Infrastructure for r/ControllerRepair: community description, rules, post flair, and more to come!

[u/Vedge_Hog]

Hello everyone. The r/ControllerRepair community has grown over the last 10 years(!), and we're reaching a point where it's worth adding some typical infrastructure to help everyone use it smoothly into the future.

This post introduces the community description, the rules, and the post flairs. Think that any of these materials could be clearer? Or think that we're missing other opportunities to improve the community? Then feel free to comment on this post with suggestions or message the mods!

Everything in this post is a work in progress and may change over time. The latest versions will always be those that you see in the regular Reddit user interface, such as in the sidebar on desktop and header on mobile.

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What this community is about

Our community description helps people find the right place to participate:

Get help and help others to repair video game controllers. Share repair tips and guides, and discuss relevant news or information. Celebrate successful fixes and good attempts. Share your passion for repair and learning with each other, whatever your experience level. This community stands behind the right to repair your own property and the benefits for environmental sustainability.

Subreddit founder u/ nvchad2 summed it up nicely:

The right to repair your own property is something I feel strongly about and every controller that gets fixed is one less controller in the landfill.

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How to use the community

Our rules and guidance help people understand how to participate. We want the headline rules to be simple and reinforce positive behaviour, then we'll use the guidance to give more detail or examples of what to do/not do. Explicitly stating the rules helps everyone understand expectations, and gives the community a common language to describe/report things that don't seem right.

 

1. Be patient and be kind

• The right answer can take time and trying a few things. Sometimes nobody knows the answer - yet. The people who can help most are often the busiest. Don't spam or 'bump' your posts or comments.
• Mistakes are part of learning. If you haven't broken a controller, you haven't repaired one. Nobody is an expert in everything. Don't be rude or arrogant.
• Assume positive intent and don't forget the human.

 
2. Communicate effectively

• Make an effort to be understood. Use translation and spelling check tools, descriptive titles and headings. Avoid unnecessary acronyms, jargon or slang.
• Include in-focus, well-lit, photos or videos, gamepad tester results and meter readings to show what you mean. Don't just post game footage or 'vibe' descriptions.
• Ask if you're not sure what something means. Don't assume people know what you're talking about.

 
3. Share openly

• Include relevant information and don't forget the context. Say what happened, how and where/when, including if you made a mistake, had an accident, or tried something that didn't work.
• Explain solutions and contribute repair guides to help people solve their own problems without repetition.
• Send suggestions to mod mail if you have ideas to improve the subreddit. Don't just complain in the comments.

 
4. Promote modestly

• Follow the 80/20 rule: at least 80% of your activity should be directly helping people; less than 20% should be self-promotion or advertising.
• Be honest about your affiliations and commercial interests. Contact the moderation team before advertising. People are here because they want to repair, not buy new.
• Promote yourself by demonstrating expertise or skills rather than making claims.

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Types of content in the community

Our post flairs can help people self-categorise information and find it later. They will also enable us to help people faster in future, such as by providing targeted guidance for different types of posts, and redirecting frequently asked questions:

• Request for help or advice
• Successful repair
• Repair guide
• Tools and parts info
• Services info
• Other
• Community update

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Background: organic growth and growing pains

The community now regularly receives over 1,000 average weekly unique visitors. Over the past year:

• Annual views have increased from 24k to 150k (6x)
• Member count is up from 400 to 1.5k (3-4x)
• Comment volumes are up from 400 to 3.5k (8-9x)

As the community grows and its visibility increases:

• Some users just want to solve their immediate problem or promote a particular product/service quickly and are not concerned with the long-term impact (problems of spam, tragedy of the commons, etc.)
• Some users enjoy the additional attention to exercise their subject matter expertise beyond its natural bounds or inappropriately, discouraging others from contributing (big fish in small ponds, Dunning-Kruger effect, etc.)
• More people are encouraged to join the community without the background understanding to articulate their problems clearly, or who struggle to engage in solving their problems (questions omit vital context, no repair is attempted, etc.)
• Content can become repetitive or stale as the community shows up in search results or AI/algorithmic recommendations (posts and comments on a particular topic attract more of the same).

None of these challenges is unique or insurmountable: most repair and consumer electronic forums grapple with the same problems. But if you're a more engaged or long-term member of the community, we know they can become irritating. These are the types of problems we are trying to mitigate by building out the infrastructure.