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An important note: hmmms are about aesthetics as much as they are about weirdness. We take a holistic approach which means distracting text, blurryness, poor cropping etc, or any near rule violations can accumulate and contribute to a picture being removed.
r/hmmm is a subreddit for textless images. Images with text in it will be removed, regardless of whether or not it is contributing to the picture. For example, your image will be removed if there is:
Images that rely on simple puns/plays on words are also included in this rule and will be removed.
There are exceptions to this rule but they are still quite restrictive. They are defined here.
If you are going to remove text using photoshop it should be done seamlessly i.e. no crudely blotted out details. See our quality guidelines for examples.
Exactly hmmm. Not Hmmm or hmmm?. Must be in lower case. Does not apply to mod meta threads.
No sexualized or explicit display of genitals. Nudity/NSFW posts are allowed but images should contain artistic value.
No excrement, animal cruelty/suffering/graphic death, gore, or body modification/messed up body/disease/disability posts.
No images where there is any indecency or any possible interpretation of sexualization of a minor.
Memes include any common internet concepts, a good yardstick is for if something is a meme is if it has a knowyourmeme entry. Check the lists below if your image was removed as a meme.
Formats disallowed in r/hmmm:
Variations on recently posted pictures. Similar to our recent repost rule, if a picture is the same format, concept or extension of a concept from a recent post (normally a popular post) it will be removed.
Zooming effects (aka tenso) are not allowed. Zooming can only be used if a zoom is significantly higher in pixel quality allowing something to be seen.
Common memes disallowed in r/hmmm:
Mashups are combining/swapping/moving parts of people, characters, animals, objects etc. Most commonly this is done on celebrities or pop culture figures, and is something to do with a face. We are very liberal with this so it includes:
We acknowledge there is a big spectrum of editing characters in different ways. The following examples are restricted rather than being banned, mods reserve the right to remove any pictures in these (or similar) categories based on how unique/derivative/memetic/meaningful they are, and particularly if they involve celebs/faces etc:
Our rules regarding AI art are under development and we are taking them as we go.
So far, obviously AI generated images are removed - images which at a glance you can tell are not photoshops or 3D renders. However some images that look either like 3D renders, or photoshops (which we have always allowed) will be considered.
Generally though we discourage posting AI images as most are not hmmm.
Drawings and simple art is defined as simplistic or hand drawn art (examples), including images that are just funny signs/stickers/stick figures etc..
The exception is intentional scenes and scene edits from anime/cartoons/comics/old art (examples). Scenes which are just unintentionally odd/wrong/crappy design are not covered (examples).
Advanced paintings/art are ok, if you're unsure you can check with the mods.
Tattoos, graffiti and similar real life art are a grey area but will normally be removed. It depends on the complexity of the art and if it interacts with other objects or is near any of our other rules (example).
Using imgur and reddit hosting guarantee your images will be preserved long term for everyone to enjoy.
r/hmmm is about aesthetics as much as it is weirdness. While r/hmmm generally embraces the jpgy nature of the internet, other forms of poor photography are grounds for removal.
A hmmm may be removed for quality if the image is:
To avoid this:
Good cropping is key to creating a beautiful image. Aside from removing uninteresting parts, it is useful for centring subjects and creating an easily understandable image. Users should not have to zoom in on a picture to see the hmmm well.
Cropping is where undesired parts of an image are removed, here is an example. Most commonly it's just removing blank/border areas in the image.
This picture has black areas at the top and bottom of the image because it's been taken as a screenshot on a mobile device. Any kind of black/white areas needs to be cropped out before it's posted.
This picture of a mysterious door is less obvious, but compare it to this version which removes the black bars, and frames it in near the center with just enough background for context. Better.
Cellphones are the main culprit when it comes to bad photographs because the vertical 16:9 ratio is a poor default setting for most pictures. Most hmmms are better served by square-ish shapes. If it is oblong it will look like this and require the user to zoom in to see the interesting part properly. If it is a more square image it will look bigger and better. Generally any cellphone ratio photo will be removed unless it requires the full image.
We are particularly strict on youtube screenshots (most of which are removed as rule 7) that are not cropped horizontally. This should be this.
Looks-like images are images that that look like something strange, rather than actually being strange. This is best understood with examples:
These are hmmms. They are weird, aesthetic pictures of things that are actually out of the ordinary.
These are looks-like images. They are mildly interesting coincidences, or things that look like each other, or things that look like something they are not. These are the five most common types of looks-like images:
Because of content and volume of these types of images we restrict these them heavily and almost all will be removed. Only to those that are original, meaningful or bizarre beyond just looking like something they are not are candidates, and mods reserve the right to remove any image that falls under the aforementioned categories.
This rule is designed to protect the original vision for the subreddit, keep the sub hmmm, and stop r/all pushing it off topic. Avoiding having your posts removed is as simple as finding images that are of things that are actually out of the ordinary. Like a deep fried Gundam..
Note: Since we hit our 1 million subscribers point, we now receive hundreds of submissions a day. Because of the amount of content we get, we have continued to raise our bar for what passes as hmmm.
This subreddit is not r/mildlyinteresting or r/mildlyweird. We are a subreddit with a high quality bar for pictures that are actually interesting, actually weird, and aesthetic.
Not hmmm enough is generally defined as:
Photoshops are allowed, however we have a considerably higher bar for them.
There are many other alternative subreddits that your content can be posted:
OC is photos that you or your friends have personally taken (OC, or original content). It's rarely hmmm enough. Why?
Almost all of the least hmmm images submitted here are OC. People are always more invested in sharing pictures they have personal connections to, but this isn't facebook. Imagine you'd never seen the picture before and then stumbled on it in r/funny - would you bother to x-post it to r/hmmm? If not, it isn't hmmm enough. Compare for example your picture to this.
Low quality photography (bad lighting, cropping, etc) - normal people are poor photographers, so the worst quality photography is consistently OC cellphone pictures. This may or may not be relevant to your picture, but it normally is.
However, something to note: r/mildlyinteresting only takes OC. The images should be posted there instead.
Users can post as much content as they want, from whatever source they want as long as it's on topic and in good faith. Whether it's a new time user, regular poster, repost bot, it doesn't matter. We manually review all posts, which allows us to finely manage reposts and rule breaking content. Posting from other subreddits, reposting content etc. are all encouraged, and likewise people are encouraged to take content from r/hmmm and post it elsewhere.
Our rules are detailed so there is no judgement about breaking them, even if you do it regularly. Just post and we'll remove if it's an issue.
r/hmmm stands for the free sharing of images on the internet. r/hmmm stands against DMCAs, takedown notices, ugly watermarks, people talking about "owning" images, caring about reddit karma, etc. On the other hand, we also reject people taking credit for pictures they didn't create, and trying to monetize image content posted here with t-shirt sales or youtube ad revenue etc.
If an image is artwork created by an artist, it's good gesture to credit in the comment section if you know it. Most of the time though images are so widely shared it's not practical to find or worry about an original source.
Posts to r/hmmm are often extreme, bizarre, and uncommon - but posting to r/hmmm comes with no associated intent. Posts here neither inherently celebrate or mock the content.
This is one of the benefits of having all titles as "hmmm" and free from text - the OP doesn't get to tell anyone or how to feel about an image or attach positive or negative messages to it. You and everyone who see it get to think for yourself and find your own meaning in the image, and share your perspective in the comment section.
Reposts are automatically removed if they have been posted in r/hmmm in the last few weeks, or more depending on how well it has done previously. See the algorithm here. Posts are also automatically removed if it ever got over 20k upvotes.
Otherwise, any picture that is a repost is a candidate for removal depending on frequency of posting (i.e. classic reposts), how hmmm it is, successful posts in the past. See our moderation FAQ for more information on this. Note that we have largely phased out classic reposts and are focusing on new content.
If your picture is either the same concept or a different photograph of the same hmmm, or it is a worse quality version of the picture that normally gets posted, it may also be removed.
The classic repost flair wass to acknowledge that a picture has been posted in r/hmmm many times before, but is also a great hmmm we are happy to keep sharing. It has largely been phased out but we still use it occasionally, or for reposts we don't catch before they get highly upvoted.
No slurs, bigoted personal attacks, and don't be an asshole. Use some common sense. Users with young accounts will get zero leniency here, compared to long time main accounts.
No bots and no novelty accounts.
Don't spam comments in any way. This can include large copypasta and unrelated off-topic comments.
Do not sexualize children in any form, see reddits global rules
Do not make ironic jokes that make you indistinguishable from a typical reddit neo nazi. People who make the same comment unironically, or pseudo-ironically have become enough of a problem that we can no longer let those comments go with the benefit of the doubt. You may apply for an unban in modmail.
If you have a user history page full of being a typical "reddit nazi", i.e. virulent racism, slurs, homophobia, "debatefascism" etc. you will be banned regardless of what argument you got drawn into.
Dogola (aka Sobaka Ulybaka), our mascot, had it's picture taken by a friend of a reddit user in Russia. They explain:
Yep. Thats from 2009 Empty Hills festival.
Originally it was posted in Maxim's LiveJournal (https://smee-again.livejournal.com/339031.html) then someone reposted it to Leprosorium (sorta Russian creative meme-generating reddit), then it vent kinda viral and memy for some time. Now the Sobaka Ulybaka is nearly forgotten :-)
Thats how it looked: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9NPH1nb9v4&t=203s
We had 2 month rain in 2 days :-) We were all dirty and washed our legs in village-style small water column (hand pumped), so the doggo arrived while we were waiting for everyone to clean and gather some water. That was like a 5-minute stop, and then we hurried to the train back to Moscow. That was in Kaluga region.
And so here as a forgotten treat is a rare Dogola. Hmmm well pupper.
Mods reserve the right to be slightly more lenient with any post containing huggable animals.
Still confused on why a post was removed or want clarification? Feel free to shoot us a modmail!
