/r/TrueRateMe

About

/r/TrueRateMe, also known as True Rate Me, is a subreddit dedicated to rating people on the basis of their looks. The subreddit was made in 2017 in response to subreddits like /r/rateme with the aim of providing more "objective" criticism to people that submit photos of themselves to be rated. /r/TrueRateMe is known for its narrow and rigidly defined rating scale and its moderators have been accused of being incels that are biased against women. The subreddit also routinely bans users that provide "incorrect" ratings. Screenshots from /r/TrueRateMe were shared widely on Twitter in June 2023, leading to viral discourse and criticism of the Reddit community.

Background

/r/TrueRateMe was created on August 15th, 2017, with the aim of providing an objective alternative to other subreddits like /r/rateme. As per the guidelines provided by the subreddit, "ratings are based on facial aesthetics," where "5 is average" and 0 and 10 ratings represent unattainable extremes. The subreddit also issues warnings and immediate bans to users to provide "unrealistic/sugarcoated ratings" in order to maintain accuracy. ^[1]

"Objective" Rating Scale

The sidebar notably provides guides to help people rate men and women on the subreddit. These guidelines are in the form of a rating scale from 1-10, with examples provided for each tier (shown below).^[2]

Incel Accusations

/r/TrueRateMe's rigid rating scale has drawn accusations of sexism against the moderation team from some over the years. In October 2017 (two months after the subreddit's creation), Redditor /u/CuckKiller2017 (a person claiming to be a former moderator of /r/TrueRateMe) posted to various subreddits claiming the forum to have purportedly been created by members of /r/incel with the clear objective of trying to "fool women" into thinking they are unattractive. One such post was uploaded to /r/Drama^[3] on October 13th, 2017, where it gathered over 100 upvotes in five years (seen below).

The post accuses members of /r/TrueRateMe of routinely brigading subs with /r/RateMe to give women low ratings. The post also claims that many of the images of women posted to /r/TrueRateMe aren't made by the women themselves, but by men who found the images on the internet. This practice is supposedly encouraged by moderators.

Twitter^[4] user @sapientiamagna posted a tweet sharing screenshots of a message they purportedly received from the same Redditor after posting to /r/TrueRateMe on March 6th, 2023 (seen below).

Developments

The subreddit /r/TrueRateMeTears has been active since September 24th, 2019, and serves to criticize posts on the forum.^[10] Examples of top posts on the subreddit include side-by-side comparisons of men and women the subreddit has rated with 4s (seen below, left) and a post where a photo of Adriana Lima (ranked in the top percentile in the rating chart) received a 6 rating (seen below, right).

In June 2023, screenshots of ratings delivered by members of /r/TrueRateMe were shared on Twitter.^[5] On June 21st, 2023, Twitter^[6] user @RightWingCope shared a screenshot from the subreddit where a woman was given a 7 rating and threatened with a ban for overrating by a moderator. The post gathered over 60,000 likes in a week (seen below, left). On June 23rd, Twitter user @RightWingCope^[7] shared another set of screenshots from the subreddit, gathering over 50,000 likes in a week (seen below, right).

A now-deleted June 26th tweet from @steinkobbe^[8] showed a moderator threatening people with bans for issuing ratings above 7. The tweet gathered over 65,000 likes in two days (seen below, left). On June 28th, Twitter^[9] user @the_binp posted a screenshot of moderators threatening people with bans for both overrating and underrating a woman. The post gathered over 19,000 likes in a day (seen below, right).

Search Interest

External References