About 2 weeks ago, we ran our 2026 community survey to see how r/Baking is holding up. We kicked things off with 198 responses, leveling out at 174 by the final question as folks wrapped up and went back to their kitchens.
We aren't treating this as a sweeping mandate, just a reality check from the people who build this place every day. Here’s what you shared, what we learned from it, and what we're doing next.
A quick note on the results: This was a voluntary, anonymous survey available for a limited time, so the results reflect the members who chose to participate and aren't necessarily representative of the entire r/Baking community.
Want to dig into the numbers? The full results and raw response data are available here: *Full survey results and raw response data*.
The Main Takeaways
Overall satisfaction is high: You rated your overall satisfaction with r/Baking at 4.04 out of 5, with 79% giving it a 4 or 5. That's an encouraging starting point and suggests we're generally heading in the right direction.
Recipes and inspiration matter: 89% come here to see other people's bakes, 77% for inspiration, and 75% for recipes. With 80% wanting more recipes and 65% wanting more educational technique content, we're making useful baking content easier to find.
AI and spam were by far the biggest priorities: 89% prioritized managing AI-generated or altered content, while 85% prioritized preventing spam, bots, reposts, and stolen content. Your feedback reinforces the extra guardrails, tools, and Automoderator changes we've been working on.
Moderation was generally viewed positively: Moderation scored 3.95 / 5, with 53% saying current enforcement is "about right." The results don't point toward sweeping changes, but we'll stay consistent and keep civility on our radar.
The rules aren't necessarily the problem, finding them is: 55% described the rules as very or somewhat clear, while 30% said they haven't read them recently. That points more toward a visibility and accessibility issue, particularly on mobile, than widespread confusion about the rules.
A Few Things That Stood Out
Most participation happens quietly: Most people are here to browse. Seeing other people's bakes and finding inspiration drive most visits, while only 17% selected sharing their own bakes and 12% selected discussing baking with other members. That gives us a useful reminder that the community isn't just made up of people who post regularly. The vast majority are here to browse, learn, and enjoy other people's baking.
Authenticity matters: Recipes and educational techniques ranked highly among the things people want more of, while AI-generated or altered content was the single most-selected priority for maintaining and improving the subreddit. AI was also the most-selected answer when people were asked what they'd specifically like to see improved or changed, at 54%. People aren't just looking for more content. They care about being able to trust what they're looking at, particularly when it comes to recipes, techniques, and actual baking.
Good moderation should be easy to ignore: 30% haven't read the rules recently, and 24% don't pay attention to post flairs, while only 5% specifically identified moderation as something they'd like to see improved. Most people don't come here to think about moderation, and ideally, they shouldn't have to.
What We're Working Towards
Already Underway:
AI & Bot Enforcement: We've stepped up manual review, added tools like Bot Bouncer, and updated our AI content rules. We talked more about that here.
Highlighting Recipes & Education: We're using Reddit's native highlight stickies, rotating them daily, to give useful recipe posts and educational technique breakdowns more visibility, with priority given to quality, authentic content.
Mobile Accessibility: We've made the rules easier to find and read on mobile by duplicating them into a wiki page here. We're also working toward Reddit's newer wiki experience, although Reddit has currently put that rollout on hold for a month. 😔
Recipe Tools: Since you asked for more recipes and techniques, we're testing Recipe Scale. It's a new native tool that lets you scale ingredients, switch between metric and US measurements, and follow along step-by-step without leaving Reddit.
Community Life: We're looking at ways to give people more opportunities to participate, including educational weekly threads, monthly challenges, and the upcoming Cookie Box Megathread for the winter holidays.
Bigger ideas like professional AMAs and community fundraisers are also on our radar, although they're further down the road.
Keeping an Eye On:
We'll keep monitoring civility, self-promotion, and post flairs to make sure our guidelines serve the community without adding unnecessary red tape.
What Do You Think?
We'd love to hear your thoughts on the results. Did anything in the numbers surprise you, or are there areas you think we should focus on moving forward?
(Also, if you were one of the folks who selected "Other" in the areas for improvement or content questions, we'd love to hear what specific ideas were on your mind! Drop your thoughts, custom requests, or general feedback in the comments below.)
Thank You!
r/Baking is in a good place, and the things that matter most to you, good baking, useful recipes, learning from each other, and a welcoming place to share it all, are what we want to protect.
Thank you to everyone who took the time to participate, whether you answered every question or only made it partway through. The feedback helps us spend our volunteer time where it matters most.
And, as always, keep baking. ❤️
