Hi everyone,
News is weird. When it’s weird enough, it reads like articles from The Onion, and that’s what we’re all about. But as the community grows, there’s more and more content being posted here that just isn’t very Onion-y.
Jimmy Carter Becomes Second President Convicted Of Felony For Sticking Up Waffle House
Take a look at that headline from The Onion today. Or this one:
World Series Of Poker Entrants Play One Hand Face-Up So Everyone Can Learn Rules
Or this one:
New Hormone-Free IUD Wards Off Sperm With Steady Emission Of Police-Grade Pepper Spray
That’s the flavor we’re going for. We want real, credible news articles with headlines that read like they’re from The Onion.
This is not the community for:
- Non-Onion-y political news (it’s gotta be absurd enough to look Onion-y)
- Non-Onion-y regular news (it’s gotta be absurd enough to look Onion-y)
- Satire (it’s gotta be actual news)
- Fake news from fly-by-night “news” sites (again, it’s gotta be actual news)
That means not every ridiculous thing a politician does qualifies as appropriate content here.
I need your help, though… I need people to report content that just isn’t Onion-y, and I need people to try not to post non-Onion-y content in the first place.
Finally, I need help moderating, so this is also a formal call for new mods! Post below if you think you’re ready to take on moderation for one of the larger Lemmy communities! Tell me why you’d like to mod, and link to a news story from any time (it doesn’t have to be current) that has a properly Onion-y headline, to show that you really get this community.
I’ll pick two people to become new moderators for the community from participants. Good luck!
I don’t think any of those examples look like onion headlines. They’re ridiculous but not headlines they’d use.
And that pretty much proves my point about subjectivity. You don’t think so yet other commenters agreed with me. Everyone on here has a different hot take on what “Onion-y” means, largely based on their expectations, not reality. Moderators should lean towards leaving up posts because it’s such a subjective decision.
Honestly I’d rather mods set a bit of a higher bar, as it otherwise devolves into just a “weird news” community. I would prefer the community is more distinct. Headlines like “Trump says ridiculous thing” has a tendency to get upvoted from people just seeing the headline without considering whether it fits the community.
Again, I agree with the majority of the deletions. As I said, I pulled 4 of the most recent 20.
No offense intended here but it doesn’t look like many people agreed with you. I agree that it’s fairly subjective but the examples you gave were headlines we expect in 2024. They’re weird and sad but not absurd in today’s world
Communities with lax posting rules become homogenous with similar communities. It happens every time - I don’t want this place to become another catch-all weird news sub
Currently, I’m sitting at 10 upvotes and 9 downvotes. Again, my point is that there is no agreement. The votes, in my opinion, demonstrate that.
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Whereas I think every one of them looks oniony.
Maybe I’m just remembering too many Mad Magazines from back in the day, though…