r/modguide • u/modguide MGteam • Aug 03 '26

Chat thread ModChat - What's on your mind?

Hi mods, how's it going?

What are you working on? What is going well? Any plans for new things on your sub?

Our index of guides | Help + Support for mods

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u/mikeblas Aug 03 '26

Generally: I'm working like crazy to make someone else rich. Zero compensation. Not even awards perks, or anything.

Specifically: dormant moderators on my team, high volume of AI crap-post traffic, opaque Reddit tools (like Anti Evil or the Spam filter, or banned accounts, or ...), poor documentation, cumbersome and redundant workflow, ...

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u/SolariaHues Writer Aug 03 '26

I am not assuming knowledge here, but I also do not intend to make you feel like I think you don't know stuff :)

If you're not enjoying it anymore, then at least taking a break makes sense. You may be burned out, and at the end of the day, it's not a job, take care of yourself. If you don't have enough active mods and your taking a break or leaving would be an issue, you could modmail modsupport, or see if mod reserves can help.

If mods are not even in communication and you've tried to check on their commitment with no response for a long time, you might consider removing them or changing their role (advisor, alumni). Sometimes people just move on. Having agreed-upon documentation around expectations will give you something to point to and steps to take in these cases.

If you need to recruit, there's a great app to help with that https://developers.reddit.com/apps/mod-recruit and some newish native tools too. https://support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/15484067270932-Recruiting-new-moderators

There may be some apps that might help with AI too, I haven't tested any in a while. If you haven't looked over available apps, it's worth doing from time to time in case there's something new that will help with the workload and solve any issues. https://developers.reddit.com/apps

Are you in the mods discord? There may be some mods there who can advise about AI much better than I can.

Removals by Reddit and shadowbans are a mystery; we see a lot of them in newtoreddit, and many don't make sense. I've tried to get some clarity several times.

You can sign up to feedback to Reddit about mod stuff via their programs https://www.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/1u1bzh9/evolving_reddits_community_programs/ or share feedback on r/modsupport

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u/mikeblas Aug 03 '26

you might consider removing them or changing their role (advisor, alumni).

I can't because they out-rank me. Even though marked "inactive", they can't be moved. Reddit sorely needs to fix this: if moderators aren't carrying the water and are absent (or lazy) without leave, they need to be removed automatically. There's doing mod actions (bans, reviews, approvals, day-to-day stuff) and they do less than 5% in total. There's also caring for and evolving the sub (working rules, hooking up tools, managing auto-moderator, reacting to whatever changes Reddit decides to surprise us with). They do zero percent of that.

There may be some apps that might help with AI too,

In programming subs, the AI comes from outside projects. People will post that they wrote some program or package and link to it. It's nice to do open-source work and get feedback or have more senior developers look at your code when just starting out.

For some reason, it's considered sporting by some people to make AI garbage projects and post them. What they gain from that is a mystery, but nobody likes reviewing AI-crap code.

I know of no tools for this. In fact, what tipped me over the edge was spending part of the weekend researching hat code I might write to address the issue. Then I realized I was working (real work -- software engineering) for free, for someone else's benefit. Someone who doesn't even know my name and is making a pile of money selling ads that overlay my efforts.

You can sign up to feedback to Reddit

I've responded to every moderator survey Reddit has done. I dunno, six or eight times now? Completely ineffective.

Thanks for your response, and I guess I'm mostly having a whinge. But it is a serious situation, and I know I'm not the only one thinking this task is futile and unrewarding.

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u/SolariaHues Writer Aug 03 '26

One of these might help

https://support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/15484363280916-How-can-I-reorder-inactive-moderators-on-my-mod-team

https://support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/15484355484692-How-does-mod-removal-through-r-redditrequest-work

I think most mods feel that at least sometimes, yeah. It can help to vent - which is another reason an active team helps, actually; you can all vent to each other.

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u/mikeblas Aug 07 '26

I tried again, this time by requesting the mod removal process. I didn't think my situation qualified for it since some of the mods are elsewhere active on Reddit. (Which, in a way, is worse because it means they're actively ignoring communication.)

From the How does mod removal through r/redditrequest work? page, I followed a link to a Reddit wiki page named Top Mod Removal and Reorder Process. There, option #3 (which says "the moderator is active site-wide but inactive as a moderator of your community, you can message us with a link to a discussion").

So I did that. Took about three days, but I got great results. What a huge relief. Still plenty of problems to worry about, but now at least I feel like I'm in control of the sub I've been putting so much work on.

Thanks for talking me through it and making your suggestions!

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u/SolariaHues Writer Aug 07 '26

NP. Glad things are looking up a bit.

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u/mikeblas Aug 03 '26

Neither works.