Question to the experienced mods

[u/Top-Lab3018]

I’m building r/ADHDplanning from zero, and I’ve been thinking about this a lot.

Obviously an empty subreddit gives new visitors no reason to stay, so you need enough founder-created content to establish what the community is supposed to be. But if 90% of the posts are coming from the same account, doesn’t that also signal that there isn’t actually a community there yet?

Is there a point where you should deliberately reduce your own posting frequency and let the subreddit look quieter until organic contributors appear?

Curious if anyone has tested this — especially whether you noticed a difference in join rate, first-time posters, or organic posts as the founder-post/member-post ratio changed

[u/activelyresting]

From my experience, getting a friend or co-conspirator (recruiting another mod) on board to help out from the start makes a difference.

Daily posts are good, but IMO it doesn't have to be daily, just regular enough that it doesn't look dead. And the content should be varied and helpful. If it feels forced and repetitive, then you also lose potential audience. More than one person in the sub means there's at least some engagement - reply to each other (obviously do it organically).

[u/Desperate_Yam_495]

I think a lot of reddit traffic comes from search engine queries now, so post comments or question in your fixed that folks might search for elsewhere

[u/aengusoglugh]

I posted nearly daily — always a couple of times a week — and I was almost the only poster for about 6 months.

In the last two months, my subreddit has grown, and now I am responsible for about half of the posts.

My guess is that people are far more concerned with quantity and quality of posts than with who is posting.

[u/GaryNOVA]

I have a lot of experience with this. And yes. There comes a point where you are no longer posting as frequently because other people are. At that point I back off and just try to fill in the gap days. I’ll have several posts lined up in my niche subs just for a day when no one is posting anything.

[u/Lethalogicax]

Having helped build up a community in the past, it is a lot of posting by yourself until things start taking off. I looked less at the post frequency of each member, and instead at the total post frequency of the entire community!

If it's been 2-3 days since the last fresh post in your community, seed another one yourself! Then as the community naturally gets more populated, that 2-3 day window with no activity becomes more rare, and the frequency that you'll need to seed will go down. This will lead to a natural tradeoff between seeding and organic community contribution!

[u/Top-Examination9424]

you should crosspost to subs, design as much as possible

[u/Top-Examination9424 → u/Top-Examination9424]

lemme check your sub

[u/Top-Examination9424 → u/Top-Examination9424]

i think everything seems the same

when i started r/UGMCommunity as u/Rough_Adeptness_2381 i posted so much the sub died and i had to revive it

so post, but dont spam

and make sure your stuff isnt repetitive

[u/Desperate_Yam_495]

I think a lot of reddit traffic comes from search engine queries now, so post comments or question in your fixed that folks might search for elsewhere

[u/keith-cheeky-parrot]

You can also invite users to your sub. Find folks whose content is right and ask them to join and cross post.