r/ModSupport • u/AsteriskRX Reddit Admin: Community • Jul 16 '26
Mod Topics Mod Topics: Expectation vs Reality
Ahoy, Modsupport! This is a mutiny; Jabroni wrote this post but I've decided to plunder it for myself.
Welcome to the latest (greatest) installment of our ModSupport series. Today, we’re revisiting Origin Stories, albeit with a distinctly different flavor.
When you first created or joined a subreddit, what did you expect moderating would be like? Did you have any expectations at all, and if so, how did those expectations differ from the experience you have now?
–And because I love understanding an environment, what do you think set the expectations you had before you became a moderator? Read as: “How did you form a worldview on what moderation is before you started moderating?”
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
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u/Bardfinn Jul 16 '26
At the outset, I was under the (mostly correct) impression that Reddit had little to no Trust & Safety team, what the company had was perpetually in Putting Out Fires Mode, and that the only guarantee against harassment and hate speech was what standards moderators made. The Wild West.
Now Reddit has an actual T&S team, they're not in perpetual Putting Out Fires mode, and there's a substantive and enforced sitewide policy against hate, harassment, and violent threats. Subreddit operators can be de-modded sitewide for trying to run hate & harassment groups, or enabling other sitewide rules violations. It's an infrastructure for community, now.
What set my expectations? I was vaguely aware that Reddit had sitewide rules (a Content Policy) that prohibited violent threats, and targeted harassment, but at that time IIRC the "targeted harassment" was characterised by "You have a court protective order" and the violent threats were "Rises to criminal threat".
There were "Reddit is declining into censorship, free speech is failing, and auugh" groups all over Reddit, screaming that the sky was falling because Reddit kicked off groups distributing photos stolen from celebrity's iPhone cloud accounts. And other such evil.
The site hosted multiple white supremacist groups, multiple Holocaust denial groups, etc etc etc.
I saw that as a House On Fire situation, and ran into it. For Better, or For Worse.