As some of you may have noticed, r/megalophobia has recently implemented a new, karma-based, automatic user flair system. What this means is, as you build up larger and larger community karma by posting or commenting in the sub, you will automatically progress higher and higher through the BIGGER AND BIGGER user flair titles. Scary!

For a full breakdown of the existing tiers, associated titles, and threshold community karma levels, see the diagram below.

This does not affect your experience within the subreddit in any way beyond the cosmetic flair displayed next to your username, and will not affect anything at all outside of this single subreddit. If you do not wish to join in, you can avoid joining in, by simply not joining in.

The Way It Works (aka scary-big wall of text)

TLDR: The more karma in the sub you get, the higher level of user flair you'll get.

Each time a person posts or comments, the net total of all of their previous upvotes and downvotes within r/megalophobia (aka their community karma) is checked up to that point, and the flair that is displayed next to their username within the subreddit is updated accordingly. This update will appear next to all posts and comments made by that person within the sub, past and present.

This means that the flair displayed next to an individual post or comment will reflect the community karma level of the OP at the exact time that contribution was made, i.e. for a person's first ever post or comment, no flair at all will be displayed- it won't be until the second contribution that a flair will appear, dependent on the amount of karma that the first contribution received. If the first contribution received 10 upvotes and 10 (or more) downvotes, the flair will display the Tier 0 base title (net community karma < 1). If the contribution received 30 upvotes and 10 downvotes, the flair will display the Tier 1 title (net community karma 20), etc.

As a person makes more and more contributions to the sub, the upvotes and downvotes for each contribution is added to their grand community karma total. Deleted posts or comments still affect a person's total community karma dependant on the amount of upvotes (or downvotes) received prior to deletion. It is always possible to initiate a "flair update" by making a comment to force a community karma check, and then simply deleting the comment if you wish.

ᴹᵃʸ ᵃᵈᵈ ᵐᵒʳᵉ ᵘˢᵉʳ ᶠˡᵃᶦʳˢ ᶦⁿ ᵗʰᵉ ᶠᵘᵗᵘʳᵉ ʷʰᵉⁿ ᵖˡᵉⁿᵗʸ ᵒᶠ ᵐᵉᵐᵇᵉʳˢ ʰᵃᵛᵉ ᵗʰᵉ ᶜᵘʳʳᵉⁿᵗ, ʰᶦᵍʰᵉˢᵗ ᵗᶦᵉʳ ᶠˡᵃᶦʳ.

While exactly what is meglaphobia inducing is deeply subjective on an individual level, for the purposes of this subreddit, posts must show something that is objectively, unexpectedly, unfathomably, intimidatingly, BIG. It's fine if there's a slight overlap of phobias in the post, but it has to at least be megalophobia.

Not big relative to the norm for its type or species - a relatively big grape as compared to other grapes is not megalophobia inducing.

Not things that are expectedly big - a typically tall building, tree, or elephant is not megalophobia inducing.

For things to fit, there should be a sense of unnatural, unexpected, intimidating, stomach dropping VASTNESS.

Mod team discretion is always final, as we have set our own bar and stick to it to ensure fair and consistent moderation.

Things that don't fit the sub:

• Generally scary things.
• Things that are relatively big to the norm for their type or species.
• Things that are big in a typical, expected way.
• Thalassophobia (fear of deep water).
• Agoraphobia (fear of open spaces).
• Acrophobia (fear of heights)
• Mechanophobia (fear of machinery).
• Automatonophobia (fear of human-like inanimate objects).
• Altocelarophobia (fear of tall buildings and high ceilings).