Like most subreddits, AITA clearly states its rules on the homepage - everything from “Accept Your Judgement” to “No Revenge Stories” and “No COVID Posts.” The forum’s FAQ section is exhaustingly thorough, full of forbidden words and pre-planned justifications for bans and warnings.īut those rules are ignored pretty often, either willingly or unwillingly. “ takes a lot of work in a subreddit of this size,” bubblegumgills, another AITA mod, told In The Know. As Moggehh puts it, AITA has a “much stricter ruleset” than most subreddits (the official term for Reddit’s individually divided forums), and thus it takes a gargantuan effort to make sure those rules get enforced. Mods monitor the forum for free in their spare time - often dedicating several hours each week. It’s also, crucially, a job that pays nothing. It’s an important job on a forum like AITA, where debates can go from zero to NFSW in seconds.

They keep arguments in line, dispel fraudulent posts and comb threads looking for hurtful language. If AITA is a courtroom, then mods like Moggehh are the bailiffs.