This subreddit needs to be cleaned up.

I was never the main police of the sub. That has always been a couple other mods on the team. Of course I police things here and there, and generally am the one investigating quality issues in the community. However, my main push was more for scientific discussions around interesting mechanisms, or helping people with links, citations, and analysis. You've probably noticed my effort in that area has dropped dramatically over the last couple years. Yes, that's because I am infinitely more busy now than I was five years ago. It's difficult to balance everything on my plate with the energy and effort it takes to come in here day after day and write comprehensive comments and posts. I did it for years. You have no idea the stress it begins to cause after time. It's also a bit disheartening realizing that it always seems to fall to me and a couple other quality posters to really try to continue providing the bulk of the information people are looking to see. You see temporary bursts of quality posts, but then those people seem to fade off to the horizon. As others have said here, it begins to have a cyclical effect on the quality of the sub as a whole. The only way to prevent that is to lead by example. People need to be the change they want to see in the sub. If nobody ever makes the effort to contribute the quality content people want to see, then the ones actually providing it will eventually burn out and stop/leave.

I think having more strict rules regarding joke posts and comments is a good thing, though. We can definitely implement more rules there to help stymie the buildup of annoyance at the lower-quality content. However, rules only prevent things from happening. They don't magically cause the desirable things to happen. So removing the lower-quality joke posts will not cause the high-quality scientific discussion to appear. That falls to the users of this sub. Good content will only be found on this forum if people like you help to put it there. This shouldn't be a blog that a few power users have to constantly push out quality content on. It should be a forum, where countless people engage in quality discussions with each other. That takes effort from the community as a whole. Rules can help keep things on course, and prevent annoyance. However, they can't create content that people want to see. That responsibility falls to all of you. I can help, but it will take a lot more than just me to really get the sub where I think it could be.

Regarding the assumption that I have changed anything about my moderation because of my businesses, I feel that's very unfair to me and to the effort I have put in over the years. The only effect my businesses have on my moderation is a reduction in available time. I don't modify the actions I take because I am afraid of driving away customers. That's not even a consideration that pops into my head. I have stopped calling out vendors on things as much as I used to. That's definitely a change. However, that was because I was constantly getting attacked for doing so. So I was forced to stop doing things like that. I've had countless threats sent to me, my team, the other mods, and even my fiancee; death threats, even. I've had my businesses attacked, and even had large amounts of crypto stolen from me in an attack not too long ago. It's like clockwork. Every time I would call out a shitty vendor for selling fake or impure product, I would get attacked in some new way. So I had to just stop. It sucks, but it is also part of the reason I have pulled back on other contributions to the sub as well. I am just burnt out on it all. It's been hard to keep the passion for things through all this. That being said, I have been making changes that should hopefully allow me to get back into things again. This should allow me to be more active soon, like I was in the old days. Everything on my plate the last few years has just drained the passion out of me, but it is not gone. I just needed to clear my plate a bit. Again, I am just a small part of this. I can sit here all day long and make posts and comment, but then it's really not a forum. We can definitely implement some new rules surrounding jokes and low-quality content, but it's going to take a lot of you to help make the sub what it can be. It's going to require many of the users here to put out high-quality content.

The other aspect of this, which is not often spoken about publicly, is the changing legal and regulatory environment. So many changes have been going on in that area, not only on as a whole, but here on Reddit. So we are still trying to get a handle on what is and is not allowed, or the legal implications for certain types of discussions. Frankly, we have no idea where things are going. Some of the signs point in a very very bad direction. That's also a source of stress for me, and very disconcerting for everyone passionate about nootropics. If the governments of the world continue on some of the paths they are on, it's not going to be good for any of us, nor will it be good for human advancement in general. These frustrations can also be a reason some people are leaving, or not posting as much. If it feels like the world is going backwards, why even try to improve things? I've caught myself feeling these things many times now, so I am sure many others here have as well. I wish I could provide some reassurance to people here, but a lot of what I am seeing is not very good in that department. We just need to keep fighting for what we believe in, and to ensure personal cognitive liberty. I'll work on being more active, and the other mods and I are currently discussing what new rules should be put in place to help with the jokes and low-quality content.