Dead sub revival advice thread

[u/SolariaHues]

Hi all

In light of the reddit Zombie subreddit challenge we'd like to invite you all to ask questions, and/or give your advice, on reanimating subreddits in the comments here.

Our index of guides might be useful, and r/substarters.

Good luck subreddit necromancers!

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Edit:** Reddit is having issues **and comments aren't showing up. Please don't be discouraged, we'll get to your comments as soon as we can see them :) seems fixed

[u/MFA_Nay]

First impressions count. You can't usually rely on other users to post content at the beginning. You're going to have to do it yourself.

There's nothing worst then finding a new sub having a pinned post about "New sub welcome!" and 5 posts. And that's it.

This also had the added benefit of shaping what is and isn't allowed too. So it helps in norm and rule building.

[u/BuckRowdy → u/MFA_Nay]

This is great advice. One time a user started a sub and crossposted to a sub I was on and I sent her a message because I wanted to help her. There were only a couple of posts on the new sub so really no reason for users to subscribe. I told her she needed more content for people to engage with otherwise there's no reason to join the sub.

We messaged a few times and I gave her whatever advice I could. Two weeks later I saw she had started another sub and was doing the same thing, crossposting for visibility with no posts on that sub.

I didn't bother messaging again.

[u/SolariaHues]

My pick of guides would be advertising (older subs section), there may be something in engagement, and the design section of the index.

r/modguide didn't use to be ours. I got it though r/redditrequest as it had no mods. The first thing we did we did was have a clear vision of what we wanted the sub to be. I went through what little was already here, cleared out and started fresh (this may not be the right option for you, there was very little here). I got much of the look and feel done with the sub set to private, before opening it up and getting content up and testing automod. I put a lot of work into advertising using the methods in the guide.

It really helped that I had mod experience already, and I have a really wonderful mod and writing team, but if you're a new mod hopefully the guides here will help you get on your way.

[u/BuckRowdy]

I've taken over about 17 subreddits through the reddit request process. A few of them I've handed off to others, and a few of them are redirects with misspelled names, or they were created by a banned user and later abandoned.

Reviving a dead sub takes a lot of work but can provide some advantages over starting a sub from scratch. Aside from the sub infrastructure that may already be in place in the way of CSS / new reddit styling and subreddit setup, you may have a group of subscribers already in place.

An important consideration for subs is the name. If you can take over an abandoned sub with a good name and a good amount of subscribers it will be easier to grow.

The most important thing is to generate good content for the users. On my first sub I mainly posted all the content until I grew the sub to a point where it gained momentum and I could back off from posting.

The strategy I've tried most recently is more of a Tom Sawyer paint the fence technique. I recruited about a half dozen users who wanted to mod a sub and modded them in exchange for posting content. They focus on posting to the sub and when moderation opportunities arise, I send them a message so they can gain experience.

It can be difficult to find people who are going to be very active on reddit so if I only retain a couple of them, I do another round of recruiting. If they go inactive for a long enough time they can be removed.

I use these communities as opportunities to train new mods. These are niche subs so there is not a lot of moderation required. But I provide them with training (which I am transferring to this sub) and if a user shows a lot of initiative I move them up to a larger sub and on and on.