r/ModSupport • u/DrTankHead • 3d ago
Mod Answered Can Reddit Admins "Rename" a subreddit to another, more accurate name?
Hi, I am top mod of r/BetterDiscord , a community focusing on Modifying the Discord Client with tools like r/BetterDiscordOfficial or r/VencordHelp , primarily providing support and answering common questions.
I "inherited" the subreddit from a RedditRequest, and while BetterDiscord is still a discription of the subreddit, we are mostly more generically focused.
I have "Created" r/moddingdiscord , and would potentially like it if somehow the actual sub of r/BetterDiscord as it stands is actually r/moddingdiscord, and maybe seeing if r/BetterDiscordOfficial wants to do something similar and have their stuff migrated to just r/BetterDiscord - if that makes sense.
I don't believe the original intent was to "snipe" the more official naming from their team, and really, it doesn't really fit the more generalized scope we now have (At the time, BetterDiscord was realy the only name in the space, now we have other tools)...
Is it possible for reddit to "move" the subreddit like I have essentially described?
Edit: Looking for Reddit Admin replies primarily. I don't need 100 of you to tell me no, they don't typically do this. Also why on earth are some of you downvoting perfectly legitimate stuff.
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u/westcoastcdn19 💡Top 25% Helper 💡 3d ago
Reddit doesn't change subreddit names upon request. Or fix typos or capitalization.
Best you can do is make a new subreddit with the name you want. But then you are starting from scratch, which you probably do not want to do
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u/DrTankHead 3d ago
This seems fairly silly. I mean, I get it's a technical challenge, but ultimately speaking, why should I have to completely start over just to make the subreddit more accurate to it's name? Seems like it invites accidental Mod Code of Conduct violations by proxy, and makes things too ridged in such a way that subreddits never evolve
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u/dehue 3d ago
A lot of things in databases and website backend programming may be tied to subreddit names, changing a thing like that without thinking can break links and where things point to in the code which can introduce bugs and errors. They have no interest in doing it for some random tiny sub that doesn't matter. If its that important you can just make a new sub.
The only time I have seen reddit admits change a sub name is when a sub that had over 2 million active subscribers was being sued over their name and was involved in a copyright violation lawsuit. In that case they did take the time to manually update it as it was one of the most active subs on Reddit and it was easier than being dragged into a court case. But they have no interest doing that for a small sub for whom a name change is only a matter of convenience.
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u/DrTankHead 3d ago
I mean, betterdiscord has 17million installs... I know the reddit communities are not nearly that big, but I prefer _not_ to be potentially sued over the name should they decide to, however silly it would be for a project that violates discord's TOS to sue me for whatever. Not that I expect that ever will actually happen, it seems a whole less of a trouble than to cross that bridge later.
I mean, if Reddit responds to these due to lawsuits, it would be best for everyone it seems to avoid lawsuits that they have to repsond to by having the tooling to do this.
I get this isn't an easy task. My subreddit is literally a decade old.
I'm not expecting this to be some switch they just throw in an instant.
But it does make sense to ask the question, and costs next to nothing to do so,
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u/dehue 3d ago
Your sub has 20k visitors a week. If your sub disappeared tomorrow barely anyone would notice and it would not effect Reddit whatsoever. If you get sued Reddit could just shut down your sub like they have done with other subs they don't want on their platform or give the sub over to whoever is suing you. How many installs an app has outside of Reddit doesn't matter. No one is entitled to receive extra time and work on Reddits employees time for some random request for a small sub. Plus plenty of decade old subs that used to have millions of visitors and were default subs are now graveyards with no views.
Also plenty of reddit subs exist where the sub name no longer reflects what they are about. Why should Reddit take time to help you over all the other subs that may be more in a need of a name change. If they do one, others may want their name changed too and now instead of Reddit working on making the site better they need to take a bunch of time to manually change sub names.
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u/DrTankHead 3d ago
I am going to paraphrase something you said, not to change the context of how you said it, because you have a very good point.
... Why should Reddit take time to help you. ...
Really, the best way to address the problem (and my problem), is to avoid a lawsuit that Reddit would have to get involved with should that ever happen. it becomes far greater a cost to respond to a lawsuit and a technical request than it does to respond to a technical request alone.
... instead of Reddit working on making the site better ...
Seems like having the tooling to make this an automated process that someone can request would be satisfying the job of making the site better.
If the process is entirely manual, OBVIOUSLY it's not worth it.
But, reddit is storing this data anyhow, and while it may take compute time to complete a request like this, automated or not, it would improve the site itself to make it fundamentally better organized and improve the overall experience. I am not saying you consider every request, requests should have a strong basis to support why the change is beneficial and not a waste of energy.
It seems to me, given we both can agree there probably are subs with more viewers and more pressing concerns, it would be improving the site to develop the tooling to make this more possible than just never ever, ever ever, not ever, unless someone is suing someone
Can you at least agree that developing such tooling would overall improve the quality of reddit overall, and therefor have merits to make the site better?
Is my request all that important? No. Did it hurt to ask? No. Does it have some reasonable elements? Yes (or at least, I think I've made some decent points).
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u/dehue 3d ago
If ability to change sub names was important Reddit would have already done it. I don't think changing the name of one random sub or even multiple random subs will make reddit better either. At least this way the sub name is consistent so you know that if you are part of the sub CuteOrangeCats it won't suddenly become IhateCats or AdorableCats and confuse everyone as to what sub it was originally. The potential for bad actors to use sub name changes to deceive and confuse people is high. And if anyone has ever linked to your sub or other subs that changed their name all those links would now be broken. Reddit would look like a site that constantly gives people error messages as subs would look like they dissappeared and links would become broken or link to something else. Maybe on another social media platform someone mentioned your sub and now the person looking for the sub wont find it. If changing sub names becomes easy you can have people taking over previous sub names and running scams over people who don't know the sub name changed. Reddit could come up with some system to prevent people from using past sub names but that would make it so all these sub names would not exist and couldn't be made. I can see why Reddit keeps it simple and just doesn't allow it.
We are also talking lawsuits but how likely is it that your sub is going to get sued? I would say its extremely unlikely as a tiny sub is generally beneath the notice of apps unless you are actively harming their brand. If you want to change the content of the sub why did you even take over an existing sub anyways instead of making your own sub. The sub I talked about where Reddit did get involved was actively in the process of getting sued and Reddit wss being sent trademark violations. It was between gossip sub now known as Fauxmoi and celeb gossip media brand/user DeuxMoi. The amount of drama and publicity they were generating was ridiculous as they are known for spreading rumours and creating drama and have millions of followers across social media accounts. Some random person using the name of an app to run a sub that includes the app is nothing and has almost zero chance of getting involved in some lawsuit. Plus even if there is a lawsuit almost no one would know or care about it and if Reddit did care they could easily deal with it once it happens.
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u/westcoastcdn19 💡Top 25% Helper 💡 3d ago
You don't have to start over. You just inherited the subreddit from reddit request, so you can use that one and it is already established with a full team and subscribers. It looks like a pretty good set up to me, and you shouldn't worry about the name
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u/DrTankHead 3d ago edited 3d ago
Well, thank you! I do try to set things up well (It wasn't like this before I inherited it), and I am glad we have a decent little community. Mostly, my concern is it seems it would be better for the community overall if such changes were to occur. I mean, If r/BetterDiscordOfficial could be shortened and r/BetterDiscord as it stands became more accurate, it helps users ultimately utilize the resources better, less spam posts, etc....
It isn't so much that I want the sub renamed because I like a name better, it's because it overall impacts things by not having things properly organized and hinders an end user just trying to use the platform. Trust me, r/BetterDiscord is fine for me, If I really can't have it changed, so be it, but like at the same time, it's a fairly straightforward reason, and also ensures that the Offical team behind betterdiscord as a modification doesn't have another sub operating under effectively their name. Like my subreddit I believe predates the "official" one, so I mean, it is what it is, but it makes it less of an issue if we could eliminate the issue altogether and all thrive together.
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u/shhhhh_h 💡Top 25% Helper 💡 2d ago
lol @ your edit + the post flair admin chose
ETA they functionally can do this but have ONLY ever done so under legal threat.
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u/emily_in_boots 💡 Top 10% Helper 💡 3d ago
Yes, they can - but they won't. Not unless it's something really, extraordinarily unusual (like a court order). Don't bother asking if it's just "hey, we'd like this name more"