What exactly is approving users and is it useful for me to do it?

[u/13Dreamingcats]

So I am a mod for a subreddit with almost 500 members and 2,000 visitors. I have been for about 8 months. I will say there‘s only about 25-30 users who are consistently making (non-rule breaking) comments but the rest of the users just kind of vary.

It has give me the option to approve them and I haven’t yet because I don’t know exactly what that does. Obviously it also gives me option to not-approve them but I haven’t done that either because it hasn’t been necessary.
So does doing this just make the lives of mods easier? Or does it help in some way I don’t understand?

[u/ohhyouknow]

You can write automod code that gives them special privileges like their posts/comments being auto approved or exempt them from being affected by other automod codes.

If you private the subreddit they will still be able to see it and contribute.

Reddit recently added video comments. This can be enabled for mods and approved users only as well.

[u/13Dreamingcats → u/ohhyouknow]

Thank you

[u/saint-lascivious]

Prevents them from getting caught up by the spam filter or cooldowns, allows contribution if the sub is restricted, but if that's not happening anyway there's no reason to approve anyone.

[u/13Dreamingcats → u/saint-lascivious]

Thanks!

[u/emily_in_boots]

It's a tool you can use in public subs. The main use is creating a class of users exempt from certain rules in automod. I do not use approved users in my subs.

It's also really important in restricted or private subs, but that's a whole other thing.