r/TransTeachers: Epilogue

Honestly the best type of baiting is to start a sub out unironically, and don't even get Dramneurodivergents involved until the sub has been going for a while. When you do get them involved, don't mention that you mod the sub, just say something like "Hey, wouldn't this be a nice sub to troll?"

For example, here's how Transteachers could have been done better.

1. Dramneurodivergent starts up the transteachers sub. Put a few non-bait posts up to make it seem more authentic.

2. Post in several trans subs to increase the number of sincere participants. "Hi, I'm a trans teacher and I started a sub just for us. Are there any teachers or allies of trans teachers in this community who might be interested in joining?"

3. Invite the Dramneurodivergents on rdrama. Do not mention that you run the sub. Just say "Hey, look at this Transteachers sub. I think we could really have some fun baiting them."

4. Dramneurodivergents flock in and start baiting.

5. When the rdrama op gets called out (ie, somebody links to the rdrama post) you express shock as a mod to your bait sub and vow to do everything necessary to "get things back under control." In reality, you start arbitrarily banning the sincere redditors, claiming that you recognize them as rdrama trolls from their posting history or saying that they accidentally responded to a post with an alt. Start creating a Stalinesque environment of uncertainty and paranoia. For example, falsely tell one of your members that another member privately accused them of being an rdrama troll. For privacy reasons, you can't say exactly who, but you can hint at it a little. (This works best if they have recently had an argument with somebody on your forum.) Or pin public mod messages explaining the types of Wrongthink behaviors to watch out for as potential signs of an rdrama troll, and gradually add to the Wrongthink list, making it longer and longer. Occasionally post public messages praising random users for secretly reporting rdrama operatives to the mod team, helping make this a "Stasi safe space" for people who truly want to "do the work" required in "social justice activism."

6. This has two effects. First, you are raising rdrama's profile, because the people who have been banned since they were falsely accused of being dramneurodivergents naturally want to check out rdrama to see what it is all about. Secondly, you are sowing chaos and mistrust, because anybody could be one of those nefarious rdrama agents. The sub itself may collapse, but the long-term impact of your work will generate seethe for years afterwards.

The reason I recommend this methodology is because it silos information more effectively, allowing our operations to remain undetected. We can't rely on Country Club to be a secure forum anymore, no matter how thoroughly you try to vet people. The more people know about a secret, the harder it is to keep it secret. That is why a more rigorous approach is to encourage dramneurodivergents to participate in your sub without even mentioning that the entire sub is bait. After the op is over and the bait sub has morphed into a steaming garbage fire, you can do a write-up of the entire OP on rdrama so that we can admire your cleverness and also learn from your op. My point is just that now that rdrama has reached a critical mass of people, our ops need an additional layer of secrecy that can only be achieved through information silos.

Anyway, this is just my recommendation. I think you're all doing great work here, so I hope this doesn't come off as criticism. I'm just trying to offer some useful tips to help rdrama live up to its full potential.

We are, though. That’s the thing.