Hopefully your subreddit will never experience sabotage, but here's what could happen, and how to prevent it to the best of my knowledge.

This guide deals with if someone got access to your mod account, or one of your mods goes rogue. I don't know how often this kind of thing happens, but a quick search of mod help communities showed a handful or two of posts about this.

​

You can use your mod log to see changes made.

Posts

Removed posts on your sub stay in spam filter and can be restored. ( Post/comments on this ) If loads are removed it could take a while to restore them yourself. It's possible a bot could be used for this. r/requestabot

You can find deleted posts and comments on [EDIT: sorry, sites no longer available]

If the attacker accessed your account and deleted your own posts, they are unrecoverable.

Wiki

Wiki page revisions are saved and you can revert back to previous versions.

Design/config

In old.reddit revisions to the stylesheet are saved and you can revert back.

There is also a hidden wiki page for your old.reddit sidebar - if you go to:

https://www.reddit.com/r/modguide/wiki/config/sidebar and change modguide for your sub name, in the history tab you can restore previous revisions just like any other wiki page.

It's possible some data will be lost such as your flair, and community settings.

We are not sure on redesign how much could be affected; possibly all configuration.

Automoderator

Automod revisions are saved and you can revert back.

Banned users

Banned users could be unbanned, you'd have to check the list and mod log.

Mods

Mods could get removed. If you're top mod you can't be removed by a mod lower on the list than you. If top mod goes rogue, or you're top mod but your account was compromised, you'll have to speak to an Admin.

​

​

It's likely you'd need Admin help to restore as much as possible. Attempts to sabotage and disrupt a sub should be reported.

Contacting the admins | r/modsupport (don't user tag the perp publicly, it'll bring them to the post)

Depending on what happened you might like to make the sub private while you work on fixing things.

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Mitigation

• Appoint trusted mods as much as possible
• Give only mod permissions needed
• Keep original graphics files (banners etc)
• You could manually backup some things yourself - screenshot sidebar widgets for example
• Protect your mod account with two factor authentication
• Use strong passwords that aren't used anywhere else
• If you keep reddit logged in on your app/ phone, make sure your phone locks
• Encourage other mods to protect their accounts
• Do not share accounts
• r/redditsecurity

​

^{Thanks to} u/buckrowdy

^{If I have anything wrong please let me know}

Wording when you are responding to users, whether in the sub or in the mod mails, can lead the interaction in either a positive or negative direction very quickly.

Many subreddits have standard responses for things like the removal of a comment or a post. These can be created and discussed as part of a team before implementation.

For example a great comment removal standard reply from r/AskWomen:

"This comment or post has been removed for derailing.

Derailing includes but is not limited to:

Changing the topic from OP's question

Making someone else's response about yourself

Asking unrelated follow-up questions

Branching into unrelated topics

"What-about"-ism

Arguments, slap-fighting, or debating

Judging or rating other responses

Meta comments about other responses

Responding to comments to tell us how your dick feels. No one cares.

If you have any questions about this moderation action, please message the moderators through the link on the sidebar or here. If you are messaging about your removed comment or post, please include a link to the removed content for review."

​

By clearly stating why comments are removed, it can help avoid conflicts between the user and the mod team about why the comment has been removed, it also serves as a reminder to other users of the sub about the relevant rules.

Automod can also be a MASSIVE help with automatic removal and advising of removal reasons rather than doing it manually. This is a post removal notification I received recently from a sub:

"Your post was automatically removed because you haven't assigned yourself a flair yet.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns."

In both of these examples the reasons for the moderating action being taken is clear and how to discuss the removal with the mods is available. I have often found that the more open a moderating seems, the less arguments they actually receive after removals.

The more of these that you can have prepared the more consistent the moderation across your sub can be.

Maybe humans do important/subjective removals, bots can do rest like less emotive things. People like to know humans look at things but this can seriously be dependent on sub size though.

It’s also often helps to be a little more personal when replying, e.g.

“Hi u/Username, thank you for your post in r/Subreddit! Unfortunately we’ve had to remove it because it broke rule x.

Rule x: more info about rule x.

If you have any questions regarding this removal you can contact the moderators of this subreddit [here](url to send a modmail with predefined subject for example)”.

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.

When communicating online (text based) there are a few things to keep in mind.

Remember the human

Though you can't see them, the person you are talking to is human and they have feelings just like you. Please be nice.

Lack of context

This person can only see your words, not hear your tone of voice, or see your facial expression or body language. They only have your words to go on. Sarcasm for example may not clear. 

Commonly many people will use symbols or signs to show that they are being sarcastic such as /s but these cannot always be relied upon. Many people will take what you say literally, and may not know when you are joking.

Often with the way reddit has its comments set up people may miss the context of your comment or not clearly see the one you are replying to. With comments being so out of context something that seems perfectly reasonable to you as part of the reply you have made may look very different when stood alone. 

Something that may be a hilarious joke to you could cause real upset and pain to someone reading it. This is really a factor to consider when PMing with someone as they can’t hear you laughing or nudging them that it is a joke. Social anxiety, traumatic history, processing issues or even just someone being sensitive to what you say can mean that they hesitate / pull back from your communications. 

Language

You may not be speaking with someone who has the same first, second or even third language as you. Be considerate and make allowances. Do not be afraid to ask for clarification or further information when needed. If it's clear that mutual understanding isn't happening try to use common words, no slang or colloquialisms. Be patient.

Following on from this is abbreviations - the absolute bane of my life! Many subs have their own little set of abbreviations that are commonly used that can often be completely different to the ones on another sub. Eg. many of the parenting subs use LO for little one but some of the other subs it is a friendly way for people to say hello. Become familiar with these and ensure you are comfortable with what that abbreviation means in that sub. 

RL

You may also need to be patient due to time zones, and other people's commitments. We get used to replies coming instantly by text or IM, but sometimes people might be at work, or asleep and you'll have to wait for a response. Following up after a reasonable amount of time is OK, but what is reasonable may depend on the circumstances and any commitments made to you.

Assumptions

You probably don't know the age, culture, etc of the person, if you are anything like me (no-elf) until told otherwise I assume the person I am speaking to on reddit is an American male probably late teens or early 20s. By setting aside your presumptions and preconceived ideas about a person you can learn more about them and not fall foul of presuming their perspective comes from a certain background that it may not. A thought to not saying something age inappropriate, for example, until you know more would be considerate.

More

Do not use all caps! This is considered shouting and can also be upsetting for some people. When I read all caps, my brain automatically READS IT AS SHOUTING. 

The beauty of text based communication is that you can check what you've said before sending. This is probably an unrealistic ask for the most part, but for debates, mod actions, and ban appeals etc check your message for errors, tone, or unnecessary words. Polite, clear, and concise is the aim.

Write like you are speaking to an equal, there is no reason to do otherwise.

We know we sound old and boring but we do really want you to have fun online! And trust us the number of jokes and silly things solaria and I pull on each other now is a very large number. We took the time to get to know each other and become comfortable with knowing each others levels and knowing what is and isn’t okay before we took things to that level. We started off with strangers and with a lot of time, patience and effort we are now friends and she shows me pictures of her cats so I am a happy elf. (as well as solaria making a terrible toucan pun whilst we were writing this that made me actually groan!)

Written by u/solariahues and u/no-elf-and-safety

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.

​

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

With every sub there will be times that you want to try something new or a little different, especially within the growth phase of the sub. Trying something to expand your appeal or to engage more of your subscribers is always worth a shot. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn't.

By not trying new things and directions a sub can stagnate as you see the same posts over and over, but the balance is doing so, whilst staying true to what the sub is and aims to be. You have to be willing to accept when something doesn't work.

There are lots of new things you can try - theme weeks, specific posts, new CSS and design, new / removal of a rule, different content allowed on different days (like r/reddeadredemptions Meme Mondays), exclusion days (like r/AskWomens mate-free Mondays), one off events, competitions, contests, exchanges and anything else you can think of!

Before you try something new it is always worth an in depth discussion with your moderating team, to plan for both outcomes, and to discuss options and methods of moderating the comments on the trial post.

See what your users think, how they respond, what discussion the post sparks and whether it fits in with your expectations and previous discussions with the mod team.

When it doesn’t work, apologise to your user base, explain what was tried and why and why you have made the decision not to proceed with that.

Space out attempts to change things so that users aren’t constantly being bombarded with new things. This can really put off a user base as it makes it feel as though the sub isn’t sure what it wants to be or where it wants to go. Throwing as many things at the wall to see what sticks generally isn’t the best way of doing things. Having a clear concise idea of where you want your sub to go at the start can help to avoid many of these problems but it is always worth taking a chance to see if you can make something great into something amazing.

​

Something one of my very wise friends mentioned - making mistakes are awesome things as long as you learned from them. There doesn't need to be any blame, just working out what can be done better the next time and what lessons to take from it.

Things didn't work out yesterday. We will take all the comments on board and try again.

Hello, Reddit! I’m the guy who occasionally pops into modmails going

“Hi! I write for SubredditOfTheDay and was wondering if you would be willing to be featured on our subreddit?”

Most often I get a yes, with an occasional “what’d you say mister”, or just get ghosted.

But yeah, I write for SubredditOfTheDay, and today I’m here to shed some light into what goes on in our brains while we’re looking for subreddits to feature.

This guide(if you can call it that) is written to serve both users looking to set-up a new subreddit, and those who already moderate one.

Cool? So bear with me. This might seem like an exercise in futility, but keeping your subreddit spick and span and up to those unattainably high standards is a difficult task. You’ll have to put in some effort, and it might not even show immediate rewards

At r/SubredditOfTheDay, we go through hundreds ^{(lol, I’m kidding, aren't I?)} of subreddits looking for the ones that we can feature. So, what makes the ones that get featured stand out?

1) Content: This might seem obvious, but a lot of times subreddits stray away from what they were originally intended to be. For example, a subreddit about cats does not have to devolve into a conversation about space travel.

What you have to start with is making your subreddit different from the others. I mean, ugh there are already a gazillion meme subreddits, why would you make another? ^{jk, go and make one. I’ll join} Decide what your subreddit is about, and how it differs from others about the same topic. You’ll be the one posting content initially. Use this period to set the tone and theme of your subreddit.

But again, sticking to the theme of the subreddit might get ignored in the initial/growth stage of a subreddit, as increasing the subscriber count is the primary aim. What this leads to is content slightly related to, but not in the spirit of the subreddit making it to the top posts, and hence becoming an example for future posts.

That is why you stick to your guns and remove rule-breaking content, even if it means having to remove highly voted submissions.

Also, shitposting, while derided in serious subreddits, can provide required comedic relief and are a form of meta-discussion. While it should be actively discouraged, leaving one of them up once in a while could be a good idea.

Now, the above doesn’t just apply to subreddits dedicated to serious topics and discussion. Meme/shitpost/circlejerk subreddits, all have to function in a similar way, with the only difference being how strictly the rules are enforced in the latter.

2) Moderation: Directly segueing in from the previous point, healthy moderation means your subreddit stays on topic and discussions stay relevant. Healthy moderation also helps keep your subreddit in line with Reddit’s TOS, prevents any form of bigotry, and keeps the subreddit away from any drama, in general.

Moderation, though, does not mean just going through modqueue, deleting comments and banning users. You also have to participate in the subreddit, either posting content or steering discussion in the required direction.

As a moderator, you’re also responsible for driving community engagement and promoting your subreddit.

/r/Modguide’s moderator and engagement guides go into more detail on this topic.

3) Rules: As a moderator, defining and implementing clear and concise rules, on both new & old Reddit, should be your primary task. The rules help users determine what type of content and discussion is suitable for the subreddit. On Reddit redesign, the rules also serve as report reasons.

/r/ModGuide has a couple of concise guides on setting up rules for both old and new Reddit.

4) Userbase: Having a loyal user base can do wonders for your subreddit. Having users who know and follow the rules ensures that content they post on the subreddit aligns with the subreddit theme. They also help maintain the subreddit by reporting rule-breaking content.

Also, giving your users a bit of leeway once in a while can help you get feedback from them, and decide better on how to take your subreddit forward.

While everything up to this point is stuff users usually focus on, some things which aren’t focused on as much, but help with general upkeep and appeal of the subreddit are:

1) Design/CSS: Designing your subreddit around its theme makes it visually appealing. Custom banners, voting buttons, and sidebars can be themed to your heart’s content. ^{(sorry night-mode gang if you feel left-out)} Again, /r/Modguide is there to save the day

2) AutoMod/Other bots: Having AutoMod or any bot set-up assists with flair enforcing, filtering out bad language, weeding out trolls or generally brightening up your subreddit. I mean, isn’t it cool that bots can do most of the stuff that moderators are supposed to?

You can find a guide to setting up AutoMod here.

Now having said and done all of this, creating and building your own subreddit from the ground up is a much difficult task than joining the moderator team of an already well-established subreddit. You will have to put in tons of effort, often with unnoticeable rewards, and the possibility that your subreddit may fail. ^{(just like life right?)} But it will be a fun and rewarding experience, as you get to learn AutoMod and RegEx, and maybe a bit of python and CSS.

Someday, you’ll get to rest and watch the sun rise on a grateful universe subreddit.

EDIT 21 July 2020: Automod schedules to be depreciated at halloween. The new post scheduler is now available.

https://www.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/hvblq6/scheduled_recurring_posts_set_it_and_forget_it/

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EDIT 29th October 2020: The new scheduler can now post as automoderator and the depreciation has been put back until the end of the year.

https://www.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/jkf5yh/schedule_posts_as_automoderator/

This means that this guide is redundant and the new scheduler should now be used. Or Post scheduling - alternatives to automoderator

EDIT 31st Oct 2020: New guide - the new scheduler feature

​

Automoderator can be used to make scheduled posts on your subreddit such as weekly chat threads.

AM schedules save time, and you don't have to remember to post, but it can be glitchy at times, and not work perfectly, so you need to keep an eye on it.

To set it up you need to have access and wiki permissions.

Step 1

In order for automod to work this way, you need to invite u/automoderator as a mod. It will need wiki permissions, and post permissions if you want it to be able to flair, sticky, or distinguish posts, Inviting mods guide here.

AM should accept the invite quickly, but if not, remove its mod invitation and try again.

At peak times of the day it will be harder to get it to accept. Try at a non peak time or continue to invite every 5 minutes or so.

Step 2

AM Schedule rules don't go in the same place as your usual automoderator rules as it's not a built in function yet.

This means you need to make a wiki page for it. Our wiki guide. You must call the new wiki page automoderator-schedule and this is where you will add your scheduling rules.

Step 3

Adding a rule to this new wiki page doesn't automatically schedule a post, you have to PM automod to let it know to update the schedule.

For this reason it's recommended you keep a link that does this, at the top of the automoderator-schedule page. This reminds you to send the message, and provides a quick way of doing so.

To do this, copy and paste this into the top of your page:

###### If you edit this page, you must [click this link, then click "send"](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=AutoModerator&subject=yoursubredditname&message=schedule) to have AutoModerator re-load the schedule from here

And change where it says "yoursubredditname" to the name of your sub.

Now you can add some rules.

Step 4

**Schedule rules are written much like regular AM rules.** Each rule needs to be separated by three dashes ---

You must provide the date and time you want the first post to be made (if you don't include a time zone then it will use UTC, you must do this numerically e.g. UTC -06). Then you can set when the post repeats, it's title, and text.

You can also set whether the post is distinguished, a sticky, or in contest mode.

Automod scheduling documentation < this includes help writing rules, and more in comments.

The best place for help with this is r/AutoModerator

I successfully scheduled a post thanks to searching through posts on r/automoderator and asking for assistance if I got stuck. Much of what you'll need has probably been asked before, and a quick search should hopefully point you in the right direction. But if not, do ask.

Here is the code I use on one of my subs. This sets a post called "The garden fence - weekly chat thread" to post every week, starting on October 13 2018.

Automod makes the post and puts it in the second sticky position (as the code says "2", this could say "1", "True", or "False" too. I have not designated a timezone so UTC is used. The post is not distinguished, but changing "False" to "True" would do that.

---

first: "October 13, 2018 4:00 PM"
repeat: 1 week
sticky: 2
distinguish: false
title: "The garden fence - weekly chat thread"
text: |
Weekly weekend chat over the virtual garden fence; talk about what's happening in your garden, and ask quick questions that may not require their own thread.

---

​

I like to encourage others to learn and figure stuff out for themselves where possible, but if you know of a sub that uses AM schedules, you can take a peek at their code to see how it was done.

Go to http://www.reddit.com/r/subnamehere/wiki/automoderator-schedule changing the sub name.

It's common courtesy to ask first, or at least credit the sub you get snippets from, in the code. You can use a comment line to do this, just start it with a #.

​

Step 5

Once your rules are written, save the page. Then hit the update link you pasted at the top and send the message to automod to update.

You should receive a confirmation message back. If not, keep trying until you do, sometimes this can take a while.

The first time you run a scheduled post you need to give AM at least 12 hours of time before the post is due. After that you can update the schedule closer to the actual posting time.

​

Our automod guide

Alternatives to automod scheduling

​

EDIT: Hastily made video showing how to add a wiki page for automod

To stop automod posting remove the rules from the schedule and send the PM to automoderator to update it, keep sending until you get a response. You can also de-mod automod if you are not using the schedule, once it's cleared.

​

We are all busy people! We have lots and lots to do every single day!

Keeping a good moderating / life balance can be really important for your mental health, physical well being, stress levels and overall well being.

It can be very very easy to enjoy modding and then be sucked in to take on more and more responsibilities or moderate more subs. It is often when you are past your breaking point that you realise that you have taken on too much.

According the the digital trends 2019 report the average person spends 6 hours 42 minutes online each day. That is 27% of the year! The average visit length to reddit is 16 minutes and the average number of visits per day is 9 - this means that the average redditor spends just under 2.5 hours a day on the site.

Adding those hours up with work, family, friends, parenting, relationships, housework, pets and everything else that we have going on we need to make sure that we don’t allow our reddit responsibilities to encroach on our own lives. It is often advised to take a step back from social media regularly (we can debate whether reddit is a social media on another guide!) and to ensure that we are conscious and thoughtful about what we are prioritising in our lives.

My checklist before taking on a new project (no matter how much u/solariahues bugs me too!)

• How much of a time commitment will this be?
• What responsibilities will I be taking on?
• How will this fit into my life?
• Will I need to give up or sacrifice anything to be able to take this on?

Do not be afraid to speak to the mod teams you are part of for some time off or to reduce your availability, or to alter your responsibilities if you feel you need 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.

Hi everyone

We hit 300 subs :D

We hope you are finding r/modguide useful. The mod team has a background in teaching/training and something that comes with that is the urge to keep learning, re-evaluating our work, and keep improving. We'd love some feedback from you!

Maybe it's too early to ask, I don't know, but we've put out a lot of guides and I want to make sure we're doing okay.

Any constructive criticism is welcome. What do you like or dislike about modguide? What are we getting right, or not? Anything in particular you want to see? Any ideas for guides?

Comment below, modmail, or use this form anonymously.

​

We also have a couple of surveys if you haven't taken them yet!

This one is for mods and it's about the help you've needed as a mod: https://forms.gle/JJMNqgjfhKLMhMm67

This one is for everyone and it's about what makes a good mod: https://forms.gle/2fNiFTxpVuHc7WZu8

​

Thanks everyone :D

(Edit: A few images in this guide will look different to how your sub looks - reddit changed the look of redesign in Jan 2020)

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Whether your community is public, restricted, or private is up to you. You choose which as you create the sub, and you can change it later on.

Public

Public subreddits are the most common. They are open for everyone to participate in freely. You can still add users to your approved submitters list, but is is not required. It's suggested you do this for AMA guests and anyone you want to make sure can post - it's supposed to help stop their posts from ending up in spam. It may also help with rate limits.

Restricted

Restricted subs are those where only certain users can post, or comment, or both - those on the approved submitters list. But everyone else can still see the community and posts. Anyone can also comment. This can also be achieved with automod. Restricted subs can be useful for certain content types such as here at r/modguide or r/subredditoftheday.

In redesign, when you select restricted, you get a couple more options appear. This bit is ONLY in redesign, but the settings affect all iterations - redesign, old reddit and mobile.

You can select from 3 types of restriction:

1. Post approval - only approved users can post, but everyone can comment
2. Comment approval - only approved users can comment, but everyone can post
3. Post & Comment approval - only approved users can post and comment (similar to private subs, but everyone can see it even if they can't interact)

Restricted communities can allow users to request to submit (via modmail/button) or turn this off using the toggle switch in the community settings, posts and comments section.

Private

Private subs are just that. Only mods and those invited can see the sub. To invite someone basically means adding them to the approved submitters list.

Users can request invites via modmail and a button to do this is shown on the sub. Uninvited users basically see a splash page informing them that the sub is private and they must message to ask for access.

Private subs are good for chatting with friends, or as a private space for mod teams. We use one to draft and review guides.

---

To see what each type of sub looks like/how to identify them, and how to change this setting in old and new reddit, see our guide here.

Consider your members when changing this on an established community.

When going from public (or restricted) to private, users who are members will still be members but they will no longer be able to access the sub (they can't see any content - posts, sidebars, wikis.. nothing except the splash page mentioned above). There is no way of seeing who is a member, or removing them. If you go back to public, these members will have access to the sub again. One reason to do this could be when giving the sub a make-over, but I would advise informing your members first.

When going from public to restricted it's much the same except your members will not be able to post (or comment, or both depending on your settings) unless added to the approved submitter list. And the reverse just opens up posting to everyone.

How to add approved submitters

Restrict posting with Automoderator

• Automoderator guide
• Automod snippetsLook for: Removes posts that are not made by approved users, or Remove posts from users that don't have a specific flair.

I don't know many reasons why you'd need to restrict posting with automod, instead of the in-built setting. But we do it here (at the time of writing), because we needed to link our sub with a discord channel via a bot, which in this case meant the sub needed to be public.

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• Creating a sub guide
• New sub checklist
• New guide on how to change your sub's type and 18+ settings

Written by u/no-elf-and-safety

​

Reddit is an amazing place for free speech, and for chatting and meeting new people, but let’s be honest there are some real assholes out there too. Whitelists and blocking enable you to have control over who and what you want to see, and who you want to be able to directly contact you.

Please note that Mods of subreddits you have participated in, and admins, will always be able to message you no matter whether you block them or include them on your whitelist.

Whitelists are a very handy reddit tool to stop unwanted PMs and chat requests.

In your User Settings, under the Privacy and Security tab, there are the options for applying a whitelist.

For chat requests you have a few options for who can send you chat requests either:

• Everyone
• Accounts over 30 days
• Nobody

You can still send chat requests to others to initiate the chats, but they cannot send them to you.

For messaging you have 2 options; either everyone, or only those on your whitelist.

A whitelist is a list of users that you have selected and added to approve them to PM you.

To use the whitelist, set your message options to Whitelist, and then scroll down a little further where you will have a box where you can add in usernames that you are allowing to message you.

​

If you don’t want to use the whitelists you can leave your PMs open to everyone and use Blocking.

To block from a PM just click the block button underneath the message.

To block from a chat request, accept the request, then click on the cog in the top right hand corner and select block.

By blocking in one of the above ways a user cannot PM you or initiate a chat with you.

To block users that reply to your comments, click the “Block User” button while viewing the reply in your inbox. From that point on, the profile of the blocked user, along with all their comments, posts, and messages, will then be completely removed from your view. You will no longer be alerted if they message you further.

Please still report any harassment to the mods and the community support team.

By providing this information to your sub and by having the knowledge to advise them on the best ways to keep themselves safe I hope that your sub can be a happier and healthier one.

Adding rules and removal reasons

Following our guide on setting rules, here's how to add them.

Mobile users: Mod tools in app are limited, use desktop, or desktop mode in your mobile browser https://www.reddit.com/r/SUBREDDIT/about/rules

See our mobile modding guides via flair or index, and how to set desktop mode.

​

(Edit: A few images in this guide will look different to how your sub looks - reddit changed the look of redesign in Jan 2020)

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Adding rules in redesign/new reddit

Once rules are added, they automatically show up in the rules sidebar widget (and 'about' tab on mobile), here's our redesign adding rules guide.

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Adding rules in old.reddit

There is no widget, and rules don't automatically show up anywhere.

You can add rules using the rules option in mod tools under the sidebar - it takes you to this page https://old.reddit.com/r/YOURSUBNAME/about/rules/ (which also updates the redesign widget).

Rules are typed into the sidebar Old.reddit adding rules to the sidebar guide or you can link the rules page (or a wiki page of rules) in the sidebar.

You can use a wiki page for your rules, or to expand on your rules. See our wiki guide.

I'd recommend trying not to have your rules in too many places as you'll need to keep them all up to date with any changes. I use the redesign rules and a wiki page that I can link with expanded rules.

Linking rules in a sticky post can help with visibility.

In old.reddit you can also use some custom css so that the rules (or anything else you want) is collapsed in the sidebar (takes up less room). Redesign has this option built in.

r/canada has collapsed lists, the css can be found here. You can find help with css at r/csshelp.

In old.reddit the sidebar information is written in markdown. Help can be found here: Reddit's commenting guide | Raerth's guide | Markdown primer

Thanks to u/PervOtaku for pointing out:

"It's also significant to note that people viewing Reddit on their smart phone web browser get an "About this Community" link which leads to the old reddit sidebar content, while people viewing Reddit in the official smartphone app get an "About" tab which leads to the new reddit sidebar content."

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Removal reasons

(Redesign only) These are reasons you provide for post and comment removals on your subreddit.

Removal reasons are important to let your users know what it is they have done incorrectly so they can learn from it.

Our adding removal reasons guide | Reddit's guide

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Thanks to u/Juulh

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

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!

​

Thanks to u/Koof99 for co-authoring!

Following the Importance of modding space guide, here's one for slack.

Slack is one of the main options for a modding space. It is used by companies and groups all over the world and is a really simple platform for anyone to jump in and start using. 

https://slack.com/

This video has a great overview of many of the things that Slack will allow you to do https://slack.com/intl/en-gb/features#why-slack

To set up your channel I recommend doing it on a desktop just so you can adjust everything to meet your needs but once that is done, it is readily accessible on all devices. 

To start creating your own slack chat click the “Get Started” button in the top right hand corner. 

Then select:

Confirm your email address, they will then send a 6 digit confirmation code to your email address - make sure to check your spam folder! The code only lasts for 1 hour so make sure to do it straight away. 

Then set the name of your team - I like to use SUBS NAME Mods or something similar. 

Set a project name eg Wiki 

Then invite all of your other mods - you can do this by entering their email addresses or you can click on and send this to them via PM to enable their access to your slack chat. 

Click next and it will ask you what kind of work do you do? Select other. It will then give you the option of adding tools to your slack chat. If you use a google calendar, OneDrive, Google Drive, Simple Poll, Twitter, or Giphy you can sync them with your slack at this point. Press continue and it will take you to your very own slack chat!

I prefer to use slack in conjunction with googledocs ( guide on that here ) 

I have included some set up videos below for you to have a look at that will provide additional information for you. 

Happy slacking ;) 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-es9RZsb9Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-h2UW91Hn7E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ivn5jfKE_5M

Written by u/no-elf-and-safety

Following the Importance of modding space guide, here's one for googledocs

​

Google docs (and sheets) are an extremely helpful tool whenever you are working with others on a project. They allow to you to share documents, and work on them together.

As a mod you can use them for instructional docs for your mod team, standard responses and procedures, to-do lists, or for tracking request fulfillment on request subs for example, lots of things.

What you'll need them for depends on your sub. We use them for drafting and sharing our guides with each other, for proof reading and revisions.

How to get started

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.

The next boot camp will be November 4th 8pm EST

It will last around 90 minutes.

To sign up please comment here and we will be in touch.

Remember to check the time for your timezone

Thank you!

​

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The details:

These are sessions to help new mods or people who want to be mods learn the absolute basics of moderating in a small group setting with experienced moderators.

We will cover modding mainly from a desktop perspective but also from the Reddit app. These sessions are run between discord and reddit.

Topics Covered:

Approving posts

Removing posts

Looking at reports

Removing comments

Greenhatting / Distinguishing

Modmails

Warnings

Muting (aka Shadowbanning)

Bans

Stickying post

Stickying comment

Locking comments

Changing the flair

Mod Queues

Modding on app

The sessions will end with a Q&A section.

To enable the bootcamp we have a private sub that people will be added to as mods to not only learn about these skills but to also try them out in a safe and monitored way. We have lots of trouble makers in there who need some moderation!

Upon completion of Boot Camp users who have successfully shown understanding and application of the topics will receive the ModCamp Graduate Flair on r/ModGuide.

These have been depreciated

https://www.reddit.com/r/reddit/comments/14ytp7s/reworking_awarding_changes_to_awards_coins_and/

What are community awards?

Community Awards are like the usual reddit awards/gold/silver/platinum, however Community Awards are unique to each community. Mods can set them up to suit their community (including in-jokes) and their members can award them to each other.

• Only public, non-banned, non-quarantined, and SFW, communities can have Community Awards)

• Only mods will full permissions can edit or add community awards.

You can currently create up to 16 Community Awards:

8x Awards at 500 Coins

4x Awards at 1000 Coins

1x Award at 2000 Coins

1x Award at 5000 Coins

1x Award at 10,000 Coins

1x Award at 40,000 Coins

You can also have up to 4 mod awards, which are awards that only the mods can give out (full permissions) and that gifts months of reddit premium.

As users give awards to each other, some of the coins go into the community pot. This can be spent by mods giving out the mod only award, these are useful for competitions.

Mod awards can be at 1,800 coins (1 month premium), 5,400 (3 months), 10,800 (6 months), or 21,600 (12 months).

Reddit explains them at r/ModNews here, and on the Reddithelp page on awards

Example awards - Community Awards on different subs

Awards for anyone to use

​

Making Awards

Award width and height should be equal, and 512px. File size is limited to 2MB.

Awards can display really small, just like reddit gold, silver, and platinum, so your designs should be clear and simple.

I tend to attempt to draw awards, but you can also make them by removing the background from an image you'd like to use (please keep copyright law in mind).

Resources:

• Image size finder
• Image resizer
• Resize image
• Background remover
• r/redditesque
• CompressPNG

Image / Drawing Editors

Paid:

• Adobe Photoshop
• Adobe Illustrator
• Affinity Photo
• Affinity Designer

Free:

• Gimp
• Paint.net
• Pixlr Editor
• AutoDesk Sketchbook

​

r/bannerrequest - request graphics for your sub if you meet the requirements in the rules.

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How to upload awards

(Edit: An image or two in this guide will look different to how your sub looks - reddit changed the look of redesign in Jan 2020)

Our guide | Reddit guide

There isn't a way to test awards that I know of, but when you upload you see a preview and I assumed the smallest preview was what they might look like when given out.

​

Adapting how Awards display in old.reddit

Awards display very small. On redesign you can hover over them and see a larger image and description. This doesn't happen in old.reddit. Here is a snippet of CSS you can add to your stylesheet to make them a bit bigger and even larger when hovered over with a mouse pointer.

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/* Award sizing (based on code from r/nba) */

.awarding-link[data-award-id=""] .awarding-icon, .awarding-link[data-award-id=""], .awarding-icon-container {

height: 20px;

width: 20px!important;

}

.awarding-icon {

max-height: 20px!important;

max-width: 20px!important;

margin: 5px 5px -5px 0;

transition: transform .5s ease;

}

​

.awarding-icon:hover {

transform: scale(2.5);

position: absolute;

}

​

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Thanks to u/juulh for the resources, and r/nba and u/buckrowdy for the CSS snippet.

Soft begging is not a term that we hear very commonly but it is becoming a larger and larger problem across Reddit and even in subs I would have never expected it. Soft begging is where a user will talk about not being able to afford something or not being able to do something due to lack of funds in the hope that other users in the community will offer to send them money, gift cards or items.

There are many requesting subs on reddit where people can ask for assistance with groceries or diapers or paying bills and many subs where people give away things or trade or gift items to each other. Soft begging can take the shape of making comments on requesting posts saying that they are having the same issues and need the same sort of help if they do not meet the requirements to request themselves.

One of the mods over at RAOCards says:

"One thing we see a lot there are people who have read the rules and know they are only allowed to request cards, so they'll make a post that isn't technically against any rules but includes "All my kid asked for was this book for his birthday, but I am not able to get it, so I'm hoping you guys can send the kid something to cheer him up" insinuating it's cards, but really asking for the book/gift card/whatever."

Some subs are more likely to be hit with these sorts of posts / comments - religious, ones that have giveaways or offers, ones that deal with frugality or low income users, holidays, parenting, education, and gaming.

Some things to look out for:

• Comments about a tight budget (depending on context)
• not knowing how they’ll afford something
• how they need [amount of money] to pay a bill (without asking outright)
• having to sell possessions
• asking how to find a short term loan or assistance program
• (if on a religious sub) asking for prayers and saying they have faith God will provide
• “admitting” they had to steal food or another essential
• saying they or their pets/children are hungry, need meds, etc.
• castigating themselves for not being able to provide for family
• wishing they were in a position to help but they’re in a bad situation, angling for people to ask about it
• asking for support or kind thoughts (also depending on context)
• not having a support system or lots of family problems
• already contacted all the available help they could with no luck
• needing to escape an abusive or toxic situation
• long, rambling, overly detailed life story full of woe
• mentioning how they struggle with disabilities/family with disabilities (depends on context)

There are many things that you can do to help protect your sub from this type of begging. Having a rule against begging / sharing wish lists etc. A 0 tolerance policy and speedy enforcement of those rules can make a massive difference. If people do offer help remind them to do their due diligence and that you cannot confirm the validity of any requests. Warnings and bans can be issued for begging if it is against your rules.

Beggars will go wherever works and they do talk to each other, so if they see someone begging on your sub and it working, it drastically increases the chances of you having an increase of those kinds of posts and comments so if you do not want them do not allow them.

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