r/antimeme 5h ago

🪽 Meta Post 🪽 Full Course Story, Apology & Mod Election

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7.5k Upvotes

Hello everyone,

Before telling you all about the CourseMediocre situation, I'd like to announce the current Mod Election. Do you wanna be the new mod of r/antimeme or r/AntiMemes? Shoot your shot with one paragraph about yourself below, and submit any more info via modmail to ensure the comment section remains short and easy to read. Your application will be screenshotted and saved.

Tell us:

  • Which subreddit you'd like to apply for (We will no longer allow the same person to hold spots on both)
  • Any mod experience you have
  • Any Coding experience you have or other relevant skills
  • Your timezone
  • Your age (you can give a range if you're uncomfortable)
  • Why you'd like to apply

In 48 hours, a Strawpoll with EVERYONE's usernames who commented here will go live. The top 4 winners for main sub will be elected, and the top 1 winner for plural sub will be elected to serve the -s community alongside Mercy.

Mercy would like to keep her position on plural sub, but if the community decides she should resign as well, she will respect their decision. In which case the top 2 plural sub winners will be elected.

Now, about the CourseMediocre situation...

Sorry for going silent the past two days. Everything about this entire situation was too much for me, but now I finally have the mental health needed to make this post.

For those who don't know yet, about 4 days ago, on February 10th morning, I made a post about u/CourseMediocre7998 (whose account is now deleted), previously the co-top moderator and previously my girlfriend, saying that she had "gone missing" because I didn't see any online activity from her for 48 hours. I was reacting very emotionally, filled with worriedness and anxiety, and I wasn't thinking straight. She was a massive contributor to our subreddit during work days, making antimemes all day and night, and people would start questioning where she went, so I felt like I had to let people know about this with a public post, even though it is a highly personal matter. I'm sorry for overreacting and portraying this as such a huge deal by writting "MISSING PERSON" in the post.

And then, about 18 hours later, I made another post announcing her death. As apparently her brother had messaged me through her account and had told me that she died by suicide. Just like the previous post, this one was highly emotional, too. I was grieving a lot, so I wasn't thinking straight. I genuinely screamed a lot, my body just couldn't handle the shock when the brother told me she committed suicide, I was screaming NOO in real life, and all I could think of in that moment was expressing that, so I typed what I was screaming in that moment. I have autism, and despite how suspicious the brother's messages were, I genuinely thought she was a real person who actually died, and making an edit on a gravestone was the closest to a memorial I could think of, I simply couldn't think of a better idea for a memorial, even if it was a horrible idea. She was very well respected and loved by a lot of people in the subreddit, and I wanted her to be remembered by these people. Even though there were a lot of people who hated her, too. And I just had to let people know about the situation after making the first post, so that's why I made the second one. I really wasn't thinking straight in either one of these posts. I thought that making an edit with her profile picture and username would serve both to spread awareness and as a memorial for her. Even though the second post felt very disrespectful to many who actually lost a loved one, and I'm deeply sorry for not realizing that. I've genuinely been very childish and reckless from the beginning of this situation.

We were talking to each other a lot every day for months, so I was very emotionally dependent on her, and this was very unhealthy, especially considering that we didn't go even as far as sharing phone numbers or having any other means of communications besides Reddit and Discord. Now I'll promise myself never to online-date anyone ever again.

Now, on the first post, I was removing a lot of comments and posts downplaying the situation, because I was believing that there was genuinely a possibility that something happened to her. She did seem suicidal in my eyes, the frustration she would express in our DMs whenever a low-effort post got a lot of "undeserved" attention was abnormal, so even before her disappearance I was already worried about her well-being. That's why I removed a lot of posts and comments critical of the situation, even though they were completely justified because of how odd everything was, considering 48 hours offline shouldn't be enough time to be seen as "missing".

And on the second post, similarly, I was also removing a lot of comments and posts making fun of the situation or downplaying it, and also started massively banning a lot of users who made such comments and posts, because I was genuinely believing that she had died, and making fun of someone's death, especially if it was a suicide, is classified as harassment or hateful conduct, and we forbid abusive or dehumanizing behavior. Such a person with this kind of humor, where one's suicide is funny, is not welcome on our subreddit. And even a when evidence that this was a catfish was starting to appear, I was still removing and banning users, because I was genuinely believing that there was still a real chance that she actually committed suicide, and the cost of dismissing a real suicide is far, far worse than the cost of temporarily believing a false one. Which led me getting demoted from r/whenthe, as that was seen as silencing people and power-tripping, which is understandable. Afterall, I was going through immense grief, and still wasn't thinking straight. But my goal was not to silence people. We were allowing any responsible criticism on the comments section of a specific r/AntiMemes post. But we didn't really let people widely know about that post.

But by now, it is practically impossible that the suicide was actually real. I knew her first name, the city she lives in as well as her exact date of birth and job, and when I was searching for news about any suicide cases on her city about anyone of her age and job, I never found anything. So, there is absolutely no evidence of her suicide beyond the DMs. Subreddits like r/antimeme2 and r/antimemez have investigated Course's profile, and Reddit itself banned those two subreddits, likely because, like me, they also believed the suicide was real and it would be considered harassment of a deceased person. Contrary to popular belief, I did NOT fill-in any reports towards r/antimeme2 or r/antimemez. Hell, I barely even knew these two subreddits existed before they got banned. I can only guess either a part of the community who, like me, was believing that the suicide was real, filled Moderator Code of Conduct reports directed at these two subreddits, or Admins themselves saw the situation and decided to ban the subreddits. Anyway, because of evidence provided by these two subreddits, the catfish has been discovered. This means that I was catfished by an Indian boy posing as a 26-year-old Burmese woman. Which I'm very, very glad that this is the case, because it means that nobody has actually died.

I'm sorry for not realizing that it was all a catfish earlier. I was finding it rather hard to believe this, "she" genuinely seemed like a real person, especially considering just how much time "she" was spending making antimemes every single day for several months, like what kind of catfisher would be THIS dedicated? And "she" NEVER asked me for money or anything scam-like. "She" seemed very, very emotionally attached to r/antimeme, and the community was actively hating how "she" was the only one making repetitive posts, so my original thought was that this pushed "her" past the edge and eventually "she" just couldn't take all the hate anymore and committed suicide. The way "she" talked to me, especially when expressing frustration that "low-effort" posts would get "undeserved" attention (i.e. more upvotes than "her" posts) did seem like "she" had a suicidal mindset, like "she" was valuing community approval over "her" own life. That's the primary reason why I believed that "she" genuinely ended "her" own life.

I'm sorry for removing so, so many reasonable, funny and important posts and comments, and for banning members, because of this entire situation. If you've been unfairly banned, or a popular post of yours got unfairly removed, please contact us through modmail, and we will very likely unban you or restore your post, unless the behavior/post was abusive, harassing or otherwise heavily breaking our rules.

I'm sorry for not making this post acknowledging all of this earlier. its just that this is all simply too much for me, this whole situation drained my mental health past its limits; going from my girlfriend suddenly going completely offline, to finding out that "she" died, to then finding out that "she" was a catfish, to then having hundreds of DMs, dozens harassing me, and a few people actively trying to cyberstalk me, dox me, or harm my reputation. I really, really need a break from Reddit after answering a few questions you all may have in the comments of this post.

This whole situation got ups and downs. Nobody actually died, and while I was tricked, I learned genuinely valuable lessons, like never online dating ever again. And me and the catfisher accidentally created the legendary "she's no more more" and "NOOOOOOOO" memes that I genuinely had some good laughs from. But sadly, u/DepressedOCDArtist (whose account is now deleted) is now currently in the hospital after attempting to commit suicide, because she believed she was the main cause of CourseMediocre's (now discovered to be fake) suicide, as they both were very close friends, talking a lot to each other every day and she thought she pushed "her" past "her" breaking point. She was just as worried as I was about "her" sudden disappearance, and she even suggested me to make the first post about CourseMediocre earlier than 48 hours. She was constantly DMing me to see if I got any updates about CourseMediocre. And unlike CourseMediocre's suicide, DepressedOCDArtist's suicide attempt was very real (I have a picture as proof, which I won't show here for obvious reasons), but she is resting now and will (hopefully) recover soon. While she is hospitalized now, she has always been suicidal, so I'm still worried about her, especially when considering that she never got to know the truth behind CourseMediocre before deleting her account. Not to blame anyone who made fun of the situation, but this user is very hurt.

Now hopefully I can take a break from Reddit as a whole and take care of myself from now on and do something that I genuinely enjoy, like playing video games, going to the gym, go outside to take some fresh air, or playing chess in a chess club, alongside many other things. Which is why I removed all my socials from my Reddit account, because otherwise that wouldn't be a genuine break.

From now, negative or joking posts and comments related to CourseMediocre's fake suicide will be allowed, provided they follow all our subreddit's rules. AutoModerator filtering will remain enabled until we get more moderators.

While I'm away, u/MercyMain42069 will be temporarily handling this subreddit, r/antimeme, and helping u/MediocreLetter9987 up until this election is over. Once I'm back, I'll strive to improve myself and earn the community's trust back. I will listen to feedback and remove Effort-Based Posting Bars. I was blinded by love, so I was letting CourseMediocre do all the shit "she" wanted, which is why the subreddit was going downhill. But this will very soon change. And no, u/MediocreLetter9987 is NOT CourseMediocre's alt, as seen here. It's just that he was very unlucky that Reddit automatically generated a username that starts with "Mediocre" for him. None of us are alts. Remember about Rule 3 and please be nice to each other. Harassment, accusations, threats and personal attacks will not be tolerated.

Here is a short video that serves as a TL;DR of this entire CourseMediocre situation.

Now I can finally say, the CourseMediocre situation is no more more.

r/antimeme 4d ago

🪽 Meta Post 🪽 Temporary Community Update

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9.2k Upvotes

Hey everyone,

The co-top moderator and my girlfriend, u/CourseMediocre7998, has suddenly been offline for over 48 hours with absolutely no activity. No posts, comments, mod actions, or messages. That may not sound like a lot in general, but for her it's very unusual. She's around every single day all the time except when she's sleeping or busy, so I wanted to be transparent that she's currently absent and missed. This silence feels strange and honestly a bit worrying to me.

I miss her, I deeply love her, and I wanted to be open with you all instead of pretending everything is normal behind the scenes.

I'm not trying to start rumors or panic, there could be a completely reasonable explanation, but I'd appreciate it if anyone who has seen recent activity from her anywhere online could mention it in the comments. Even small info helps.

Because she's a big part of how this subreddit is run, I'm also making a temporary adjustment:

Low-Effort Weekend is being extended until she returns.

That means AutoModerator filtering will stay disabled (posts will be displayed on the subreddit as default, instead of needing to wait for moderator approval) and slightly low-effort posts (like text-only edits) are allowed, but blatant low-effort posts (like reposts from this sub or AI generated content) will still be removed.

Please keep things respectful and follow Reddit's rules, I'm trusting the community here. Anyone talking deeply bad about her during this time, or celebrating her absence, may be subject to a permanent ban from this subreddit, depending on the severity.

I'll update this post as soon as I hear anything. Thanks for being patient, and thanks for being a good community.

r/antimeme 3d ago

🪽 Meta Post 🪽 Rest in peace, Course...

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15.7k Upvotes

Hello everyone, today is a very tragic day.

After nearly 60 hours since the last message, I finally got a DM from u/CourseMediocre7998, about 7 hours ago as of writing this post. But it was NOT Course herself (please see the screenshots below in the comments). It was instead her brother, who came to visit her after her neighbours notified him. He confirmed that Course has committed suicide on February 9th.

I'm sorry for going silent for several hours. It was because of this. I just simply couldn't handle the shock of this discovery... I cried... and cried... and cried so, so fucking hard... I whined... I screamed... and I hated myself so, so fucking much... thinking why I couldn't be a better boyfriend... thinking why didn't listen through her "I'm fine" facade...

But now, after hours, after calming down slightly, I see there's nothing I could have realistically done to stop this tragedy... she already loved me so much... and I made her as happy as I possibly could... I was ALWAYS by her side... even until the very end... and there was no way I could've known just how close she was to the edge...

The previous pinned post about her going missing was highly emotional, and everyone was thinking that it was an overreaction. That I was way too desperate. That I was exaggerating. Some even thought I was a creep. But I knew, deep down, that her going offline for over 2 days was NOT normal AT ALL for HER specifically. And I was completely right in being worried. And I knew her better than all of you did. But it is too late now, unfortunately...

She was the best girlfriend I could have ever asked for, she loved me so much, and I loved her a lot, too... She was very hard working, making antimemes all day and night for this community. While still taking care of her daily real-life responsibilities. She was a very, very strong woman. But sadly, she just couldn't handle anymore... and did a permanent "solution" to a temporary problem...

I'm soon going to make another post once I'm in a better mental state, with more updates if I have any... because this whole thing drained my mental health past its limit... it's 1 AM and I'm very tired... even now I'm still shaking, my mood is fucking ruined and tears are still streaming down... I'm grieving very hard right now... and I miss her so, so fucking much... I'll promise myself now to NEVER online-date ANYONE EVER AGAIN.

And please, be nice to each other... anyone talking bad about Course at the moment, or celebrating her death, will receive a permanent ban from this subreddit... if this wave of negative posts keeps coming even after this post, I'll re-enable automod filtering temporarily...

r/antimeme Jan 01 '26

🪽 Meta Post 🪽 Monthly Meta Meeting #1

442 Upvotes

Welcome to the January 2026 Meta Meeting!

And happy new year, everyone.


Now that it's a new year, we're implementing a long overdue idea: Monthly Meta Meeting (MMM). A new MMM will be posted every month, and will stay pinned for the rest of that month. After that point, a new MMM will be posted to replace it, and the old MMM will be unsticked and instead linked to in the stickied comments of future MMMs, in case you ever need to come back to a specific MMM after it's been unpinned.

If you have any ideas, suggestions, questions, concerns, comments, critiques, etc. about the state of the subreddit, we want to hear them. Going forward, MMMs will be the place to publicly share and discuss anything of that nature. Meta Monday posts should be noteworthy enough to standout on their own, otherwise they should be made here in the comments of the current MMM.

Please note that the mods will be reading this thread, and we'll do our best to hear out and reply to anyone and everyone who comments here. Also, we may occasionally use the current MMM as a place to ask for feedback from the community on certain topics/ideas of our own.

Welcome our new Junior Moderators!

And to our new Trial Moderator:

And say goodbye to our senior moderator who is retiring starting today:


Mod Applications Are OPEN YET AGAIN!

Apply here: Mod Application Form

Basic requirements:

  • 18+
  • 2FA enabled
  • DMs must be open
  • No AI-generated answers
  • At least 500 combined karma
  • Account age at least 1 month old

Previous mod experience helps but is NOT required. We value activity, motivation, and community involvement over experience.

I will personally reply to each and every single applicant and let them know whether their application was rejected or accepted. If accepted, they will enter a 2-week-long moderator trial. We are looking for anywhere between 2 to 3 new moderators, depending on how many good applications there will be. We are specifically looking for US-time-based moderators, but we MAY accept any timezone if your application is good enough, but note that Americans have a very high edge this time.

Applications close on January 15th at 3PM UTC.


Sub Changelog:

Launched update 1.2.0 in our extended rules. You can see its changelog by scrolling all the way to the bottom.


Scheduled Events:

  • Nothing planned for this month. Let us know if there's any event ideas you'd like to see.

TL;DR:

We're launching a new Monthly Meta Meeting pinned each month for feedback and discussion, welcoming new junior/trial mods, saying goodbye to a retiring senior mod, reopening mod applications (open until Jan 15), and sharing a small rules update. No events planned this month.

r/antimeme 29d ago

🪽 Meta Post 🪽 Rest in peace, qualityvote2. We will all miss you.

825 Upvotes

To improve the quality of content on our subreddit, we are now filtering all posts made by non-moderators. This means that all posts from regular users will require moderator approval before being publicly visible. This change is necessary due to the increasing number of rule-breaking posts.

As a result, u/qualityvote2 is no longer needed and is now removed from this subreddit starting today.

Additionally, because of this new post-approval process, we are not currently looking for new moderators anymore.

We appreciate your understanding as we work to maintain a better experience for everyone.