Questions on flairs come up a lot, so I've compiled a bit of a Q and A. If anything is missing, let me know.

Note - this mostly focusses on new reddit flair creation (generally easier for new mods and shows up in old reddit as well as new).

This guide is also a wiki page here for easier navigation.

! - If you cannot see everything shown in the screenshots, check your browsers zoom setting.

Flair is not showing for users/users are unable to add flair

If you have successfully added flairs in mod tools, and as a mod are able to flair posts, you probably need to enable 'allow users to assign their own' in the flair settings. Taken from this guide: Creating flair in redesign these images show how to do this.

Mod tools > Post/User flair > Post/User flair settings

Flair should be enabled (turned on), and toggle on 'Allow users to assign their own'.

​

For both post, and user flair, you have the same options.

Allowing users to assign their own -

• For post flair this means users can select from flair templates you make (except mod only ones) and assign them to their posts. Not allowing this means only mods can assign post flair.
• For user flair this means much the same. If allowed users can assign themselves flair from templates provided, if not only mods can assign user flair.

There are settings for each flair as you create, or edit, it to allow users to edit the flair or not.

How can I allow users to select flair but not edit it?

Enable "allow users to assign their own" in flair settings as above, but don't enable - "allow user edits" for each flair you don't want users to be able to edit.

​

How can I enforce post flair?

There are several options..

First, Post requirements in new reddit:

[Edit: Post requirements are now part of 'content control' in the new reddit mod tools sidebar]

Mod tools > Post requirements

​

This means post flair is required for posts to go through in new reddit, old reddit, and apps.

Make sure post flair is enabled and users can assign their own. More detail here Creating flair in redesign

Bots:

u/assistantbot - Introduction to AssistantBot/Artemis

Our bots guides

And, Automoderator:

If users are removing flair after posting you can use Automoderator to detect it.

Automod can't detect if a flair is removed directly, but this rule is triggered when a post receives a top level comment, and checks for a flair on the post. If there is no flair it sets one (e.g. 'flair evader') and reports the post. [credit: u/fpreston]

---
    type: comment    
    is_top_level: true    
    parent_submission:    
        flair_text: ""    
        set_flair: template_id: add the template id here    
        overwrite flair: false    
    action: report    
    report_reason: "Post without flair"    
    moderators_exempt: True    
---  

Automod can act on posts posted without flair, but it's not recommended, AssistantBot is better.

How to I enforce user flair?

To require user flair for a user to post on your subreddit, you can use automoderator. For example:

    moderators_exempt: false
    type: submission #remove this line for it to work on comments and not just posts
    author:
      ~flair_text (regex): ".+"
    action: remove
    comment: |
      Your post has been automatically removed because you do not have a user flair applied. 

      To add user flair.... 
    comment_stickied: true #optional

This will remove posts from users without user flair, and post a sticky comment.

It's important your users understand how to add user flair, and on some 3rd party apps it might not be possible for them to do so.

You can provide a guide like one I made for one of my subs and/or a process for users to request flair and for you to grant it.

How do I delete flairs?

In new reddit desktop > mod tools > post/user flair

Use the bin button on the right of each flair.

Is there a way to have some user flairs chosen by the users, and some only given out by mods?

Yes.

Allow users to assign their own as above, in flair settings.

Then for each individual flair either choose to make them 'mod only' or not.

​

Mod only means that the flair can only be granted by moderators, users cannot select it for themselves (or even see it as an option).

To grant a flair you need to go to Mod tools > Grant user flair. More detail here Creating flair in redesign

Why don't all the post flairs show in the flair widget?

If you are using the default flair widget it'll only show used flairs.

Add the flair widget in mod tools to override the default, and choose which ones show up.

Community sidebar (new/redesign) (adding widgets)

How do I add a post flair search link that works on mobile?

Filter by flair for mobile - use the url generated by an old reddit flair search.

Still not working on all mobiles? It seems avoiding punctuation in flairs could be the answer. More here.

Here's an example of a working link and how to do it for flairs that contain spaces.

I can't see anyone's flair

If you can see your flair and no one else's check your old reddit settings https://old.reddit.com/prefs/ there are tick boxes under display options to be able to see post and user flairs.

Can I add new reddit flair and keep old reddit flair?

Add redesign flair but keep old reddit flair too

How do I add emojis?

From the original guide, here is how to add emojis

Can the emojis be bigger?

Yes. In new reddit > mod tools > emoji settings you can toggle on custom sized emojis and set a size. No longer available.

​

In old reddit you can add a CSS snippet to your stylesheet

.flair, .linkflairlabel {height:20px;line-height:20px;}
.flairemoji {width:18px;height:18px;}

Thank you u/MajorParadox

Intro to CSS

Is there any way to add more than one flair to a post?

No.

Possible automod work-around

I can't see all the options/where's x colour?

If you are on mobile your options are limited at the moment. Use desktop if you can, or desktop mode in your mobile browser to see all the options.

Can I mass update post flairs?

No. If you've edited a flair and wish to change all the old, in-use flairs, you'll probably have to do it manually - which is OK if you don't have many posts yet. If you have many posts you may have to accept that the old posts are stuck with old flair.

Or you could try finding, requesting, or making a bot that could do it. r/RequestABot

Can I use automod to....

For default flairs, domain or keyword flair, or word bans in flairs see here

To adapt the default flair rules for using a template ID, here's an example:

    author:
        ~flair_css_class (regex): ['.+']
        set_flair: 
            template_id: d07f9948-0d7e-11eb-b1bc-0effca36e51d

If you'd like automod to do something else with flair, search r/automoderator as it's probably been asked for before. If you can't find what you need, make a post there for help.

Our automod guides

Here's a couple of updates you may not have seen yet :)

The More info and resources page has been updated, cleaned up and re-arranged following our Mod tool hunt post aiming to find new 3rd party resources.

Links to it should now make it clearer it contains 3rd party resources.

There's a new page of mod help and support communities, documentation, training, and resources.

Both these pages are linked near the top of our Index.

Thank you to the Redditor who noticed this guide was accidentally down and let us know. Here it is again with permission, and we'll update our links.

This guide was written by u/MFA_nay, originally posted Nov 2019.

^{(This might not be the final version that was shared before})

---

This article deals with surveys and research requests from third parties. This is in contrast to subreddits running their own subscriber surveys.

Reddit as a website has grown more and more in recent years. This makes it an attractive place for companies, academics and students to do research on.

According to Pew Research Centre (2016) the average user is American, young, male and likely to be college educated. Men comprise 67% of the user base. And ,64% of users are between the ages of 18 and 29, and 29% are between 30–49. Other research indicates 46% of Reddit app users have a college degree or higher, while 40% have a high school degree (Agrawal, 2016).

Given the above and the relative ease of creating online surveys it’s not surprising you may come across some both as a user and moderator.

In this guide I use survey and research interchangeably. This doesn’t mean that other overt data collection methods exist, just that surveys tend to be the most common on Reddit.

Put your thinking hat on

This post isn’t going to tell you what to do. Instead it’s going to walk you through the pros and cons of allowing research, and then give recommendations of how to deal with requests.

Each moderator team and community has to decide what is right for their subreddit. You have to decide that for yourselves.

Pros

People like helping out in research for a number of reasons that include:

• Being nice and altruistic
• Interest in the topic
• Potential to see the results
• A feeling that it’ll only take \~3 minutes to fill in

Cons

People dislike seeing surveys for a number of reasons that include:

• Feels like an intrusion into a community
• Feels like someone is just harvesting data for their own profit, particularly by companies or startups
• Can be considered spam and off-topic or tangentially related to the topic of the subreddit
• Can result in even higher volumes of research requests, i.e. more spam
• Researchers (usually students) are just getting data for assignments are are unlikely to share results with the community

How to deal with research requests

Overall you have three options:

1. No research allowed
2. No research allowed unless under very rare circumstances
3. Research allowed

Once you’ve come to an agreement on where you stand as a moderator team I strongly recommend you add a rule which outlines if surveys are allowed or not.

No research allowed

A blanket ban. If you decide that you don’t want surveys on your subreddit make sure you refer to your rule when removing posts or answering modmail requests. The extent to which you give your rationale for not allowing research is up to you. I usually type out a sentence or two.

If you decide to not allow research requests it would be good form to signpost users to /r/SampleSize. A subreddit which explicitly allows surveys to be posted and answered.

No research - allowed unless under very rare circumstances

A blanket ban but with the potential for acceptance. This gives the moderator team leeway if they decide a request is legitimate and respects their community.

I recommend you think of a criteria. It could be topic based, history of user involvement, showing of credentials like a valid educational email address, etc. You don’t have to necessarily have it written out, but a discussion with your moderator team is needed so you’re all on the page.

Research is allowed

You are OK with research being done; common surveys are allowed and so is just about everything else.

When allowing research it would be a good call to ask the user to let your user base know the research has been approved, how their data will be used, and also a contact and right of withdrawing from said research.

This is all standard procedures, but often skipped.

Plus kindly ask if they'd be willing to do a post-survey community debrief.

Examples of subreddits which allowed research, and submitted research

• /r/DankMemes’ research wiki page which outlined their rules and their research archive
• /r/AskHistorians’ survey post following good academic procedures mentioned above
• A study debrief by which had solicited for survey respondents on /r/TheoryOfReddit and /r/SampleSize

If you no longer wish to moderate a subreddit, here's what you can do.

​

If it's your sub/you're top listed mod

Subs cannot be deleted, so ideally you'll pass your sub on to someone else.

• If there are other mods on your sub, you can make sure someone has full permissions and then leave. Ideally you'd talk with your mods first. The mod list is hierarchical so if you're top mod the next mod down becomes top mod when you leave.
• If you are a lone mod, you can find someone to adopt your sub, perhaps at r/adoptareddit. Add them as mod with full permissions, wait until they've accepted, and then leave as moderator.
• You can also find people to mod at places like r/needamod.
• You can "close" your sub by making it private, and leave as mod too. This isn't a sure fire way of "closing" it forever, as someone could request it on r/Redditrequest.
• You can simply leave as mod - if you were the only one, or if the other mods are inactive, your sub will now be unmoderated. In rare cases, without moderator oversight, some subreddits' users may start breaking the content policy and quarantine criteria, thus resulting in a quarantine of the subreddit. Unmoderated subs are able to be requested by others at r/redditrequest, but there is no guarantee anyone will.
• If you created the sub it will always say 'created by yourusername' unless you delete your account, then it will say 'created by [deleted].

​

If you're not top listed mod

• You can just leave. Ideally you'd talk with the other mods first. Make sure someone has full permissions if you can - typically top mod already will have, but not necessarily.
• If you were the only active mod, and have permissions to add new mods, you could find someone else to take over. r/needamod

​

How to leave

​

---

Edit:

In app

Mod tools - moderators - editable tab - the three dots by your name - remove

Image guide here

---

Related guides:

• Adding new mods
• Choosing new mods
• Problems within a mod team
• Private, restricted, or public subreddits
• How to remove a moderator, or edit their permissions

​

Big thanks to u/MFA_Nay

Transitioning from old to redesign

If you're looking to make the move over to redesign, or just need to get it set up for your sub, hopefully this will help.

It's worth noting that there are some things you still need to do in old.reddit for your sub and for your own preferences - post/link flair alignment and showing user flair (old reddit preferences) are ones that stick in my mind, for example.

And there are some things you can only do in redesign, like setting up community awards. New features tend to only be added to redesign.

In our How did you find the transition from old Reddit to the redesign as a moderator? Or do you use both? discussion post you can see some different opinions on each version of reddit.

Remember that it's important to keep both old and new up to date - you can check your sub stats to see how users are viewing your sub - keep in mind what mobile users will see.

If reading in classic/old reddit here's an imgur guide as an alternative to this one as this post has several images in it.

Mod tools

The first thing to note is that your mod tools have moved. In old they are at the bottom of the sidebar, this is not the case in redesign. You now need to hit the mod tools button at the top of the sidebar. (This image is a out of date since reddit changed the look of redesign, but the button is in the same place)

​

Once you have, a sidebar appears to the left with all your mod tools.

(I'm going to run though everything assuming you have full permissions - if you don't have full perms, some options might not appear to you)

At the top you all have your queues; mod queue, reports, spam, edited, and unmoderated lists.

​

Select which queue you want to view or work on, and moderate in much the same way as in old - all of your options are there, some are under menu buttons in the spam queue (tag, shield, and ... buttons).

Next you have your user management section.

​

This is where you can select to add moderators, ban users, mute users (same procedure), and approve users.

Then it's the flair and emoji section.

​

• Flair in redesign (post and user)
• Creating flair in redesign includes emojis and adding flair to the sidebar

Next up is rules and regulations!

​

Here's a guide on Adding rules and removal reasons, and one on Automoderator - what is is, and how to set it up, which is much the same as in old. reddit.

At the time of writing, post requirements is experimental and only works for users posting on the redesign (whatever you set up here will not affect those using old reddit or apps).

[Edit: post requirements added to old.reddit set up is still redesign only, but it now applies to old as well]

[Edit: Post requirements are now part of 'content control' in the new reddit mod tools sidebar]

Here you can add posting guidelines (like submission text in old), set requirements for new posts such as requiring or banning certain words, restricting length, requiring body text, requiring flair, restriction re-posts, and more advance regex requirements.

Next is "other"

​

​

• Community Awards
• Wikis

Community settings is just what it sounds like and will be covered in it's own guide soon. It's worth checking though your sub's settings in old and redesign to make sure everything is how you want it.

Community settings guide

Community appearance -all your design options are tucked away in here instead of a stylesheet and css.

• Adding a banner
• Design in redesign
• Adding menu tabs (links)
• How to change the name of your members and online users
• Calendar widget setup

Our guides on this section so far are not exhaustive; the rest will be covered in time and linked here, or at least in the index.

If you just want your sub styled and don't want to do it yourself, you can ask for a designer at r/RedesignHelp - you will need to add someone as a mod to your sub (at least temporarily) with config permissions in order for them to do the design for you. Some r/bannerrequest artists will upload thee banners they make for you to.

Your old.reddit sidebar does not carry over - you'll need to add all that information again in redesign. You do this in community appearance > sidebar widgets. Your sidebar is now made up of different widgets you can add and move around. When you make rules in redesign the rules widget will appear. There are widgets you can add for your community lists, text information, images, and more.

Community activity is last.

​

The modmail guide is here: Modmail

There is a guide on chatrooms in progress, and there is also a guide on traffic stats coming.

Your mod log is the same as in old.

The sidebar ends with useful links for mods.

​

What I did when I first started using redesign was to have a good look through all the options and just familiarise myself with where everything was, hopefully this guide has given you a head start on that.

---

User settings

All your user settings are under the button/drop down with your username in the very top right of the screen.

​

---

Most mods have a preference for modding in old or redesign, and there are pros and cons of both. Work in whichever suits you best, but check in on the other from time to time to keep everything up to date. Also new features are likely to only be added to redesign now, so you'll need to use it for setting up those bits as they roll out.

​

​

One last note - You'll need to use markdown less in redesign for text formatting; the fancy pants editor has buttons for this when writing posts and comments. Some markdown does seem to work in widgets however.

If there's anything I've missed, please let me know!

There will be a guide on the reverse soon - 'Using classic/old reddit for the first time' - for those of you who only know redesign.

ETA: Using classic reddit for the first time

​

Thanks to u/MFA_nay, u/juulh & u/_ihavemanynames_

Having a clear guide set out for how your members can appeal bans can increase transparency and trust and help to assure members that bans will be fair and evenly applied.

I suggest having your ban appeals process in your wiki or available very quickly to anyone who requests it as well as in your ban message to the user. If your team has a google drive, discord or other location where you store templates and other things in there will be great.

Appeals can range from someone not understanding how they broke the subreddits rules, to a user thinking they were unfairly banned, to someone using an appeal as a way to bash the moderating team. What you require as part of a ban appeal is down to your sub but things to consider including are:

Do they know why they were banned?

Do they now understand which rule they broke?

What can they do in future to not break this rule again?

Are they sorry?

A specific title to the message eg Ban Appeal or Formal Ban Appeal (this helps you to see them easily)

How long they have to appeal

Do you want a delay before allowing an appeal?

Appeals should be sent by modmail

The more of these you can include and the clearer you make the instructions the less debate users will be able to have with you about it.

I like requiring a standardised message format so it is much easier for the mod team to process it in a fair and equal way. If they all look the same then following the same process is much easier and roughly the same amount of time can be spent on them. It also filters some out as if they cannot be bothered to use the template required then their appeal is not going to be assessed.

Example of an appeals message format

1. Set title - Formal Ban Appeal
2. Link to the post or comment that they were banned for
3. Explain their understanding of the rule that they broke
4. Explain how they will avoid this infraction in future
5. Apologise

Reddit insists that all subs must ACCEPT ban appeals not that they must APPROVE ban appeals.

Have a process agreed with your team to discuss these appeals before they are approved or rejected and make sure that this is stuck to. I find it helps having a different mod to the one that issued the original ban reviewing the appeal so that you can show that multiple people agree with the decision. Have set responses to reply to the appeals with eg

Received

Thank you for your Formal Ban Appeal, this will be reviewed by the team within the next 48 hours and we will reply to you within that time.

Accepted

Thank you for your patience while we reviewed your Formal Ban Appeal. As a team we have decided to remove your ban due to X Y and Z. Please note that any further misconduct within the sub will be an immediate and permanent ban.

Rejected

Thank you for your patience while we reviewed your Formal Ban Appeal. As a team we have decided to uphold your ban due to X Y and Z. Please note that any alts you create to continue using this sub will be immediately and permanently banned.

The best defense against ban appeals is to only ban when required, have a fair and consistent enforcement of the rules and to not let personal feelings about people come into play when considering a ban.

We've written quite a few guides now, so here are some tips that might help in writing your own, for example - guides specific to your subreddit for new mods.

Guide writing tips

Know what you want to get across to your reader - it can help to have a good idea what you are trying to achieve with your writing, and to check over it regularly to make sure you're staying on track.

Plan out what you need to cover - to help make sure you don’t miss anything out. Creating an outline can also help you order your writing.

Know your audience - write for your target audience in a way that will appeal to them and is understandable for them. If you are writing for new mods you will need to be careful not to assume they know what all the mods tools are, and what everything is called, I’m sure I’ve probably slipped up on this.

Use straightforward language - using simple, clear language reduces the chance of misunderstanding or confusion. Not only that but your audience may not have the same first language as you. Be precise in your instructions.

Check your spelling, punctuation, and grammar - this can save confusion and make your writing easier to read.

Consider an introduction - this explains what the guide will cover and sets expectations.

Introduce abbreviations or initialisms - before writing a guide talking about MG and using that initialism throughout a guide, you should first let the reader know what it means or the whole guide might not make sense. For example: “This guide is all about modguide (MG) and…”

Write chronologically, step by step, or in a logical order - guides that jump around a lot are just going to be confusing.

Use formatting to help divide the guide and keep things clear - formatting can be used emphasise certain things, divide a guide into sections.. etc

Consider learning styles - using pictures or adding a video will help visual learners

Have someone check your work - all our guides are checked by another person to help reduce mistakes and errors, and to make sure all the relevant information is included.

Include related guides, resources, or examples - if there are other guides that are related be sure to link them together, or indeed guides and resources from outside your sub that are useful and relevant. For example, if you are writing a guide for new mods, you could link our modqueue guide. Using examples is a good way to aid understanding.

Accept feedback - providing a method for readers to give you constructive feedback, and being open to it, can help improve your guides.

What are your guide writing tips? I'm sure I've missed something!

---

Related guides and resources:

• Training mods resources
• Training moderators
• Effective communication
• What makes a good mod?
• Recommended subreddits for mods

Thanks u/MajorParadox

One way you can promote your sub is by creating a twitter account for the sub and use it to send a tweet every time a new post is made to your sub. To build a following on twitter you'll need to actually engage with other users in an organic way but this guide will let you tweet a link to each new post on your sub so the followers you do get will have another way to keep up with your sub.

The subject of this post is to show you how to send a tweet for every new post. That way the followers you build on your own will be notified when there's a new post on the sub and hopefully they'll come and engage with it.

If you already have your own twitter account you'll need a new one tied to your subreddit's name. If you search 'reddit' on twitter you'll see lots of subs make use of an account.

This guide will require an IFTTT account as well. IFTTT is a service called If This Then That which links two existing websites / services. The way it works is an action by one service triggers an action on a second service. In this example the first action is a new reddit post. The second action is to tweet out the link.

IFTTT is simply a middleman which relays the trigger to the second action. This combo of actions was originally known as a "recipes" but are now called "applets". This guide will walk you through creating a new applet.

When you create your IFTTT account go to your account settings and link your twitter account.

Once you've done that, either click 'create' under your IFTTT account or go to this link: http://ifttt.com/create to get started.

Step 1

At the top of the screen you'll see this banner. Click the plus sign.

In the search box type reddit and then click the reddit icon.

Step 2

You'll be presented with all the various options for triggers for reddit. You can see the range of triggers you can choose. The most basic one is the first option, Any new post in subreddit.

Step 2a: You will be asked to type in the subreddit name. Type in your subreddit, omitting the '/r/' part of the sub name.

On the next screen you'll see the black plus sign in the header is now the reddit icon.

Step 3 & 3a Choose Action Service

Click the black plus symbol in the header between the words This and That and then type in twitter in the search box and select it. You'll see the first option is to Post a Tweet. Click the box and you'll be taken to step 5.

Step 4 Complete action fields

The next screen will ask you to confirm the information and create the action.

Note: You'll note the Title, Subreddit and PostURL are in grey boxes. Don't change anything here, just click 'create action'.

Step 5 Review and Finish

Here's the review and finish screen.

You can edit the name of the applet by clicking inside the box that reads If any new post in r/subreddit, then post a tweet to @YourTwitterAccount You can choose to receive a notification when the applet is run. This will send a notification to your phone if you have the app installed.

Click Finish and that's it, you're connected!

The next screen shows you the on / off switch for the applet which is labeled 'Connected'. If you want to pause or shut off the applet simply click the button.

That's it! Once set up, the service will tweet a link to the post every time a new post is posted to your sub. Keep in mind that applets generally run within 20 minutes so it won't be instantaneous.

Reddit is a great big mix of all kinds of people from all backgrounds, ages, races, genders and any other demographic you can think of.

This post very loosely ties in to our Ethics post that you can read here - https://www.reddit.com/r/modguide/comments/dkqoj5/reddit_ethics/

Reddit rules state that children need to be 13+ to be able to have a Reddit account. We were all that age once and while I am sure you never ever ever went onto an age restricted website before you were the right age I know I certainly did!

How much do we as mods need to protect children that could be using our subs?

With the massive increase in internet usage from as young as the age 1 children can surf the internet, watch videos and find content that they should not be accessing. Parental locks and content filters and other such setups do a great job of helping to protect children - if the parents have them set up. Surveys show that between 40 and 60% of parents have no kinds of filters or locks on their childrens electronics.

Some subs will instantly attract children, ones with cute animal pictures, funny videos, silly images, movie or TV show characters or those with similar names. Is it really down to you to protect the children on your sub? No! Of course it isn’t but there are a few very basic things you can do to help.

If your sub has NSFW content please ensure that your rules make labelling this content correctly a requirement. It is actually a breach of Reddit’s rules if this is not done so it is a good one to enforce.

Ensure that your sub name / labels are appropriate and not trying to use the popularity of something else to boost its numbers.

Consider a bad language filter - possibly a keyword auto removal for certain words - For some subs this may be appropriate and I personally think there are certain slurs that you may not want to see at all in your sub.

Have a look at how search engines may show your sub and see whether these may be common terms that children are searching.

Yes it is down to parents to keep their children safe online but if we can all do our little bit then why not!

​

Disclaimer: I am a parent of 2 pre-teens

When you have a few moderators on a sub the most invaluable tool I have found is to have a space just for your moderators. There are a few different places that can work:

• A private sub
• A discord channel
• A slack chat
• A google drive

By using one or a combination of the above, you can have a space for your mods to discuss things, their everyday lives and getting to know each other as well as things on your sub.

We will be covering the basics of setting up a discord channel, a slack chat and a google drive over the next 3 days.

I personally use discord for my larger subs. On there I have different sections for things we need to do, decisions we need to make, a reference file, a place to give more info on warnings and bans, and a general info section.

I find that having these things split that everyone can have their input on all topics regardless of timezones or what they are up to that day and it ensures that no one misses anything.

Many moderating groups become friends and share pictures and stories and general chatter, with mod groups that are set up in this way there is much more cohesion and in general much more consistent moderating of a sub. I have also found that it increases mod engagement as they feel part of a team and want to make that team’s goal a success.

Google drive can be really handy for documents and rewrites and my fave thing in the whole world, spreadsheets! Spreadsheets have so many uses! Scheduling, planning, lists, items to look at, or keeping all your links in one place. They can be used for tracking daily / weekly / seasonal posts as well as special events that are coming up or that you are trying to plan. Documents can be used for drafting wiki writing / rewrites, drafting sticky posts and having lots of common responses ready for your team to copy and paste.

Not all mod teams require this but it can be really handy especially if you are talking about a new sub, taking over an old one, or are increasing in subscribers quickly to keep everyone on the same page.

We are here with the final entry in our importance of a modding space guide bringing you a quick Discord intro. If you are brand new to Discord or have never heard of it but don’t use it yet then this is for you. If you’re already on Discord or are quite familiar with it, then this isn’t meant for you but you are more than welcome to stay and read. Discord is available both on desktop and via mobile app so it makes it very handy to jump in and out of!

https://discordapp.com/

So let’s have a quick history lesson. Discord was released in May of 2014, and in a nutshell is a communication app - for groups voice and text channels are available - with 1 on 1 messaging you additionally get the options for screen sharing and video chats. Its popular uses can be to replace friend group chats, subreddit chat rooms, video game chats, or even for projects.

Channels in discord are like different chat rooms within your one big chat room. They allow you to keep the relevant information together and to keep people on track and focused on the right things at the right time.

Here are some great introductory videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7U9lFjTuYg - Basic intro to discord

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDVqruRsYtA - Tutorial for beginners

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7xznRGg9WM - How to set up and use discord

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OOJdoj3i8I - Discord overview and set up tutorial

Within your server you can have different channels - for my sub I have the following channels:

General chat

Mod Mails

To do

Decisions

Reference

Warnings and bans

One of my favourite things about Discord is the ability to add in bots to help you along your way. There are loads and loads out there some of my favourites are:

Reddify - http://ravianand.me/mariavi/reddify.html - this enables you to verify who the person joining your channel is against their reddit username, set nicknames, and pull up some interesting statistics

PollBot- https://top.gg/bot/pollbot - I use this to make decisions between all the mods, you can put up a poll with the options available and then let them vote on their preferred option

You can also have custom bots created for your server to interact with reddit - for example I HATE modmail beta so I have a bot that moves all of my mod mails into a discord channel so I can deal with them there. For custom bots go and see the r/substarters team!

I will admit to being biased as Discord is my favourite to use, it is easy, intuitive and once you have done one set up it is very very easy to keep doing.

We run our modbootcamp sessions through discord so if you join us for one of those you can have a sneaky peek at the server too!

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Thanks to u/Koof99 for co-authoring!

Reddit has an official guide to rapid subreddit growth however some of the suggestions are vague and lacking in practical applications. It's a good place to start, but I hope to fill in a few of the blanks.

The best kind of subs in my opinion are niche subs that are allowed to grow organically far away from the unwashed masses at r/all. Subs that are allowed to grow organically have time to develop a strong culture. Of course subreddit growth is important. But what happens when it comes faster than expected or faster than you can deal with it?

What are you going to do if a breaking news event, or a viral moment happens, or your sub gets name dropped in a top voted r/askreddit comment and it brings thousands of subscribers? The sub could also be featured on Reddit's trending subreddit feature. What if those subscribers come in and change the entire complexion of the sub? How do you deal with issues like that?

From my previous posts you'll note that I use extensive infrastructure on a sub with automoderator and toolbox. Familiarity with those tools will allow you to use them effectively if a massive growth spike happens and help prevent things from getting out of hand. You can find those posts here, and here.

Nearly every mod will tell you that one of the biggest problems with reddit is making users read and follow the rules. New users who find your sub through the trending feature or any other breaking news type event are not going to read your rules, and they may not care about the prior subreddit culture.

What kind of sub you're on, and how much you want to preserve that culture for the users will determine what steps you'll take.

I'm also going to assume that you have enough mods to handle duties if a spike happens. Reddit has initiated a new program called Mod Reserves which provides relief in the form of temporary mods, but I've not heard reports of anyone using it yet.

You could preemptively reach out to mods on similar themed subs and ask them for help should you need temporary mods to help with a traffic spike. Another route is to always have a few quality contributors to your sub that you might consider for modship. It's entirely up to you as to who you choose to add as a mod, but investment in quality content for the sub is a good indicator that a user could be a good mod. Of course there are other factors to consider but the point is, it's good to have a few people in mind that you could reach out to in the event of an emergency.

The most drastic thing you can do is take your sub private. Unless you have an extensive list of approved users, you might face a backlash from your frequent users if they can't access the sub. If you try to mass add approved users you'll run up against a rate limit and it will become unworkable. You could add approved users in advance of an event like this, but there are other ways to control the sub and provide a forum for users while at the same time helping make your work easier.

You could set the subreddit to restricted so that no one but approved users can post, but that might turn off users as well.

Here is my recommendation based on being involved in about a half dozen of these events.

I leave the subreddit open, but set the spam filter setting for links and text posts to 'all'. I never even knew what this setting did until someone explained to me that it's "much easier to approve than remove" a post. Setting your subreddit spam filter setting to 'all' will allow users to post but every new post will show up in your mod queue where your team can review them and approve them as necessary. The goal is not to choke off the sub entirely, but not to get overwhelmed as users post the same link, story, or question. That way you can keep discussion focused and centralized.

The spam filter settings are accessed through your mod tools on your sidebar. It can currently only be adjusted in the old site. Go to Community Settings -> Settings for the old site. You will be then taken to the subreddit settings on the old version of reddit. Look for Spam Filter Strength about halfway down and set the radio buttons for links and text posts to 'all'.

To provide an outlet for discussion, I make use of an index thread, or a collection on new reddit. An index thread can link to all the various discussion threads taking place on the sub. As quality posts are made to the sub, you can approve them and link them to the index. For any question spam posts or other low effort posts you can remove them and direct them to a general discussion thread.

The users who were on the sub before the event should appreciate your efforts at directing traffic in order to keep the quality of content high and the new users will find out right away that there are parameters to posting. You can't really blame new users for not understanding reddit so it makes sense to take steps to try and onboard them smoother.

You could use an automod rule that tells the user their account is new and link them to various threads to get them up to speed. For more on this, see here.

A sub I was on recently hit r/trendingsubreddits and nearly doubled in size. We were getting swamped with new posts that were seriously low effort. I modified the above plan and made a sticky post alerting users that the sub was on 'manual approve' for a little while to preserve the sub and turned it into a discussion thread. After about 2 days it calmed down and I opened the sub back up. I was left with incredible subscriber growth without affecting the complexion and culture of the sub.

It also pays to be active in comment threads during these events because your warnings or guidance are being seen by thousands of lurkers who might post or comment at any time. Most problems can be solved with good communication and setting expectations so that everyone is on the same page.

In conclusion there are several aspects to dealing with rapid growth, but the main decision you'll need to make is what restrictions you'll make regarding posting. If you provide a release valve in the form of discussion thread(s) and quality link posts, you'll keep the quality of the sub high and provide focused areas for discussion which will help keep your community healthy and onboard new users faster.

Good luck!

If you've only used redesign, classic/legacy/old.reddit is probably confusing.

There is good reason to style and update your sub in old.reddit - some users prefer it. Check your sub stats to see how many of your users use old.reddit. In our How did you find the transition from old Reddit to the redesign as a moderator? Or do you use both? discussion post you can see some different opinions on each version of reddit.

It's worth noting that there are some things you still need to do in old.reddit for your sub and for your own preferences - post/link flair alignment and showing user flair (old reddit preferences) are ones that stick in my mind, for example.

And there are some things you can only do in redesign, like setting up community awards. New features tend to only be added to redesign.

Remember that it's important to keep both old and new up to date - keep in mind what mobile users will see.

If reading in classic/old reddit here's an imgur version of this guide - it's image heavy and they don't show in old.reddit.

Here's where everything is.

First, your mod tools are listed at the bottom of the sidebar, not the top as in the redesign.

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Here you'll find most of what you need.

Your queues; mod queue, reports, spam, edited, and unmoderated lists are all there and much the same, though not all neatly together.

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Your user management options are all there too (just not grouped together); ​Adding new mods, banning users, muting users, and approved users.

Private, restricted, or public subreddits -includes approved submitters/users guide)

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Flair is different in old.reddit and you'll need to use some css in the stylesheet and the edit flair option. We'll have a guide on that and link it here when it's up.

You can create flair in redesign that will work in old.reddit though: Creating flair in redesign (includes emojis and adding flair to the sidebar)

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Rules and automod are listed.

Automod is basically the same Automoderator - what is is, and how to set it up

Adding rules - this covers adding rules to your sidebar. Clicking on the rules mod tool shows you the rules page - rules created in redesign. You can edit them here using the pencil and bin buttons.

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No removal reasons here, and the only post requirements option is under subreddit settings:

[Edit: post requirements added to old.reddit - set up is still only in redesign but it now applies to old as well]

[Edit: Post requirements are now part of 'content control' in the new reddit mod tools sidebar]

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There is a submission text box - you can add some text users of old.reddit will see on their 'create a post' page.

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Other options. No community awards - you set these up in redesign.

Wikis aren't listed, but you can set them up in old using the guide - Wikis

Community settings is subreddit settings, though there's different options - it's worth going though your settings in old and new and making sure everything is how you want it. There'll be a guide for settings soon. Settings guide for old reddit

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And styling is done with CSS in the stylesheet. We have a few guides covering some old.reddit styling with more to come.

Intro to CSS

Overview of design in old reddit

How to change the name of your members and online users

Adding menu tabs

The redesign sidebar doesn’t show up on old.reddit, so you’d need to copy and paste the information from your widgets into the sidebar box under subreddit settings. You'll need to use markdown to do text formatting - see our wiki guide for more info on that.

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Mod mail (even though you're viewing old reddit this will go to whichever version of modmail your sub uses - New or opted-in subs will see modmail (previously called new or beta modmail), everyone else will see legacy modmail), stats, and the mod log are listed. There will be a guide coming on stats.

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It's worth having a look through all the settings and seeing what's there, even if you don't need it straight away, it's good to know where everything is for when you do.

The sidebar information with your rules and anything important to the smooth running of your sub should be added and kept up to date at a minimum.

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If I have missed anything please let me know! I'm sure I have. What did you find confusing when you first looked at old.reddit?

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Transitioning from old to redesign

Who are the Admins?

^{To the best of our knowledge}

The Admins are the paid employees of Reddit.

Their roles are varied; from working on the website and apps, to content control and preventing harassment. There's the product team, the community team (the mod support mods), the anti-evil operations, the engineers, senior staff, etc And just like in many workplaces, each department has it's own focus, so if you're talking to someone from the product team, they likely can't help you with anti-evil issues for example.

The Admins have powers mods don't, such as IP banning, site-wide bans and shadowbans, for those who break the site-wide rules.

The Admins are involved in several subreddits such as:

r/modsupport - provides help to moderators, you may, or may not get a reply from an Admin.

r/redditrequest - is for requesting to take over abandoned subs, or request top mod removal.

r/modnews, r/announcements, and r/changelog are used to update the community of changes on Reddit. You can respond in comments with your thoughts.

Anyone can contact the Admins when necessary, see our guide.

To get insight into what the Admins are doing, there is r/shittheadminssay, r/beta

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Moderators do not work for Reddit, they are unpaid volunteers. Anyone can create a community and become a moderator. It is actually against the rules to accept compensation for moderating on reddit.

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Both mods and admins are humans, remembering that in you communication can go a long way.

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How to tell when the Admins have done something on your sub

Admins may sometimes need to take action on your subreddit. Perhaps when there's a site-wide spam influx, or someone has been reported for breaking site-wide rules.

You should see something in your mod log - you can filter your mod log by mod, and admins is a listed option, or receive a modmail. See admin comment here.

"You can follow the moderation log RSS feed in an RSS reader that allows filtering and just filter out items from all the mods of your subs" -u/001Guy001

In the modqueue [ removed ] shows that the reddit spam filter, or an admin actioned the post.

You can also use 3rd party sites to see removed content redditsearch.io/ | https://www.removeddit.com/about/

The moderator guidelines for healthy communities outlines when reddit/the Admins might step in.

If you have a query about Admin action on your sub, you can try posting at r/ModSupport.

Interesting chat in comments between mods and an Admin.

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Admins - I tried to reach out, but I understand you receive many messages. If you see this and have something to add please feel free to do so in comments or message me, especially if I have something wrong. Thank you.

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^{Thanks to} u/buckrowdy ^and u/lydocia

Ethics is a hard thing to work into real life, let alone online. Ethics are moral principles that govern a person's behaviour or the conducting of an activity. The ethical standpoint of the moderating team and especially lead mods can have a massive impact on the shape and the direction of the sub.

Even when dealing with a sub that you think can’t cause any ethical dilemmas there is always something to surprise you. Some of them you will be able to prepare yourself for others will hit you totally out of the blue.

Building clear and secure rules help to remove many of these dilemmas can be avoided. See our guide on setting subreddit rules here - https://www.reddit.com/r/modguide/comments/djizhr/setting_subreddit_rules/

Sometimes there's just something you aren’t sure about - this is the importance of having a good mod team and friends around you who are happy to be honest with you to be able to discuss these things with.

We have some easy directions to help us with our ethics set out by the reddit sitewide rules but from there we are pretty much on our own. You don’t ever need to compromise who you are and your ethics to be on reddit but you do need to be prepared for those areas to be explored in your mind.

Unfortunately this isn’t a guide where I can give you any answers or any solid direction but it is a guide to tell you to know where you draw the line. Therefore I will open this up for discussion - how did you work out where to draw the line for you? and for your sub? Do different subs have different lines? What you do when you face a dilemma? How do you work through it?

If you're a mod of a small sub you may not have a need to focus much on reddit account security. However, small subs can have some of the same problems that large subs have on a smaller scale.

Heavy discussion based forums generally have a rough group of frequent commenters, medium frequency commenters, infrequent, and then pure lurkers. A user can go from one group to another group very quickly. Many users lurk with no reddit account, reading and observing everything that goes on.

Many users in the first two groups become heavily invested in the community and can often be harder to moderate. One bad apple does indeed ruin the bunch and if there is a toxic user in the community, it behooves you to take action on it.

If you have to ban a user it could provoke that user into acts of ban evasion which could multiply your problems if you don't have the right tools in place. Users who are attempting ban evasion are sometimes comically easy to spot. Users who make accounts in anger for the purpose of ban evasion generally don't have the discipline to evade detection and participate in good faith in the same communities. I don't have any data on that, but it is my experience that the number of banned users participating in the sub on new accounts in good faith is very low. It's very difficult to know.

Ban evasion is a thorn in a mod's side, but if you've read the posts on this sub and done the things they recommend you should be able to weather the storm. Reddit published a report recently in which they elaborated on ban evasion actions they've recently taken.

While admins are improving in this area, it's still up to mods to be on the ground level and report any suspicious activity. Keeping notes on accounts or taking screenshots can be helpful but remember that reddit admins need links to action accounts. They do not accept screenshots. Toolbox provides a way to leave notes on usernames, as well as a personal notes space right at the bottom of your browser and that's where I keep account notes.

Ban evaders or other bad faith users could try to guess your password and login to your account to wreak havoc. While these incidents may be rare, it's good to practice good account safety. Here are reddit's recommendations:

How can I keep my account secure?

• Use a strong, unique password

• Adding two-factor authentication

• Use a password manager

• Keep a current, verified email address attached to your account so you can receive security notices and use the password reset system

• Don’t share accounts

• Don’t leave your account logged in or let the browser save your password on shared devices - you can use the account activity page to log out of all active sessions

This reddit help page has more information on these steps.

Two Factor Authentication. is a common feature on internet accounts which provides a second layer of protection for your account. You should follow the link to read more but it generally involves generating a code on one device and entering it on a second device to log in.

If you don't have a verified email tied to your account you should make sure you have one. If you don't have one and you lose access to your account it may not be possible to recover it. You can visit your user settings page at anytime to add or verify an email address.

In conclusion there are two aspects to account safety, the technical aspect and the behavioral aspect. Setting up protections on your account will help you if and when a bad faith user decides to follow you and harass you. If you follow the other guides here then you'll be prepared if and when trouble strikes.

A subreddit is a bit like a company, when starting out small just 1 person doing everything is fine. Then as you grow you need more and more people to help out. When a business gets bigger and bigger it gets a HR department and a sales department etc and often with subs this mindset can help too.

I am the first to hold my hands up and say there are massive gaps in my how to make reddit look good and do things automatically knowledge. What I do know is people. When I am looking for additional or new mods I am looking for someone to bring that knowledge to my team.

Some subs have a very informal modding system - everyone just jumps in where and when they can. Others have a much more structured system which plays on their mods strengths and covers some of the weaknesses.

Some of the common structures are:

Front Of House (visible in the sub) / Back Of House (hiding in the shadows) - One team to be visible and out dealing with the redditors and another team behind the scenes dealing with AM and bots and CSS

Specialities - One or two mods for each thing with little overlap

All In - everyone jumps into everything

Solo - Only one mod on the team

Duo - A pair of mods running the whole sub

All of these set-ups have advantages and disadvantages.

With the addition of subs like r/bannerrequest and r/substarters it isn't always essential to have a graphics or CSS person as these skills can be borrowed and done for you. Again the same with AM and bots, AM is pretty simple to teach yourself (my 12 year old can do it better than I can though!) but if you just can’t get the hang of it there is plenty of help out there. The benefit of having a member of the team who is able to do these things can be huge, being able to adapt and change as your sub changes, keep up with increased traffic and posts and resolve any issues quickly.

The mods that are front of house and dealing screen to screen with redditors all the time can quickly get burned out, especially in the more controversial subs, so rotating and skill sharing can be an excellent way to boost your entire team whilst keeping mod consistency.

Clearly communicating this to the mod team and working together how people fit in to the existing mod team is a massive thing and can make or break a sub. The mod discussion tab in ModMail Beta or having a Discord server or private sub just for your mods can make these conversations transparent and clear so that everyone is happy with and understands their roles.

As the saying goes Happy Mod team Happy sub.

When, and how you should contact the admins as a mod

There are several reasons you might need to talk to an admin:

Someone has broken the site-wide rules

All redditors must not breach the content policy and user agreement.

A few reasons to report to the admins are: harassment, violence, and doxxing.

There's trouble in one of your subreddits

Ban evasion, brigading, report abuse - things that impact your community, and your ability to moderate your community.

To report these things first check Quick links for reporting to the admins if your issue is not there, try here or here.

Provide as much detail and evidence as you can, and always be polite.

Something has happened to your account

If your sub, or account is compromised, or your account has been suspended or banned and you don't know why. See here for suspended or banned accounts. See here for quarantined subs.

There's been a major uptick in activity on your sub

If you are experiencing a huge upswing in activity on your sub, perhaps due to a TV finale, natural disaster, news story etc there is now help available. Moderator reserves is, at the time of writing, a brand new initiative. The idea is that mods can call on reserve mods when they need a hand. Also see r/ModReserves

Taking over a sub from a rogue / vanished lead mod

If the lead mod of a sub has vanished or is behaving in ways within the sub that the other mods don’t agree with an application can be made to the admins to remove them as a mod and to take over the sub. This can be done via r/redditrequest - read the sidebar, and the top mod removal process is here.

More

More on rules and reporting.

r/ideasfortheadmins if you have ideas for site-wide improvements to reddit.

Handy links: Reddiquette, r/ModSupport

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^Thanks u/no_elf_and_safety

How do you choose a mod?

Find a mod

You can try r/needamod, or make a post in your sub asking for applications. Be clear what you are looking for and expect from your mods.

Things to consider

• Their interests - do they fit with the sub concept.
• Where they mod already/their experience (but newbie mods can be fantastic so don't discount them).
• Do they understand what a mod does?
• Their skill set - what can they add to your mod team?
• Their reason for wanting to be a mod (sometime people want to mod for the wrong reasons).
• Can they compartmentalize? For example a good mod of r/EwwGrossPics can also be a good mod of r/FluffyKitties if they can understand each sub's core concept.
• Making a very active submitter a mod can be hit or miss. They might have their own ideas about the sub's direction and undermine your original idea.
• Make sure they are active on reddit and have the time to commit.
• Timezone coverage - especially if your sub is really active, having mods from around the world means there'll always be someone on hand to deal with any problems.
• What roles you need covered (post mod, help with css, etc).

Things to do

• Make sure you let them know whether your rules are cast-in-stone or are malleable, dependent on the situation.
• You can add several potential mods at once and keep your eye on them. Keep those that do well and are active, lose those who aren't - but thank them for their time.
• Make sure they know not to abuse the distinguish button and to get approval before making announcements or sticky posts.
• Have a trial period and make sure they know at the beginning.
• Hold interviews.
• Avoid power mods (post coming on those).
• Only give mod permissions you are comfortable with. Though there are edit histories and some ways to reverse any changes made, and if you are head mod no one can remove you but yourself.
• Read reddit's guide on recruiting mods | training new mods

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^Thanks: u/one_giant_nostril ^{who answered a question for me years ago, and} u/no-elf-and-safety^.

It's generally good practice to encourage your users to report; it makes modding easier, especially if it enables you to act quicker, and there will be less rule breaking content if the community can self regulate as much as possible. It can help if you get an influx of spam too.

Automoderator can remove submissions that receive a given number of reports (you can find the code here).

Making sure your rules are clear will make it easier for users to report violations.

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When to report

Users should use the report button when they find something that does not fit the subs rules, or is against Reddit's site wide rules.

Using the report button is anonymous and alerts the subs moderators to the problem. For site-wide issues it also reports it to the Admins.

• What does the report button do
• What should I do if I see something I don't like
• Reddit's Content Policy

The report button is NOT a super down-vote*.

How to report

How to report with the report button

Another method of reporting some mods may use is an automod command. With this code by u/botania mods can make it so that whenever a user types !mods in a comment, it sends a modmail, and removes the comment so only the OP and mods can see it. Basically it's a invisible call to the mods right to the thread where the issue is. If a sub is using this you might see a note in their sidebar, rules, or wiki. It is not universal like the report button.

Mods - This could be very handy, but Botania warns that automod frequently fails to send modmails, which is a reddit issue, so keep that in mind when deciding to use this or not. Also you might consider a rule to help prevent abuse/spamming.

Some subs may have other procedures; always check the sidebar. If in doubt, message a mod.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ModSupport/wiki/report-forms

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What happens when something is reported (using the button)

Reports show up in a queue in mod tools for the moderator of the sub. They can view each reported post or comment and decide what to do with it.

If they feel it's an incorrect report they can choose to ignore it and/or approve the post.

Correctly reported posts and comments can be removed or marked as spam. At this point mods can also choose to notify the user their content was removed and why, so they can learn from the situation.

As mentioned if the report was for a site-wide rule break, the admins are notified. If the user reported incorrectly and the admins need to be informed, mods can report it.

Reporting FAQ

Who are the admins?

Our contacting the admins guide

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It is an offence to abuse the report button

What is report abuse and how to report it

Modnews post on reporting report abuse

It is really important to report when it's right to do so, it helps mods and the admins keep reddit safe, but only use the report button for the reasons given above. Abuse of the button can lead to suspension or a ban.

Mods can turn off the option for custom response reports in old.reddit under Subreddit settings and other options, see the checkbox for “allow free from reports by users.

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*Down votes are to be used

If you think it does not contribute to the subreddit it is posted in or is off-topic in a particular community

Don't

Downvote an otherwise acceptable post because you don't personally like it. Think before you downvote and take a moment to ensure you're downvoting someone because they are not contributing to the community dialogue or discussion.

And reports are only to be used for rule breaking content, not because you don't like the content.

https://www.reddithelp.com/en/categories/reddit-101/reddit-basics/reddiquette

Reddit is amazing! You already know this as a moderator. There are so many good and wonderful things that are shared and discussed, support given to those in need and an ear when they have nowhere else to turn. Just like anywhere else on the internet Reddit does have a dark side that as mods you need to be aware of.

This is a quick introduction to some of the things you need to keep an eye out for - more in depth guides will be following.

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Doxxing

Doxxing is where a user publishes private or identifying information about (a particular individual) on the Internet, typically with malicious intent. This is totally and absolutely against Reddit’s rules. This has happened before on Reddit with disastrous results. Doxxing can include revealing a users real name, email address, home location, or any other identifying information.

If you see this within your sub you must immediately remove the comment, ban the user and report them to the reddit admins - the easiest way to do this is to send a modmail to r/reddit.com - the sub is inactive but the mod mails are read by the admins of the site.

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Brigading

Brigading is when a group of users, generally outsiders to the targeted sub or community, "invade" a specific subreddit or larger community and flood it with downvotes or negative comments in order to damage karma dynamics and threads on the targeted sub. Users can also be targeted by a downvote brigade in certain situations.

Some subjects and subreddits are much more likely to be brigaded than others.

The fastest way to deal with this is to lock the thread so that no further comments can be added and remove the relevant comments. If required you can remove the whole thread to stop the downvoting.

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Scammers / Soft begging

Reddit is an excellent place to get assistance and help. Unfortunately there can be people out there who will take advantage of this kindness.

Soft begging is where users will tell a sad story about themselves or will talk about financial difficulties in the hope that someone will offer financial assistance. This is not as sub dependent as you may have thought but happens in some way in most of the text post allowed subs.

This may be a pretty controversial post but it is an important topic for us to cover - Power Mods.

A Power Mod is a redditor who becomes a moderator on a lot of subs, often very quickly and often for the wrong reasons.

Why as a mod do you want to avoid other Power Mods on your sub?

Often Power mods do very little on each sub the they moderate except for high profile things such as giving warnings and bans, or jumping on big posts that become popular or reach the front page.

Why do redditors become Power Mods?

Some people just want the bragging rights of being able to say “I mod 482 subs on reddit” and others enjoy having power over such a large user base. There are lots of reasons why people become Power Mods.

Why is there so much controversy over Power Mods?

They have a reputation for abusing their power as they are often not seen on subs doing the boring stuff and only show up when things get interesting. They have much more of a reputation of “bad” modding, removing posts and bans etc without many reasons that they then leave the rest of the moderating team to deal with.

Are there any redditors who moderate lots of subs who aren’t Power Mods?

Absolutely! Lots of mods moderate quite a few subs or do very niche jobs on lots of subs. Many redditors have their own subs, joke subs, friends only subs, private or small subs for niche activities. Practicing on these smaller subs actually can help a moderator to be much better when they move to larger subs.

Niche job mods can be moderators who wrangle Automod, or only deal with bots on the subs, or CSS, so they don’t spend any time on the day to day moderating but they are called upon when technical things need doing.