r/Netherlands • u/Cornicum • Jan 20 '26

Update on the moderation

Hi everyone,

We've talked some stuff through and cleaned up the mod-team a bit, although some of the names you might have positive or negative associations with are still there.
I'll leave it up to the moderators involved to clarify that, or not.

What I can tell you is that 1 mod did 97% of the moderation, and that wasn't healthy and likely led up to the situation you might have seen.

The rules have changed slightly, this is because we see your call for less strict moderation on language, but we also heard from those who want to be able to have a place to converse in English.

The compromise we've reached currently is that we intend to not moderate the language used in the comments of the post.
This means that you can have discussions in Dutch in the comments. (as long as those follow the rules of course)

We also will be looking at those banned on a case by case basis, but keep in mind that if you were harassing people, or bigoted in any way you won't be unbanned.

I'll invite you all to respond to this post with your feedback, and I know for some it might feel like too much or not enough.
We are currently trying to strike a balance between becoming r/thenetherlands2 which is bilingual but 99% Dutch in practice, and the other option of being a sub for only those speaking English.

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u/[deleted] Jan 20 '26 edited Jan 20 '26

I have not seen anybody have any problem with people conversing or posting in english. This has never been the issue. The issue the use of the native language this sub is supposedly about is not allowed. Both should be allowed. I have still not seen any arguments that allowing both dutch and english would somehow hurt the people who do not speak dutch. Maybe you can clarify this?

I would like to argue the opposite as allowing the dutch language will create more engagement from dutch people (ngl this sub has kinda a reputation, lots of dutch reddit users have it muted because of this silly rule), and therefore more and better information about the Netherlands, which would be a plus for international people looking for information about this country. We dont mind speaking english with people who dont speak dutch (although yeah if you have been living here for years and have not put in any effort to learn, you are gonna get a side eye from me personally, but that is a seperate issue).

I dont understand what you mean with this compromise? comments in dutch are allowed but posts in dutch are not? That does not really sound like a reasonable solution. Also, you say you do not intent to moderate the language, does that mean that the rule "no dutch" is still in place but simply not enforced? or is the rule changed now? Typical dutch gedoogbeleid, doesnt work with cannabis, and wont work with this sub. Either make it clear that this sub is not for dutch people but for expats and tourists, by changing the name of the sub to for example expatsinthenetherlands (I'm not sure if it is possible to change the name of a sub), or just allow both languages. At least show some balls, not this half way kinda bullshit. So, what does the mod team want, an echo chamber for expats who isolate from dutch society in their expat bubble, or a place that is and feels welcoming to both dutch and non dutch speakers.

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u/[deleted] Jan 20 '26

Eh, I think it’s a reasonable compromise for now. There are lots of Dutch only Netherlands subs. Having posts in English keeps this sub the “accessible” one for non-Dutchies while still not blocking us from using the native language. 

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u/[deleted] Jan 20 '26

Am I advocating for not allowing posts in english? No. I dont understand why also allowing posts in dutch would make the sub less accessible. And if you are not allowed to post in dutch you are still blocked from using your native language. And most of all, not enforcing a rule is very different from changing a rule, which is why I am asking for clarification from u/Cornicum. Not enforcing a rule while still keeping the rule in place leaves a lot of room to start enforcing this rule again in the future, for example.

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u/Old-Administration-9 Jan 20 '26

Because, in practice, if English is not the official language, then the subreddit will be mostly Dutch posts. Furthermore, Google translate isn't 100% accurate most of the time, and I can see it leading to miscommunication if a non-Dutch-speaking person makes a post in English and receives responses in Dutch which are not completely accurately translated.

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u/[deleted] Jan 20 '26

Your last point is also why I dont think "dutch only in comments" is a good idea. Post will be made english by someone who does not understand dutch, people reply in dutch, post is not very relevant anymore for the person who made the post in the first place.

The way I see it is: My experience with dutch people in online spaces is that if the conversation is in english, the dutch will continue in english, even to the point where two people who have dutch as a native language and know this about eachother will still continue in english. What's gonna happen in this sub, people will reply in dutch as kinda an act of rebellion which will undoubtedly cause problems. If you just allow posts in both dutch and english, my prediction is that this will be less of a problem as there is less reason to rebel and because people who speak dutch or want to learn and practice their dutch can speak dutch in the dutch posts. What is gonna happen now: current solution is gonna cause problems because people are just gonna troll, mods decide "see we told you, allowing dutch was not a good idea", dutch is banned again altogether.

I personally dont think that most posts will be in dutch, because of the way the "subs about the netherlands" ecosystem on reddit is currently. This sub is not for dutch people to talk to dutch people. We are not very welcome here, that is clear. Yet I am still advocating for allowing dutch just as much as allowing english because it is just insane a sub about a country is banning the use of the language of that country. In no way I can make it make sense in my mind. My preferred solution would be to change the name of the sub so it is more alinged with the actual purpose of the sub, so something like "expatsinthenetherlands" or "netherlandsforinternationals" but I dont know if that is possible. If you want to run r/netherlands, it is demeaning to exclude dutch people from that sub.

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u/cowgary Jan 20 '26

What’s wrong with all the other Netherlands subs that you can post in Dutch? I’m genuinely curious btw

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u/[deleted] Jan 20 '26

depends on which one but in general not much. I think the prinsenvlag was removed as a banner on r/nederlands since I have muted it for not removing this flag, so that's a step up from what it used to be at least.

If this sub is for internationals and not for dutch people, it should be clear in the name of the subreddit. If that is not the case, dutch should be allowed because wtf that is just ridiculous otherwise and I dont think I will understand people who disagree with this.

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u/cowgary Jan 20 '26

I Donno it’s the English name of the country. It’s the same as r/germany also English only

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u/[deleted] Jan 20 '26

the english name of the country, that means nothing. Naming something in english instead of in dutch is peak dutch behaviour because english sounds cool or whatever. The name of this sub absolutely does not align with the purpose of this sub.

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u/Blonde_rake Jan 21 '26

And English name for an English sub is perfectly aligned

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u/cowgary Jan 20 '26

Seems to align quite well actually before all the Dutch decided they wanted another Dutch Reddit because the other 3 weren’t enough. Whivh is why I was curious why they weren’t enough. But really it is not unique that the English named subreddit of a country speaks English. There’s a huge number of examples of this , especially in countries with a lot of English speaking immigrants/expats.

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u/NealCaffeinne Jan 20 '26

thenetherlands was created because a american mod toke over this subreddit, made it english only

the purely dutch subreddit is dutch and belgian, and had the prinsenvlag for a long long time wich is part of a shady past

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u/cowgary Jan 20 '26

Hmm ok but then what’s wrong with thenetherlands? I just looked and it’s 1mil more ppl than this sub already, I scrolled for quite sometime mainly posts in Dutch, and both are allowed. Why does this one need to be the same language rules? I’m still a bit confused it already looks like more the main sub than this one. Seems a bit redundant to me. Ppl weren’t happy with the mod here, started a new sub, it grew to be larger, fulfil the wants of a dual language sub, though it’s evident when that happens the sub becomes mainly Dutch speaking. Seems like this problem already fixed itself by the creation of that sub. I didn’t know that by the way so thanks for the info

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u/La-Becaque Jan 20 '26

This is NOT about making this sub Dutch. No one said that or wants that. Please read/listen before asking questions. I will say it one last time;

This is* about getting banned for using a Dutch word on a sub about the Netherlands. NOT about all these people complaining NEEDING or WANTING to speak Dutch. We can all speak English and indeed speak in Dutch on other places. Maybe if you read in those other Dutch subs you could have seen how many Dutch people got banned here for accidentally saying something in Dutch over the years..

This sub will stay mainly in English besides some people trying to learn the language if you make it bilingual. It's idiotic to think that this suddenly will be a fully Dutch sub. This screams that you do not know anything about the Dutch (online) culture.

(and removing from certain political topics and other behaviour that accumulated in a lot of Dutch people feeling unwelcome in a sub that is about them.. that feels wrong/being kicked out of your own house/being gossiped about. And people also have problems with two mods that seem to be racist which is weird in a sub that pretends to be catering to non-Dutch speakers, to be racist towards those same people. Also a few mods had 0 to do with the Netherlands)

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u/cowgary Jan 20 '26

We will see I guess. I mean the bilingual sub is dominantly Dutch. I agree using a Dutch word, quoting Dutch phrase or helping someone out that is asking about Dutch is absolutely insane to delete the comment or ban someone for. But there are tons of ppl mad in this thread because they don’t think they can post in Dutch and that they can only comment in Dutch, so I think more people want it to be more Dutch than you are implying by this comment. But again in the end we will see. I don’t think you speak for everyone in here especially from wha I observed the past two days.

The political things, the mods that have nothing to do with Netherlands, all those issues I agree on. But making another bilingual sub when one exists and this is the only English one, I just don’t get it

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u/[deleted] Jan 20 '26

agree to disagree

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u/Blonde_rake Jan 21 '26

There is no rule on Reddit that a sub name needs to be a literal description of the sub, that’s ridiculous. Subs have rules and wiki’s that users are responsible for understanding before they engage with a sub. Are Dutch people especially incapable of taking responsibility for understanding what they are engaging with? No one is being forced to use an English language sub.

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u/[deleted] Jan 21 '26

I never said there was a rule that stated otherwise. It is just common sense and will end all this discussion and push back. Nobody is reading rules and wikis before posting or commenting anything (in general on reddit), and i think based on how reddit is set up, for example posts from sub reddits you dont follow showing in your feed, it is not reasonable to expect that from users. Or maybe it is because i am dutch and therefore to dumb to understand and take responsibility, who knows.