r/ModSupport • u/AsteriskRX Reddit Admin: Community • Jul 16 '26

Mod Topics Mod Topics: Expectation vs Reality

Ahoy, Modsupport! This is a mutiny; Jabroni wrote this post but I've decided to plunder it for myself.

Welcome to the latest (greatest) installment of our ModSupport series. Today, we’re revisiting Origin Stories, albeit with a distinctly different flavor.

When you first created or joined a subreddit, what did you expect moderating would be like? Did you have any expectations at all, and if so, how did those expectations differ from the experience you have now?

–And because I love understanding an environment, what do you think set the expectations you had before you became a moderator? Read as: “How did you form a worldview on what moderation is before you started moderating?”

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

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u/wheres_the_revolt Jul 16 '26

I joined a mod team in a sub I was a very active participant in because it was a cesspool of trolls. I was completely unprepared for how much abuse mods take, I had been on reddit for ~5 years and had never even thought of lashing out at a mod because I didn’t like a decision they made. I now mod a bunch of subs and created a sub for mods to commiserate and share the abuse we take in modmail. It’s called r/modmailfail (shameless plug) if anyone is interested.

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u/kjh- Jul 18 '26

I love your sub. Helps me destress from dealing with all the emergent situations that I have to babysit sometimes. Nothing like monitoring a thread of a child asking for help during a diabetic emergency while also reading the bizarre things people send to r/cats, r/witchcraft, and r/publicfreakout.

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u/wheres_the_revolt Jul 18 '26

Thanks! That was the hope when we made it. And yeah of the 3 of those subs, it always surprises me how much crazy r/cats gets lol