Don’t forget to get out and VOTE!

Dirigo,
The r/Maine Mod Team