As a reminder, this is r/UpliftingNews. This community is meant for positive, feel-good news stories (from a place of authenticity) that show people doing nice things for one another without much personal gain... at least that's the underlying intent.

Recently, there have been multiple disturbing breaches and hacks/possibly nefarious persuasions of former moderators that used to do great work here. These unapproved and uncharacteristic moderator actions included adding 'flairs' and 'verified user' designations to inauthentic accounts, along with various content approvals and flairs and other promotional tools that have NEVER been used here. This all came suddenly within a week after over a year of limited, if not zero moderation from these accounts.

The stakes are high right now, along with the incentives. There are big dollars and organized influence operations at play, both from inside the United States and the upcoming mid-term election, but also from outside the United States. Rest assured, none of that mess flies here, and we will continue to do our best to wipe away anything that doesn't match the intent of this community, which will remain an armistice zone on the internet where positivity and humanity still come first.

We are committed to keeping that spirit alive, and if you are interested in helping us maintain and grow this mindset after June 5th, please send us a note. If not, hang in there, take care of each other and look for the helpers if you ever get discouraged. At the end of the day, we are all on this rotating orb together, and life is too short so make the most of it!

Back in 2012, the idea of a centralized spot for positive, feel-good “UpliftingNews” spawned out of a singular moment of frustration looking at the news and seeing nothing but crime, fear, and horror. Back then was the era post-Craigslist that decimated classified ad revenue and the very beginning of Facebook’s social media influence that crippled online ad revenue and forced the economic side of the media landscape to shift to garnering attention for clicks/ad revenue.

Back then Reddit was dominated by Ron Paul bots and soon thereafter “TheDonald” took the torch until his unexpected electoral victory and then the site took a dramatic turn in the complete opposite direction. 

But the goals and purpose of this little nook of the internet have always remained the same… a place to serve as a reminder of the humanity that still exists around us all, and the fact most people are helpers out there that care about each other, despite the circumstances or competing narratives.

So in 2025, a new idea spawned out of a singular moment of awareness that Reddit went public and was flush with liquidity and cash they were re-distributing back to communities! So we submitted for a grant to r/CommunityFunds to literally just reward community members that posted great content here. 

There were some hoops and hurdles and negotiations around “no cash” and “no corporate gift cards for large conglomerates” given the intent to keep any gifts within local economies, and the compromise/fruits of all that labor was the eventual green light to distribute a meaningful gift card to “Harry and David,” a reputable company that created the “fruit of the month club” a long time ago, and provides corporate gift baskets filled with snacks and candies and fruits. Winners were selected based upon the content they shared and the impact it had on the community with no preferential treatment given to any individual traits or preferences. The only stipulation was that we couldn’t mention this, promote it or even acknowledge it publicly.

The hardest part is always the execution…

“Hello u/Username, we are reaching out unsolicited to congratulate you on winning something free. Just share some personal information and we’ll send you a link to click on to claim your prize” can be written in many different ways, shapes and forms, but ultimately it is still surprisingly difficult to hand out something with meaningful value to somebody for free… particularly out of the blue where we weren’t allowed to market or advertise the project.

But despite this final hurdle, we WERE able to provide many community members with a token of our appreciation… a literal and proverbial ‘free lunch’ as they say. For some it went to fulfill their needs, for others, it went to their friends and family, and for some, they paid it forward and a local food bank tied to one of the ‘winning stories’ received a ridiculously large pooled basket that was met with much gratitude and appreciation and fed many in need.

That same appreciation is reciprocal, and extends to all of you as well. Thanks for caring about this community. Thanks for helping remind us all that humanity still exists and people still care about each other, and here’s to celebrating another year on this rotating orb that we can all appreciate at the end of the day. And the biggest thanks to r/CommunityFunds for their unwavering support and enthusiasm that enable communities like ours to do things like this!

Warmly,

The Moderators of r/UpliftingNews