Moderators

Panel 1: A Reddit-style post is being submitted to r/Fiverr. It reads, ‘Freelance platforms like Fiverr and Upwork might be bad for the economy because of their fees. A privately owned, publicly owned, nonprofit, taxpayer-funded, or otherwise public-interest alternative could provide the same marketplace function without taking a cut from transactions. But I defer to the expert consensus on this one.’ An external link follows. The cursor clicks ‘Post.’

Panel 2: A red X appears above the notice ‘Post removed automatically.’ The reason given is: ‘External links can be self-promotion.’

Panel 3: The author writes to the r/Fiverr moderators: ‘I hope you're having a great day! Please allow the post. It doesn't count as self-promotion.’ The cursor clicks ‘Send.’

Panel 4, labeled ‘A day or two later’: A notice says, ‘You have been temporarily banned from participating in r/Fiverr for 5 days.’ The moderator note reads, ‘Rule 1: No self-promotion.’