My father (also a locksmith) has a fake foam brick that he occasionally throws at people's window as a joke when they're locked out.

Hmm. I guess I can see where you're coming from, but I'd still disagree with banning all meta posts like that. But then, I moderate a much smaller subreddit, so I can afford some nuance. Back when I was mod at /r/NoStupidQuestions we relied on broad strokes as well--we had no choice, given the sheer volume of comments we had to go through. Thank you for not removing my post, despite my not checking with y'all first.

>[thing the user doesn't like] is killing the sub

I usually leave these kinds of posts up so I can see people's responses. They are almost invariably mocked and downvoted to hell and the user slinks away shamefaced. On the rare occasion they are not, I learn something about my community. Feedback from users is invaluable.

>complaints that their rule breaking post was removed

That sounds like a great way to get yourself upgraded to a tempban to me.

Oh. lol Sorry! In my defense this wasn't a trade question or I'd have researched more, like I described.

I've never seen a subreddit that banned meta posts though. What's the reasoning for that?

Generally if they have a brick and mortar location (i.e. they aren't a mobile-only setup) or they've been in business for at least 5-10 years, you can be pretty sure they aren't a scammer. There do exist mobile-only locksmiths that aren't scammers, but scammers with a brick and mortar location are pretty rare

Sorry you encountered a scammer. Unfortunately our industry is riddled with them thanks to states (or countries) which do not require licensing to call yourself a locksmith. Trust me, we hate them as much as you do.

Exactly, and I said as much in the second half of this reply

Or we return to how it was before and they get to suffer through laymen constantly asking inane questions on /r/Locksmith, obviously. It's quite the deterrent.

Lol no, it happens almost every time I reveal I'm a locksmith in other subreddits. Fortunately, I never tire of it ;)

I have been waiting my whole life to say it IRL though. Knowing me, I'll crack up mid-sentence and ruin the opportunity.

I didn't take it as a slight and I'm sorry if my comment sounded annoyed or anything. I was just explaining myself.

Hey, thanks for the thorough response.

>The reality is that most subreddits like /r/askalocksmith are DOA

We discussed this when the subreddit was split, and I made it clear to my users that I expected them to participate in both subreddits unless they were physically incapable of being polite (we're a cantakerous bunch after all), and on the whole, it has worked well. Some posts may only get one or two responses, but they will usually have a fair number of upvotes reinforcing it, indicating that plenty of other locksmiths at least viewed the question and had nothing to add.

I have also made a couple of announcement posts, one just a month after the split and another a few months later, basically saying "Hey guys, AskALocksmith isn't dead or anything, but I just want to be proactive and prevent it from ever getting that way, so here's a reminder to do your part and go answer some questions there. Consider it community service, or fair payment for getting this space to ourselves."

>I just hope that when it comes time for you or your peers to get involved in a project outside of your trade, you think about this post, and stay far away from any other trade professionals you may want to ask a question to.

I can't speak for anyone else of course, but on the occasion I have a question for another trade, I always check the sidebar, read the recommended resources, and search the subreddit for my question before I actually make a post. Usually my question is answered somewhere already, and on the rare occasion it isn't, I'll make sure my post states that I did all of those things first and did not find an answer.

There are plenty of others who do the same thing... you'll just never know they were there because, of course, they never posted. It's only the few who refuse to read anything before posting that you ever get to see, so your vision of newcomers gets skewed in that direction. Try to remember that.

No solution will ever be 100% successful at keeping laymen out, but it's working well enough. Any posts that make it past the sidebar, stickied post, warning messages, trap flair, and automoderator filters simply get reported by users instead and I remove them manually and refer them with a macro. It's a small subreddit so that only happens a few times a week.

edit: I'm confused why this comment would be controversial.

I don't expect this to be 100% successful, but I do expect it to be partially successful, which is better than doing nothing at all. Even if it only halves the number of false referrals, that's a win in my book.

And yeah, we already have all sorts of notices and stuff on our own subreddit, basically everywhere I could cram them. There's even a trap post flair called "I am not a locksmith" which gets your post automatically removed with a message sending you to AskALocksmith. This post is just for y'all :)

Oh you can refer them to Billy. He's great at that.

Five years is a long time--things have changed dramatically since then. It's not even the same mod team, nevermind the rules and policies.

Also yes you can put a medeco cylinder in some baldwin locks, but baldwin makes an awful lot of very different locks and many of them are not compatible with anything other than what they start with.

I'm a locksmith, and I'm a locksmith

It's been working great for over half a year ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯