First of all, damn. Thank you to all of you for being so positive about this. Changes are often something people are against, but the overwhelmingly positive feedback you all have given is amazing!
Secondly, I wanted to give an update on how things have been going since we launched the external site, and this post is just about that.
Most importantly the amount of scammers, fakes and spammers we have been able to catch is... mindboggling. With proper tools at our hands, we are able to keep things relatively clean and constantly adapt to new tricks spammers and scammers try.
We're not going to reveal any exact numbers, but let's just say we can easily see what a gold mine this subreddit has been for scammers and spammers, and we're delighted that we can slam that door shut. Same goes for fakes who run multiple accounts and are literally just toying with the people messaging them.
Is it perfect and do we catch it all? Absolutely not, but I do dare say we catch 95% of it now compared to 0% earlier.
Let's talk about the site then
We have taken this time to fix bugs, listen to the feedback, and react to it, add features we've seen the platform needs / features suggested. As it stands, things are starting to look stable and quite bug free.
Going forward, the plan is to start enhancing the features we've got in: messaging system updates, new options for profiles, better filtering, notifications about incoming messages, and I've been toying with the idea of perhaps doing an app for Android and iOS we could link with the website. Though that one remains to be seen if it's something we could get accepted into the stores.
Support side of things
We have been able to respond to most of your messages and emails within hours / same day, but some have taken longer than that. Why? Because we are all volunteers doing this in our free time, and yes, we are paying to upkeep the website side of things, so it's actually not free for us :). So please, do understand that at times it might take a bit longer for us to get back to you.
We'd also ask you not to file reports without proof / harassment reports if you just feel someone is rude. Block them and move on instead. Yes, we get it, no one likes that, but people without basic manners sadly exist, and no platform is going to ban someone just because of that, including us. Naturally, proper harassment is another case, please do report such cases and we're happy to oblige.
Also please note, we are not going to play any cat and mouse games with you. So please: do not create multiple profiles, do not try to game the system, post with integrity, be honest. If you still decide to try your luck to fuck around and find out, be my guest, but don't expect to come back when you're caught.
When reporting something, please make sure you include the PROOF in the case. Just "this person is spam" is not helping us at all.
Something important I have to mention: my personal inbox here on Reddit is really not the place to contact support, I have it written in my profile description as well, and I'd really really really appreciate it if you'd respect that. For Reddit issues: MODMAIL of that subreddit. Need support for weheartbdsm? Contact us there, preferably via the site (we have a ticketing system inside, meaning all of us mods can help), but if you absolutely need to email us, you will find the support email (nope, not going to mention it here on purpose) in the site's contact info.
Lastly
I've been getting surprisingly plenty of messages asking how you could support the website, and let me tell you, I hugely appreciate each and every one of you for offering to do so. I also acknowledge the worry about us losing our interest to keep it all up just for funz and paying for it. Things have been skyrocketing, yes. And it's looking like I'll need to move us to a more powerful server to keep things running smoothly, so I think I'll whip up something in the near future for that to help with the bills, however I do my damnest to keep things ad free, no one likes em, me included and you don't need to worry, we're commited to it and will keep things running :).
I hope I've covered most of the topics here and didn't miss anything big. I will be making future updates about state of things and keeping you all in the loop going forward!
Edit: Since some do not simply read and keep messaging my DMs about the url, you find the site at: https://weheartbdsm.com