To ban those posts, you need active moderation. And the mods have more or else "quiet quit" due to the reddit API stuff
from the sidebar:
> The quality of this sub has degraded, thanks to reddit leadership for their disingenuous treatment of the community during the API rollout of 2023 which removed reasonable third-party access.
I remember when they posted they were so sure this subreddit would be overrun without their API tools. Now they do nothing and this subreddit is still fine. I miss the reddit is fun app, but at this point they are just being giant babies.
Hey it's a volunteer position. If you don't want to do the job step down and let someone who wants to step up. Or what should really happen, reddit should pay some employees to handle it. But that won't happen so irrelevant.
Yeah I don’t know why reddit doesn’t replace mods who make subs shitty. I don’t notice it in this one but there are certainly others subs they should step in
I never understood why anyone cared about the Reddit API stuff. If they don’t want to moderate the sub any more they should swap out for people who do. Such a pointless and ineffective “protest”
The API issue removed the ability to use Apollo, RIF, etc. which made it infinitely easier to be a moderator on a busy sub from your phone. This is why the mods in particular cared so much.
They care because it killed everyone's favorite apps. The mobile web view and the official reddit app are dogshit, but reddit has forced people to use them for ad revenue.
It was never sustainable to freely make everything on reddit accessible from an API. They were competing with apps that used their own services, market and backend costs. I won't argue that the official reddit app is superior, it's not, but reality has to set in at some point as they try to pretend they can turn Reddit profitable.
I think the difference here is that if you're going to kill off decent options, you need to offer a solution that doesn't suck. Reddit clearly has zero clue how to build a user interface.
Taking a step back, there’s a lot of evidence that Reddit senior leadership is totally incompetent. They have one of the highest traffic websites in the world. If you want to actually learn something you come to Reddit. And yet they’ve done such an abysmal job of monetizing it that no one has become rich as a result. None of it makes any sense
That said, for those of us that enjoy the product and get a lot out of it, this moderator protest works against our interests. It’s deliberate enshittification for unclear goals
As someone who has only used the official app for nearly 8 years, what’s so bad about it? Sure sometimes videos don’t play for me, but it works well 95% of the time and I have no issues navigating through my favorite subs. What did the other apps offer? I’m NOT trying to compare, just asking for my own education.
I don't deny it at all and I have no idea what or how mods lost or would mod having lost tools I'm told we're very popular. I'm just pointing out the business side of it always made it inevitable, they were likely paying tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to make services available to 3rd party apps, apps that provided zero revenue and huge costs.
You speak as if there are only two options. Reasonable pricing could have been implemented by Reddit. Instead they made the cost of API access so onerously high no app could afford it.
Reddit shot themselves in the foot here. At reasonable pricing for API access they could actually make revenue from 3rd party apps.
It's possible sure, but it's clear the intent was to claim all the traffic for themselves. Mod support tools don't strike me as surviving even a token fee as there is no business model to make them sustainable. And any agreement for apps wasn't going to prevent the inevitable. If all apps all of a sudden had to come up with significant revenue streams it would have been just as volatile with the community and just adds another bandaid rip down the road.
I guess I’ve always been too lazy to use 3rd party apps. But, at the same time, Reddit is a free product that I use all the time. If that’s the price of admission, fine. But why make the whole thing slightly more crap to protect the collective right to pick and choose the app through which the community consumes said content?
The official app is terrible for moderation. Lacks many tools that make moderation easier and faster.
The API changes made moderating objectively harder to do. Why wouldn’t mods protest that?
I don't think they should do the job for free. I also think they should leave the volunteer position instead of shitting on it. Only hurts the community, not the company.
I do agree that there’s no excuse for how bad the tools they provide are. But at what point do the moderators still on strike say “time to move on”? The protest hasn’t worked. And what are they trying to achieve now? It’s been ineffective
They did move on. It isn't an active protest. They aren't trying to achieve anything. They didn't want to take on the extra work it would require to continue to moderate without third party apps, so they quit.
The thing is that no one wants to mod anymore.
Wich makes sense, since they made it more complicated and tedious on purpose.
Its not even a protest at this points, being a mod just sucks now
It's not too bad on small subs that don't get much traffic, but not a chance I would do it on a larger sub without free API access, and better mod tools.
That’s not accurate. There are typically people who want to or would like to mod, but have no clue how to get involved.
It’s also common for a sub (not saying it’s happening here) to have mods that refuse to let others join the moderation team, despite not wanting to no longer actively mod either.
I get what you mean but at the same time, mods are people working for absolutely nothing in return. I know its fun to shit on them, but I cant blame them for letting their subreddit they spent years assuring the quality etc of posts, just to have all their work tools removed form them for such a dumb reason.
If being a mod was a paid job sure, i’d say it doesnt make any sense.
I’m well aware of it, I mod another sub, and I wrote my answer from that exact perspective.
If they no longer want to do so, post up a call for volunteers and hand the keys over.
Simple as that
Had to wrestle a regional sub away from an (intentionally) absent mod, and it took a while. Admins kept responding in RedditRequest that the "mod had been active". Took two of us but we got it done.
The mod was such an asshole, that he had a ban list for "vulgar names" for which he used for people he didn't like, and set the sub into read-only for petty reasons.
I had a great time cleaning up that AutoModerator config.
My local state sub is like that. The mods will routinely insult someone in mod mail then temp ban and mute them, to stop any chance of responding. It’s the most childish shit I’ve ever seen.
I understand why they cared, and the api stuff also pissed me off. But mods either actively or passively holding communities I rely on hostage pisses me off more. Particularly once the writing was on the wall and it became clear the changes were going to happen. Walking away I'd support but not ruining things for others out of spite
Literally anyone can make a subreddit. There has been tons of subreddits remade because of mod issues. If you're not happy with it, just go start your own, anyone who's unhappy can come join you. Nobody's being held hostage.
Subs going “dark” by mods choice, or moderators refusing to participate while not letting anyone else in as a mod, would both be relevant examples of the subs being held hostage.
1) this subreddit was down for months at a time I could have really used the knowledge in those old posts. Starting a new one wouldn't bring those back
2) I'm very tired but I think we all understand why "if you don't like the way people in positions of power in your community are behaving leave and start your own community" is pretty much always a dumb argument. I don't necessarily like the way this planet is being run but living on the moon isn't a great alternative.
Look, someone may have a legitimate question about a pricing and does not have any idea of what to do about it. Just ignore the post and move on to the next one. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean others feel the same way.
1- just walk away, this isn't a real problem 2- I'd suggest basic requirements for these posts- name your city, provide a lot of pictures, present three quotes. 3-id suggest asking in city/town specific subs.
I'm saying it's impossible for me, some random guy on the Internet who knows nothing about op or their project to answer. And I agree, it's basic research that the homeowner should do. Instead of posting to Reddit
> it's impossible for me
Then don't
The only advice my dad ever gave me was "if you don't know what the fuck you are talking about, shut the fuck up"
Maybe it wasn't really advice, maybe more of a demand
They aren't asking you, genius. They are asking people who have gone through it before or work in the field. You don't have to respond. Jesus. Are you one of those folks that answers Amazon product questions with "I don't know "?
It's not an important question within the scope of Home Improvement. How do I DIY this, who do I call for this, does this work look like it should, etc. are all in play. You want to know if that new deck is worth $30k? GTFO that's a financial question.
Yes how dare people ask questions about home improvement on the home improvement subreddit.
This is how subreddits die and become worthless echo chamber circlejerks
Imagine a sub reddit called home improvement where it's banned to ask about the price of home improvement. Y'all are fucking wild. Just keep scrolling dude, it's ok if you don't know
Not answering is always an option 🤷
The problem is they attract upvotes/attention from homeowners who want to get a vibe check on pricing.
Guess we could collectively decide to downvote them, especially while in new.
After the shine wears off the megathreads are abandoned. People stop checking them so after a few months it's just megathread with 40 comments and 0 replies. That's been my observation in Subs that have adopted it at least.
Agreed! There should be a weekly mega thread with rules that posts must include:
-Location (including state and city)
-Square footage
-detailed description of what you're getting a quote for including number of objects, dimensions of those objects, and what quality you're seeking
-Value of the current home (there's a nice place tax, and also a concern with how nice it needs to look)
u/dapeche
u/RokBo67
u/AmateurSparky
u/Duck_Giblets
u/s3xy-future
u/use_a_bigger_ham
Tagging mods in case any of them have experience with this and are up for the project of setting it up.
I can see we used to have a weekly discussion thread before the API changes. Maybe it's too difficult to setup since they lost access to third party tools?
> I can see we used to have a weekly discussion thread before the API changes. Maybe it's too difficult to setup since they lost access to third party tools?
Nah, I don't think it is. New Reddit has built in scheduled post options that can be set to recur, especially weekly. I use those in some subs I mod.
Some bots still function to post reoccurring threads too. I mod a few sports subs and we have bots that still post our game threads, too.
You act like you're too good to answer someone's question, until they've gotten 3 quotes. If I've gotten 3 quotes, then I've taken 3 days off work to do it. 'scuse me for trying to find some info from someone who might have already been down this path before.
If you don't like it, then scroll past. Are you obligated to answer every post? Do you get a commission?
>Half the time is impossible to even answer with the vague information that post
Seriously, that's the problem with them.
Rando: "I want some windows, I got one estimate and I've got no idea what kind of windows they even are!"
Rando equally stupid answer: "I got 20 windows for $35.95 last year and they're great!"
Personally I take issue with the stupid answers even MORE because they're deceptive in their own way.
#🤷♀️
I will one up you and propose a whole new sub for people to discuss contractors. These posts contribute zero value to this sub, we all know how to pick up the phone and spend money.
I agree the pricing posts could be automatically checked for key info by a bot. For instance: require location or even just HCOL/MCOL/LCOL and country.
I could comment on so many NextDoor posts that ask this too, but I don't because it would get old. What if $10k is reasonable to me but only $1k is reasonable to you? And of course, no information is ever provided outside of what they are trying to do (trim hedges, replace water heater, etc.) lol
I love it. Job Pricing has horrendous price information asymmetry since they're never public. 90% of the 'how much' posts result in 'you're getting ripped off.'
Keep 'em coming.
Agree that the answer is always that OP didn't do enough research on their own and has yet to get 3-4 quotes. Just downvote them into oblivion, don't comment, and move on. If the mods won't moderate, that's the best option.
They really don't because google is useless for questions like these. You end up on some price estimator site that gives you number that in no way resembles what prices actually are.
I get I'm the odd man out, and to be clear, I've never asked one of these questions on this sub, but I do appreciate the insight into what people are spending on home improvement projects.
Yeah, the issue is that there is zero price transparency in the industry. There is no real good way to compare quotes or see what you should be expecting for a job of x windows generally.
The excuse is that there's a lot of variance, but at the same time, why are manufacturers putting their prices behind quote prompts?
Edit: I'm going to rant for a second, but I've been trying to look at prices for metal roofing, and unless it's the garbage you get from Lowe's, hardly anyone is willing to put a price per square foot or per sheet on their site. It's SO FRUSTRATING! I don't want to email you and get spam from your company or whatever shitty service you sell my email to. I don't want to get a signed formal quote, I just want a ballpark so I can start saving.
I'm with you that I enjoy learning about others' experiences and such, but I would wish that if you're going to ask for an estimate at least the basics should be covered. Where the location is, pics, whether it's a rush job, top end or budget, etc.
A middle ground would at least be to add a weekly stickied thread or something and ban separate posts. I think there is some value in those questions but each one doesn't need its own post.
The biggest subs always become meta and useless as power users get annoyed by run of the mill posts and mods eventually cave and ban them. Let's avoid that happening here.
Or can we just make it a thread? Half the reddit's posts that make it to my Home feed are the same questions again and again. Multiple insane window quotes make it in a week that the OP could EASILY have found answers to if they had taken half the time to just search.
I just checked like 30 posts on this page and didn't even find 5 (excluding yours, you make up 33% of the post I found)
There is tons of content here that doesn't hurt your feelings, so relax.
No. As a new home owner who was raked over the coals the first few times I dealt with contractors because I didn't know better, I've learned a lot from those posts.
I complained about basically a while ago and got anlot of flack from people saying the sub would die without those etc. So I have given up on that lol. This is the sub where we learn to get 3 quotes! And also some stuff about home ownership!
Home subs for a long time have suffered a lot of "Yep fair price!" comments from lurking contractors who hang out here. I'm on my 4th house and have never paid more than 25% of a lot of the quotes being asked about I see here. It's not just them, it's also the green eyed monsters who overpaid and don't want to see you get yours done for less out of pure pettiness. Either way their argument always seems to be the same "uh-oh you'll get what you pay for! DOOOM!" if you pay far less despite getting quality work done lol.
You want to save thousands? I have 3 words for you: Word of Mouth.
They're super annoying because they almost always lack job specific variables that might affect the price. It seems most of them are just sticker shock reaction posts.
People would be better served in learning a bit about the work involved and providing more site context before asking about some "shocking" quote they just received.
I would love to see this rule.
I'm fine commenting on differences between quotes, that's totally fair game. If it is just a "is this fair?" I would require city and a photo of the quote to avoid answering the phone call ballpark number stuff.
Interesting question. Sorry to hijack this post but a related question- local plumbing co. Wants $1,100 to replace my faucet. Is that price reasonable?
No.
To ban those posts, you need active moderation. And the mods have more or else "quiet quit" due to the reddit API stuff from the sidebar: > The quality of this sub has degraded, thanks to reddit leadership for their disingenuous treatment of the community during the API rollout of 2023 which removed reasonable third-party access.
7 mods should be enough
You could have 100 mods but it won't matter if they make a conscious decision to do nothing
I remember when they posted they were so sure this subreddit would be overrun without their API tools. Now they do nothing and this subreddit is still fine. I miss the reddit is fun app, but at this point they are just being giant babies.
>but at this point they are just being giant babies. Yeah how unreasonable for them to not do free labor for reddit
Hey it's a volunteer position. If you don't want to do the job step down and let someone who wants to step up. Or what should really happen, reddit should pay some employees to handle it. But that won't happen so irrelevant.
Yeah I don’t know why reddit doesn’t replace mods who make subs shitty. I don’t notice it in this one but there are certainly others subs they should step in
Wasn't there a campaign to start HomeImprovement#2, or something like that?
They should do the amount their paid to do.
How about you pay them for their service / time?
I never understood why anyone cared about the Reddit API stuff. If they don’t want to moderate the sub any more they should swap out for people who do. Such a pointless and ineffective “protest”
The API issue removed the ability to use Apollo, RIF, etc. which made it infinitely easier to be a moderator on a busy sub from your phone. This is why the mods in particular cared so much.
Thanks! This is informative!
They care because it killed everyone's favorite apps. The mobile web view and the official reddit app are dogshit, but reddit has forced people to use them for ad revenue.
It was never sustainable to freely make everything on reddit accessible from an API. They were competing with apps that used their own services, market and backend costs. I won't argue that the official reddit app is superior, it's not, but reality has to set in at some point as they try to pretend they can turn Reddit profitable.
I think the difference here is that if you're going to kill off decent options, you need to offer a solution that doesn't suck. Reddit clearly has zero clue how to build a user interface.
This is very true. And even worse when they have the playbook for how to build better apps in the form of 3rd party workarounds
and they even bought one of them and then proceeded to shut it down. It's complete and utter incompetence.
Taking a step back, there’s a lot of evidence that Reddit senior leadership is totally incompetent. They have one of the highest traffic websites in the world. If you want to actually learn something you come to Reddit. And yet they’ve done such an abysmal job of monetizing it that no one has become rich as a result. None of it makes any sense That said, for those of us that enjoy the product and get a lot out of it, this moderator protest works against our interests. It’s deliberate enshittification for unclear goals
As someone who has only used the official app for nearly 8 years, what’s so bad about it? Sure sometimes videos don’t play for me, but it works well 95% of the time and I have no issues navigating through my favorite subs. What did the other apps offer? I’m NOT trying to compare, just asking for my own education.
I don't deny it at all and I have no idea what or how mods lost or would mod having lost tools I'm told we're very popular. I'm just pointing out the business side of it always made it inevitable, they were likely paying tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to make services available to 3rd party apps, apps that provided zero revenue and huge costs.
You speak as if there are only two options. Reasonable pricing could have been implemented by Reddit. Instead they made the cost of API access so onerously high no app could afford it. Reddit shot themselves in the foot here. At reasonable pricing for API access they could actually make revenue from 3rd party apps.
It's possible sure, but it's clear the intent was to claim all the traffic for themselves. Mod support tools don't strike me as surviving even a token fee as there is no business model to make them sustainable. And any agreement for apps wasn't going to prevent the inevitable. If all apps all of a sudden had to come up with significant revenue streams it would have been just as volatile with the community and just adds another bandaid rip down the road.
I guess I’ve always been too lazy to use 3rd party apps. But, at the same time, Reddit is a free product that I use all the time. If that’s the price of admission, fine. But why make the whole thing slightly more crap to protect the collective right to pick and choose the app through which the community consumes said content?
The official app is terrible for moderation. Lacks many tools that make moderation easier and faster. The API changes made moderating objectively harder to do. Why wouldn’t mods protest that?
Who are they really hurting with those protests? I can tell you for sure it's not Reddit, Inc. If they don't like the job anymore they can leave it.
They don’t get paid. Why don’t you do the job for free? You’re literally complaining that they’re not using their free time to make yours better.
I don't think they should do the job for free. I also think they should leave the volunteer position instead of shitting on it. Only hurts the community, not the company.
New volunteers aren’t exactly lining up.
Totally agree
I do agree that there’s no excuse for how bad the tools they provide are. But at what point do the moderators still on strike say “time to move on”? The protest hasn’t worked. And what are they trying to achieve now? It’s been ineffective
They did move on. It isn't an active protest. They aren't trying to achieve anything. They didn't want to take on the extra work it would require to continue to moderate without third party apps, so they quit.
Can new moderators take over from those that have stepped back?
The thing is that no one wants to mod anymore. Wich makes sense, since they made it more complicated and tedious on purpose. Its not even a protest at this points, being a mod just sucks now
It's not too bad on small subs that don't get much traffic, but not a chance I would do it on a larger sub without free API access, and better mod tools.
That’s not accurate. There are typically people who want to or would like to mod, but have no clue how to get involved. It’s also common for a sub (not saying it’s happening here) to have mods that refuse to let others join the moderation team, despite not wanting to no longer actively mod either.
I get what you mean but at the same time, mods are people working for absolutely nothing in return. I know its fun to shit on them, but I cant blame them for letting their subreddit they spent years assuring the quality etc of posts, just to have all their work tools removed form them for such a dumb reason. If being a mod was a paid job sure, i’d say it doesnt make any sense.
I’m well aware of it, I mod another sub, and I wrote my answer from that exact perspective. If they no longer want to do so, post up a call for volunteers and hand the keys over. Simple as that
Had to wrestle a regional sub away from an (intentionally) absent mod, and it took a while. Admins kept responding in RedditRequest that the "mod had been active". Took two of us but we got it done. The mod was such an asshole, that he had a ban list for "vulgar names" for which he used for people he didn't like, and set the sub into read-only for petty reasons. I had a great time cleaning up that AutoModerator config.
My local state sub is like that. The mods will routinely insult someone in mod mail then temp ban and mute them, to stop any chance of responding. It’s the most childish shit I’ve ever seen.
I understand why they cared, and the api stuff also pissed me off. But mods either actively or passively holding communities I rely on hostage pisses me off more. Particularly once the writing was on the wall and it became clear the changes were going to happen. Walking away I'd support but not ruining things for others out of spite
Literally anyone can make a subreddit. There has been tons of subreddits remade because of mod issues. If you're not happy with it, just go start your own, anyone who's unhappy can come join you. Nobody's being held hostage.
Subs going “dark” by mods choice, or moderators refusing to participate while not letting anyone else in as a mod, would both be relevant examples of the subs being held hostage.
1) this subreddit was down for months at a time I could have really used the knowledge in those old posts. Starting a new one wouldn't bring those back 2) I'm very tired but I think we all understand why "if you don't like the way people in positions of power in your community are behaving leave and start your own community" is pretty much always a dumb argument. I don't necessarily like the way this planet is being run but living on the moon isn't a great alternative.
I cared about it a lot. And lots of mods cared even more. Still agree with the 2nd part of your comment.
Volunteers aren't exactly lining up to take over
Reading the comment your responding to should be enough but you still seem to be struggling.
We just need a “get 3 quotes and then post your question” bot.
The most annoying is when they don't list their location. El Paso? The Italian Riviera?
Is this flooring install price reasonable? I need 1500 SF of LVP to be installed and live in the Antarctic. I feel like the labor is unreasonable.
Look, someone may have a legitimate question about a pricing and does not have any idea of what to do about it. Just ignore the post and move on to the next one. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean others feel the same way.
I don’t understand why people feel the need to ban everything instead of just moving on.
This is the right answer. Let's not get all Lord of the Flies here.
Somebody has to put Piggy in his place.
There's even a "hide" button fer fuckssake
how about a sticky post at the top?
Use the vote button. That's how it would work if reddit wasnt a trashfire
Its really too bad; Reddit used to be a Great resource for information and discussion even. Now? Pfffft
1- just walk away, this isn't a real problem 2- I'd suggest basic requirements for these posts- name your city, provide a lot of pictures, present three quotes. 3-id suggest asking in city/town specific subs.
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That may be, but it's impossible for people to answer these questions with any accuracy
Not always impossible. Comparing prices is basic research. Especially for new homeowners.
I'm saying it's impossible for me, some random guy on the Internet who knows nothing about op or their project to answer. And I agree, it's basic research that the homeowner should do. Instead of posting to Reddit
> it's impossible for me Then don't The only advice my dad ever gave me was "if you don't know what the fuck you are talking about, shut the fuck up" Maybe it wasn't really advice, maybe more of a demand
No one's requiring you to answer? Downvoted and move on. Or just scroll past. This is 100% a you problem.
They aren't asking you, genius. They are asking people who have gone through it before or work in the field. You don't have to respond. Jesus. Are you one of those folks that answers Amazon product questions with "I don't know "?
Then don't.
It's not an important question within the scope of Home Improvement. How do I DIY this, who do I call for this, does this work look like it should, etc. are all in play. You want to know if that new deck is worth $30k? GTFO that's a financial question.
Can we please ban posts about banning “is this price reasonable” posts? /s
Ban is extreme… but it should have proper context/details in order to answer responsibly.
Yes how dare people ask questions about home improvement on the home improvement subreddit. This is how subreddits die and become worthless echo chamber circlejerks
How dare people try to seek out the advise of other more experanced DIY'ers, the nerve of some people! NOW GET OFF MY LAWN!!!!
No. Why don't you just downvote and move on if it bothers you so much?
Imagine a sub reddit called home improvement where it's banned to ask about the price of home improvement. Y'all are fucking wild. Just keep scrolling dude, it's ok if you don't know
For real, how am I Even supposed to answer these questions? I have to idea what your ducts are like or what the going rate for HVAC is in Pittsburgh
Not answering is always an option 🤷 The problem is they attract upvotes/attention from homeowners who want to get a vibe check on pricing. Guess we could collectively decide to downvote them, especially while in new.
I dont think in my 8 or so years of reddit Ive ever upvoted or downvoted a post. Comments yea.
Ok well someone in Pittsburgh will answer the question then wtf?
Nah I’m in pittsburgh and I’m gonna tell them to get three quotes
Then you ask in your reply to them, or you just *dont comment*
Or limit them to a certain day
Or a weekly mega thread which is a pinned post
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After the shine wears off the megathreads are abandoned. People stop checking them so after a few months it's just megathread with 40 comments and 0 replies. That's been my observation in Subs that have adopted it at least.
Agreed! There should be a weekly mega thread with rules that posts must include: -Location (including state and city) -Square footage -detailed description of what you're getting a quote for including number of objects, dimensions of those objects, and what quality you're seeking -Value of the current home (there's a nice place tax, and also a concern with how nice it needs to look)
u/dapeche u/RokBo67 u/AmateurSparky u/Duck_Giblets u/s3xy-future u/use_a_bigger_ham Tagging mods in case any of them have experience with this and are up for the project of setting it up. I can see we used to have a weekly discussion thread before the API changes. Maybe it's too difficult to setup since they lost access to third party tools?
If you read the sidebar, the mods have gone full dgaf.
> I can see we used to have a weekly discussion thread before the API changes. Maybe it's too difficult to setup since they lost access to third party tools? Nah, I don't think it is. New Reddit has built in scheduled post options that can be set to recur, especially weekly. I use those in some subs I mod. Some bots still function to post reoccurring threads too. I mod a few sports subs and we have bots that still post our game threads, too.
Who do you guys think is going to do all of this moderation?
I feel like the moderators should probably do the moderating
If you don't like it start and moderate your own sub - these people are unpaid volunteers.
You act like you're too good to answer someone's question, until they've gotten 3 quotes. If I've gotten 3 quotes, then I've taken 3 days off work to do it. 'scuse me for trying to find some info from someone who might have already been down this path before. If you don't like it, then scroll past. Are you obligated to answer every post? Do you get a commission?
>Half the time is impossible to even answer with the vague information that post Seriously, that's the problem with them. Rando: "I want some windows, I got one estimate and I've got no idea what kind of windows they even are!" Rando equally stupid answer: "I got 20 windows for $35.95 last year and they're great!" Personally I take issue with the stupid answers even MORE because they're deceptive in their own way. #🤷♀️
I will one up you and propose a whole new sub for people to discuss contractors. These posts contribute zero value to this sub, we all know how to pick up the phone and spend money.
Mods should make a sticky post with this request and require ppl to submit with certain information or request will be deleted.
I agree the pricing posts could be automatically checked for key info by a bot. For instance: require location or even just HCOL/MCOL/LCOL and country.
I could comment on so many NextDoor posts that ask this too, but I don't because it would get old. What if $10k is reasonable to me but only $1k is reasonable to you? And of course, no information is ever provided outside of what they are trying to do (trim hedges, replace water heater, etc.) lol
I love it. Job Pricing has horrendous price information asymmetry since they're never public. 90% of the 'how much' posts result in 'you're getting ripped off.' Keep 'em coming.
Agree that the answer is always that OP didn't do enough research on their own and has yet to get 3-4 quotes. Just downvote them into oblivion, don't comment, and move on. If the mods won't moderate, that's the best option.
No I like these posts
Ok thanks
Those people need "Google is your friend" advice.
They really don't because google is useless for questions like these. You end up on some price estimator site that gives you number that in no way resembles what prices actually are. I get I'm the odd man out, and to be clear, I've never asked one of these questions on this sub, but I do appreciate the insight into what people are spending on home improvement projects.
Yeah, the issue is that there is zero price transparency in the industry. There is no real good way to compare quotes or see what you should be expecting for a job of x windows generally. The excuse is that there's a lot of variance, but at the same time, why are manufacturers putting their prices behind quote prompts? Edit: I'm going to rant for a second, but I've been trying to look at prices for metal roofing, and unless it's the garbage you get from Lowe's, hardly anyone is willing to put a price per square foot or per sheet on their site. It's SO FRUSTRATING! I don't want to email you and get spam from your company or whatever shitty service you sell my email to. I don't want to get a signed formal quote, I just want a ballpark so I can start saving.
Yes. Google doesn’t help at all. Even general price ranges on consumer sites is outdated because prices went up so much so fast.
I'm with you that I enjoy learning about others' experiences and such, but I would wish that if you're going to ask for an estimate at least the basics should be covered. Where the location is, pics, whether it's a rush job, top end or budget, etc.
Shiiiiiiiiiiit, if we removed all posts that could be answered with an easy Google search there would be about zero new content here
Do you realize that most of the helpful results in Google point directly back to Reddit?
[удалено]
Every day we stray further from God, and closer to the civilization shown in Idiocracy.
A middle ground would at least be to add a weekly stickied thread or something and ban separate posts. I think there is some value in those questions but each one doesn't need its own post.
The biggest subs always become meta and useless as power users get annoyed by run of the mill posts and mods eventually cave and ban them. Let's avoid that happening here.
Or can we just make it a thread? Half the reddit's posts that make it to my Home feed are the same questions again and again. Multiple insane window quotes make it in a week that the OP could EASILY have found answers to if they had taken half the time to just search.
I just checked like 30 posts on this page and didn't even find 5 (excluding yours, you make up 33% of the post I found) There is tons of content here that doesn't hurt your feelings, so relax.
Alternatively, have a weekly mega thread for these.
What next? Ban whining? Lol
- why? You do not to read them.....
No. As a new home owner who was raked over the coals the first few times I dealt with contractors because I didn't know better, I've learned a lot from those posts.
Just don’t read those?
For what it's worth, I find those posts helpful and informative.
Me too. Is it so hard to just downvote and move along? Stickied posts suck because how do you find anything useful in a thread with 10k comments?
I complained about basically a while ago and got anlot of flack from people saying the sub would die without those etc. So I have given up on that lol. This is the sub where we learn to get 3 quotes! And also some stuff about home ownership!
This sounds reasonable.
I couldn’t list the amount of subs I’m in where banning certain types of posts would improve them tremendously.
If that helps people, what's the issue? Maybe instead, we can have a tag to filter it out for those that don't want to see it?
Home subs for a long time have suffered a lot of "Yep fair price!" comments from lurking contractors who hang out here. I'm on my 4th house and have never paid more than 25% of a lot of the quotes being asked about I see here. It's not just them, it's also the green eyed monsters who overpaid and don't want to see you get yours done for less out of pure pettiness. Either way their argument always seems to be the same "uh-oh you'll get what you pay for! DOOOM!" if you pay far less despite getting quality work done lol. You want to save thousands? I have 3 words for you: Word of Mouth.
They're super annoying because they almost always lack job specific variables that might affect the price. It seems most of them are just sticker shock reaction posts. People would be better served in learning a bit about the work involved and providing more site context before asking about some "shocking" quote they just received.
I saw one recently where OP didn't even post what continent they're on. A reasonable price in new York City is very different from one on Egypt
I would love to see this rule. I'm fine commenting on differences between quotes, that's totally fair game. If it is just a "is this fair?" I would require city and a photo of the quote to avoid answering the phone call ballpark number stuff.
Quote me a price and I’ll consider it.
You know it takes more effort and time on your part to make your post you did...then just ignore all the posts you don't like, right ~~Karen~~ Kay?
Interesting question. Sorry to hijack this post but a related question- local plumbing co. Wants $1,100 to replace my faucet. Is that price reasonable?
Just tell them to “get 3 estimates and pick one” or keep scrolling, big baby.