/r/TrueRateMe
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About
/r/TrueRateMe, also known as True Rate Me, is a subreddit dedicated to rating people on the basis of their looks. The subreddit was made in 2017 in response to subreddits like /r/rateme with the aim of providing more "objective" criticism to people that submit photos of themselves to be rated. /r/TrueRateMe is known for its narrow and rigidly defined rating scale and its moderators have been accused of being incels that are biased against women. The subreddit also routinely bans users that provide "incorrect" ratings. Screenshots from /r/TrueRateMe were shared widely on Twitter in June 2023, leading to viral discourse and criticism of the Reddit community.
Background
/r/TrueRateMe was created on August 15th, 2017, with the aim of providing an objective alternative to other subreddits like /r/rateme. As per the guidelines provided by the subreddit, "ratings are based on facial aesthetics," where "5 is average" and 0 and 10 ratings represent unattainable extremes. The subreddit also issues warnings and immediate bans to users to provide "unrealistic/sugarcoated ratings" in order to maintain accuracy. [1]
"Objective" Rating Scale
The sidebar notably provides guides to help people rate men and women on the subreddit. These guidelines are in the form of a rating scale from 1-10, with examples provided for each tier (shown below).[2]
Incel Accusations
/r/TrueRateMe's rigid rating scale has drawn accusations of sexism against the moderation team from some over the years. In October 2017 (two months after the subreddit's creation), Redditor /u/CuckKiller2017 (a person claiming to be a former moderator of /r/TrueRateMe) posted to various subreddits claiming the forum to have purportedly been created by members of /r/incel with the clear objective of trying to "fool women" into thinking they are unattractive. One such post was uploaded to /r/Drama[3] on October 13th, 2017, where it gathered over 100 upvotes in five years (seen below).
![134 LEAKS Truerateme is a Dangerous Scam (self.Drama) submitted 5 years ago by CuckKiller2017 /r/Truerateme[¹] is a subreddit designed by people from /r/incels[²] explicity as a space to try to fool women into thinking they're unattractive. I should know, I'm a Mod there. It's an incel campaign like the push to convince people not to tip any female waiters or any number of other pushes to attack women out of a sense of deep self-loathing and hate. At Truerateme, high scores, particularly for women, are deleted by moderators such as myself and people who give high ratings are permanenetly banned, while no ratings are ever deleted for being too low, too insulting, or too crude. This gives us the capabilities to "gaslight" women and control how they see themselves. Posts that question moderators the slightest amount are deleted and people not with the program get banned. One moderator of this sub is presently being investigated by police for encouraging someone who posted here to commit suicide, and indeed some early posts proposing this subreddit described it as a place we could build to encourage people to kill themselves based on a warped self-image. Early attempts were to brigade to other sureddits like /r/rateme[³] and vote women down, but moderators there banned brigaders, so we had to create our own space here. Most "girls" who post on /r/truerateme[4] are guys with alt accounts who steal pictures of friends or from other rating subs and pretend to be them to make it seem like a legitimate sub. This practice is encouraged by moderators. I've been a moderator at /r/Truerateme[5] myself and had a change of heart and will remove myself and will tell the truth about this place. 36 comments source share save hide give award report crosspost hide all child comments](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/002/613/548/da5.png "/r/TrueRateMe")
The post accuses members of /r/TrueRateMe of routinely brigading subs with /r/RateMe to give women low ratings. The post also claims that many of the images of women posted to /r/TrueRateMe aren't made by the women themselves, but by men who found the images on the internet. This practice is supposedly encouraged by moderators.
Twitter[4] user @sapientiamagna posted a tweet sharing screenshots of a message they purportedly received from the same Redditor after posting to /r/TrueRateMe on March 6th, 2023 (seen below).
That’s the message I received pic.twitter.com/a48zRWsDa0
— Caleb Riker Anarcho Something or Otherist (@sapientiamagna) March 6, 2023
Developments
The subreddit /r/TrueRateMeTears has been active since September 24th, 2019, and serves to criticize posts on the forum.[10] Examples of top posts on the subreddit include side-by-side comparisons of men and women the subreddit has rated with 4s (seen below, left) and a post where a photo of Adriana Lima (ranked in the top percentile in the rating chart) received a 6 rating (seen below, right).
In June 2023, screenshots of ratings delivered by members of /r/TrueRateMe were shared on Twitter.[5] On June 21st, 2023, Twitter[6] user @RightWingCope shared a screenshot from the subreddit where a woman was given a 7 rating and threatened with a ban for overrating by a moderator. The post gathered over 60,000 likes in a week (seen below, left). On June 23rd, Twitter user @RightWingCope[7] shared another set of screenshots from the subreddit, gathering over 50,000 likes in a week (seen below, right).
A now-deleted June 26th tweet from @steinkobbe[8] showed a moderator threatening people with bans for issuing ratings above 7. The tweet gathered over 65,000 likes in two days (seen below, left). On June 28th, Twitter[9] user @the_binp posted a screenshot of moderators threatening people with bans for both overrating and underrating a woman. The post gathered over 19,000 likes in a day (seen below, right).
Search Interest
External References
[1] Reddit – /r/truerateme
[2] Imgur – TrueRateMe Scale
[4] Twitter – sapientiamagna
[6] Twitter – RightWingCope
[7] Twitter – RightWingCope
[10] Reddit – /r/TrueRateMeTears
![1202 The Insidious Nature of TrueRateMe Meta (self. HowToBeHot) submitted 2 years ago by jansossobuco I apologize if this is off-topic, so if it is I'm happy to take it down, but since the people who frequent these subs often also use the ratings subs, I think it's important to share for the safety of the people in this community. TW: suicide Check out what a former mod of truerateme had said about its practices here[¹]: • high scores, particularly for women, are deleted by the mods • however, scores that are too low are never deleted, to "give [them] the capability to gaslight women and control how they see themselves." This is a LITERAL point blank quote from a former mod. • to make it less obvious that it's a scam to make people have a warped self-image, mods pick people to be nice to so people can aspire to get those ratings too. • posts that question the mods are deleted without any explanation and people are banned for questioning them. • one mod of the subreddit is being investigated by the police for encouraging someone who posted their pictures on truerateme to commit suicide. • creators and early members of truerateme "described it as a place we could build to encourage people to kill themselves based on a warped self-image." Again, DIRECT QUOTE FROM A FORMER MOD. • internal lingo was to build the sub as "suicide fuel." • they brigaded other subs like r/rateme[²] to rate and vote women down and lower than the ratings they actually got. • most of the women you see on truerateme are actually men using alternate accounts who are "stealing pictures of friends or other ratings subs" and posting them to truerateme to make it seem like a legitimate sub that normal women actually use and to bait normal women into posting there. "This practice is ENCOURAGED by moderators." • This means that the majority of people who were selected to get nicer treatment to make the sub look legitimate are probably fake accounts created by the mods and inner circle of the truerateme community. They know who is actually a woman who is posting and not a fake so they will purposefully downrate her. This isn't some old article from when truerateme first started. This was only posted 8 MONTHS AGO. We need to be careful as a community and protect our members from s--- like this. NSFW 92 comments source share save hide give award report crosspost hide all child comments](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/list/002/613/577/ffc.png "/r/TrueRateMe")
Top Comment
answearingmachine
Jun 28, 2023 at 02:47PM EDT