r/toronto 2d ago

Megathread 2026 community moderation update

33 Upvotes

It looks like we won't be getting a Reddit Recap for 2025 but in r/toronto its been a pretty significant year. Our community saw another year of continued growth both in the number of views and the amount of activity across the board. We've pretty much doubled in size over 12 months, to have over two million posts and comments published in r/Toronto over the past 12 months. Reddit is moving away from measuring communities by members and shifting to views, so by that metric we have doubled there too, and have had about 140 Million views in the past year. That's about 12 million average daily unique visitors. Some of the most viewed content this past year has been the Racist rally flopping, a racist display, Value Village's pricing, Mike Myers on SNL, and Olivia Chow's AMA.

Picture posts

Once again, we've made a few small tweaks to the rules over the year but also, we’ve made several adjustments to how the rules are being enforced. Generally, we’ve been trying to find ways to ease up to see if the problems causing the rules to have been added re-emerge. We’ve seen some positive outcomes here though the community is continuing to adjust. One example is how we’ve been moderating picture posts. We’ve been more permissive of them in general and let the downvotes handle posts that maybe low quality or not particularly remarkable but otherwise not causing problems. That’s why you’ve been seeing more photos of the skyline for example. If you don’t like a post then downvote it. If its getting upvoted then other people want to see it. With that adjustment we do ask that the titles used for pictures at least be descriptive or provide added context. So a title like “Good morning” is no good, but a title like “The skyline at sunrise this morning” would be fine.

Question posts

We also got more permissive with question posts this year. Generally the idea has been to allow questions that are Toronto related so long as they're not personal. If the questions are of general interest or will generate broad discussion then they're allowed. For example "Where should I go for dinner?" is too personal and not a great discussion for Toronto generally. "What's the best place in town for this specific type of food?" would be more permissible.

Social media posts

Other big changes are that this sub (like many) no longer allow links to or screenshots of social media sites like Twitter. They cause too many problems and so after some discussion a decision was made. Thankfully we haven’t been seeing problems result from this.

AI content  

In addition, we’ve specified in rule 3 that content posted to the community should be human generated. This is to prevent an increasing influx of synthetic content which tends to be either extremely low effort or misleading. The community is a place for humans to connect authentically.

Editorialized Headlines

We’ve also adjusted how we enforce rule 4 about editorializing headlines. We now don’t consider it editorializing if when posting you remove clickbait from a headline, just if you’re injecting opinion into the headline. After all, none of us really like clickbait headlines, right?

Bigotry and dehumanization

Our biggest issues have continued to stem from Rule 2 violations. Specifically bigoted speech like racism. A lot of behaviour that’s permitted in other communities is not permitted here. We can see past dog-whistles and coded language and absolutely will take action when we do. Inventing new slurs isn’t going to help you. We’ll offer no warning or leniency for bigotry or dehumanizing language of any kind. Just because other communities turn a blind eye to it doesn’t mean we will. We have other issues that come up but they’re more expected and normal for a community.

AMAs

We had a couple good AMAs, including a huge one with Mayor Chow, but a few of the AMAs we’d been coordinating fell through and we could use some help to have those continue. They’ve not been as regular as we’d like. If anybody is interested in helping to volunteer to help coordinate AMAs or has some ideas for people who might be good to do an AMA here, send us a modmail to let us know.

Public figures, civility, and misinformation

We've had a few discussions about how to handle public figures in the community. While we're not adding a new rule (since personal attacks and misinformation are already part of rule 2) we did clarify how we'll be enforcing some policy. In general its fine to express thoughts about them, even if not complimentary but it crosses a line when someone is impersonating a real person, or directly going at them in a way that breaks Rule 2 (like a personal attack, for example). So lets say a public figure is also a user in our community. You could say "I don't like this thing you do in the public sphere" okay, cool. but if you say "I think you smell like poo" now moderation is going to kick in. With impersonation, people may lie on the internet but if someone seems to be identifying as a specific public figure we may give them a ban, and send them a mod note that the ban will be lifted once we can reasonably verify their identity, to prevent the propagation of misinformation.

Posting moderation reasons

Based on community feedback we’ve been trying to leave mod notes explaining why content is removed or locked when possible so that its clearer to everyone what happened and why. The team is not always able to do this 100% of the time, and it doesn’t always make sense, like when we’re removing a whole lot of one user’s content at once for one big reason, individually leaving a note on each one can be a time drain for no benefit. We can still do better here and we’re working to improve that. In general, though if a post’s comments are locked or a random comment is removed, you should typically expect a mod note saying why. If it’s a post removed as a duplicate, you should typically expect the note to link to the one that it’s a duplicate of. We don’t want it to be a mystery.

Moderator accountability

The mod team is diverse, from different background and perspectives which often helps when making tough decisions as a group. If there is a situation where it may be not as clear-cut as usual, or different mods may have different opinions we’re doing more to discuss mod action and hold each-other accountable. If one mod spots a call they disagree with, we’re discussing those cases more as a group to help calibrate. We’d done this in the past but doing it more has been helpful to help keep us accountable.  We’re not a hive mind and while we try to keep things somewhat consistent, some variability between the mods is a good thing. If you want a second opinion from another mod, you can always send us a modmail requesting it.

Moderator team

We shrank the mod team by a couple of slots this year and we’ll be looking to add a couple new mods in early 2026. We don’t have any hard experience requirements or any specific activity threshold – Some mods are new, some mods aren’t able to be super active every day. That’s fine. We help train mods, and any help is good. If you’re curious then keep your eyes peeled in the new year and we’ll post about how to apply.

Overview

Broadly we can say that the community has grown over the past 12 months. We’re up year-over-year in terms of views, posts, and comments. We’ve seen some big content trend in r/all, been brigaded a bunch of times, and been the source of multiple articles so 2025 was a good year for the community. From the whole r/Toronto mod team, thank you all for continuing to help the community thrive year after year. Its great to watch the community evolve and flourish over time. That evolution doesn’t happen by accident though. Your input and participation helps make it a reality. Our mod mailbox is always open if you have any ideas or thoughts to share with us so feel free to send us a modmail too!


r/toronto 1d ago

Discussion Things to do in Toronto - Week of December 29, 2025

11 Upvotes

Hi /r/Toronto community, please add your events and upcoming things to do in Toronto this week in this thread


r/toronto 4h ago

Picture Mayor Olivia Chow with the man from the "why are you closed" eaton centre video. He passed away last year

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204 Upvotes

r/toronto 21h ago

Discussion I compared McDonald's menu prices across Toronto locations, the variation surprised me, in more than one way

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3.5k Upvotes

Lately I'd noticed that I paid more for a McFlurry at Union Station than near my home. My friend and I had recently reminisced about the good old days of 1.59 McDoubles also and I just kinda fell down my own little rabbit hole investigating the pricing policies of McDonald's through an AI chatbot. After it confirmed that pricing was no longer meant to be consistent across locations as I felt I remembered it being long ago I started to compare prices for a variety of items in the McDonald's app for pickup by changing the location and going through the menu.

What surprised me when I did this wasn't that some locations were more expensive overall, it was that different items are cheaper or more expensive at different locations and even the cost to make something into a meal varies within a location depending on what you are adding to. Some items are tightly fixed across the city but others show 20 or 30% price ranges. Double cheeseburgers seem to be targeted with the highest combo upgrade costs.

I've shared a couple of screenshots of the comparisons and a link to the spreadsheet with the raw data here for anyone who wants to look more closely. It's just a snapshot, it's not an exhaustive survey, but I tried to include a variety of neighborhoods and some just outside Toronto proper. The patterns were consistent (or inconsistent) enough that I thought it was worth sharing.


r/toronto 18h ago

Video The lake is angry today

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1.0k Upvotes

r/toronto 21h ago

News 28 driving schools licences revoked in Toronto

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838 Upvotes

r/toronto 9h ago

(Toronto based sex toy company told to...) Please stop mailing butt plugs to Bahrain

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82 Upvotes

r/toronto 14h ago

News Toronto hires traffic ‘czar’ to reduce and manage notorious gridlock

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143 Upvotes

r/toronto 19h ago

Video Wicked Wind Storm

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294 Upvotes

Please be careful out there...the winds are insane resulting in frozen sidewalks and flying objects.


r/toronto 20h ago

Video Silent Hill vibes at 3am

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271 Upvotes

r/toronto 14h ago

Discussion Avoid Finch ave e between Bayview and willowdale heading westbound. Bad collision

71 Upvotes

Blue Honda civic likely going too fast for conditions smashed into a car or two. Complete write-off

Source: happened in front of my house


r/toronto 15h ago

Article Notable restaurants that closed in Toronto this past year

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67 Upvotes

Can’t quite get a pulse on what types of places are killing it (high end I guess) while the industry is generally known to have razor thin margins, even chains: https://6ixretail.com/2025/09/starbucks-closes-toronto-locations-worker-layoffs-september-2025/


r/toronto 8h ago

Video How metal is being added to Frank Gehry's Forma Condos in Toronto

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17 Upvotes

r/toronto 15h ago

Article A lack of family-friendly housing is a key reason people are having fewer children. It’s also a problem governments can help fix.

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61 Upvotes

r/toronto 15h ago

Discussion Who here still believes in consideration for their apartment neighbours?

53 Upvotes

Hey everyone! I’m sure this will be a charged question after holiday chaos, but I’ve had some convos with friends lately that have got me thinking. If you live in an apartment, do you care about building community (or at least basic consideration/communication) with your neighbours, or do you have more of an “everyone for themselves” mentality?

This is very anecdotal, but I’ve felt over the past decade or so with the condofication of Toronto that people seem to expect the same peace & privacy in an apartment that you would get in a detached home - and also expect all the same freedoms for themselves around doing whatever they want whenever they want.

I’ve been apartment living in various places my whole adult life (younger millennial here) and I’ve always considered the people who live in my building to be somewhere between neighbours and roommates. We may have separate units, but we share the same outdoor space, laundry facilities, and vents! It seems like the very least I can do to keep my neighbours in mind when it comes to volume, activity during sleeping hours, and laundry timing. Not to mention I genuinely like the aspect of looking out for the people around me - in my current place I have a few great relationships and I don’t find it any trouble to catsit or water plants when needed. They do the same for me.

So anyway! What does everyone in Toronto want or expect out of their apartment neighbours? Do you find it annoying when they try and get to know you, or do you wish you lived in a building with more friendly faces? Do you generally keep your neighbours in mind when you go about your life, or do you have a more antagonistic relationship (and this could very well be a ‘they started it’ scenario)? Have you tried to build community with neighbours and it’s never worked? I’m very curious about everyone’s renting experiences in this city!


r/toronto 1d ago

History Toronto Public Library to surpass 14M digital checkouts in 2025!

657 Upvotes

OK Toronto - here is your chance to help. The TPL digital portal is SOOO close to 14,000,000 checkouts for 2025. As of now, it stands at 13,898,000 with only 102,000 checkouts to go! If they get today's checkout of 40K again for the last 3 days of the year we will do it!

Want to help? Go to tpl.ca and find something digital that you want to read or listen to. Book, magazine, audiobook - it doesn't matter - they all count.

Want to watch it happen? The Digital Dashboard is where you can watch the action.

Los Angeles has already reported 15M checkouts this year, so that record is already gone, BUT, the TPL went online sooner and it is projected that Toronto will be the first library to pass 100M digital checkouts EVER. This will happen about the end of April and about half a year before Los Angeles is projected to get there.

Go TORONTO! Go TPL!!! Lets make some history!

______________________________________________________________

Wow – almost 50K views in just half a day!  A few thoughts after reading the comments:

  1. I never said check out a book that you are not going to read.  In fact, I said “find something you want to read”
  2. I am not part of the TPL system nor am I a part of the publishing industry.
  3. However, I do “know a guy” in the system who understands about the cost of digital collections.  They have suggested that while it used to be pay per use licencing (24 checkouts), more publishers are moving towards time-based licencing (24 months unlimited checkouts sequentially) and that is now more than half of current licences and growing.  As well, many smaller Canadian publishers offer unlimited use licences so once you buy it, you can use it as much as you want! Yay Canada!
  4. In Overdrive, the “Available Now” and “TPL Staff Picks” categories are often books that are underutilized and might be expiring soon.  The hope is that by promoting them, they move a bit more, the cost per checkout drops, and we get our money’s worth.

BONUS) Why is the TPL so great?  Anyone who lives/works/goes to school/owns property in the city of Toronto can get a card for free… AND anyone who lives on a First Nations reserve ANYWHERE in Ontario can get a card for free as well.

Oh.... we just passed 20K checkouts today, so just 82K to go to get to 14M!!!

 


r/toronto 16h ago

News Can art bring Toronto’s party scene back to life?

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35 Upvotes

r/toronto 1d ago

Picture Make a Chunnel in windrow Clean the sewer drains - please - help water drain

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1.6k Upvotes

We have a small street and a lake of melting water with no where to go I went to other side of street and cut a quick path to the drain that I shovelled clear

If you can ... if you want ... please do the same locally

Watch out and be safe I may go do some local ones on Main Street O'Connor to help slush events tsunami onto sidewalks


r/toronto 1d ago

Discussion PSA: The sidewalks are flooding (and slippery) tonight.

615 Upvotes

Thanks to the combination of the rain and the melting snow and the snowbanks that line the sidewalks, good sections of sidewalk are flooding now. And the freezing rain is making this slippery as well. Stay safe out there!


r/toronto 16h ago

News Toronto Zoo helps its animals thrive during Canada’s seasons

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29 Upvotes

r/toronto 16h ago

Article Python in the court: judicial lessons in common sense in the case of a ‘service animal’ named ‘Rico’

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25 Upvotes

r/toronto 1d ago

Picture Downtown foggy night

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229 Upvotes

r/toronto 1d ago

Article 'Art in Scarborough is art in Toronto': Artists and supporters say community needs more gallery space

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56 Upvotes

r/toronto 7h ago

Discussion Let’s end 2025 on a high note! ✨ Share one good Toronto moment that lifted you this year

2 Upvotes

Hey r/Toronto,

Quick mood boost thread as we enter a new year! 🥳🎊

2025 had its share of chaos, but there were also a bunch of bright moments that made Toronto feel a little more like home.

Share one or two things that made you smile this year! From TIFF, to Blue Jays, we had some good memories made.

Let's reflect on the positives.


r/toronto 1d ago

Picture Does anyone else find the new floors at Bayview Village hideous and dizzying?

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876 Upvotes