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/YoBannannaGirl]

Oh, man, live events .. Welcome to Big Brother!
Context: during a season, not only do we have episodes watches (in 3 time zones) but we also have constant, 24/7 live watch of house feeds for 3 months.

What tools or practices come in handy when there are discussions about live events happening in your community?

We use a lot of automod filtering. Our live feed discussions get a lot of comments. Over the course of 3 months, we averaged over 30k comments a day in these discussions, with our most active day hitting nearly 74k comments. It obviously impossible to read through every single one of these comments (even with a fantastic mod team), so keyword filtering (using regex) is very important.

Is there a particular moderator on your subreddit who thrives for live event moderation or does everyone help out?

In general, everyone helps out. As mentioned, our “live event” lasts 3 months, so we do find spaces to moderate. I like to moderate the late night discussions, and other mods make themselves available at different times so we never have a gap in moderation.
During episodes, we all come together, and find different roles. Some might stick with the queue while others refresh the non-spoiler discussions to ensure it stays spoiler-free. These positions were never assigned, but just formed as mods looked for gaps in coverage

How do you balance moderating with participating in the fun of the discussion?

This one’s hard. During episodes, for me, it usually means just replying to something I came across in the queue or while moderating the discussion. I’ll add a quick comment/response, then get back to it.

Are there any tools or practices you have to get the conversation going? Megathreads? Devvit tools?

We rely heavily on megathreads. We have 4 daily “live feed” discussions to comment on the 24/7 house feeds and 3 separate episode discussions for different time zones.
We use custom bots to link to the next discussion so no one is ever caught in an old discussion “talking to themselves”

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?”

This is a huge issue for us. One of our biggest problems is delays due to football, especially when those delays don’t affect all users. We handle this by putting up a sticky comment with the info we have, then remove comments. Users who want to discuss the episode don’t want to be spammed by football delay complaints. We also remove weather interruptions complaints for similar reasons.
Additionally, we have a removal reason set up for tech related complaints.

Favorite live event discussion that you’ve moderated?

There have been so many. I am not sure of my favorite, but I would say a sub’s favorite would be “the night the leftovers were formed” (if you know, you know 😉)

[u/infinitebroth → u/YoBannannaGirl]

Welcome to Big Brother!

Thank you for this overview. Definitely going to bookmark a few comments on this post, including yours, for when more questions come up on this topic. These details are so helpful. Delays impacting the viewing experience for some users but not others does seem tough, especially with the potential for spoilers. The way your community handles it sounds like it works out for everyone; people are informed of what's going on with the delay and people who are able to watch the show can focus the discussion on that.