
/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).
![/r/TrueRateMe 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)
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
Top Comment
answearingmachine
Jun 28, 2023 at 02:47PM EDT