Moderator Help: 20–30+ Unrelated “Related Posts” Appearing in Comment Sections After Video Comments Fail

[u/wotd1]

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We moderate two SFW communities and are looking for admin clarification and help with two issues that began at exactly the same time.

In each community, we attempted to post a short, approximately 10-second video as a comment. These were two completely different video files, and this type of video comment had previously worked normally.

In the first subreddit, the video comment failed to post. Immediately afterward, a large number of unrelated “Related Posts,” typically 20 to 30 or more, began appearing beneath the comment sections of multiple posts throughout the community, including posts submitted by other users.

Later, the same sequence occurred independently in the second subreddit. We attempted to post a completely different 10-second video comment. That video also failed, and immediately afterward the same large number of unrelated Related Posts began appearing beneath the comment sections of multiple posts throughout that community as well.

Since this started a couple of days ago, video comments have continued to fail, while image and text comments continue to post normally.

The Related Posts Issue

This is not a small recommendation section containing two or three related posts.

We are seeing approximately 20 to 30 or more posts from completely unrelated communities beneath the legitimate comments. None of the communities being recommended are communities we have previously visited.

Many of these recommendations also include “Join” buttons encouraging readers to join those communities.

Because these appear directly beneath the actual comments and continue for a considerable distance down the screen, they can easily look like unrelated promotional or spam content has been inserted into the community's comment section.

We understand that Reddit labels these items “Related Posts” and that they are not technically submissions or comments posted to our communities. However, from a reader's perspective, the distinction is not particularly clear because of where and how they are displayed.

From a moderation standpoint, we cannot find any way to remove these recommendations, moderate them, disable them, or prevent them from appearing beneath posts in our communities.

The Video Comment Issue

The timing is particularly notable because the same sequence occurred independently in both communities.

A short video comment failed to post, and immediately afterward the large Related Posts section began appearing beneath multiple posts throughout that community.

The videos used in the two communities were completely different files.

Video comments had previously worked normally. Since these issues began, video comments have continued to fail, while image and text comments continue to work.

We cannot determine whether the failed video-comment submissions and the Related Posts behavior are technically connected, but we can confirm that in both communities the Related Posts behavior began immediately following the first failed video-comment submission.

Could an Admin Please Clarify?

Is the display of 20 to 30+ unrelated Related Posts beneath comment sections an intentional Reddit feature or experiment?

Why are communities we have never previously visited being recommended beneath posts in our communities?

Is there a moderator setting that allows communities to disable or opt out of Related Posts?

Can individual users disable this section?

Is there a known issue currently causing video comments to fail?

Could the failed video-comment behavior and the sudden appearance of the large Related Posts section be related to the same Reddit app change or bug?

We have screenshots showing the behavior and can provide additional information if needed.

Thank you.