The image being posted (safe for work, available on Wikimedia commons): https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Positive_fern_test.jpg
Comments almost exclusively discuss how pretty the patterns are. The post is removed, but there is no moderator comment explaining why.
A follow-up post was made questioning the decision.
Comments discuss how interesting the original post was, and speculate on the (for want of a better phrase) incel status of the moderator. This post was also removed without explanation.
It was acutally damn interesting. What a shame. At least give us the reason why it was removed...
It was probably his first time seeing wetness from a vagina.
Be nice to the mod. It’s hard to be alone and unloved in a basement apartment on Christmas.
A third post was created discussing the previous two removals, with users comparing the situation to the r/art debacle. Users suggest flooding the subreddit with similar content in protest.
Sad, that post was actually interesting
r/art all over again…
Prints?
So we should flood the sub with interesting vagina posts, right?
Again, it was removed with no explanation from moderators.
Users appear to be recreating the post (and parodies of it) on the subreddit repeatedly in protest.
- Snowflakes under a microscope
- Doctor looking at secretions under a microscope
- What the secretion sees
- This is what a human hand looks like under a microscope
- Female secretions at -100,000x microscopic power
Overall, this situation does seem to be quite interesting.
Update
The original post appears to be restored (or at least the "deleted" icon is now gone). The image doesn't load properly for me, but that's probably just a Reddit caching moment (update: it is fully back now). The post is still locked, and there is no moderator comment.
Update 2
The moderators have pinned a comment claiming that the post was removed due to a number of false reports. The comments remain locked. Users claim that they are still getting temporarily banned for mentioning the incident.
Over on r/OutOfTheLoop, a moderator has made a comment reiterating this.
Update 3
I have been permanently banned from the subreddit. Supposedly for making this comment linking to the Wikimedia image. The moderators claim I am brigading, but have not explained how. It is my personal belief that the ban is retaliation for making this post, but of course that is speculation.
Update 4
In my discussion with the moderators, they have offered no explanation aside from repeating their claim that I am "brigading". I am still unaware how linking to a Wikimedia image is brigading, but I doubt I'll get a reasonable explanation.
redditors when literally any reference to woman's anatomy other than booba:
omg you got booba??
Man, I could go for some Boba.
Boba Fett could go for you if there was a bounty on your head.
I can cough up 25 cents to put on that guy's head
It'll cost more than that to get head from him
Mandalorians are bad a** mut*** fu*****!
This post seems to be inciting anger. Anger only breeds more anger. Mandalorians are awesome!
No, I said messa no have da booba!
Especially when it’s in a non-sexualized/eroticized/objectified context.
Not too sure why this was even reported anyway, fern patterns appear in both male and female biology, for men it's in preejaculate. It's not exclusive to women. So not too sure why they were mad.
I made a post on r/ShittyMovieDetails about the movie Showgirls where you see Elizabeth Berkley's cooch jiggle after a kick. People were complaining I posted literal porn and the sub was going downhill because of a couple of recent NSFW posts. I did my part by putting the movie title in and marking it properly. I did feel bad for the mods.
"Using da booba!"
Even Thighs?
Sometimes they also get really mad about booba, also
This just looks like a wallpaper pattern sold on Etsy.
A lot of natural patterns repeat at various scales and in various mediums. It's pretty neat.
This seems to be a very popular opinion. Honestly I'd use it if I wasn't a teacher (I can imagine discussing it would derail my class pretty quickly).
“Oh that? It’s a thistle.” Problem solved!
I saw the original post and saved the image to do exactly that! It’s so beautiful and I love science/bodies.
Good idea! It would take a long time and I’d get pretty dehydrated but I it is a pretty pattern.
Maybe we can set up some kind of IV drip?
Smart idea.
That's what I thought too, lile the old style wallpaper grandma's would have in their house, I like it
It's a DIY wall covering.
Someone actually made a joke post after with a similar pattern
I'm making it my phone wallpaper.
It was under a microscope, so it was basically porn magnified 1000 times /s
Damn I came 1000 times harder
But 1000 times smaller
Don't shame him thats his normal quantity
I'm just 1000 times further away than normal today, my bad
I WAS IN THE POOL
Now I would look at that under a microscope.
It does raise the question though of what exact point in zooming out would the TV censors say constitutes nudity
I always like having these discussions of what point do things switch.
Like no one would walk a million kilometres to pick up a ten dollar bill. But a foot? Most would.
So somewhere in between it switches. It’s an interesting topic
Nah, I don't think there's any distance at which I would willingly pick up a foot.
😂
Two pixels of nip
It’s also why they ban pictures of the solar system. It’s basically porn minimized 1000 times!
Yeah, well, the solar system does have Uranus. /s
lmao
E N H A N C E
Won’t someone please think of the children who might zoom out 1000x on their computers?
The woman who gave that sample was a slut...certified. /s
Wait so does this mean my anatomy professor was basically showing us porn during the unit on the reproductive system?
Ah, the poor chap must be pretty serious about homeopathy...
Super Duper Ultra HD
Well, shit, I guess Metallica's Load album cover is basically porn, too!
(For context, they used artwork called "Blood and Semen", which was the artist's fluids mixed together under a microscope. They used the same artist's work "Blood and Urine" as the cover for Reload.)
Ohhh it was a microscope? I missed the original post, but I saw the follow up one.
Yep, the pattern is microscopic, and is actually used as a part of some medical diagnoses.
Huh, my shower makes this pattern because the water is hard. Neat.
Vascular structures have the same branching tree structure too! :) bodies are neat.
Hard things seem to cause this pattern
Wanna cause this pattern together?
What a strange thing to remove. They finally get something that's actually damn interesting, and the mods delete it? Some mods really aren't cut out to be mods.
On the bright side, all the parody posts are very funny
I'm not going to lie, the hand under the microscope got me for some reason.
They've now re-added it claiming it wasn't them, but are still banning anyone who mentions it or tries to comment on it. Such a pathetic turn around. Funny enough, he claims he wasn't around so thats why it happened yet his post feed shows him making comments and posts all morning.
They permanently banned me for giving a link to the image on a prior post.
I believe thats a rule here too so you might get hit with it again
The rule allows throwaway comments (which mine was). I wasn't involved until the mods decided to ban me with flimsy justification after I had already made this summary post. I'm almost certain that their ban was in retaliation.
I would bet dollars to donuts if it was sperm they would have let it stay. There is a weird double standard that penis things are fine but vaginal things are removed (see also that “place” Reddit thing some years back where dicks were everywhere but some people tried to draw a vagina and the mods nuked it repeatedly.)
Update: the mods added a comment saying it was automatically removed because people were reporting it a lot. And they were offline so hadn't seen everything go down until now
Bollocks. If that was true, why are the follow-up posts also removed? And the comment sections locked.
And specific comments throughout other posts removed before the main post is?
Not to mention, why would the permanently ban people pointing it out if it's just a mistake.
You would think they would permanently ban the accounts falsely reporting the post, all the comments, and the equally interesting follow-up posts, if their story was true and these posts were auto locked due to reports.
Small note here, reddit doesn't show mods who reports what
As reposts perhaps or just because they did not want the sub spammed with the same post while they were reviewing that post.
Same people reporting it
Ooh good point, that is shady
Except that they banned a bunch of people over this topic for total nonsense, and you can see from the mods profile that they were actually online
This was actually disappointing. It made for a very interesting Christmas Eve, and my post thanking everyone was removed too :(
I’ve muted all those kinds of subreddits. My experience seeing Damnthatsinteresting, interesting, beamazed, etc. are just bots posting the same recycled content (as yes, I’m sure the other 95% of Reddit is as well at the point).
Yeah it's not a subreddit I visit often -- I only came across this because the original post appeared in my feed, but was deleted with no explanation, so I decided to check the subreddit to see why, and uncovered this whole mess.
Good shit right here. Really shows how weaselly moderators will act when they think nobody is watching
Fun to see the mods and users duke it out when there’s 100 other interesting type subreddits lol. Thanks for sharing here
A mod responded in r/OutOfTheLoop saying it was automatically removed due to a large number of reports, and none of the mods noticed anything going on until the sub was already on fire
https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/1pupi7n/comment/nvr7gy1
Thanks! Added to the second update!
Some real shoe leather reporting here!
God this is so petty and I’m so here for it 🤣
My experience with the large, default subs is that they're mostly bots these days.
Be Amazed is such a cesspool.... Truck driver backing into dock - Wooooow!...
I'm with you on there. I had a really lousy experience this year when a post regarding the artwork at my city's main transport hub showed up and I joined in on the conversation. I wrote out this passionate response, but it was removed in that way in which I wasn't informed of its removal and it still looks like it's visible through my account, but appears as "[removed]" for everyone else. I asked the mods to explain what the reason was and didn't get a response, so it kinda burned me. What I wrote was pretty inspired in defense of the artwork at my local subway station - I'd have thought it'd fit with the whole "interesting" thing since I wrote something really thoughtful, but with no clear reason given I can only assume that my post was removed because it deviated from everyone else's response which basically amounted to "the artwork is depressing and I hate it". Now I'm just a little more cynical, and I don't want to bother with what's supposedly "interesting" anymore. Damnthatsdisappointing.
That’s how all removals work on reddit now. It used to be customary for mods to post a comment or send a message with each removal so the user would know why their comment was removed (and many used to give the option for the user to edit their comment for re-approval). Nowadays they just remove it silently, and the vast majority of users never even know their comment was removed since it still looks normal from their account. Same with shadow banning. There are people who keep commenting and participating in subs never knowing that every comment they make is immediately removed.
(Warning stupid tangent ahead: There used to be actual communities here where the mods were just regular members who volunteered to keep the place clean and keep out spammers and trolls. Sure you had bad mods here and there but nothing like now where it seems people actively seek out mod positions for the power and control. They don’t interact with the community because half the time they’re just random people that got made mods by their other mod friends, each of them mods 50 subs and they could not care less about the community of users in each one or the environment of each sub.)
There was someone who got shadowbanned and didn't realise it for 3 years lmao
https://old.reddit.com/r/tifu/comments/351buo/tifu_by_posting_for_three_years_and_just_now/
Somehow reminds me of a villager comment on the most recent Animal Crossing when you haven't played in a while and then go talk to them all again.
One personality type complains that they saw you running around and tried to talk but you ignored them, and they wondered if they were a ghost.
The space/astronomy ones are the worst
Sensationalist garbage usually ran by UFO believers
Even before AI, all these subreddits were what kids would probably call "Reddit slop." Just a series of interchangeable images and vids that might luck into posting something actually cool 1 in 1,000 times.
And the mods most probably are bots, too.
I feel like 90% of the time (at least when they become popular) the "interesting" thing is some violent crime. I muted a couple of those when they started having a trend of animal abuse as topics.
“Damn that’s interesting, look at all these black criminals in this post for 0 reason!”
“Haha the usual suspects”
“If I say it… I’ll get banned from reddit”
All of those subs are Facebook-level. They have no focus or purpose, they're usually just 'trump bad' low effort posts or 'funny boomers meme'
Is Damnthatsinteresting the subreddi that just seems to be about brutal murders and massacres and stuff? There was definite one that popped up a lot before I muted it that seemed to be all about murderers and other horrible acts.
The problem is a new one pops up every night just with the underscore in a different place or a different word order. Same with all the right wing news slop subs
Cool wallpaper that's also a conversation piece
I got banned from that sub for posting about stem cells derived from period blood
I got banned from that sub a while back for commenting that a person’s race is not a good predictor for if they will commit crime
Well yeah, reddit mods love white supremacy.
hey, I was there. someone else mentioned the stem cells buddy <:(
Did you read the title or...?
Is it because incels think vaginas are gross?
That’s a bummer they removed it. It very much fit the sub description.
there are multiple reports now
https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/s/hMtlOLBODW
https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/s/K78rRsrfVM
https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/s/foyg4hSLYU
https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/s/s6XAihrTtA
I see
1723 related posts that haven't yet been nuked, with no doubt more to come. Hope the mods weren't wanting to wrap gifts today!Ben Shapiro ahh Mod
you can say ass, we’re all friends here
Sorting for new posts on that sub is currently looking about as expected (even without a microscope)
Mod giving some context here
I was checking that post out this morning! That's wild they removed it, it was actually very interesting!
I still dont know why some subs will remove posts that have 10k+ upvotes
I always assume it means no mod has checked the sub in hours, maybe days.
While also be complacent in letting bots run rampant on the sub. All for removing something if they don't like it but can't be bothered to remove any of the hundreds of bot posts.
Power Trip
You can pretty often see posts made by bots (or even just AI) with that many upvoted
Lmao the human hand one is such a dad joke
Man, that explains why we haven’t had any recent additions to Reddit’s legendary lore like the vagina bacon.
The front page used to be weird af, and now it’s boring questions, US centric news, and nothing that would incite real curiosity.
Let me guess a man deleted the post
With a fedora
Actually a bot did - which has a whole host of other implications
Completely off topic, but I get the feeling basement apartments are a lot different in the UK. When they exist they have windows and usually the access to the garden (England has a lot of houses converted into flats, I'm referring to these, to my knowledge purpose built blocks never have basement apartments
Ah, not basement apartment, basement. As in the basement/extra room in their parents house.
OHHHHH okay,thank you!
In the UK, "basement apartments" are basically flats underneath houses that have stairs leading from street level to the front door. Otherwise, we don't have basements in the UK.
We do have basements, just in tend to be in older houses ime - I've lived in 2 older houses with accessible, useable basements. A lot of them have been closed off or filled in though where they haven't been suitable and/or turned into flats. I'm sure someone more knowledgeable than me can fill in some time periods for me!
What would be even more damn interesting would be slides of discharge throughout the cycle. For anyone who doesn’t know, vaginal discharge changes significantly throughout a typical menstrual cycle, with the discharge released before and during ovulation specially made to increase chances of conception.
It is incredibly interesting stuff. If I wasn't so squeamish with blood, I'd definitely want to be a doctor; humans are just so freaking cool
I saw them original post. The patterns were really pretty like tree branches. Someone also explained the nature of patterns in the comment. Sad that it was removed.
Lmao they removed my post for "not having a source" when i provided it in the comments exactly as required.
Can someone reply to the mod comment and link the comment in which i provided the source?
This is ridiculous lol
https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/s/psBcYksXla
https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/s/5DgvBire0k
Plus i got banned for >14< days lmao
I got permanent ban for putting the link of mods abuse report
My post also got me banned for 14 days for "being an infographic" despite that not being what I posted
https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/s/pF0kAzsKp4
I also provided a source that would have immediately disproven that
Thats so hilariously heavy handed
Mods banned me for putting the mod abuse link in the comments. 🤣
A mod from that sub has posted on another sub that enough people reported the post that it was removed immediately. They also say that the mod team didn’t immediately restore it because they aren’t constantly watching the sub. People freaked out in the interim. Seems reasonable to me.
https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/s/grPxbcb3iZ
I mean, the mod said that they're not "chronically online" like the rest of us, but they were also consistently commenting on other subs when the post was "auto-removed", and the mods of that sub have removed other posts about the female reproductive system without a clear reason in the past, so I'd take those words with a grain or two of salt
They gave me a 14 day ban for posting a picture of breast milk under the microscope which broke no rule.
They told me the same thing about it being an automated process and that they gonna restore the post which they didn't do.
The 14 day ban stands as it is, for community interference, whatever that means.
Thanks, have updated the post.
It looks like an asset ZUN would edit the colors of and use as a spell card background in a Touhou game
That would make a good wallpaper design.
I got banned for commenting about how the mods locked the third posts thread, then they just nuked it anyways lol
I got permanently banned for a random comment on the subreddit too.
They really are tryna make another r/art fiasco out of this
Every one of the posts other than the first one breaks the rules, don’t they?
Even if they do, that tends to be what happens when authority is abused
Probably, but that doesn't change the fact that they are made in protest of the original moderator decision, and only add to the weight of the silence from the moderators on their decision.
The thing is. They claim the original was automod.
And if that is true then the reposts are taken down from another rule and it just spirals into a mess that kinda loops on itself
Even then, they really need some transparency to say whether a decision was made by auto-mod. Perhaps automatically pinning a comment saying "this post was removed due to a large number of reports. If these reports are illegitimate, please message the moderators" would help.
"Hey folks, while we appreciate your fervor for the sub, this removal was triggered automatically by folks making inaccurate reports on it. It's been restored. Yes, it took a little while. We're a small team, and not chronically online."
Something like this?
Also, from my understanding. OP would get a message like that on their post, just not into the comment section.
What I'm saying is that a comment needs to be created automatically when a popular post is removed by the auto-mod. That would prevent people from rioting hopefully.
Even then, given update 3 in my post, I question whether they are telling the full story.
if they're dealing with mass amounts of issues then banning becomes a way to deal with it.
And it's proof that them saying it didn't work. Because if it did that would have stopped it
My comment was made before they gave an explanation. I did not criticise the moderators in the comment. I linked to the (safe for work) image. They have not given any reason for the ban. The ban is permanent.
Reddit rules aren't a geas, any mod who was also a normal person would known this isn't a situation to enforce them
Wow there is certainly a lot of anger in that sub over that decision.... I kind of feel sorry for the mods given all the insults chucked in that thread and the it turns out it was an automod decision
At the same time, having more transparency on automated decisions would help a lot. Just pinning a comment on removed posts saying "this was automatically removed due to a large number of reports. If this was done incorrectly, please message the moderators for a human review" would make it so much more clear that the situation was actually due to report button abuse.
Yeah that would have been a good thing to implement I would agree
Oh well, I'm permanently banned from that subreddit because I committed the crime of criticising their moderators, so as far as I am concerned they can leave their shitty moderation as-is.
I moderate OffMyChest. You know what I do, when I come across a post that auto-mod removed erroneously?
I simply reinstate it. And if the user was a bit upset, I trash-talk auto-mod, since it's a bot, and I can't hurt its feelings.
It's really that simple.
[removed]
They did reinstate it it just took them a bit of time to review the post then approve it(and trash talking the bot after the fact would not have helped with the sheer level of insults and anger sent towards the mods before the reinstatement.)
I didn't know that, but now that I do, I agree with you completely. :)
Glad we agree!
I just don't get why this post was deleted but gifs of swimming little sperm cells was okay and I have to put up with Reddit recommending me that with thousands of karma no problem.
I don't wanna see anything that came from someone's genitals. Not even other people, usually.
Maybe "this" mod is just gay?
They said it was mass reported and auto mod got it but…
the original post has been restored
Within the next 2 months a selection of clothing is going to go viral being based off these imagines
Damn that actually is interesting.
I saw it before it was pulled. As an artist I did find it DamnInteresting and amazingly beautiful in an abstract sense. I can understand somewhat the reasoning behind the, frankly, knee-jerk reaction by the mods. Isn’t this why we have the NSFW tag?
Lol I remember seeing that post and thinking it was incredibly interesting
Oh. I actually scrolled by thinking that was a joke post because it looked so floral/like paisley pattern that I just assumed it wasnt true. Huh.
It is real. It's very cool
Looking at the mod’s explanation it seems pretty reasonable. Several user reports (that weee incorrect) led to the post being incorrectly removed, a few hours later mods realise and reinstate the post. The other posts, while funny, don’t seem like the kind of thing that follows the rules of that sub, so those posts were removed.
Overall no harm no foul IMO, just some mods who were spending Christmas with their families rather than being on Reddit all the time
Then why did the mods permanently ban me for explaining the situation to the many people who were confused about it? Why did the ban those who created protest posts (rather than just deleting the posts)?
You know what, that’s a fair point actually. That does seem unfair and going a bit too far, especially if you were just trying to bring it to their attention
OP, thank you for your service.
I hope people just keep posting them forever
I love reddit for these reasons specifically
Someone should post a close up of semen
It's been posted. You're welcome.
I even had the thought, "I get the feeling that if this were semen instead, there would be zero issue." And sure enough!
lol
"So I was watching a video on PornHub the other day and it was labeled as the director's cut. As opposed to what, the theatrical release?" - MasterLawlz, 2020. RIP
Snapshots:
I am just a simple bot, not a moderator of this subreddit | bot subreddit | contact the maintainers
What r/art debacle? The link just goes to the subs main page. I need to know, goddammit!
https://www.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/s/0AqQq6WuLk enjoy (I'll update my post to link to this)
Wow, what a shitshow! Thanks for the link!
Jeebus! r/art got a new mod team last month that reviewed more than 5k bans issued so far in 2025. Only 1.2% were for a valid reason. The rest were overturned:
Talk about out-of-control mods!
That is crazy!
The mod that did most of the work clarified that they couldn't find a reason for a bunch (over half?).
Reasonable to reverse them considering the old team, but >5000 bans were checked in less than a day so the 1.2% were probably just the extreme rule breakers that could be seen at a glance.
My theory is one of the old mods ran some sort of bot detector, which would explain the large chunk of users banned for "short comments", especially if it was looking at activity outside r/art.
Seems to be backed but locked
Drake’s new album cover
Ah, yes, that old chestnut of "you left a comment we don't like so now you are bigading and therefore banned. No questions. I said no questions!!!!"