Hi all,

Summary

Per the results of our community survey, r/MLS will be banning linking to Twitter/X and Meta content moving forward. This decision represents a clear majority of those who participated via either the poll or comments, with the final vote tally of 1,349 being split 87.5% (1,180) in favor of the ban and 12.5% (169) against. The optional comment section on the poll, as well as the comment sections of the feedback post, were also both heavily in favor of the ban - both in number of comments and support for those comments via upvotes/downvotes.

The reasoning was pretty consistent across the sentiment of the community: Musk's actions, also prior to but absolutely including his repeated Nazi salute, are unacceptable and out of line with our ideals as a community. We do not want to drive any traffic to a site owned by such a person. Additionally, Twitter/X has been enshittified for years, and is an awful user experience, especially for those without accounts. Now that there are viable alternatives (and thankfully soccer as a sport has been quicker to migrate to alternative platforms such as BlueSky than other sports leagues), this is no longer something we have to simply deal with or have any desire to deal with.

Meta

Additionally, while the poll was regarding Twitter/X specifically, the mod team decided to include Meta for similar reasons: Zuckerberg has made clear that Facebook/Instagram will no longer stop the spread of misinformation, and in recent days has targeted and made unsearchable/unviewable left-leaning content and purposefully censored informative resources on things such as reproductive rights. As we discussed, we acknowledged virtually no content gets posted here from Facebook and an extremely limited amount from Instagram as well (typically player statements, or rare content from lower-league clubs with no other social presence). We felt subreddit operations would be extremely minimally affected by adding Meta into the ban, and made the decision to do so. This is doubly true with our adjusted rules below allowing for screenshots of content not available on other platforms.

Rules Changes

Going forward, our rules will be updated to reflect this change as follows:

• Any Twitter/X or Meta links will be removed by automod with an explainer comment provided on the post detailing this rule
• We still encourage direct links to sources so we can appropriately drive traffic to creators who make engaging content - this includes BlueSky or direct links to articles (which were always preferred within our rules anyway)
• You may submit a screenshot of a Twitter/X/Meta post only if that content exists in no other places. If the content is dual-posted on BlueSky or a website or elsewhere, the screenshot will be removed and the mod team will encourage a resubmission from a valid source.
• All social media-based submissions, whether BlueSky directly or Twitter/X screenshots, must follow our title formatting rules as they have existed (e.g. name of the content creator in brackets at the start of the title, and the content of the post)
• If you are trying to submit a highlight or other video, please link to an alternate source or rip the video and submit it directly. We are aware many league official outlets are still posting highlights on Twitter/X primarily, and will not be actioning against direct uploads of that content directly to Reddit or alternate hosting services (as many users already do).

We'll keep an eye on how this goes and re-evaluate as needed, but we feel these points give us a strong foundation to ensure all content that would've made it here before will still do so.

We ask for your patience as people adjust to the new rules, as we'll be patient with their enforcement as well. If you see a screenshot post that slips through when there's an alternate source, either report it so the mod team can handle, and/or politiely let the OP know in a comment. We're sure not everything will be caught perfectly, but we're sure that we'll all adjust and it'll be smooth sailing in no time.

Thank you and final thoughts

We appreciate everyone taking the time to leave feedback on this issue, even those who disagreed or voted against the ban - many of those comments gave us insight into potential pitfalls that helped us decide how best to handle this and address pain points. Hearing from a broad swath of the active community is always extremely helpful in guiding how this place grows and what type of place it is for all of us.

With all of that out of the way, we'll leave you with this: Our subreddit has always tried to be a welcoming home for any and all supporters of any kind. We have always held a firm line against bigotry or discrimination of any kind, and while it shouldn't even merit saying, Nazis, fascists, and bigots are not welcome here - this is not a controversial or debatable point. This is no place for "paradox of tolerance" nonsense, we are not some bastion of absolutist free speech - views intolerant or bigoted towards others, or in defence of such views, will never be allowed.

While we get bad actors as any larger subreddit does, we're generally really happy with the community we've fostered over the years and the welcoming, warm place it has been. We welcome those bad actors to feel free to out themselves in the comments or modmail, and we'll be happy to issue you the ban you're seeking.

As we approach 1M users and continue to foster a healthy, caring environment for the human beings that make up this place, thank you all who participate and ensure this place stays that way.

BlueSky

For those interested in getting started as we make this change-over, here are two useful BlueSky Starter Packs:

U.S./Canada soccer media which has basically everyone you probably got news from on Twitter.

Independent soccer sites such as the former SB Nation sites and others like it