Consider this post to be both a supplement and sequel to my original post, 10 frequently-asked questions by new mods, answered!
The subject of this post expands on question #10 in the original and is meant to help explain to new moderators what moderation and building a new subreddit up from scratch entails. This is organized into ten points roughly listed in the chronological order of the process of building a new subreddit.
I will also include links to the excellent community resource r/ModGuide as well as the official Reddit Mod help center with each point.
1. Don't use mobile to moderate.
You cannot effectively moderate a subreddit just by using Reddit's mobile app or site. It's just not possible as of March 2020, and most of those tools won't come until much later this year. The vast majority of customization tools are completely absent from the site, and you cannot easily update things like the subreddit CSS (for Old Reddit) or AutoModerator from the mobile site. If you cannot or refuse to use a regular computer for moderating, I do not think moderating a subreddit is for you.
You may use the app to keep an eye on new posts and comments as they come into your subreddit, and remove them or approve them as you see fit, or submit new content to it - the app is good for that. But that should be done after you've already properly set up the basics of your subreddit's design and its aesthetic.
Once your subreddit gets more popular, you should also look into installing the Toolbox extension (r/toolbox), which contains a wealth of tools to help moderators, including bulk actions, macros, removal reasons, user notes, and more. It is almost impossible to find a subreddit of moderate size or larger that doesn't use Toolbox - it is that essential to Reddit moderators.
2. Make your subreddit look good.
Let me use the metaphor of a party: creating a new subreddit and asking people to come join it, is like sending a party invitation out to the people of this site. But if people go to the party location and all they find is a bare, empty room with drab grey walls and a single lightbulb, no one is going to want to stay! Thus customizing your subreddit is like decorating for a party - you want people to feel that the event is on-theme, and it's fun to stay.
So, customize your subreddit (on desktop, of course)! Use all the tools that are available to you. Create an icon and header that match the stated interest of the subreddit, add text telling new members what it is all about, and make it feel unique and special.
3. Seed content! No one wants to post in an empty subreddit.
Let me continue with the metaphor of the party. Let's say this time you've put decorations and streamers up in the formerly empty room and it looks pretty good! But when the people you invited show up, they notice the room is empty - there's no one there at all! You, the host, aren't even there - but you left a simple sign on the door saying "Welcome! Please stay and have fun!" How many people do you think will actually stay?
That's effectively what an empty subreddit, devoid of posts, appears to new subscribers. Very few people want to be the first, or the only person posting in a subreddit, especially if the creator of the subreddit can't even be bothered to participate in their own community. As the creator of a subreddit, you must seed content, and seed content regularly.
Make posts every day / every other day that are relevant to the topic of your subreddit so people know it's an active place and that they feel welcome to post. You can also choose to cross-post relevant content from other subreddits into your own subreddit. In my experience a subreddit usually gets to 300-400 subscribers before you start seeing people other than the mods regularly posting stuff.
4. Set up post / user flairs.
As your subreddit receives more and more posts, it may be useful at some point to create post flairs, which are essentially categories for posts. For example, if your subreddit is about a game, you could have post flairs which are for "Gameplay", "Fanart", "Bugs", etc. Members can click on the post flairs and instantly see all posts related to that category.
On the other hand, user flairs are more like the little status messages in WhatsApp, Discord, etc. - they're small snippets of information that the user chooses to reflect something of themselves. There are many different ways to use them:
- Language learning subreddits often use them to indicate languages / skill levels of users.
- Fan subreddits of media (games/film/TV shows) usually have user flairs of major or popular characters in them.
- Location subreddits of countries, states, etc. usually use them to indicate where a user is from or represents.
- Many subreddits for political candidates use user flairs to indicate donor status/amounts.
Think about works best for your community and customize accordingly.
5. Check for related communities.
Run a search for key terms related to your subreddit on the site (https://www.reddit.com/search?q=SEARCH_TERM&sort=relevance&t=all&type=sr) and see what subreddits pop up. If the exact purpose of your subreddit has already been done you may want to consider how your subreddit can differentiate itself, or even give up on the subreddit. There's no shame in the latter; people oftentimes forget to check if a subreddit already exists before creating their own.
If you believe your subreddit is sufficiently differentiated, reach out via modmail to some of the related subreddits and ask them if you can:
- Share sidebar links (they link to your subreddit, you link to theirs)
- Make a post in their subreddit advertising your subreddit
Be polite, and don't be offended if the mods of their subreddits do not reply or say "no." The other moderators are under no obligation to grant your request, and quite frankly, if you're openly trying to compete with them for the same subject matter they may see no point in helping you.
6. Promote your subreddit judiciously.
Promote your subreddit, perhaps beginning with my multireddit of promotional communities. If you see relevant posts in other subs, you can also drop a link to your subreddit in the comments. Don't overdo it or spam your subreddit link on unrelated content - that's an easy way to get banned everywhere, as no one likes a spammer.
7. Don't add new moderators unless you have a good reason to.
A common mistake by new moderators is to add more moderators in the mistaken belief that the new random people that were added as mods will help them post in and grow the subreddit.
This almost never works.
Unless the new moderators share the same passion for the project as you do, they have no incentive to help you grow your subreddit. The vast majority of such moderators get added and then promptly forget about the subreddit, especially if you yourself aren't participating in your own subreddit. If the creator of the subreddit doesn't even care about their sub, why should the new mods care?
You likely do not need any additional moderators until your community gets regular traffic in the form of posts and comments, or perhaps you aren't able to be on during a particularly active time zone. At that point, my recommendation is to promote from within - ask active members if they'd like to help out as moderators, rather than going to a place like r/NeedAMod. The members of your subreddit will have more of a vested interest in the success of the community and be more familiar with its "culture" and mores.
8. Keep the subreddit active and curated.
Building a subreddit from the ground up is a marathon, not a sprint. If you have a burst of activity at the beginning and then proceed to neglect your subreddit for months at a time, it will not grow. If you allow spammers to post random stuff on your own subreddit and take weeks to remove them, people will leave because the content they see is not relevant to what they wanted when they joined in the first place. Posting content regularly will also allow your subreddit to regularly surface in people's home feeds, which helps drive visits to it in the first place.
Furthermore, if you're away from Reddit for more than 60 days at a time, and you're the only moderator, your subreddit becomes potentially requestable in r/RedditRequest by someone else who thinks they can do a better job than you at building the community. And if you're never present in your own subreddit, they have a good argument for saying so.
9. Keep it a friendly and fun place.
This should be pretty self-explanatory, for despite Reddit's reputation in the broader media, people really just want to have fun in their favorite subreddits, and generally do not engage in flame wars or vitriolic arguments. What this means is that once your subreddit gets bigger, you should keep an eye out for bad actors who make your subreddit a potentially toxic place.
To use the party metaphor again, you may have a party crasher who is going around the room telling the people having a fun time that they're stupid, ugly, and only an idiot would drink what they're having. At that point, it's your job as the host of the party to either tell them to knock it off or eject them from the event.
Same thing goes for subreddits - whenever possible, try and message a toxic user to ask them to simmer down, but if they continue, ban them, either for a period of time or permanently.
10. Ask members for feedback.
Yes, technically according to Reddit moderators have ultimate power over their subreddit, but good subreddits always have moderators who solicit feedback from members and listen to what they have to say.
You don't necessarily have to implement everything members suggest, particularly if it conflicts with your vision of how the subreddit should be run, but it's worth it to listen. You can create surveys or polls to ask people about proposed policies or rules as well.
Feel free to share tips or ideas in the comments!
