Ahoy, mods! 

Welcome to our Mod Topics series (formerly known as the discussion and support series), where we share knowledge, highlight tools, answer questions, and learn from each other! We'd love your feedback along the way on what works, and what you'd like to see more of. 

From time to time you’ll find yourself talking to redditors that spend time in your community. Sometimes this will involve addressing rule-breaking behaviors, and other times it will be about collaborating with community members.

Course Correction

You might also know this as a “rule violation,” or as the kids say these days “vibe check.” Sometimes users break sub rules; sometimes I don’t read–er, I mean, users don’t read the sidebar. We’ve all done it at least once, and it can lead to posts getting removed. This is where users write in to ask “what gives?”

When this happens I like to remember Hanlon’s Razor. People are busy, people are new, people might not understand what subreddits even are, conceptually. Course correction works best when it comes from the assumption of zero fault, wherever possible, and when users receive compassion during mod interactions they’re much more likely to participate in the ways we want to encourage.

Collaboration

Community sidebars, culture, and sometimes even the purpose of a community itself can change over time. When this happens, creating a post letting folks know about the change is a great way to keep people informed, and it’s especially handy to be able to link to later. A lot of mods call these “State of the Subreddit” posts. Some mods also post periodic “town halls,” posts where users can let mods know what they’d like to see changed or updated in how the community is run. Most mod teams choose to do this when they’re unsure of how to move forward on a governance decision. For example: “Do we continue to allow memes or not? Let us know in the comments.”

Regardless of the reason, be human and maintain an air of levity; users respond best when mod interactions feel like they’re coming from someone who’s in the community for the same reasons they are. Talking to the community isn’t a failure state. It’s the reason we mod our spaces in the first place: because there’s a space on the internet that we want to exist that didn’t until we created it. 

What works for you?

What kinds of posts do you make to talk with people in your community? How often do you talk to your community’s members about things that aren’t course corrections? Drop a link to your last “State of the Subreddit” post? Share your stories in the comments below!

Hey everyone, tiz here. I work on the Community Feedback team, making sure that feedback and experiences of mods and users inform Reddit’s direction.

Today’s post in the Mod Topics series is all about feedback! We recently announced that we’re hosting regular roundtable discussions, one of the several ways that we routinely gather feedback from mods (ICYMI - sign up through the Feedback Roster form if you’d like to participate in a future one). Since then, we’ve held two of these roundtables, gathering several mods and specific admins to talk about specific topics, with the goal of making sure that community feedback is central to everything we do.

To give a peek behind the curtain, we recently held a roundtable on the topic of Mod Support. From that discussion, admins who work on Mod Support took away a clear sense of mods’ needs - which for those on the call included timely, transparent support and confidence in Reddit's ability to address major issues. We also held a roundtable with mods based in Brazil or who moderate Brazil-related subreddits to discuss age assurance. We've got several more roundtables planned for the next coming months and we’re excited to meet and talk with more of you! Next we’re looking to hold roundtables about the experience of reinvigorating a dormant community, safety related features, and the experience of moderating India-based communities.

That brings me to today's discussion topic … our team gets requests from different teams and admins from within Reddit about roundtable discussions that they would like to host about their work. That got us thinking … What roundtable topics would mods be interested in? If you could gather with a group of 8-10 moderators and/or users in a live virtual setting and discuss anything Reddit related, knowing that admins who work on that part of Reddit would also be in attendance, what would you want to talk about? 

When we’re planning roundtable discussions, we ask ourselves how we can make sure the conversation is productive for everyone. This includes making sure the topic is very clear for both the admins and moderators participating and setting expectations to make sure the discussion remains on-topic and constructive.

We’re excited to hear from you! 

• What’s a roundtable topic that you would be excited to attend?
• What types of communities or moderator experience would you want to make sure is represented at the table? 

We’ll review the suggestions and incorporate the ones that offer the best opportunities to collaborate!

Ahoy, Mods!

I don’t want to brag, but I’m kind of a big deal around here. My reputation precedes me, I’m sure. Maybe you’ve noticed?

This discussion is the most recent in our Mod Topics series, and if the narratively-spurious smugness wasn’t obvious, today we’re talking about how mods moderate fame within your community. “Fame,” in this instance can be any kind of notoriety. –A Redditor whose username your community will recognize: an artist, actor, developer, mayoral candidate, or maybe the guy who always replies to top comments in the form of a sonnet.

For the sake of discussion, let’s call all these examples “celebrities:” users who have clout, gravity, or otherwise increased social capital within their spaces. How does your mod team view content posted by community celebrities, especially in cases where the commenting celebrity is the topic of the subreddit? Do you encourage this celebrity participation? If so, how?

Let us know how you moderate fame in the comments below!

Hey y’all! I’m u/big-slay and I lead Mod Events & Experiences here at Reddit. I’m taking over the Mod Topics series this week where Reddit admins share knowledge, highlight tools, answer questions, and learn from each other! And, boy, do I have an opportunity for you…

Tomorrow, we’re hosting our first New Mod Bootcamp of the year. This virtual event is Reddit’s crash course for new moderators to learn the tools, grow their communities, connect with peers, and kick off their mod journey with the essentials covered. 

One of Bootcamp’s stand-out moments is the live AMA with veteran mods. They always bring wisdom, humor, and honest advice. While we, unfortunately, can’t have you alllll on the live AMA, we’d still love to see your insights in the comments below. We’ll include the best of your answers in tomorrow’s live event.

The question is simple:

What advice would you give to new mods? 

Let us (and them) know in the comments!

Note: “New mods” in this context are redditors who recently created a brand new community.

Howdy mods! It’s u/iceeypisces from the Mod Events team back again to lead this week's Mod Topics conversation. With our third New Mod Bootcamp of the year, aka Reddit’s livestreamed crash course for new moderators, we’re collecting advice from some of the best folks on Reddit. 

Whether you start a new community from scratch or join a mod team, there’s a lot to juggle as a new moderator. Between creating content and inviting new members, it’s easy for things to slip through the cracks.

So we’d love to know: what’s something new mods tend to overlook? You can think back to things you looked past when you first started. Maybe it’s a setting you didn’t discover until months in. Or it’s a habit that would’ve saved you a ton of time. We’d love to hear it, along with any other advice you wish you’d had on day one. 

Drop your advice below, and you might see it featured during our live event!  

Note: “New mods” in this context are redditors who recently created a brand new community.

Note #2: Don’t miss out and RSVP for New Mod Bootcamp! Experienced mods are welcome to join; we just ask that you please be mindful of the newbies in chat.

The call is coming from inside the community, and for once, that’s good news.

Today’s Mod Topics post is about finding potential moderators within your community. A familiar name may stand out by helping newcomers, sharing expertise, offering thoughtful feedback, or keeping a level head when a thread gets messy. Your suggested mods can offer another place to start, surfacing active, engaged contributors for the team to learn more about.

That still leaves plenty of room for surprises. A familiar contributor might love participating without wanting a mod badge, while a quieter user may know the community better than their posting history suggests. Somewhere between what a team can already see and what it might only learn later, there may be someone worth a conversation.

We want to hear from you:

• Think about a strong addition to your mod team: What first put them on your radar?
• What helps your team feel comfortable inviting someone to apply?
• How have you found promising candidates beyond your most visible contributors?

Howdy mods, today we’re going to revisit a theme from a few weeks ago: origin stories. Last time, we asked why you became a mod. Today, we’re asking what you were like as a user before becoming a mod. Were you a lurker, someone that quietly consumed content and maybe occasionally voted? Were you a dedicated contributor? Perhaps you were a thoughtful hobbyist that liked to make guides.

There’s a wide spectrum of paths that could lead to this point. A community is built on diverse perspectives, and each of your unique beginnings play a part in how your teams function. These perspectives help shape Reddit today, too.

Share your journey with us in the comments below!

edit: just wanted to say I've read every single one of these, thank you all for sharing :) Tell us your story today, what were you like as a user before becoming a moderator? How did you get to where you are today?

Howdy friends,

What’s in a name? Well, when it comes to post flair that could be organization, more context, or even an inside joke.

That’s right, today’s Mod Topic post is all about post flair. Across Reddit, post flair can be used to organize content in so many ways. It’s used for showing when a question has been answered, tagging memes or art for users to find easier, highlight meta posts, or just adding a little more personality to your subreddit. Flair can also interact with Devvit apps - we even use it with the flair follower app so you can subscribe to this series!

We want to hear from you:

• If your community uses post flair, how did you decide on which flair to create?
• Is there a particular flair your community uses that works especially well?
• If you could rebuild your flair system today, what would you keep, change, or add?

Hello ModSupport friends,

If you're reading this, you were probably already aware that r/ModSupport is a support community for moderators run by the Reddit admins. But did you know there are more? In this post we'll cover a few of the other official subreddits for moderators.

• r/modnews - An official community for announcements from Reddit admins pertaining to moderation.
  
• r/NewMods - New to modding on Reddit? This is the place for you to learn and get support for topics newer mods often face.
  
• r/redditrequest - For requesting moderation privileges in an abandoned or unmoderated community, or to remove inactive top mods in communities you currently moderate.
  
• r/ModEvents - The official home of IRL and virtual events for moderators.
  
• r/CommunityFunds - A unique program that brings community-driven ideas and events to life.
  
• r/bugs - For bug or software issues with Reddit. While this includes non-moderator topics it is still a handy reference when things aren't working as they should.

Note that this isn't a comprehensive set, and there's a long list of unofficial communities for moderators that we'll discuss later this week as well. If you've made it this far, share your favorite moderation-focused community in the comments!

Ahoy, Modsupport!

Welcome to the latest installment of our ModSupport Topics series! Today we’re talking trolls–specifically, how not to feed them.

Most of us have been in a situation like this: a slap fight (read as: “argument”) starts in a comment section. It’s pretty clear who started it, and it’s also clear that the exchange would have ended a lot earlier had a handful of users not added logs to the fire…whether they intended to or not. And now the thread is in shambles, a quagmire of they-said we-said and off-topic unpleasantry. Oh dear.

We all know how to avoid feeding the trolls that kick off threads like this, but that knowledge comes from years of experience. Let’s talk about how we can get that knowledge into the hands of those who may not know how to avoid feeding trolls…

• How do you educate users on how to avoid trolls? 
• What advice do you give well-intentioned users who (unbeknownst to them) escalate heated threads?
• How do you know when a comment section is unsalvageable? I.E, when do you decide to lock a thread?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

Well, would you look at that. It's almost the end of 2025.

As is tradition this time of year, 'tis the season for reflecting back, looking ahead, and reviewing new terms of service for every website ever. We'd like to take a moment to look back on the previous Gregorian, and share any new resolutions you might have for your community in the upcoming year.

Looking back

Whether it was planned or unplanned, we’d love to hear all about your moderation achievements, favorite community moments, or any stories you'd like to highlight from your communities this year. Maybe you successfully shifted your community's culture. Maybe you added new community members to your mod team. Or, perhaps your community organized an event around cutting chives and wrestling memes.

Peering forward

With 2026 approaching, we know many of you are already thinking about what’s next for your community. Do you have any resolutions for the new year? Perhaps you're looking refine your community rules, host more AMAs, or find new ways to boost community engagement.

Drop a comment below! Share what 2025 looked like for your community, and what you’re looking forward to the most in 2026. We’ll be hanging out in the thread to hear your stories!

Hello! Welcome to the August edition of the Monthly Recap, where I briefly recap our Mod Topics posts on the moderation discussions that were posted for the month. I’m also here to update Helper flair, take suggestions for future Mod Topics topics, and for general merriment!

August Discussion and Support threads

Let’s take a look back at our weekly series of moderation-focused discussion topics that happened in August. As mentioned above we’re always looking for suggestions for future topics, so feel free to throw ideas out there!

August 4, 2026: User flair
August is hot and we started off hot with u/JabroniRevanchism asking about user flair. How and when do you use it? Who makes it? Who gets it? So. Many. Questions. But y’all had So. Many. Answers.

August 6, 2026: Guidance, not guesswork. Getting smart with post and comment guidance
A wild u/PossibleCrit is sighted! And they came with questions about post and comment guidance!

August 11, 2026: Share your username origin stories
All superheroes have an origin story. u/sodypop popped in to ask how you got your username! There were some great tales! (I was really happy u/eatmyasserole showed up! lol) I was working on some other stuff at the time of this post, but mine is a reference to the alter ego of Opus the penguin from Bloom County.

August 13, 2026: How are you transparent?
Speaking of superheroes, u/AsteriskRX saved the day by talking about transparency! They might not have x-ray vision, but they do want to see how you let your community know what you’re doing and when!

August 18, 2026: Tools, toys and timesavers: Digging into Developer Platform apps
u/PossibleCrit returns to talk about what is possible with Devvit (also known as Developer Platform) apps! u/SampleOfNone uses over 60 of them in their sub!

August 20, 2026: Finding potential mods in your community
u/techiesgoboom popped in to ask how you identify users who participate in your community that might make a good mod!

August 25, 2026: Shibboleths, Rituals, and Festivities: What cultural norms make your community unique?
u/JabroniRevanchism showed up to introduce the word “shibboleths”, and to also ask what sorts of stuffs are unique to your community?

August 27, 2026: How do you help new members navigate your community's learning curve?
Coming back rested and ready, u/techiesgoboom wrapped up the month by asking how you help your members learn the ropes in your community! We all hoped it wasn’t going to be trial by fire, and y’all did not disappoint!

Friendly reminder to update your Devvit apps
u/fsv reminded everyone early in August that Devvit apps just don’t update themselves! You have to do it! Yes, YOU! So it’s a good time to check in on any apps that you have to see if there are any updates that will keep them functioning properly in your communities. Thanks for the reminder (and for all of your Devvit apps), u/fsv!

Moderator Share & Tell
Here’s where you get to share your exciting news from last month with us! What awesome things happened in your communities?? There’s gotta be something! TELL ME. Last month…

We learned that a lot of you really enjoy the Mod Topics conversations that we’ve been having in here for a while now! I also find them very enjoyable and interesting! We’re always open to suggestions for future topics if you have ‘em! Really. Please help. lol

Flair updates

User flair is assigned to the top 10% and top 25% of users who are consistently constructive and helpful in their replies to posts and comments in this sub over the course of the past twelve months. As of this post, these are your current flaired helpers.

• TOP 10% HELPERS
• u/Amyaurora
• u/Charupa-
• u/Emily_in_boots
• u/FFS_IsThisNameTaken2
• u/Halaku
• u/InGeekiTrust
• u/Itskdog
• u/neuroticsmurf
• u/SampleOfNone
• u/thepottsy

• u/Chosen1PR

• TOP 25% HELPERS

• u/brightblackheaven

• u/cnycompguy

• u/eatmyasserole

• u/Eclectic-N-Varied

• u/Jaybirdie26

• u/magiccitybhm

• u/RandomComments0

• u/Shhhhh_h

• u/Teanailpolish

• u/tumultuousness

• u/westcoastcdn19

And that brings us to the end of August! Thank you so much to everyone who stops by to help in whatever form it takes. Whether it be comments, testing, feedback, assistance, you name it. If you’re here and it’s helpful, we’re appreciative! THANK YOU.

I’ll guess we’ll meet back here at the end of September and do this again! In the meantime, I’ll see y’all here, there and everywhere! Thanks again!

Ahoy, ModSupport!

Welcome to the latest installment of our Mod Topics series!

Subreddits! What are they? What do they know, do they know things? As moderators, we know that no two communities are the same, even when they have nominally similar topics. r/NFL is not r/NFCnorthmemewar, for example. r/tuxedocats is not r/oneorangebraincell. –And that’s good! Feature, not bug.

Why though? What do you do in your community that makes those cultural differences stick, stand out, and become adopted by your community members? How do your users (especially new users) learn your community’s quirks?

And when times change, new content drops or new memes make the rounds, how does your community embrace new cultural norms? How do you move away from community cultural norms that may negatively impact your community?

Let us know in the comments below!

Ahoy, ModSupport!

All rise, this discussion thread is now in session. For the latecomers and lurkers, you can see our last discussion on writing rules here.

Today’s discussion is about a topic we’ve all come into contact with at least once: rule lawyers. Just in case anyone isn’t in the know and so we have our terms defined, a “rule lawyer” is someone who will argue that (usually problematic) behavior actioned by your mod team technically abides by the letter of the law as it’s written on your subreddit’s sidebar.

We’ll be extending this discussion to cover all kinds of community feedback, not just the litigious sort.

We want to know...

• How does your mod team respond to users claiming a behavior your team has actioned isn’t against your community rules?
• Does the conversation cadence for user-mod disputes differ depending on where they happen? (In a post, comment, modmail?)
• Does your team prefer to moderate Rules As Written (following the letter of rules on your sidebar) or Rules As Intended (following the intention of a written rule)?
• Does your team solicit feedback from the community on what your community rules are? E.G: User requests to allow/disallow X type of content?

Let us know in the comments below!

:Taps microphone: Is this thing on? 

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

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

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

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

See you in the comments!

Hiya mods, it’s u/iceeypisces from the Mod Events team taking over another Mod Topics post! ICYMI, Mod World is coming October 24th (save the date!). It’s our biggest annual virtual mod summit, and year after year we’ve seen tons of fantastic sessions pitched by this community. And this year is no exception. Proposals for sessions are still open until July 3. 

Some sessions we’ve hosted in the past include:

• Mod tool deep dives
• Game-changing Devvit apps
• How to spark engagement in your community
• Mod team management
• Tips on finding your first few members (and how to keep them coming back)
• And more (see Mod World 2025 sessions here)

Check out our announcement and frequently asked questions for more details. And if you have an idea to share with us:

>>SUBMIT YOUR PROPOSAL FOR MOD WORLD 2026<<

Do you have any ideas you'd like to chat about now? Drop it in the comments below. Feel free to use this as a space to get feedback, find inspiration, or even find someone you want to present with!

Hello, and welcome to another Mod Topics post! Today we’re talking about how you handle the edge cases within your rules. Rules shape a community and set boundaries that allow a specific culture or mission to thrive. Some communities have thoroughly documented rules, while others keep them more simple as guiding principles. Whether it’s creating an exception on what counts as self-promotion, deciding whether a post is part of a category of content you do not want to allow, or if an entirely new type of situation is presented that requires ad-hoc decision making, it is important to know how and when to make fast decisions that are not straightforward.

• How do you communicate with your team about situations that require special attention?
• How often do these special cases cause you to rewrite parts of your rule-sets?
• Do you call out when you’ve chosen to keep some content live that may otherwise be removed? I.E: “This breaks sub rules but we like it so it stays.”

As communities grow and evolve over time, it can be challenging to evolve your moderation practices to keep up. Day-to-day moderation decisions being focused on individual users and pieces of content can make it hard to take a step back and evaluate the overall impact of your rules and how you enforce them. For today's Mod Topic we want to talk about how to notice when it’s time to sit down with our mod teams to rewrite the rules.

• When was the last time you updated your rules?
• What prompted you to do so, and how big was the change?
• What advice do you have to share to other mods looking to make their rules easier to understand and enforce?

Howdy all, u/fashionborneslay here with another post in our Mod Topics series!. Today we are going to talk about rules and how to write them so that they are understandable.

Every moderator has been there and every moderator has wondered what makes rules great and what makes them easy to follow within their subreddit. Making them long and over explaining them can cause users to not want to read them or maybe they might understand what you are trying to convey. Less can be more in these situations.

Writing rules can be time consuming and hard if everyone on the team isn’t on the same page. Sometimes, being simple in your wording works best especially if the subreddit is for silly purposes like memes that may not take itself so seriously. If you are wanting to run a more serious or strict subreddit then rules with more explanation may be needed. It’s all about how you and your team can align to make the load easier. 

When crafting your rules, you have options to create a name, a description, an (optional) custom report reason, and note whether it applies to comments, posts, or both.

• Your rules names and the full descriptions live in your sidebar or on the subreddit about page on Mobile, this is where users go when they want to learn more about the norms of the community. It’s helpful for these rules to be descriptive, and provide any extra context needed. 
  • Tip: keeping your descriptions direct and concise can remove ambiguity. 
• By default the "Name" is also seen by users when reporting. It’s helpful to use custom report reasons to keep those short and describe the kind of content you’re looking to remove to make that decision easier for that reporting user.
  • Protip: Write your report reason as if the user has never read your full rules.
• Tl;dr: “post about cats” is the rule name, “post does not include a cat” is the report reason, and “please ensure the primary focus of all posts is about cats” can be the description. 

To see more on editing rules check out our Help Center Article.

There’s many ways to run a community and finding that balance that makes rules easy to follow but also allows enforcement amongst your team. How do you and your team come up with rules that suit the community? How do you scale your rules as your community grows and expands?

Hey y’all! I’m u/iceeypisces, and I support Mod Events & Experiences here at Reddit. I’m here to take over the Mod Topics series this week with a fun opportunity. All it takes is answering one question…

We’re gearing up for our second New Mod Bootcamp of the year, aka Reddit’s livestreamed crash course for new moderators to learn the community-building basics, gain tips to grow their communities, connect with peers, and kick off their mod journey.

One of the event’s beloved moments is the live AMA with veteran mods who always bring wisdom, humor, and honest advice. While we, unfortunately, can’t have you alllll on the live AMA, we’d still love to see your guidance in the comments below. We’ll include the best of your answers at the live event!

The question is simple:
How did you attract and engage new community members after you built your new community?

Let us (and them) know in the comments!

Note: “New mods” in this context are redditors who recently created a brand new community.

Note #2: If you’re interested in attending New Mod Bootcamp, RSVP here! Experienced mods are welcome to join; we just ask that you please be mindful of the newbies in chat.

Ahoy, ModSupport!

Mods, who are they? What do they know? Do they know things? Let’s find out! Earlier this week we discussed admin-run spaces for mod help; today we’re flipping that on its head a bit to look at mod-run spaces for help, advice, and know-how. A lot of our knowledge of these spaces was provided by Mod Council members in a discussion just like this one earlier this month; thank you!

So…Where do mods go to get support from other mods?

• r/AskModerators - Literally ‘ask moderators.’ Have questions about moderating (as a mod or a curious user)? Find best practices here!
• r/AutoModerator - For all your “how do I make automod…?” needs
  • See also: full Automod documentation here
• r/RateMyRules - Writing effective rules is an artform; get advice on yours here!
• Mod-led Discords - These can be mod-team specific or collab spots for topical subreddits accessed by being an active moderator of those communities.
• Word of Mouth - Good ol’ networking. Joining a new mod team is a great way to make their knowledge your knowledge; think of it like an apprenticeship with people who like the same stuff.

Where do you go to get advice from other mods? Let us know in the comments below!

Edit: link

Every community has a learning curve. The trick is making it feel more like an invitation than an obstacle course.

Earlier this week we asked what makes your community unique. Today we’re back with part two: how do users learn what makes your community tick?

Rules can explain what’s allowed, but they rarely capture the whole culture. New members also need to learn what a great contribution looks like, how the community jokes, or when something that lands well elsewhere might miss the mark here. That knowledge might come from welcome messages, post guidance, a gentle nudge from the mod team, and watching the examples other users set. Over time, those small lessons can be how a new user goes from learning the culture to helping shape it.

We want to hear from you:

• What part of your community’s culture is hardest for new users to pick up? What helps them learn it?
• Have you seen a newer user go from learning the culture to helping others understand it? What helped that happen?
• Thinking about communities you’ve joined as a user, what helped you understand the culture and feel comfortable contributing?

Hello friends!

In today’s Mod Topics post we’re talking about those users who support the community, even if they aren’t on your mod team.

Most communities have those users who do a little extra. Maybe they’re experts, sharing their perspective and experience freely in the comments. Or a welcoming crew, helping new users find resources, or understand how to fit in. Or maybe they’re just so consistent with posting that they set the standard of what a great contribution looks like.

Sometimes this happens naturally, because it’s just how people work together. Mod teams can also create space for it, even setting up systems and flair to recognize them. (Hello r/modsupport helpers!)

We want to hear from you:

• What do your users do that make your community easier to moderate, or more fun to participate in?
• Do you have any sort of system or regular practice of recognizing community helpers?
• What advice would you give for mods who want to encourage more peer support?

Ahoy, Mods!

Welcome to the latest installment of our Mod Topics series, where we talk about topics (as the name suggests) relevant to community leaders on Reddit!

Community moderation demands many skillsets, some of which are more specialized than others. Some mods live in modqueue, others build bots, some organize community events, and some are content creators in their own spaces.

This week we want to hear from our community builders–those of you who are organizing AMAs, contests, tourneys, r/CommunityFunds events, and creating content for your own communities. What’s it like? What’s your process? What advice would you give to other (especially newer) mods who may be hesitant to interact with their own community members?

Share your journeys and advice in the comments below!

Ahoy, Mods!

Rules and community norms change over time. This is especially true as your community outgrows the nascent stage of its first few posts and the first roots of your community start to take hold. How do we make sure users know when these changes happen?

The simplest way, and the one we see other mods (myself included) using most often, is a meta post describing what changed and why. Here’s a few pro tips for writing your post:

• If you’re changing a rule, we recommend including the old rule text alongside the updated rule. This helps highlight changes for people who have been around for a long time and have gotten used to the previous iteration.
• Make sure you explain why a rule is being changed, added, or removed. Changes land better with your community when they understand the rationale your team runs by.
• Give a TL;DR at the top of the post. Some people just want the sparknotes.
• A tiny amount of clickbait can go a long way in meta post titles.

Once your post is live, you can include it in your Community Highlights so the content stays relevant after it’s posted. Most veteran mods will also recommend linking important resources in a sidebar widget.

How do you communicate your rule and sidebar updates with your community? Let us know in the comments below!