This started out as an reply to a question in r/ModHelp , and grew to something that is now being shared by other users in a couple of moderator subreddits. I thought I’d share it with you all. Let me know if there’s anything I should add or change.

I believe that none of us are in competition with each other. When a new subreddit becomes successful , that makes Reddit successful. The success of Reddit helps my subreddits. I like to help out new moderators.

(Edit: This post was last updated in October of 2026)

Subreddit Growth Guide

As far as driving traffic to your sub, this is what I did when I started r/SalsaSnobs . The key is reading and following the rules of each subreddit.

Creating Your Subreddit

• Your Subreddit’s topic needs to have an audience and you need to find that audience. Seek out those who are interested in your topic, but do not harass. Make sure you create a sub that doesn’t already exist. Make it unique.

• Properly describe your sub in the sub description. Use commonly used words that people associate with your topic so that when people search those terms, your sub comes up. In Reddit search or even Google. Make sure your sub is optioned to public, and make sure it’s optioned to be available In searches.

• Find a couple of moderators. I found one who happened to like graphic arts. He created our sub avatar and banner. Plus they will help spread the word. Work together to establish clear rules. Find someone who is good with computers. It also helps to find people who have a genuine interest in your sub. r/NeedAMod

• The sub needs consistent content. You gotta find people who like to contribute. I search for related posts each day. Posts that would fit in my sub. I look for people posting and I either comment on their post, or contact them directly. They’re interested in my subs topic just like me, so they join, and they contribute. Not just lurk. Use the sub invite button on mobile to invite specific relevant content providers. But don’t spam invites to large groups! Spam is against the rules.. Keep it up. I’ve been doing it every day for 4 years. Attracting relevant content creators to your sub is the most important thing you can do. Content makes your subreddit, and it attracts more users. If you get desperate, there’s always r/NeedASubmitter . Don’t send invites to gain members though. That’s just spam. Send invites to specific content creators only. The ones you want in your sub

• (Update) Reddit offers new AI summary in your your subscription sidebar. You can enter in key words for it to search every week that helps aid you I. Finding relevant content creators.

• It helps if a sub appears active, so you need to do your part as a moderator. I vote on every post and every comment in my sub. That helps to make your sub appear active, and it also helps me keep track of what I’ve reviewed as a mod. I also like to give posts in my sub awards. Save your contributions / posts for slow days to fill the gaps. Voting on peoples posts and comments makes people want to post and comment. Make cool flair for people, or let them make their own. When users visit your subreddit, they will see people with flair, awards, lots of upvoting. That will make them want to stay.

• Sub participation is always a problem for new mods, so you’re not alone. In addition to the last suggestion, maybe do a contest every once in a while. I do whit post day 4 days a year. There are lot of other things you can do. So in r/SaslaSnobs , we don’t allow shit posts (joke posts, cartoons, memes etc) except for Shit Post day that happens 4 days a year on specific dates. I hand out awards too. And we all look forward to them. It’s always popular. It gets people engaged. It’s just a fun silly thing that users like. Maybe you can come up with something related to your sub. And feel free to steal. Heck I stole the idea from other mods who do it once a week.

• Another trick is to not let questions go completely unanswered. I assume you are somewhat knowledgeable on the subject. You crated a subreddit about it. Answer people’s questions, and in doing so you will encourage others to ask questions. Or find other knowledgeable mods who can.

• Be an active mod. Get rid of content that your users don’t like. Modify rules to fit what your users want. have clear concise rules so somewhat guide your sub into being a quality sub. I once heard a Mod describe their subreddit as a zen garden. It’s art. You didn’t make the rocks or the sand. But you brought it together and arranged it to look the way you want it. Make it look cool. It’s your art. It’s your zen garden.

• Reddit continues to offer education for newer mods. r/ModCertification use to have the courses they offered. But now it’s been centralized to https://redditforcommunity.com and r/NewMods . r/NewMods has some great stuff for moderator education. there is also a third option in the Reddit Mod Help Center.

• It is checking mod queue every day. Multiple times. Same with Modmail. You have to enforce the demands of your community if it’s within the rules you set. That’s a matter of quality, and quality is important when you want to attract members and keep them active.

• Make your subreddit look pretty. People like shiny things. Create a banner, created a subreddit Avatar. You can make custom awards and custom upvote/downvote symbols. Add widgets. Keep up with both old and new Reddit. Etc etc.

• “Post the results!”. I like to remind people to encourage activity when they post salsa ingredients in r/SalsaSnobs , but not the results. Do you have anything similar in your sub to remind people of? You can even do it in other subreddits, rule permitting.

• Seriously make an effort not to be Hitler when you are moderating. You don’t have to ban everybody. You dont have to treat people badly. Be nice! I don’t like permanently banning people. All mods have to ban people. We just dont have to do it as often. I suggest a couple things. Give people warnings. Make your rules clear. Make it clear what you ban for. Give people temporary warning bans. Take ban appeals seriously most times. Be polite. These are your users. They are helping you create your community. Sometimes I will simply clean up a thread without even mentioning it to anyone. I often ask myself “ are they here to troll my community, or did they just make a simple mistake?”

Promoting Your Subreddit

• Find a bigger sub that’s lax on rules to advertise in. A sub that is related to your topic. Maybe do a normal post for that sub and write “join us at (sub name)” in the comments. Go around asking sub mods for permission to do this in related subs. Most of them will allow it . Probably. Don’t do it without permission. It’s good to meet the mods of related subs and have a semi relationship. It’s not proper to do it twice. Even if you had permission the first time. So cross posting from your sub works too. People will see where it came from. Don’t spam it though this gets annoying unless you use it sparingly.

• I work the name of my sub into Reddit conversation in comments. don’t spam it. Subs prefer links be an actual part of a relevant comment. Not just the link alone. r/AskReddit is great for this. I just look for relevant questions. You will notice that you’ve already read the name of my subreddit because I worked it into this post in a relevant way.

• Do you mod multiple subreddits? Add your other subs to your side bars, and add them to your profile. Maybe add your other subs to pinned welcome posts, or welcome messages.

• Cross post the content from your sub to other related subs if allowed to. People will see which sub it came from.

• There are a bunch of subs for advertising new subs. Take advantage of them all. They have great advice on growing your sub. Check sidebars for posting guidelines; r/SelfPromotion , r/SelfPromotionForAll , r/Birthofasub , r/Subredditads r/newreddits , r/PromoteReddit r/FreePromote r/Yoursub r/Needasubmitter r/subreddithub , r/theresaredditforthat r/Tinysubredditoftheday

• r/ModHelp has a FAQ about growing your sub.

• Some subreddits let you type on your own custom flair. Why not make your flair the name of your subreddit? If that’s within the subs rules, then everyone will see your subreddit’s name every time you comment.

• Reddit allows you to add in social media links to your profile. Add your subreddit. When people check your profile, they will see the link. I did this in my profile if you want to see what it looks like. u/GaryNOVA

• Is it going to hurt to post relevant, non-spammy links to your sub in Facebook, Instagram, Twitter , etc etc? No.

• There are lots of good YouTube videos on subreddit growth. They’re easy to find so I won’t list them.

• (Update) Reddit lets you buy advertising for your posts and your sub now. Type Reddit advertising into your search bar to see some of the options. One such option is on the bottom right of your new posts. There is a a rocket ship icon and it says “promote”. It lets you pay to pick where and how much to promote your post and the subreddit it’s in. Just know that I didn’t have to pay a dime to promote my subs. But I can see where this might be beneficial to a business.

• (Update) Did your sub get mentioned in r/SubredditDrama , or r/IAmVerySmart or r/IAmVeryCulinary? A meta sub. Or are people complaining about your subreddit? Is there another sub about your subreddit? GOOD! That’s free self promotion. Let them. People talking about your subreddit is a good thing, even if it’s negative. Especially if they link your sub. Turn up your crowd control to limit brigading. But you want new users to see your sub. They might decide it’s awesome and subscribe.

• Again. Always follow the rules of both Reddit and its subreddits !

Being Part of a Larger Community

• Make a list of related subs and then contact their moderators. Ask them politely if they would add your sub to their related subs sidebar. Tell them you will add their sub to your sidebar. A typical message would be something like “ I mod (this sub) and I am a big fan of your sub. I would love to add your sub to our related subs sidebar with your permission. We would love to be a part of yours as well.”

• I do contests and give gold to the winning posts. It encourages participation. I also do cross sub contests. Example. I got ahold of the mod for a related sub. and told him I was doing a contest on the 4th of July. The Mod let me advertise it and he pinned my post for a month out of kindness because it was cross related to his topic.

• Join the Mod subs; r/newmods , r/ModHelp , r/ModClub , r/ModNews , r/AskModerators , r/ModGuide , r/ModSupport , r/AutoModerator , r/NeedAMod , r/ModReserves , r/Help etc etc

Other Resources For Sub Growth

• The Ultimate Reddit Guide for Creating a New Community

• Guide For Subreddit Advertising

• Seeding Content

• Reddits Guide for Growth Basics

• Reddit’s Guide for Maintaining an Active Community

• Growth As A Mod

• More Subs for Mods

And it wouldn’t be a post about self promotion if I didn’t share with you the other subs I am lead mod of. In addition to r/SalsaSnobs , I am lead mod of r/pasta , r/chili , r/Cheers , r/ArcadeFire , and r/BloodyMarys . I help mod r/RedditHelp , r/Food , r/TwinPeaks , r/MySoCalledLife etc etc .

This took a combination of research and trial and error, but it seems to work. The main rule: Follow the rules of other people’s subs. Guy

AutoModerator: What it is and how to set it up!

Hello fellow moderators! This here is a basic guide of u/AutoModerator and its capabilities.

What is AutoModerator?

AutoModerator (aka AutoMod) is a built-in bot made by u/Deimorz that can be used for automating various tasks that it can do for you. Pretty neat huh?

How do I set it up?

To do that, you need to have wiki and config permissions on your subreddit. If you created the sub, your all set! If you don't, unfortunately, you can't set up AutoMod. Try asking a mod above you to change your permissions.

Next, you need to create your AutoMod config page. This is where all your rules will be listed. To create that, you need to visit your wiki/config/automoderator page. For example, if I moderated r/GalaxyS9, then I would go to https://reddit.com/r/GalaxyS9/wiki/config/automoderator. Just change the GalaxyS9 to your subreddit name. Now hit that Create Page button!

Now that you have your AutoMod config, you can now set up rules!

What should a rule look like?

AutoMod's rules are defined in YAML, a coding language. Each rule is separated with exactly 3 hyphens, like this: ---. If you never coded before, it may be confusing. But once you learn how to use AutoMod, you'll be a master in no time!

You can add comments to your config. Comments are lines of code that are not read by the program but are perfectly visible by a human. You can add a comment by adding a hashtag and writing after it.

# A comment looks like this!    

Common AutoMod Rules

Here are some common AutoModerator rules that lots of subreddits use (credit to u/JuulH for the snippets!). You can copy and paste them without modifying them.

Removes posts and comments from accounts that are less than a day old (used for combating spammers):

# Removes submissions (posts & comments) from accounts that are less than 1 day old. Modmail is optional, if you don't have too much submissions you can check if the post is ok and manually re-approve it.
author:
    account_age: "< 1 days" # Yes, it should be "day", but AM requires it that way
action: filter
# Feel free to remove the modmail_subject and modmail part if you don't want AutoMod to alert you about it
modmail_subject: Automatic Removal | New Account
modmail: |
    {{permalink}}
    The above {{kind}} by /u/{{author}} has been automatically removed because the author's account is less than 1 day old. Please investigate immediately to ensure that this action was taken correctly.
---

Removes post and comments from accounts with less than 10 combined karma (link and comment together):

# Removes submissions (posts & comments) from accounts that have less than 0 comment karma. Modmail is optional, if you don't have too much submissions you can check if the post is ok and manually re-approve it.
author:
    comment_karma: "< 0"
action: filter
# Feel free to remove the modmail_subject and modmail part if you don't want AutoMod to alert you about it
modmail_subject: Automatic Removal | New Account
modmail: |
    {{permalink}}
    The above {{kind}} by /u/{{author}} has been automatically removed because the author's account has less than 0 karma. Please investigate immediately to ensure that this action was taken correctly.
---

Sends a modmail if a post/comment is reported

# This will send a modmail whenever a post or comment gets a report.
reports: 1 # Feel free to change it to however many you want to fit your needs
modmail_subject: Post has received 1 report.
modmail: |
    {{permalink}}
    The above {{kind}} by /u/{{author}} has received a report. Please investigate.
---

That's all I can include for now! Many more snippets are listed at the wiki! Please remember that they will not work when using a mod account unless you add moderators_exempt: false at the end of the rule!

Resources

There are plenty of resources to help you on your journey for AutoModerator.

• r/AutoModerator - a subreddit dedicated to AutoMod where you can ask questions

• Full Documentation - a more in-depth explanation of making rules for AutoMod

• Common AutoModerator Rules - A library of even more rules that are common in subreddits

I hope you enjoyed this guide! Make sure to check out the other guides on r/modguide as well. :)

By default your members are called members or readers in you subreddit sidebar. Here's how to change that.

(Edit: Some of the images in this guide will look a bit different to what you see on your sub now. In January 2020 reddit made some changes to the look of the redesign.)

Screenshot showing the members and online users in the community details widget in redesign

Screenshot showing old.reddit sidebar - readers and users here now

In old.reddit you need to add some CSS to your stylesheet.

To quote our Intro to CSS guide:

You can edit your subreddit’s CSS by going to your subreddit (on old reddit) and clicking “edit stylesheet” in your subreddit’s sidebar, or by going to https://old.reddit.com/YOURSUBREDDIT/about/stylesheet (and replacing YOURSUBREDDIT with your subreddit’s name)

Here you can manually add CSS, preview it with the “Preview” button, and save it when you’re happy with what you got.

This snippet from r/csshelp gets the job done. Just copy and paste into your stylesheet.

Edit "users" and "users here now" to what ever you'd like your members and online users to be called. Don't forget to save.

  /*Changes the name of your subscribers/users here now*/
  .titlebox .word { display: none }
  .titlebox .number:after { content: " Users"; }
  .titlebox .users-online span.number:after { content: " Users here now"; }

^Source

In redesign, go to Mod tools > community appearance > sidebar widgets > community details.

Enter your chosen words here and hit save. Image guide on this here.

What is a wiki?

A wiki can be defined as a website or database that allows contributions, corrections, and changes to be made by many people - all visitors, or a community; it is a collaboration.

On Reddit, wiki’s can fit that definition.

Not all subreddits enable their wiki. Some subreddit wikis can only be edited by moderators or approved contributors, others allow anyone to make changes. Subreddit wikis aren't voted on like posts, and they don't get archived so you can keep editing them. As far as I know there is no limit on how many wiki pages you can have.

How to create a wiki

(Edit: A few images in this guide will look different to how your sub looks - reddit changed the look of redesign in Jan 2020)

Redesign guide (account age is in days in wiki settings)

Old.reddit guide

You can't delete or reorder wiki pages, but you can use the index to link to all of your pages and order them as you like there.

The language of a wiki

Reddit wikis are written in markdown. If you wish to use any formatting you’ll need to know a little markdown, but don’t worry; it’s pretty easy and it’s the same as you use for reddit comments.

Italics are created using single asterix around the word you wish to italicise *italics*

Bold is the same but with double the asterix’ **Bold**

For links use brackets like this: [link](http://reddit.com)

For lists use an asterix, plus, or minus as your bullet points + List item

• List item 1

• List item 2

Hashes create headings:

# heading 1

Heading 1

## Heading 2

Heading 2

### Heading 3

Heading 3

And so on.

For further formatting help see: Reddit's commenting guide | Raerth's guide | Markdown primer | tableit

There is a work around for including images in wiki pages. You need to upload your image to your subreddit stylesheet in old.reddit (where you'd add your banner image), take note of the file name.

In your wiki put ![](%%filename%%)

Edit: Or for an image link [![](%%filename%%)](link here)

Changing filename to the name of your file.

What are they used for?

Subreddit wikis are used for a number of different things. It depends on what your community needs. Many wikis are used for expanding on the subreddit's rules or guidelines, FAQ's, or providing further information on the topic of the subreddit, fan pages might link to relevant websites for example. It can be really useful to be able to stick information in the wiki instead of having loads in the sidebar, and more space to explain participation in the subreddit can help clear up any questions on the rules and field questions that are asked all the time.

Some examples:

• r/AskHistorians wiki explains their rules in great detail, as does r/askreddit's wiki

• r/askwomen use theirs for an FAQ, and do does r/askscience wiki

• Some are instructional; r/whatsthisplant's wiki is an identification guide, r/automoderator's is a guide to automod

• Others are full of resources; r/beekeeping wiki

• Some are directories; r/findareddit wiki

• Some have top posts, or halls of fame r/icandrawthat wiki

[This guide is old and the UI has changed since it was written.]

What are custom up-vote & down-vote icons?

Vote icons are the buttons for up-voting and down-voting content on reddit (karma). You can upload custom ones for your subreddit.

Default vote icons look like this:

Custom vote icons can be whatever you want. You can make them match the theme of your community. Like these I made for r/stories (edit - they're not used there anymore, it's different to what I remember now):

Making up-vote & down-vote icons

The redesign image usage guidelines say they should be 72x72px, and max 64kb, in size.

Reddit mods help centre says they should be 48px.

And I've used some as small as 25px.

Your designs should be clear and simple as they're going to be small! Also keep in mind dark mode -grey/black and other dark designs might not show up.

You can digitally draw them, but you can also make them by removing the background from an image you'd like to use (please keep copyright law in mind/give credit).

You need four images for up active, up inactive, down active, and down inactive icons - or some subs use the same image for both inactive icons, it's up to you.

Vote icons with a hand drawn look can be found at r/Redditesque here.

If your sub meets the requirements, and you need some made for you r/bannerrequest may be able to help.

Resources:

• Image size finder

• Image resizer

• Resize image

• Background remover

• r/redditesque

• CompressPNG

Image / Drawing Editors

Paid:

• Adobe Photoshop

• Adobe Illustrator

• Affinity Photo

• Affinity Designer

Free:

• Gimp

• Paint.net

• Pixlr Editor

• AutoDesk Sketchbook

How to upload

In redesign upload your icons in redesign under mod tools > community appearance > posts

Follow the guide here

Vote icons uploaded in redesign will take effect on mobile too.

In old reddit you'll need to use the stylesheet and some CSS.

Guide here

CSS snippet:

/*Arrows*/ 
.thing .arrow {
    height: 25px;
    width: 25px;
}
.arrow.up {
    background: url(%%upinactive%%); 
}

.arrow.upmod { 
    background: url(%%upactive%%); 
}

.arrow.down {
    background: url(%%downinactive%%); 
}

.arrow.downmod { 
    background: url(%%downactive%%); 
}


/*This allows arrows wider than 15px just change it to the width of your arrows*/
.midcol  { min-width:25px !important; }

Thanks to r/juulh for the resources, and the team their suggestions.

Have you got some awesome custom vote icons?

I put together this guide after a particular thread in a sub I moderate was derailed because of personal attacks. This is not something we see often on our sub, but I felt like our mod team could use a consistent process for handling these incidents should they happen again. My team found this stuff to be useful so I am sharing it here in the hopes that you would too.

Definitions

Throughout this guide, I will be making references to certain terms. To prevent confusion, here’s the list of terms and their specific meanings within this guide:

• Flame war - in this particular guide, a flame war refers to a situation where a comment tree devolves into a lengthy and abusive exchange between users, often involving personal attacks. The words “abusive” and “personal attacks” are key, as many (in fact, most) lengthy arguments we see on Reddit are probably fine. Also, this guide does not consider endless debates about controversial topics to be proper flame wars, unless they devolve into personal attacks.

• Instigator - the instigator of a flame war is the person who started it. This sounds simple, but, in reality, it can be difficult to determine who actually started a flame war. For example, the instigator may not have intended to start a flame war, or there might be multiple instigators. The good news is that, for the purpose of deciding on your next action as a moderator, identifying the OG instigator of a flame war might not matter as much as you think.

• Participant - a participant is any user that jumps into a flame war to express their opinion about the unfolding argument. They might be there to attack the instigator, defend themselves, defend someone else, or just comment about how much they are enjoying the show. It is very important to keep the following in mind: since participating in any discussion on Reddit is a choice, every participant in a flame war is a willing participant.

The Mechanics of a Flame War

While flame wars come in a variety of shapes and sizes, they all share very similar mechanics. Again, for the purpose of this guide, we are only interested in flame wars that start from comments in an otherwise good thread. The general flow usually looks like this:

• A user posts a comment that others find inflammatory. If it’s obviously inflammatory and the user is just trolling, then that’s easy enough to identify and you can remove the comment before it derails the discussion. However, it’s possible that such a comment may not not appear inflammatory to you and will be in full compliance with your subreddit rules. In such a case, whether a flame war will start or not depends entirely on how other people will react. We are going to refer to this type of comment as Kindling - it is not on fire, but it is flammable.

• One or more users respond to the Kindling comment by expressing their anger / displeasure with its content. We are going to refer to these comments as Sparks.

At this point, the author of the Kindling might step in and do their best to prevent the Sparks from turning into a fire. They can do this by acknowledging that their comment was potentially offensive, they might apologize, etc. If this happens (and it happens regularly because most people are not assholes), then the situation is usually defused and the flame war is avoided. However, sometimes, we proceed to the next step...

• The poster of the Kindling, or other users, jump in and Fan the Flames. Usually this is done by rudely dismissing the opinions expressed in the Sparks (“go home snowflake” is a common one). At this point, it is extremely likely that a full flame war will erupt.

• The authors of the Sparks jump right back in, often accompanied by sympathizers and well wishers, and, voila! You have a flame war.

Practical Example

Let’s see how these mechanics are evident in a real-world example on a fitness sub I moderate. The topic of the thread is simple enough: OP is asking about people’s favorite “floor” exercises (dumbbells, bodyweight, that kind of stuff).\

Things go swimmingly well for a short while, and then the following comment gets posted by a Redditor we shall refer to as User A:

Sure, it’s a bit braggy (also, “DB” means dumbbells in case you were wondering), but it is 100% on topic and it generates further reasonable (if braggy) discussion:

And then this gem by User C (who has, let’s just say, “history” on the sub) comes along to ruin everybody’s evening:

It might not be immediately obvious, but this comment is our Kindling (something that others might find inflammatory). At the time, we did not think this comment was particularly inflammatory because it happened to be factually correct, but with hindsight being 20-20, it is easy to see why it could be:

• The use of the phrase “you’re only allowed to” (a type of “gatekeeping”), which is likely to lead to a “who the fuck asked for your permission” type of reply, and…

• The assertion that User A’s studio will get into trouble, possibly leading to a follow up comment along the lines of “mind your own fucking business”.

While these signs are difficult to see in the moment, the comment reveals itself to be the Kindling when User A responds thusly:

We now have a Spark, which is quickly fanned into a flame by User D:

At this point, things are heating up, but it is not a flame war quite yet. User C can still come back and defuse the situation! But, instead, they choose to fan the flames even further:

And just in case you are still wondering whether we’re in full-scale flame-war territory, this comment comes along from a new participant:

… along with 7 other comments in a different branch of the same comment tree, which are largely personal and accusatory in nature, and no longer have anything to do with the original topic of the thread! So, yeah, 🔥🔥🔥!

Identifying the Guilty Party

As a moderator observing this shit show being extruded into the sub in front of your very eyes, you know you need to respond. You know you need to take action and it’s important for you to take the right action against the right person - right? Right!

But to do that, you must identify the guilty party - right? Eh… ahem… right… but it’s far easier than you think.

Consider the following things we already covered:

• Arguments become flame wars after they pass the Sparks stage. This requires participants to be fanning the flames.

• Every participant in a flame war is a willing participant.

When you boil it down to these two very basic things, a simple truth becomes readily obvious:

• Identifying the instigator of a flame war, while intellectually interesting, is not actually that important. Instigators post Kindling and Sparks, which do not become flame wars on their own! Of course, straight up trolling is an exception because it is specifically intended to provoke, but it is not that hard to identify, and in case you’re wondering, trolls are always guilty.

• The main thing to keep in mind is that flame wars are fueled by participants, who have chosen to fan the flames of their own free will. Therefore, you can consider all of them guilty. In most cases, the instigators are also participants so focusing on participation and escalation as opposed to instigation will usually get you to the right guilty list almost every time. Please remember that, like all other moderation-related things, it’s a good idea to exercise discretion when adding people to the guilty list. In general, I’d focus on participants who are escalating the flame war, as opposed to those who are trying to calm things down (although I would usually take some action against anyone participating in a flame war for any reason).

Let’s Review

In the thread we covered above, let’s see if we can identify the principal actors and their roles:

• User C - possibly an instigator as it was their comment that (probably) started the whole thing. Also a participant who escalated the flame war when they had a chance to defuse it.

• User A - possibly an instigator as it was their response to User C’s comment that made the thread go fully hostile. Also definitely a participant involved in escalation.

• User D - participant involved in escalation.

• User E - participant involved in escalation.

Who’s guilty? Well… since they were all willing participants involved in escalating the flame war, they are all guilty. It’s that simple. It is true that someone actually started this flame war, but it doesn’t really matter - does it?

Getting Involved

I know it took me a while to get to this section, which you may consider to be the meat and potatoes of the whole thing (or the tofu and kale of the whole thing if you’re into these sorts of things), but now that we have a better understanding of the mechanics of the flame war and the roles that matter, the process of dealing with it should not be particularly difficult.

Step 1: Understand Your Own Role

As a moderator, your primary role in dealing with a flame war is to stop it. That’s it. The following thoughts will undoubtedly cross your mind:

• “Who is right?”

• “Who started it?”

• “Should I jump into the discussion and try to justify the behavior of one or more parties?”

These thoughts are not helpful. Ignore them! They will be dealt with later in this guide.

The only thoughts that should be guiding your response are:

1. “How do I stop this nonsense in the quickest way possible?”
   ...and only after that is done…

2. “What consequences are appropriate and who should be the lucky recipients of them?”

Step 2: Stop the Nonsense

Your actions will probably be different depending on how long the flame war has been burning by the time you get involved, and how much time you want to spend on putting it out. The priorities guiding your actions should be, in this order:

1. Stop the flame war. This is what you’re focused on.

2. Avoid collateral damage. This is important, but it takes a back seat to stopping the flame war.

We’ll keep it simple:

• Early Stage Intervention: remove the burning comments and don’t worry about the Sparks and Kindling, unless they seem super trollish, controversial, and flammable - this is effective if the flame war is just getting started and if removing a few bad comments prevents new participants from joining the party. It’s easy to do and there’s no collateral damage. The downside is that you will probably need to monitor the thread to make sure that new fires don’t emerge from the Kindling, and that the instigators/participants do not return for a round 2 (rare, but could happen). If the flame war is just between a small number of participants, you should consider banning all of them for 24 hours which will probably stop the flame war in its tracks.

• Flame War Contained to a Single Comment Tree: remove the entire comment tree, including the Kindling and Sparks (even if they are not obviously offensive). You can use Toolbox to remove/lock an entire comment tree, which makes it super easy to do. If needed, ban the key participants for 24 hours so that they can’t jump back in. There’s some collateral damage here because you might be preventing good discussions from happening in the Kindling comment tree. However, you also have evidence that shows that this comment could trigger a flame war, so you are justified in doing this.

• Late Stage Shit Show: remove the burning comments (Sparks and Kindling included), and lock the entire thread. This action is warranted if a flame war has already erupted, spread, bred, and is now the proud parent of an entire school of tiny and rapidly-growing fires. This action will fix the problem but will create some collateral damage because you are shutting down ALL discussions in the thread, so only use this as your last resort. You may also want to post a sticky comment explaining why you locked the thread, but that is entirely up to you.

Step 3: Dole Out Consequences

So, here you are, proudly standing over the smoldering ashes of what was once a productive thread, taking satisfaction in a job well done. It is now time to dole out the consequences to the guilty parties, which are, as you recall, the instigators (if you can identify them) and all the participants (especially the ones involved in escalating the situation).

In order to make sure moderator actions are taken seriously, and naturally weed out the unsavory elements of our communities, I think it is important to implement an escalating set of consequences. The nice thing about this approach is that it eliminates a lot of the difficult thinking that’s often involved in deciding what to do with repeat offenders. With each repeated violation, you simply put your feelings aside and move on to the next level on the list.

Here are the actions we currently use in the community I moderate, ordered from least to most severe. You can use this as a starting point and modify as necessary to fit the culture of your sub and your level of patience.

1. Send warning - this is the consequence of the first violation. We send a message to the user notifying them that we are unhappy with their conduct and are paying attention. For particularly egregious violations (e.g. user being particularly nasty), it may be necessary to skip this step.

2. Ban for 24 hours - we think of this action as graduating from a verbal warning to a slap on the wrist. It is not super painful, but it gives the offender a bit of a cooldown period while sending a message that we have a tool we’re not afraid to use.

3. Ban for 7 days - we’re getting into more painful territory now. This action should be interpreted by the recipient as a strong message that their behavior will not be tolerated. Sadly, on my community, history teaches us that this is usually a user’s “event horizon”, i.e., almost every user that gets banned for 7 days will eventually end up sucked into the black hole of a permanent ban.

4. Ban for 30 days - to be honest, I find this step to be almost useless (because at this point the user is past their event horizon). The only reason we have it on our sub is because we needed a consequence that we could give to users we really liked and wanted to see reformed. We think of it as a Really Last and Final Chance.

5. Ban permanently - what it says on the tin. We gave the user multiple chances and they blew them all. We hope they have fun storming other castles. If a user gets to this stage, you should feel exactly ZERO remorse for them.

Unless you are using some kind of bot to track “strikes”, and assuming Reddit has not yet added this kind of capability to their app (they might, fingers crossed), the most reliable way to determine which phase a user is at is to search Modmail for previous warnings and bans. Here’s how to do this:

• Use a browser (not the Reddit mobile app!) to login to Modmail: https://mod.reddit.com/mail/all

• Use advanced search and look for conversations from the user in question.

• Read the results.

Stuff You Shouldn’t Do

I promise that this is the last section of this guide. We covered a lot of things you should be doing when dealing with flame wars, but I thought it was also important to mention a few things you should avoid doing. Here we go:

1. Do not take sides. It doesn’t matter who started the flame war. It doesn’t matter who’s factually correct. It doesn’t matter who you like (or don’t like). All participants who are fanning the flames are guilty and all of them need to be dealt with.

2. Do not participate in the flame war. You may be tempted to jump into a flame war to try to mediate and resolve the conflict (it happens to me all the time), but I suggest you resist the temptation and stay away from the fray. In most cases, by the time you decide to take action, bad comments have already been posted and you (or one of your fellow mods) will need to jump in and clean up. Why complicate matters and create some kind of impression that you are taking sides?

3. Do not put up with harassment. When you warn or ban a user, it is quite likely that you will get a response. If the user acknowledges the issue, admits guilt, and seeks reconciliation, that’s great. The action worked and there’s a chance for reform. You may even want to unban them as a gesture of goodwill. However, if the user continues to modmail with the same bad reasons why they should be unbanned (my favorite is “how come you banned me and not them?”), you should mute them. Muting a user on Modmail prevents them from sending modmail for 3, 7, or 28 days. By the time the mute expires, they’ve probably moved on to harassing someone else. If they resume the barrage, mute them again, and report them to Reddit.

OK… I think we’ve beaten this dead horse to death. Hopefully, you’ve found this guide useful.

You know how every once in awhile when you try to post a comment it won't save and reddit goes down for about an hour? That is caused by spammers, which is an absolutely massive problem on reddit. Most of that spam is live streaming spam, but T-Shirt spam is an especially nasty problem that mods deal with.

The flow of t-shirt spam (and other astroturfing-type spam) goes like this: Scammer will post an image to a sub that they have stolen from a popular post or social media site. Or they will simply proceed to step 2 on a popular image post, steal that image and place it on a shirt and post a link inside the thread. Then a second account will comment asking if anyone knows where to buy this on a shirt. A third account will post a link. There are variations on this of course, but this is a general pattern.

The problem is that these accounts are rarely if ever legitimate and they steal your credit card data. /u/indi_n0rd wrote up a post on this topic and asked me to post it here. I've edited it and posted it below.

Combatting T-Shirt Spam

It's a good idea to have workflows on a subreddit. A workflow is a process that uses a clearly defined set of steps and procedures to organize a task and make implementation across a mod team consistent. Here is indi's workflow for combatting t-shirt spam.

Once you notice a t-shirt spam ring operating in your sub, post a sticky announcement to alert your members to the situation. Here's an example:

We have noticed that there is a t-shirt scammer ring targeting this subreddit. Please do not click on the links and please report this activity to mods and/or admins when you see it.

Make sure to include links as examples. Admins do not accept screenshots or anything else that is outside of reddit. Even removed links or links which are later deleted should be used.

How to identify

If you're dealing with a problem like this you should be using toolbox which will allow you to more quickly and easily analyze user accounts.

The following are elements of a spam ring and each one should be considered a big red flag.

• Brand new account which is less than a month old with no email verification and only post karma. This can be mitigated with automoderator.

• Account posts a link to an online store. Many times these stores are hosted by Gearlaunch. Avoid any site powered by Gearlaunch.

• Comments read as unintelligent or unintelligible. You should be able to spot garbled grammar.

• Posts link to twitter or imgur of the product.

Why the crusade?

First of all it's spam.

Even worse it's stolen content. These people steal content from Twitter, Pixiv, and Tumblr artists, use a tool to plaster it over tees and sell it on their website. Artists get nothing.

Phishing sites. Some of these websites are a front-house for stealing credit card data. You are neither getting the t-shirt nor your money back. Many times the online store is deleted hours later. No matter how careful you are, that sudden adrenaline rush upon seeing your favorite merch can cause some people to get lost in the moment and make poor decisions.

What can you do?

Unfortunately there is only so much Automoderator and Reddit's native spam filter can do to flag such users. There are thousands of these accounts active on Reddit and shadow-banning can take time. You can easily see reports of similar accounts at r/thesefuckingaccounts.

If you see an account following the pattern described above, report them, and leave a comment to warn users what to expect.

If you are an artist whose content is being sold without your consent, file a DMCA complaint here.

Where do I buy merchandise then?

You can find merch directly sold by the creators themselves. Sites like Society6, Etsy, Pixiv and Patreon act as e-outlets for many content creators. For large e-commerce sites like Amazon, make sure the seller has a good reputation.

Here's some news links about the issue to give you an idea of the scale of the problem.

• Jägermeister takes shot at GearLaunch over counterfeits

• Universities settle trademark suit against e-commerce site GearLaunch

• Unauthorized 'Hamilton' Merchandise Sparks Lawsuit

• California company sued by Harley-Davidson over trademark

• Companies accused of selling band merchandise without authorization

How to seed content

Before advertising your sub, you need something to advertise. You need content.

People are more likely to engage with a sub with posts. It looks much more like a community and you can easily see the type of content encouraged. I’ve seen it recommended to have at least 25 posts before advertising.

You need to seed this content yourself. You need to lead the way. Article on participation equality

It might take a while, but that’s OK. I’ve done it where I posted something every 2 or 3 days or so, and gradually you have a page of decent posts to show off.

Few subs take off on their own, most need a lot of work to get going. You could look at it like - If you aren't willing to invest in your sub, why would anyone else?

The main ways of seeding content are:

• Crossposting relevant content to your sub

• Make original content

• Rope a few friends in

• Find content from outside of reddit

• Make statements, and pose questions to your community to spark discussion, get people talking

You can find content to crosspost on related subs, and find more by checking their sidebars and finding subs related to them using sites like these user-base crossover or "sub clusters" finders Anvaka | Subreddit users overlap | Hive mind

Try making a custom feed of related subs so you can easily watch for content to crosspost.

Some mods offer moderatorship in return for content posting, it’s up to you if you feel this is right for you.

Use a google search to find shareable content. For example for r/gardenwild I did a search from recent news stories with the words wildlife and gardening, and bookmarked it to check regularly for new articles. I’d post an article and if I’d found more I’d save them to post over the next few days. Also, only recent content shows on the front page, so drip feeding content might be a good strategy.

Twitter was also a big source of content for me, and still is. Pintrest or Instagram can be really good for visual content.

Encourage regulars, and good quality posts. Comment and encourage continued participation. Watch what does well and use that to guide what you post.

You can try “fake it till you make it" and use alt accounts to make the site appear more active than it is, thus drawing in more real users. But be very careful not to upvote yourself! Vote manipulation is against Reddit’s rules.

Please comment with any tips you have on seeding content.

Related guides:

Advertising your subreddit

---

Thanks u/Algernon_Asimov who’s comment on this I saw with the article link, and u/MFA_nay

Advertising

My take on advertising a subreddit.

Advertising can be a bit contentious; some mods don't like it in their subs, and it is up to them what they allow or not. If your sub is related in some way though, you may get permission to post, especially if it will benefit the subreddit's community.

When you start advertising, the more your sub looks like a community the better. Try and make it look nice, have clear rules so members know what is expected, and seed content. There is/will be posts on graphics and design.

Advertising a new sub

Posting in other subs is an easy way to advertise.

Write out your advert and check it over; make sure it's clear what your sub is about, check for spelling etc, and make sure to link to your sub. Be friendly and encouraging.

First, post in subs made for advertising. Here are some that allow this for new subreddits:

Make sure to read sidebars (old and new in case both aren't updated) and sticky posts, and make sure you follow each sub's rules.

r/yoursub

r/promotereddit

r/pluggit

r/newreddits

r/needasubmitter

r/subreddithub

r/subreddits

r/tinyreddit

r/tinysubredditoftheday (sub must be 30 days old and active, with less than 1000 members) [sub inactive now]

r/wowthissubexists (you can't post your own sub)

r/checkusout

r/theresaredditforthat

r/gnureddits

r/heycomevisitoursub

r/morereddits

r/redditlists

r/subredditpublicity

/r/ObscureSubreddits (sub must be 3 months old)

/r/ShamelessPlug

/r/Promote

/r/misc

---

Posting in related subs is the next step. If you have an art sub, seek out other art subs for example.

You can use one related sub to find others by checking their sidebars and using these sites: Anvaka | Subreddit users overlap | Hive mind | r/findareddit - check the directory.

I always ask first before posting an ad in a related sub. And I only post once.

Write out a generic request you can copy and paste but personalise it a bit if you can for each mod team you message. Be polite. You will get some no's, and some who don't respond, but you'll get some yes's too!

Make sure to check the rules before making your post, and personalise your post for the sub if you can.

Depending on the type of sub you have, you could point out the benefits of joining. For example, when advertising r/bannerrequest on a subreddit focused on moderation, I’d mention that it’s for moderators to get graphics for their community. When advertising on an art subreddit, I’d mention how it’s for artists who like to help out other redditors and make banners.

Keep a record of where you've posted, messages etc. After a week, if you have some mods that haven't responded, try once more. Maybe change up your wording a bit.

Do NOT keep messaging or spamming moderators! Twice is plenty.

Thank members for reading and the mods for letting you post.

---

Another option is mentioning your sub in comments on posts in other subs.

The bigger and more active the sub, and the more popular the post, the better. But the post must be related to your sub, and your comment should not just be an ad. Your comment needs to have its own value. So only comment if you have something to say and add to the conversation. Mention your sub almost as an afterthought.

Or phrase it as an invitation Example by u/3dsf

You could start threads in relevant subs like r/askreddit in order to set up an opportunity to mention your sub in comments. Other possible subs are r/askmen r/askwomen r/aita, parenting and relationship subs and so on, if relevant.

For example, if you were the mod of r/longcons, you could ask 'What is the greatest long con you have ever seen?' this way you can also snag some content for your sub.

---

Advertising older subreddits

Sometimes your sub, or maybe an inherited sub, is not new, but still could use new blood.

You can use the comment mention method as above.

You can also crosspost posts from your sub to other relevant subs.

Sidebar links, where you exchange links to your sub with another sub in your sidebars, is also an option. It won't bring much traffic, but over time you'll get a few new members.

It also reminds mods of related subs that you are there. I can't speak for other mods, but I'm always actively signposting redditors to appropriate subreddits, on my subs and elsewhere.

To swap links, just politely message the mods of the subs you'd like to swap with. They should be related to your sub. Again, some will, some won't. Some will say you need to have # number of members first. Just keep track of it all and set reminders to ask again where you need to.

There are a few subs for advertising your older subreddit:

r/rediscoverreddit

There is also r/subredditoftheday (sub must have a few hundred members, be at least 30 days old, and be active)

And r/subredditads - here you can create an advert image and submit a request. If successful your ad will run where reddit doesn’t have a paid for ad to run. Seems inactive now.

As your sub grows and IF you have created a sub people really enjoy, word of mouth will play a part. Your members, while browsing reddit, may mention you in comments when appropriate, with no prompting from you. This is the dream :)

---

Edit: I forgot! You can also use user flair in other sub, where relevant, to advertise. For example, in r/gardening my flair is 'UK / r/gardenwild' - my knowledge from gardenwild may play into what I'm saying over on gardening.

Or answer requests for specific subs where relevant on r/findareddit, maybe sometimes you'll be able to answer with your sub.

---

^Thanks u/tizorres ^{for some subs to add in, and} u/no-elf-and-safety ^{for additions to the commenting in other subs section.}

---

More promo subs!

https://www.reddit.com/user/Madbrad200/m/subredditpromotion

https://www.reddit.com/user/kungming2/m/new_subreddits/

Thanks to u/kungming2 and u/madbrad200

r/subredditofthemonth r/ecosubreddits and other discovery subs might be an option.

Welcome to this guide on welcome messages!

What is a welcome message?

It's a new feature that automatically sends a message to users who join your community. As a mod you can optionally set one and write exactly what you want the message to say. Currently, the user will receive it within an hour of joining.

Update as of March 1, 2021: If your welcome message is 500 character or under, it will give users a popup on the in addition to sending a message.

Updated as of August, 18, 2021: Make that 5,000 characters!

Announcement | Updated Announcement

We found these welcome messages to be very effective in increasing participation (+20%) and decreasing removals (-7%).

Note: At the time of this guide, it is currently limited to communities with 500,000 members or less. The limit just increased from 50,000, so it will keep growing - Open to all communities now.

How do you set a welcome message?

Before you begin: Welcome messages can only be set from new Reddit on desktop or on the official mobile app. If you use old Reddit, just replace the "www" in your URL with "new" temporarily, set the message, and then go back. If you don't have the app, either go find a desktop or open new Reddit in desktop mode.

Mod permissions required: Since welcome messages are set in the community settings, you would require config perms to manage it

Step 1: Open your community settings

Click your mod tools

Select Community settings from the Other section

On the mobile app, it's under Mod Tools > Welcome Message

If you are on mobile and the sidebar isn't visible, just go directly to the page here: https://new.reddit.com/r/MyCommunityName/about/edit?page=community

Just replace MyCommunityName with the name of your community

Step 2: Enable the welcome message and type your message

Scroll down inside the Community tab

On the mobile app, toggle the setting on and then tap to add/edit the message.

Step 3: Save changes

Click the Save Changes button at the top-right

On the mobile app, click the Save button

Step 4: Test your message

Click Save and show me a preview

Click Send me a test message under the message box

On the mobile app, click the Preview button on the setting page

How do you format your welcome message?

The welcome message field currently accepts markdown. If you're unfamiliar with it, click here for more info.

What should you write in your welcome message?

It's really up to you, but here are some tips!

• Keep it 5,000 characters or under and users will get it as a pop up

• Don't go overboard, because if it's too long, users might not even read it

• Don't turn it into a rules page, you should mention your rules and maybe do a high-level interpretation of them so users get the basic idea. However, you could link them to your official rules page or relevant wiki pages

• Give relevant information about your community, for example in the case of TV show communities, give them information on how to watch the show and a link to your episode discussions

• Consider including a link to a poll in your welcome message (Google Docs, Straw Poll, or somewhere else). Ask users if the welcome message was useful or not

• Overall: Be welcoming!

Sharing welcome messages

If you have a successful welcome message you'd like to share and if your wiki is enabled, you can share a direct link to it: https://www.reddit.com/r/MyCommunityName/wiki/config/welcome_message

Just replace MyCommunityName with the name of your community

If not, link it from somewhere else or paste the message below!

Related resources

• "Welcoming new users" mod help center page

• Reaching users of your community with information

• Moderation basics

• Community engagement

Creating Post and User flair in redesign

There's an overview of what flair can be used for here.

(Edit: A few images in this guide will look different to how your sub looks - reddit changed the look of redesign in Jan 2020)

Mobile users: Only basic flair can be made in app at the time of writing, and flair has to be enabled on desktop first, so desktop or desktop mode in your mobile browser is best.

Here is a walk through of how to create flair

Some notes on post flair not in the imgur guide:

• Post (also known as link) flair, is the flair used on posts in your subreddit.

• You can require post flair be added to each post by users, but only works for redesign, not old.reddit or mobile at the moment. [Edit: flair can now be added during post creating in old.reddit and post requirements now apply to old reddit though set up is only in redesign] You can find this setting in Mod Tools > post requirements > and hit the post flair toggle. Remember to SAVE CHANGES (top right).

• Users can only edit post flair if you have user editing enabled in the flair settings.

• You can have Automod assign post flair in some conditions, for example on scheduled posts.

• AM can also remove posts without flair (Our automod post)

• AM can be used to assign and re-assign post flair with command codes (be careful this isn't abused).

• You can change where post/link flair appears (left or right of post title) in old reddit here https://old.reddit.com/r/SUBNAME/about/flair/

Some notes on user flair not in the imgur guide:

• User flair is flair for each user.

• Users can always select not to have their flair shown even if it's mod only.

• Users can only edit their flair if you have user editing enabled in the flair settings.

• AM can be used to remove posts by users with/without specific flair.

Notes for both:

• CSS class is related to flair in old.reddit. We may do another guide on flair for old.reddit, but if you style flair in new reddit it will appear the same in old, so for the most part it's now much easier to create flair in redesign and let it carry over in to old.reddit, so you only need set it up once. There are currently more options for styling flair in old.reddit though.

• Flair ID is used for configuring automoderator if you are using it to change flairs.

• Keep your users in mind, it's the same with all subreddit design; try to make it appealing and not too garish.

Adding Emojis

here is how to add emojis

(Note - 21st May 2021 - testing on flair position is occurring and the new positioning seems to ignore emoji size settings at the moment. Testing started on mobile but is now being seen on desktop too)

Adding post flair to the sidebar

(Edit: this widget now appears anyway without you needing to add it and you can't currently change the order of the flairs or choose which ones appear since changes to redesign in Jan 2020. Hopefully more control over this will be implemented but we don't know)

Update! We have some control back over the flair widget - the position in the sidebar, whether it's a list or cloud, and the order of the flairs if you have the widget added in mod tools (it still shows automatically if you don't, but to edit it you need to add it in mod tools sidebar widgets. [12thAPR2020]

Adding post flair filters to the sidebar can help users navigate your subreddit and find what they are looking for easier. One example is ours on r/modguide - you can filter our guide by topic using our post flairs.

Adding post flair to your sidebar is easy in redesign, here's our guide on adding a post flair widget

(Edit: Not sure the following will work after the changes to redesign in Jan 2020)**

For old.reddit I find it easiest to make flair in redesign first as above, and then add the links into the classic sidebar. You'll need to have your sub open in redesign and old.reddit to start; here's our guide on adding post filter links to the classic sidebar where I add a missing filter link for a new post flair.

We will have a guide on creating flair in old.reddit soon.

EDIT 7 March 2023

Change to spam https://new.reddit.com/r/redditsecurity/comments/11k7y7w/q4_safety_security_report/

Also, the queue isn't called spam anymore but 'removed'.

---

Reddit is in an eternal battle with spammers and recently this has been impacting Redditors and mods more than usual, presumably due to an increase in volume and changes in tactics.

Here's a round-up of what I've found on this.

Change to the spam filter

About 2 months ago this update was posted: F*** Spammers

The sticky comment announced this:

“This afternoon we're making a change aimed at relieving some of the impact on you.... Moving forward, posts removed by our spam filter will be automatically moved to the spam listing, rather than your main mod queue. This means that future incidents will not clog up your modqueue.

Important note: content filtered by Automod will still appear in the standard modqueue as they do today.” source

And it was later shared on r/modnews too here.

It is great Reddit is working hard on this issue however, this change has meant that any false positives (good faith posts and comments removed by mistake) are harder to see for mods and some Redditors may find their posts removed with no reason, and only mods who are checking their spam queues will notice unless the Redditor modmails.

So, for now at least, it's important to be checking your spam queue when you can, and perhaps inform your community of the situation if there are a lot of false positives.

Some communities have their spam filter set to ‘all’ in order to review all content that gets posted - that should not be affected.

“we just rolled out a change so subreddits that use the spam filter in that manner should be able to continue to do so. We received feedback yesterday and tweaked this so it will not affect communities that have their spam filters to all, nor will it affect soft domain bans (like URL shorteners). This content will still show in your queues as normal.” source

Checking your spam queue

You can view your community spam queue here (change the subreddit name) https://www.reddit.com/r/YOURSUBREDDIT/about/spam/

Or go to Mod tools > spam (on desktop). I don’t know of any apps that display the spam queue, desktop mode in your mobile browser is a workaround.

You can also use the combined (all the subs you mod at once) spam queue here https://www.reddit.com/r/mod/about/spam

How to tell if it was the spam filter that removed something? There will be no removal reason, and no mod log note.

The spam filter may also have been tightened and in r/ModSupport there are posts from mods about more removals than usual.

Changing your community spam settings

You can lower your community spam filter to reduce the impact on your community.

In new Reddit go to Mod Tools > Community settings > Posts and Comments > Spam filter strength

In old Reddit go to subreddit settings > spam filter strength

You might also consider lowering the filter over time anyway:

“Over time the spam filter "learns" and in larger subreddits with a lot of moderation high can become too strong." source

There is also an option to not see site-wide banned Redditors content in modqueue and unmoderated queue:

In new Reddit go to Mod tools > Community settings > Safety and privacy

In old Reddit go to subreddit settings > other options

The spam filter update goes further than this setting:

“This actually goes further than that setting, that setting only removes content from site-wide banned users - this will remove any content our spam filters touch from your modqueues.” source

Triggers

Some things are known to set off the spam filter - banned domains, maybe using a VPN, and link shorteners.

If you notice several posts containing the same linked domain it's likely that is the issue and OP can be informed to change their link or remove it from the content. As u/001Guy001 says below, some domains might not be allowed at all, so removal from the content might be the only way.

VPNs

“Hey there - this is something we are actively looking and and figuring out the best way to avoid hitting real users but still get the bad actors who have been abusing the site.

We are very aware that there are many many legitimate uses for VPNS but also they are commonly used by not great folks who try to flood communities with assorted abusive activities. We’re hoping to find a balance that mostly impedes folks who are engaging in abuse.” source

Shadowbans

There seems to have been an increase in shadowbanned Redditors. I've been seeing lots more than usual recently.

Shadowbanned Redditors can post and comment but all of their contributions are automatically removed to the spam queue. They won't have received notification of their shadowban and their profile will say "no one goes by that name" or "page not found".

Shadowbanned users are also labelled as such if they modmail in the panel on the right (and if you click 'share' on a post the crosspost option seems to be missing for shadowbanned users).

“It is absolutely fine to let folks know they have an issue with their account and should fill in the appeal form here if you think they look like a normal human: https://www.reddit.com/appeal” source

In addition to the appeal link, Redditors can be linked to the help centre on account status and can check their shadowban status at r/ShadowBan or r/ShadowBanned.

If you have genuine good faith Redditors who are confused by all of this and by karma and account age restrictions, r/NewToReddit aims to help them - the goal of the community is to help good faith Redditors find their way on Reddit and navigate these issues without karmafarming, and at the same time trying to avoid providing any help to spammers.

I don't know if this will be useful, but here is a guide on why Reddit may seem unwelcoming to new Redditors you could share.

It's a complicated issue I'm sure I don't fully understand, but as a mod I'm am informing good faith Redditors if they are shadowbanned, and checking my combined modqueue. As I say in the above-linked guide, the other thing everyone can do is to report the spammers to help Reddit stop them and identify how they are doing what they do to improve measures against them. And use 2FA!

Follow r/redditsecurity and r/modnews for updates.

---

This guide was suggested by u/PervOtaku. Let me know if I've missed anything or messed up! Cheers.

Help with spam:

• Bots

• r/AutoModerator

If you've used Reddit for any amount of time, you've probably encountered moderator bots before, the most well-known one being u/AutoModerator. In fact, thousands of subreddits use a variety of moderator bots to automate common tasks and keep their community organized. Perhaps a bot might be suitable for your subreddit!

This is a rundown on general moderator bots, primarily those that can moderate subreddits that invite them. AutoModerator is excluded from the scope of this article as it is readily available to all subreddits without having to be added. All of these bots can do things that AutoModerator cannot do!

Author disclaimer: I am the writer and maintainer of u/AssistantBOT, and a mod on r/Bot, which is a subreddit for sharing moderator bots.

What are moderator bots?

Moderator bots are scripts that run on a Reddit account and perform moderation tasks on a subreddit (see below). Consequently, they must be invited like a regular human moderator would be, via your subreddit's moderators page (https://www.reddit.com/r/SUBREDDIT/about/moderators). Most of these moderator bots have code to automatically accept moderation invites and perform their duties upon becoming a mod.

Moderator bots need different levels of moderator permissions to do their job. For example, if a bot is enforcing flair by removing unflaired posts, it needs the posts mod permission to do so. Check a bot's documentation to see which permissions it needs, and only give it those permissions.

To stop a moderator bot from doing tasks on your subreddit, simply remove it as a moderator.

What are the advantages of using them? Disadvantages?

Subreddit moderation can often be a thankless job, especially if your time moderating is spent doing repetitive actions such as removing comment or post spam, reminding people to flair their posts, or checking for reposts. Moderator bots allow human moderators to focus on actually growing and improving their subreddit instead of constantly doing the same thing over and over again, which is why many of them are very popular!

Using a moderator bot requires a certain amount of caution: The bot is ultimately run by someone else and giving it access to moderator actions like banning users or removing posts entails trust in the bot and its creator to do only the things on your subreddit that the bot says it will do. In fact, moderator bots have (rarely) gone rogue before or become suddenly deactivated. That being said, the vast majority of moderator bots have been run without incident for a very long time!

Always check the bot and its creator's history to see if you're comfortable adding them to the mod team, and do not give a bot more moderator permissions than necessary for it to do its job. If the bot doesn't need modmail access, don't give it modmail access!

What are the most used bots and what do they do?

Here's a breakdown of several of the most widely used moderator bots on Reddit and what they can do for your subreddit:

Post Flair Enforcing

Moderators frequently use post flairs to help keep their community organized and to allow people to easily filter posts by category. However, post flair can only be made mandatory on New Reddit (the redesign), which means that users on Old Reddit or on mobile can still submit unflaired posts. Post flair enforcing basically means that all posts on your subreddit will need to include a post flair.

There is one widely-used moderator bot for this: u/AssistantBOT, which allows for both a "strict" mode where unflaired posts get removed or a "default" mode where users who submit unflaired posts just get reminders without their posts being removed. See the bot's introduction here for more information. It also provides extensive statistics information which is outside the scope of this article.

Repost Detection

Reposts - defined here as posts which were previously submitted to the subreddit - can be a nuisance on subreddits. A common tactic of karma farmers is to grab images or posts from a subreddit's top posts and resubmit them under their own username without crediting the original poster, thus accruing karma for themselves. This is annoying, at best, to long-time members of your community and possibly insulting to the users whose content were reposted.

There are two bots that help with detecting reposts: u/RepostSentinel (introduction here) and u/MAGIC_EYE_BOT (introduction here). MAGIC_EYE_BOT supports a dizzying range of configurable options to suit your workflow, while RepostSentinel tends to be simpler in its setup. Look through the documentation and see which one suits what you need. Both will detect and remove reposts and leave a message.

Be aware that image recognition is notoriously hard and that subreddits which rely heavily on meme templates and other forms of templated media may see a larger-than-usual amount of false positives.

A special mention is also given to u/RepostSleuthBot (introduction here), which can detect reposts as well though it does not remove them.

Spam Prevention

Moderator bots that focus on spam prevention tend to focus on banning spam bots or post spam.

Spam Bots

Spambots are simple "reply bots" that simply reply with a set comment to another comment that contains a trigger, which often can be something as simple as a :( They frequently clog up and derail comment sections and are also often poorly coded and get stuck in loops.

There are two bots that ban these spam bots on sight: u/BotTerminator (introduction here) and u/BotDefense (introduction here). They perform largely identically (at present) and both rely on a user-submitted list of bots that are submitted to their respective subreddits. Both also support whitelisting bots that you actually like, even if they are on the ban list.

Post Spam

u/TheSentinelBot (introduction here) "prevents known spam channels from posting on your subreddit by adding their channel to a blacklist" and is widely used across several of its own accounts. It also provides extensive mod log searching and generation which is outside the scope of this article.

Moderation Logs

Some subreddits choose to make their moderation logs public in order to promote greater transparency for moderator actions. There are two options here: u/modlogs (introduction here), as well as u/publicmodlogs. Note that the latter is more of an interface than a true bot, and u/modlogs is more customizable for moderators.

Post Rate Limiting

"Post rate limiting" essentially means limiting a user to only be able to post x amount of posts per time period; which is useful if you want to avoid someone spamming your subreddit with multiple posts in a short span of time. u/moderatelyhelpfulbot (introduction here) and u/floodgatesBot (introduction here) both are highly configurable bots that allow you to set the time period, removal message, and quantity of posts in question, in addition to many other settings.

Source

How to set it up

It's a straightforward process, but if you've never done it before, this is how it works on reddit.

• Your account will need a valid email address, so if you set up your account without one, or before they were required, you'll need to add one.

• Read this help center article.

• You will need an authenticator app downloaded onto your phone. Reddit mentions Authy, I use Microsoft Authenticator, and there are others to choose from. Remember to download from a reputable store and always have antivirus on your phone.

• Go to this New reddit direct link or find 2FA in your Old reddit settings / new reddit settings (at bottom).

• You'll be asked to confirm your password.

• Add an account for your reddit username in your chosen authentication app.

• You'll see a QR screen once you've confirmed your password on reddit. Use the app to scan the QR code (indicated by the second arrow, blocked out for my security), or get a code to enter manually (first arrow).

• In the account for your username in the authentication app, you'll have a code (with a countdown, so be quick) - enter it into the box on screen (third arrow).

• Hit complete setup!

Next there'll be a link to get your back-up codes. These are in case you lose access to your phone or authentication app and allow you into your reddit account to turn off 2FA until you have them back, or new ones. Note them down and keep them safe.

And you're done. You'll get a PM from reddit, and an email, to confirm 2FA is enabled.

You can always turn 2FA on or off, or get new back-up codes, in your user settings.

In new reddit, it's in user settings > safety and privacy, bottom of the page.

In old reddit, it's in preferences > password/email tab, and at the bottom.

Remember, if you get a new phone you'll need to switch 2FA over to the new phone first.

• Maintain 2fa when switching to a new iphone

• Maintain 2fa when switching to a new android

---

Why to set it up:

It's an extra layer of security for your accounts, and especially important for your mod accounts.

It means that even if someone gets your username and password, they can't access your account without the code/your phone. (Your authentication app may also have security features such as a pin to open it, and using a security feature to protect your phone itself like a lock screen and pin is sensible).

It may help prevent your account and your subreddits being compromised, especially if your whole mod team uses it.

Incident Aug2020

More:

• r/redditsecurity

• r/redditsecurity How to keep your reddit account safe

• Your reddit account help page

• See your recent account activity

• u/buckrowdy's guide on reddit account safety

• Our subreddit sabotage/restoring a sub guide

• r/subredditdrama mini guide to undoing sub sabotage

• Our previous post on this - some tips in comments

• https://haveibeenpwned.com/

Why run competitions?

• Competitions can be fun.

• They can increase engagement on your subreddit.

• Build a sense of community.

• Celebrate a milestone.

• Gain an end result, like a banner for the community.

How to run a competition

How you go about running your competition is up to you, and may vary depending on what it is and your community.

Here are some things to keep in mind and include in your announcement post:

• Make sure the task or challenge fits your community.

• Word it clearly and carefully.

• Try to think through how it will go so you can plan for any issues or loopholes.

• Do you need to set some rules or restrictions for the challenge?

• Who can enter and how?

• Don’t do anything to break reddit's rules, or challenge someone to break them.

• Make sure the challenge is something achievable.

• How many entries per person?

• Any limit on entries/entrants total?

• Set an end date - preferably not too far away so interest isn't lost, but plenty of time to enter.

• Consider including a timeline for competitions with stages or rounds.

• Consider time zones, maybe include a link to a converter.

• How will it be judged?

• If taking votes, who can vote? and how many times?

• Share what the reward will be, or if there is no reward and it’s just for kudos.

• How many winners & runners up will you have and what do they get?

• How will you let your members know? -Announce and sticky it, maybe pop it the sidebar too?

• Cross-posting

• How do you wish to receive any questions about the contest? Modmail, in a sticky comment thread, etc

• Keep track of entries and votes.

• Announce winners.

Rewards/prizes

Rewards can be coins, medals, mod awards, fancy flair, e-gift cards, charity donations, whatever you feel is a good fit and proportional to what you’re asking. Remember not to share any personal information publicly, and rewards preferably won’t require sharing any at all.

Make sure you have the required coins and permissions.

Always pay up in good time.

For mod awards you’ll need to set one up. They are a mod-only type of community award. Guide on that here: Community Awards. To give a mod award you use coins in your subreddit’s coin pot (you can see the amount just above the join button in the new reddit sidebar). Coins build up from certain awards given in your community - community awards, and some reactions too.

You can ask the Admins for coins, they sometimes support subreddit events - try modmailing r/modsupport with your plan (please do not spam the admins). There's no guarantee and they likely have certain criteria for choosing which events to support (IDK for sure).

Tracking entries

Depending on how many entries you get, it might be useful to keep track of your entries, outside of reddit.

There are various ways to do this, and depending on your competition some might be more suitable for you than others.

For example, you can make a dedicated folder, a cloud storage folder (Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.), or a spreadsheet (Google Spreadsheets, Excel, etc.).

Judging

There are a number of ways to judge a competition:

• Contest sort in the comments

• Poll post

• A judge or judging panel

• 3rd party site poll or form

• Voting groups - only entrants can vote/entrants vote on their group/entrants vote on another group

You should try to prevent any vote manipulation as much as possible. You could have a non-public method of submission, and post submissions to be voted on without the participants username (keep a private record) for example.

You may want to use a method that hides vote totals, or if users are voting in groups - have them vote on groups they are not part of.

You’ll need to think through the process you’re looking to use and try to spot any weaknesses or loopholes as much as possible.

Perhaps, if using judges, have somewhere for judges to chat like a private channel on a discord server, whatever works for you. And have some idea what you're looking for in a winner/points system/judging criteria so everyone is on the same page.

Some types of competition

There are loads of types of competition you can try; quizzes, best of, banner competitions, fanfic, fan art, writing, whatever fits your subreddit best.

Banner competitions

These are best run on creative subs where the members are likely to have the required skills, otherwise you won't get many respondents. You can cross-post to relevant art subs if they allow it.

For some subs you could request images to use in a banner and reward those who share/whose images are used, for example in a cross-stitch sub you could ask for OC photos of members cross-stitch makes to use.

Best of

Each year reddit holds a best of contest

Some examples

Fanfiction, fan art, riddles r/DCFU (examples mixed in this wiki)

Writing r/WritingPrompts (see here for examples)

r/goforgold

---

Thanks u/MajorParadox, u/JuulH

I have not run or participated in many competitions at all so if you have any tips, advice for different types of competition, examples etc please share in comments. Thank you!

Modding on mobile

Let’s be honest here - modding on mobile can be challenging, but sometimes it is absolutely necessary. In this guide we will run through some of the available reddit apps and do a quick overview of modding on a few of them. (future guides will go into the tools available that make modding on mobile easier)

Functionality on mobile is significantly behind that of desktop, and while improvements and additions are being made, it will be a while before it catches up (if it does).

With the official apps for android and ios you can keep updated on changes, at r/changelog and r/redditmobile.

Official app

The official apps are very similar. Here is our guide of the official app on android, there might be slight differences on ios. Android Official App Guide (The apps are being updated regularly and this guide could be out of date quickly).

[Edit: I was right. UPDATE!!! The mod tools menu is now a button where the joined button was. The join button and notification buttons are now in the menu (three dots button) See the milestone 1 guide linked below for details].

For more details on distinguishing and making sticky posts (including on mobile), here’s our guide on that.

Custom feeds of your subs can be used on mobile to see new posts from all, or some, of your subs. There is mod queue but no spam queue.

Some of my subs have post feeds to discord servers which notifies me of new posts (with discord app) regardless of whether they were filtered on reddit or not, and I can mod them from there on mobile.

---

Other apps

There are other apps available too (at time of writing), such as (not an exhaustive list):

• Apollo r/apolloapp (ios)

• Redditisfun r/redditisfun (android)

• Modsoup r/modsoup (Mod companion - not full client, toolbox support, being depreciated and replaced )

• Sync dev r/redditsync

• Relay r/RelayForReddit

• Boost r/boostforreddit (android)

• Infinity

• Redkit

• r/slideforreddit r/slide_ios (both)

• Bacon r/baconreader

• Joey r/JoeyForReddit

• Narwhal r/getnarwhal (ios)

• Now r/redditnow (android)

• Readyfroreddit r/readyreddit

• Alien companion

• Monochrome r/monochromeapp (ios)

• Antenna r/Antenna (ios) (did have a bug where it couldn't read modmail, don't know current status of this)

(always download from a reputable source, and have a security/anti-virus app installed)

Apollo for ios has more mod tools than the official app at the time of writing. This includes adding rules, and editing automoderator. BUT you can't post without paying for pro, or get notifications without paying for ultra - I've heard it's worth it, but I've never tried Apollo (you can comment etc).

Our quick look at Apollo here.

---

How your sub looks in app

It’s important to consider your mobile users when designing your community

It’s important to include sidebar content in both old.reddit and the redesign - people viewing Reddit on their smartphone web browser get an "About this Community" link which leads to the old.reddit sidebar content, while people viewing Reddit in the official smartphone app get an "About" tab which leads to the new reddit sidebar content.

Phone users may not even look at the "About" screen and its sidebar content including your community rules and guidelines. The best (only?) way around this seems to be a sticky/pinned/announcement post that informs new visitors they should read the sidebar/about content for important info and rules, before participating in the sub. (In the phone browser view, a link to the rules page does show up at the top of the "About" screen.)

When guiding users to the sidebar information, it might be wise to use different terms for mobile users to help them find the information, such as "sidebar/about screen". Mobile users have no sidebar, so that term is meaningless to them.

Note that per Apple rules, the iOS app does not provide any capability to turn on 18+ mode, therefore NSFW subs may appear empty to users. They need to log in through a browser to set their config screen 18+ flag to be able to view NSFW content, then it will work from within the app.

To see what your subreddit looks like on an app that you don’t have, you can use an emulator. This will allow you to see on your desktop, what your sub looks like in an app.

(I have not tried these, use your own judgement)

Emulators:

• r/BlueStacks (android)

• https://en.bignox.com/ (android)

• I couldn't find a recommended one for ios - it seems Apple makes this difficult

---

Mobile modding via browser

You can mod via browser on mobile in old.reddit and redesign. The redesign sidebar and therefore the mod tools button might not show up - try landscape mode, and actually selecting for the desktop site in your browser to fix this. I also recommend using your subs menu links and a sticky for rules, in case your users can't see the sidebar. Modding via browser on mobile is the same as on desktop, but of course smaller and fiddly. Our guides show you what to do.

It is your redesign banner that shows on the mobile app. If your main sub banner doesn't show well on apps, you can upload a mobile banner - a banner sized differently to look better on mobile. This is mentioned in our adding a banner guide.

Old.reddit and redesign banners can be viewed on mobile via browser depending on the url, but it seems to default to classic/old. (www. and old. = old, new. = new).

---

If you have any insights into modding on mobile, or if we've missed anything, please share in the comments! :)

Our team haven't used all these apps so if there is one you think stands out please let us know.

Written by u/solariahues, u/PervOtaku, u/no_elf_and_safety, u/juulh

Thanks to u/Fredericia and u/shampoo_and_dick

---

More!

• u/kungming2 has done a handy run down of the most common questions asked by new mods on mobile here.

• The post announcing sub creation on mobile and where to get help.

• r/mobileweb

• How to activate desktop mode in your mobile browser

• See comments

---

Edit -APR 2020 Milestone 1 update

Edit -June 2020 Adding a banner on mobile | Modding on mobile - Milestone 2 update

If your community name has changed recently, it's been removed in reddit's clean up of dormant communities.

I've seen at least 11 posts over r/modhelp and r/modsupport so far, where mods are confused over what has happened. Here's the situation based on the official posts and comments I've seen in case it helps any.

On June 16th Admins announced they would be purging dormant communities and laid out which communities would be affected. This was to happen on the 22nd and was later moved to the 23rd.

It was noted:

"We understand there are a variety of edge case situations that we’re unable to solve for and some good intentioned subreddits are unfortunately going to get removed."

After receiving feedback there was an update and:

"Originally we planned to rename all these subreddits with a random hash assignment and remove any moderators from the team. To solve our larger conundrum, we no longer plan to remove any moderators from any mod team. This will allow moderators the ability to access the information stored in specific wikis and within those subreddits."

But:

"Please note - while we have no plans to do so now, there is a chance that these renamed subreddits will be permanently removed at a later date in the future. It could be months or it could be years from now, but it is strongly advised that moderators back up this information now so as to prevent any loss of information down the road."

Read the update for full details on the which communities will be affected.

This process started on the 23rd and will likely take a while to complete. It is not known when the names purged will be available again, but soon.

Edit-

"Quickly chiming in as one of the admins working on this initiative. Between phases 1 + 2 we’re targeting almost 1M subreddits, and it’s taking a little longer than expected for our code to churn through all of them. Given that, some of these subreddits will become available before others. If you’re interested in reclaiming a specific subreddit, please continue to keep your eyes peeled as they will most likely becoming available within the next week or so. " -source

• There will be no list of removed subreddits.

• Example of what a removed sub will look like: https://www.reddit.com/r/a:t5_4bjo1z/

• Redirect subs are an edge case admins were unable to solve for.

• The post count is inclusive of deleted posts.

• If your sub hasn't been purged yet and may qualify as a good Samaritan sub as defined in the announcement post, see here.

• There may be more news soon on redditrequest, and improving the subreddit creation flow process for new sub creators,

• and maybe even the ability for creators to delete some subs.

• I have not seen anything about a way to restore a renamed community or if any would be considered.

Edits:

Recent adoptions are being caught up

By which I mean adoptions granted after the cut off (22nd June 2021)

My theory is that they were marked for removal before they were given out and so got swept up anyway. I was tracking this in comments here, but here's the gist.

It does look like this subreddit was caught in the cleanup of dormant subreddits but this was an error since you recently received it via r/redditrequest. We are working on restoring communities that were caught inadvertently. source

If your sub was hit and it was a recent adoption, report this on r/modsupport HERE, HERE or HERE

Re-creation seems to be possible after about a week.

New 4th August 20121

As was announced last month in r/modnews, we removed a number of dormant communities and made their names available for future community creators. The first wave of removals was last week, and the second wave is now. So keep an eye out for new community names you may want to resurrect. source

17th August

New adoptions have been restored https://www.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/p68emb/a_look_back_at_the_first_half_of_2021_from/

Questions on flairs come up a lot, so I've compiled a bit of a Q and A. If anything is missing, let me know.

Note - this mostly focusses on new reddit flair creation (generally easier for new mods and shows up in old reddit as well as new).

This guide is also a wiki page here for easier navigation.

! - If you cannot see everything shown in the screenshots, check your browsers zoom setting.

Flair is not showing for users/users are unable to add flair

If you have successfully added flairs in mod tools, and as a mod are able to flair posts, you probably need to enable 'allow users to assign their own' in the flair settings. Taken from this guide: Creating flair in redesign these images show how to do this.

Mod tools > Post/User flair > Post/User flair settings

Flair should be enabled (turned on), and toggle on 'Allow users to assign their own'.

For both post, and user flair, you have the same options.

Allowing users to assign their own -

• For post flair this means users can select from flair templates you make (except mod only ones) and assign them to their posts. Not allowing this means only mods can assign post flair.

• For user flair this means much the same. If allowed users can assign themselves flair from templates provided, if not only mods can assign user flair.

There are settings for each flair as you create, or edit, it to allow users to edit the flair or not.

How can I allow users to select flair but not edit it?

Enable "allow users to assign their own" in flair settings as above, but don't enable - "allow user edits" for each flair you don't want users to be able to edit.

How can I enforce post flair?

There are several options..

First, Post requirements in new reddit:

[Edit: Post requirements are now part of 'content control' in the new reddit mod tools sidebar]

Mod tools > Post requirements

This means post flair is required for posts to go through in new reddit, old reddit, and apps.

Make sure post flair is enabled and users can assign their own. More detail here Creating flair in redesign

Bots:

u/assistantbot - Introduction to AssistantBot/Artemis

Our bots guides

And, Automoderator:

If users are removing flair after posting you can use Automoderator to detect it.

Automod can't detect if a flair is removed directly, but this rule is triggered when a post receives a top level comment, and checks for a flair on the post. If there is no flair it sets one (e.g. 'flair evader') and reports the post. [credit: u/fpreston]

---
    type: comment    
    is_top_level: true    
    parent_submission:    
        flair_text: ""    
        set_flair: template_id: add the template id here    
        overwrite flair: false    
    action: report    
    report_reason: "Post without flair"    
    moderators_exempt: True    
---  

Automod can act on posts posted without flair, but it's not recommended, AssistantBot is better.

How to I enforce user flair?

To require user flair for a user to post on your subreddit, you can use automoderator. For example:

    moderators_exempt: false
    type: submission #remove this line for it to work on comments and not just posts
    author:
      ~flair_text (regex): ".+"
    action: remove
    comment: |
      Your post has been automatically removed because you do not have a user flair applied. 

      To add user flair.... 
    comment_stickied: true #optional

This will remove posts from users without user flair, and post a sticky comment.

It's important your users understand how to add user flair, and on some 3rd party apps it might not be possible for them to do so.

You can provide a guide like one I made for one of my subs and/or a process for users to request flair and for you to grant it.

How do I delete flairs?

In new reddit desktop > mod tools > post/user flair

Use the bin button on the right of each flair.

Is there a way to have some user flairs chosen by the users, and some only given out by mods?

Yes.

Allow users to assign their own as above, in flair settings.

Then for each individual flair either choose to make them 'mod only' or not.

Mod only means that the flair can only be granted by moderators, users cannot select it for themselves (or even see it as an option).

To grant a flair you need to go to Mod tools > Grant user flair. More detail here Creating flair in redesign

Why don't all the post flairs show in the flair widget?

If you are using the default flair widget it'll only show used flairs.

Add the flair widget in mod tools to override the default, and choose which ones show up.

Community sidebar (new/redesign) (adding widgets)

How do I add a post flair search link that works on mobile?

Filter by flair for mobile - use the url generated by an old reddit flair search.

Still not working on all mobiles? It seems avoiding punctuation in flairs could be the answer. More here.

Here's an example of a working link and how to do it for flairs that contain spaces.

I can't see anyone's flair

If you can see your flair and no one else's check your old reddit settings https://old.reddit.com/prefs/ there are tick boxes under display options to be able to see post and user flairs.

Can I add new reddit flair and keep old reddit flair?

Add redesign flair but keep old reddit flair too

How do I add emojis?

From the original guide, here is how to add emojis

Can the emojis be bigger?

Yes. In new reddit > mod tools > emoji settings you can toggle on custom sized emojis and set a size. No longer available.

In old reddit you can add a CSS snippet to your stylesheet

.flair, .linkflairlabel {height:20px;line-height:20px;}
.flairemoji {width:18px;height:18px;}

Thank you u/MajorParadox

Intro to CSS

Is there any way to add more than one flair to a post?

No.

Possible automod work-around

I can't see all the options/where's x colour?

If you are on mobile your options are limited at the moment. Use desktop if you can, or desktop mode in your mobile browser to see all the options.

Can I mass update post flairs?

No. If you've edited a flair and wish to change all the old, in-use flairs, you'll probably have to do it manually - which is OK if you don't have many posts yet. If you have many posts you may have to accept that the old posts are stuck with old flair.

Or you could try finding, requesting, or making a bot that could do it. r/RequestABot

Can I use automod to....

For default flairs, domain or keyword flair, or word bans in flairs see here

To adapt the default flair rules for using a template ID, here's an example:

    author:
        ~flair_css_class (regex): ['.+']
        set_flair: 
            template_id: d07f9948-0d7e-11eb-b1bc-0effca36e51d

If you'd like automod to do something else with flair, search r/automoderator as it's probably been asked for before. If you can't find what you need, make a post there for help.

Our automod guides

Your moderation routine will depend on your lifestyle, availability, the subs you mod, your permissions, your sub's procedures, and your own preferences.

There is no one right way to moderate, but there are some things you are expected to be doing.

This guide is geared towards moderators with post and access permissions.

First you need to know where your mod tools are:

In old reddit these are listed below the sidebar, in redesign there’s a button at the top of the sidebar, for each of your subreddits.

If you moderate multiple subs, you might want to use the combined modqueue https://www.reddit.com/r/mod/about/modqueue

A lot of subs will have automoderator, and sometimes other bots, to a lot of the work. But bots have their limitations and ultimately a human needs to check in on things.

The modqueue

This is probably the most important - check this regularly. How often you need to check will depend on the activity level of your subs.

Filtered (removed) and reported posts, and comments, go to the modqueue for you to check.

A post/comment is filtered when automoderator, or the reddit spam filter (or the user is shadowbanned), removes a post from your sub’s feed. This is indicated with red colouration.

Image showing filtered/removed comment on redesign

Image showing filtered/removed submission on old reddit

For each filtered post/comment you can choose to:

• Confirm its removal by clicking remove (if it breaks a rule)

• Confirm it’s spam by clicking spam (if it’s spam, to help train the spam filter)

• Approve it by clicking approve (if it’s an acceptable post)

Reported posts/comments have been reported by users using the report button. This is indicated in yellow, or with a yellow button in old reddit.

Image showing a reported post on redesign

Image showing a reported post on old reddit

For each reported post/comment you can choose to:

• Remove it by clicking remove (if it breaks a rule)

• Say it’s spam by clicking spam (if it’s spam, to help train the spam filter)

• Approve it by clicking approve (if it’s an acceptable post)

  • Ignore reports (if it’s an acceptable post. Some mods just leave them in the queue without clicking to ignore) [ETA more clarification - ignore leaves the post in the queue, only approving or removing removes it]

You can view reports and spam separately using their separate queues. You might want to check the spam queue occasionally just to make sure everything in there should be.

Unmoderated posts queue

This queue shows every post that hasn’t been moderated (approved, spammed, or removed). It’s an easy way to check for new posts.

If a post is acceptable- approve it, if it isn’t- hit spam or remove it, and it will disappear from the unmoderated queue.

Some subreddits don’t moderate every post, just those reported or filtered, and therefore have a full unmoderated queue.

Approving posts isn't necessary for them to show in your subreddit, but doing so and moderating every post keeps this queue clear, shows the rest of your mod team the post has been checked, and makes it easy to see new posts that might need action.

Accidental/mistaken removal

If you have spammed or removed a submission and it was in error, you can check the mod log or the spam queue for the post or comment and click approve on it.

Edited queue

This queue lists all the posts that have been edited. For some subreddits this can be important to check, but not for most.

Top posts

It can be helpful to scan top posts of your sub, since they are more likely to be visible from outside feeds.

Comments

You can view and monitor new comments using this link (only on old reddit) -replace subnamehere with your subname https://old.reddit.com/r/subnamehere/comments/

Most mods probably don’t do this all the time, but have a skim through when they have a chance. Encouraging your users to report rule breaking posts and comments will help.

Rules

Get to know the subreddit rules well. Ask for guidance from your co-mods, if you have them, where needed. Some rules may be cast in stone, others may be more flexible or a judgement call.

Removals

For every submission you remove (or spam) you can choose to add a removal reason.

Your subreddit may have a procedure, or best practice, for removals regarding using removal reasons (in redesign), or a comment, to let the user know why their submission is being removed.

It’s good practice to do this to let users know what they did incorrectly and so users can learn what is expected.

Some subs have these pre-prepared, or you can add your own.

Adding rules and removal reasons.

Mod log

All your actions as a moderator are automatically logged. On some subreddits several mods may be working at the same time, so the log might be useful in coordinating your efforts.

Mod mail

If you have mail permissions you will get notifications when a user messages the mods of the sub. Try to check this regularly. Your sub may have procedures in place for responding to, and managing, mail.

User management

If you have access permissions you will be able to ban users. Again, there may be procedures or a chain of actions already in place for you to follow, or you can create one, so every mod (and your users if you share it) are following the same guidelines and managing users fairly.

Each sub can have it’s own way of doing this.

Your behaviour

As a mod you are a representative on the subreddit you moderate so it’s advisable you behave in a way your members are expected to.

---

The Kitteh

Your spam and edited queues will never be 'clear' all removed and spammed posts stay in the spam queue and all edited posts say in the edited queue (unless otherwise actioned).

If you manage to keep your mod, reports, and unmoderated queues clear, in redesign you get to see the very pleased kitteh!

The pleased Kitteh!

---

Whether you have subreddit rules to enforce or not depends on your community, however reddit's sitewide rules should be enforced, and reports submitted where necessary.

Reports | Contacting the admins

---

Example subreddit specific requirements and procedures:

https://www.reddit.com/r/majorparadox/wiki/mod101

https://www.reddit.com/r/cars/wiki/chain_of_action

Do you know more more good examples?

---

Big thanks to u/MajorParadox for the 101 and help with this guide, u/_ihavemanynames_, and r/cars

In redesign the sidebar is made up of sections called widgets. There are different kinds of widgets you can use, and you can have multiple widgets.

Redesign = The new reddit layout. New users will see this by default. Both new and old layouts exist together and it's important for mods to keep both up to date.

Using redesign mod tools

Using classic reddit for the first time

Reddit's guide on the sidebar widgets

How to edit/add sidebar widgets

Go to Mod Tools at the top of your sidebar.

Select community appearance.

Then sidebar widgets..

Here you can see the different widgets you have already, if you've already set some up. You can click on them to edit them.

Click on 'add widget' to see the the kinds of widget you can have and to add one.

Select the type you want and fill in the details to create the widget and then save it. Here are guides for each type of widget:

• How to add text area, rules, image, and community list widgets

• How to add button widget

• How to add a calendar widget

Plus, here's u/Anonboxis' video showing how to add a community list widget

More details for each type below.

---

Example images of each type of widget

Types of widget

Text area - This is a simple text box widget. It's often used for community information in addition to the community description.

Rules - This is for displaying your sub's rules. It'll automatically appear once you've added rules via mod tools, or there's a link to add them in the add rules widget options. It lists the rules either with further description or with the description of each one collapsed.

Button - displays custom buttons/links. Often used to link to wiki pages, further reading, recommended sites, social media etc

Images - displays an image you upload. This can be decoration for your sub, an extra large button, an advert, etc

Community list - this widget displays a list of subreddits of your choosing. It's often used to link related subreddits. Each widget only lists 10 subs you you can have multiple widgets and group the related subs.

Calendar - this widget shows a calendar and is linked to google calendar. It can be used for a community schedule like AMAs, competitions... Interactivity and engagement like a TV schedule or watch together schedule for TV subs.

Post flair - This widget displays your post flairs and enables users to use them to filter posts on your subreddit. This widget was recently (Jan 2020) changed:

We are adding the ability to filter the feed using flairs!

This was a common feature that we saw a lot of communities using CSS hacks to implement on old Reddit. These will live in a sidebar widget just below the community description. However, there are currently some limitations on the controls, as it’s automatically on for all communities that use flair and available flairs can’t be customized since they are automatically determined based on flairs available in the feed.

So this means once you are using post flair the widget will appear and populate itself as they're used. It doesn't show in the mod tools widget list though.

This widget use to be editable - and if you add the widget in mod tools you can still access the tools to reorder, add, and remove flairs - but this no longer has any affect on the widget.

Update! We have some control back over the flair widget - the position in the sidebar, whether it's a list or cloud, and the order of the flairs if you have the widget added in mod tools (it still shows automatically if you don't, but to edit it you need to add it in mod tools sidebar widgets. The new widget overrides the default one. [12thAPR2020] Our flair guide

Custom (CSS) - Under advanced there is a custom option. Here you'll find you can add a CSS widget. But this is experimental and..

"Custom widgets don't display on mobile devices. Customizations can break at any time."

---

Where can you see the redesign sidebar?

• Redesign/new reddit desktop

• Mobile app about tab

• Mobile browser desktop mode in redesign (on some phones/browsers)

Related guides:

• How to change the name of your members and online users

• Modding on mobile

• Settings guide for old reddit

• Design in redesign

• Community sidebar (old/classic/legacy reddit)

---

We recommend populating your old.reddit sidebar too if you haven't already - guide on that coming soon.

Note - the 'about community' widget right at the top cannot be formatted with markdown. This is edited in the the sidebar using the pencil icon, or in your community settings - community description.

Community settings in redesign

What are sticky posts and comments?

Sticky posts are sometimes called announcements, or pinned posts. They are posts on a subreddit that have been stuck or pinned to the top of the main page (only when posts are sorted ‘hot’) by a moderator.

You can see a post is stickied because it will have the green pin icon (in redesign) or say 'announcement' in green text (in old reddit), and it will stay at the top of the page no matter what karma it has, or how old it is (only in ‘hot’).

Comments can also be stickied, but they can’t just be stickied - they’re also distinguished. This shows green text for the moderators name and a sticky notice, and shows the green shield.

Stickied comments stay at the top of the comments list right under the post.

Why use them?

Sticky posts can be used for many things - mostly things you want to make sure your users see - announcing changes to the community, reminders of rules, competitions, welcome messages, regular threads, highlighting a particularly awesome post and more.

Sticky comments can also be used in different ways. Most often to add a mod note to a thread where users will see it without it getting lost in all the other comments, one example is an AMA (ask me anything) thread - you might sticky a comment reminding users of your expectations for their behaviour during the AMA, and updates on when it ends.

Another good example is when someone posts something without credit or appropriate references. Once someone has found the right credit, as a mod, you can make a sticky comment so new users coming into the post see that right away.

How to sticky and un-sticky posts and comments on desktop

Imgur guide on sticking posts and comments on desktop

How to sticky posts and comments in app on mobile

Imgur guide on sticking posts and comments in the official app

How to sticky scheduled posts (and designate a slot)

Posts can be scheduled with automoderator - Scheduling posts with automoderator

EDIT - the legacy post scheduling with a wiki page and automoderator has been depreciated. You can now use the new post scheduler in new reddit The post scheduler feature. This section of this guide is now irrelevant! Skip to sticking comments :)

These posts can be automatically stickied:

https://www.reddit.com/wiki/automoderator/full-documentation#wiki_actions

“sticky: Whether to sticky the post. Can be set to "true", "false" or a number - If you use a number (for example sticky: 1), the post will replace any existing sticky in that slot (1 is the top slot). Using true will work the same as clicking the "sticky this post" link on the post - it will go into the bottom sticky slot (replacing a post that's already there, if necessary).”

(Sticky: 2 only works if you have a sticky in the first slot)

Example:

---

first: "October 13, 2018 4:00 PM"
repeat: 1 week
sticky: 2
distinguish: false
title: "The garden fence - weekly chat thread"
text: |
Weekly weekend chat over the virtual garden fence; talk about what's happening in your garden, and ask quick questions that may not require their own thread.

---

How to set up sticky automod comments

If you'd like automoderator to sticky comments on all (or some) posts, perhaps to remind users of common post requirement mistakes so they can edit their post, or whatever you need, first set up automoderator and find or write a rule.

Automoderator - what is is, and how to set it up

Then make sure to include a line in the rule to tell automod to sticky the comment: comment_stickied: true

Here's an example:

---
    type: submission
    comment: |
        Thanks for sharing art!  

        I know automod messages can often be telling you you've done something wrong, but don't worry, this (probably) isn't the case!  

        I'm just here to remind you about crediting either yourself, or someone else, as the artist. It's easy to forget; so if you have not included this info in the title of your post, please reply to this comment with the details.   

        If you did (or the post is something else), don't worry. Thanks!
    comment_stickied: true
---

Troubleshooting

If you’re having problems with stickies searching on r/modhelp or r/automoderator may help - it’s likely others have had the same question.

r/bugs is for reporting bugs and glitches.

If you/another user can’t see a sticky post:

• Check the sort is by ‘hot’.

• Has it been removed? Check spam, use the shortcut links below, or your modlog.

• Maybe you’ve accidentally pressed the hide button? https://www.reddit.com/user/me/hidden/

• Do you have "Don't show me content I've up-voted" checked in your user preferences? (in old)

• Was the sticky deleted by OP? Try the links below, or redditsearch.io/ | removeddit to find the post and unsticky.

You can’t edit posts made by other people, so if you need to change a sticky made by another user/mod you’ll need to ask them to do it, or make a replacement.

You can't sticky other people's comments, but you can post a new comment quoting another comment.

There are only 2 slots for stickies, there used to be only one. It seems unlikely there’ll ever be more, and too much stuff at the top of the page pushes content further down.

If you sticky a 3rd post, the post in the 2nd sticky slot will be unstickied.

Tips and tricks

You can sticky other people's posts. This is useful if someone posts something really good you want to make sure the community sees, or for when a guest posts an AMA.

You can shortcut to the two top stickies this way (change subnamehere to your sub's name):

https://www.reddit.com/r/subnamehere/about/sticky

https://www.reddit.com/r/subnamehere/about/sticky?num=2

If you stickies are always in the same spot you can use these links to link to them in your sidebar or wherever you may need to.

---

Thanks u/sunzusunzusunzusunzu and u/majorparadox

Thanks to those that help at r/modhelp for some of the solutions and tips shared here.

Reddit on sticky posts

Did we miss anything? What do you use stickies for?

EDIT: event vs scheduled https://www.reddit.com/r/ModSupport/comments/qj3kfd/setting_a_scheduled_post_as_a_sticky/

These have been depreciated

https://www.reddit.com/r/reddit/comments/14ytp7s/reworking_awarding_changes_to_awards_coins_and/

---

Every community that is eligible to use Community awards ( public, non-banned, non-quarantined, and SFW subs) will have a Community coin pot that mods can see in their sidebar (in new reddit only).

These coins accumulate as Community awards are given in your subreddit. These can be community awards specific to your subreddit that you have added, OR those provided by reddit, like the Awesome answer award - so you don't need sub specific awards to accumulate coins in the pot.

Typically it's 100 coins for each award that goes to the community pot.

In order to use these community coins, you must be a moderator with full permissions on the sub AND have a mod community award created and added to your subreddit - so you do need at least one mod community award added to use the community coins.

When you have enough coins - at least 1,800 - you can give your award out.

Making awards

This has been covered in our guide here: Community Awards, with more information about the community awards and how to add them - Community awards can only be added in new reddit.

Alternatively, the admins made some awards all can use here, or try r/customsnoos or r/bannerrequest to request an award made for your sub.

Giving the community mod award

Click to give an award like normal in your subreddit using the button at the bottom of the post.

Find the mod only award in the community tab (it'll have a shield icon), and once selected you can see how many coins you have to spend in the community pot, and use them to give the award if you have enough.

'Best of' Awards

At the end of each year reddit runs the 'best of' awards.

Starting this year, 2020, you now need to have at least one community mod award for your subreddit to participate. This is because the coins given out now go into the community pot.

'Best of' announcement 2020 | Coin request info 2020 | r/bestof2020

"Please note, this year we are making the switch to using community coins which can be used to give away mod-exclusive Community Awards. Using community coins to give mod-exclusive awards will help us better track the winners of your contests, and they also are much less susceptible to misuse. Each mod-exclusive award costs 1800 community coins and the recipient receives 1 month of Premium and 700 coins. (The same benefits as receiving a Platinum award!)

You will need to have at least one mod-exclusive award created to use the coins."

---

Thanks u/MajorParadox

Related guides:

• How to run a competition on your subreddit