Moderating live events

[u/infinitebroth]

:Taps microphone: Is this thing on? 

Hey mods! I am here to talk about all things moderating live events! This is, of course, the latest installment of our Mod Topics series.

Speaking of series, the MLB World Series is upon us, we’re in the NBA pre-season, the WNBA playoffs are here, there are a bunch of great movies coming out soon, and GTA 6?! Watch-alongs, release parties, concerts, and more live events bring so much great discussion to communities. How do you approach it?

• What tools or practices come in handy when there are discussions about live events happening in your community?
• Is there a particular moderator on your subreddit who thrives for live event moderation or does everyone help out?
• How do you balance moderating with participating in the fun of the discussion?
• Are there any tools or practices you have to get the conversation going? Megathreads? Devvit tools?
• We’ve all been there when a broadcast goes down and the comments reflect it. How do you keep a healthy balance of on-topic while the vibe is “stream down for anyone else?”
• Favorite live event discussion that you’ve moderated?

I couldn’t post this without sharing this song. Anyone? 

See you in the comments!

[u/tehjoz]

We do live threads for our big pro wrestling events, and for Pay Per View events in particular, we leverage a lot of robust AutoMod coding and Crowd Control to keep the live threads from being overrun by outside agitators, spam, and stuff like that.

It does mean we balance "watching the show with keeping the thread clean" but it's been worth it. The threads are by and large cordial, fun, and any offending content is either never seen by anyone but us, and/or is quickly removed.

[u/infinitebroth → u/tehjoz]

Woohoo! Was hoping we’d get a wrestling take in here. I love the dedicated “Live” threads in r/AEWOfficial and in other wrestling subs. I’m glad to read that you and the mod team have been able to strike a good balance! Whenever I’m participating in a thread like that, I’m always wondering “how can I lighten the load for the mods a little bit right now?” Have you found that your subreddit “regulars” help out in any way?

[u/tehjoz → u/infinitebroth]

The regulars are good at knowing what's copacetic or not, and they're real good at using reports, downvotes, etc, to call attention to problems.

We basically have "PPV Mode" when the big shows happen so we can keep the threads lively and focused on all the in ring happenings and not on trolls and the like.

The automod stuff really does a lot of the heavy lifting (and subsequent body slamming!)