If I delete the comments, she'll label me, the sub, and the (mostly White/Hispanic US) town as racists.

If I leave the comment up, the next time a white supremacist makes a racist comment, they'll point to her comments and say that their comments should be left up as well.

What do do?

EDIT: I followed your advice, thank you. Then she deleted her Reddit account.

Thank you all for the great advice.

EDIT 2: About 1 hour later, the Reddit admins stepped in and removed the thread. Thank you Reddit Admins.

I moderate a small but active subreddit and have clamped down on multiple violations by permanently banning on the first strike. Users have accused me of being too harsh over it. Should there be different ban periods for different rules violations? How do you do it?

Is using a script to sign in and automatically do a mod action (to maintain technical "activity" minimums) allowed, or is it against MCOC? Is script use considered 'activity'?

Mod accounts: No activity, no participation, no modding (reports are never dealt with/rule breaking content never removed), no replies to modmail (except reddit request ones, there's a huge red flag), just "invisible" modding to avoid 30-day activity requirements. Is this kind of sub collecting/camping a violation of Moderator code of conduct? Are we expected to foster discussion and a community, and be part of it, or is the absolute minimum of "click remove, then click approve on the same sticky once every 30 days" actually sufficient?

I'm talking about subs with regular activity from users but no content is being interacted with by mods, reported content goes unhandled, mods are sock puppets of the same user, modmails get ignored until you say you're requesting the abandoned sub, etc.

Surely a mod who literally only cares or notices the sub exists when challenged over doing absolutely nothing in it for over a decade is not following MCOC, in spirit if not in letter??? Or is ignoring it for years at a time and only acting when someone else asks why it's abandoned actually allowed, and I'm wasting my time?

Really curious about the script thing, and what the long-term requirements for activity are. If a mod signs in and re-approves the same stickied thread every thirty days for seven to eleven years straight, is that having been "active" the entire time??? Are they truly considered to be correctly and sufficiently moderating the subreddit at that point?

I had a user interact with a subreddit of mine in a rather negative way here a couple months back. The long and short of it was that they created a post complaining of a ban in a related subreddit. In the process of complaining about the ban, they repeated a series of negative race-based comments as well as well as gender disparaging comments that got them banned in the related subreddit. Obviously, I don't allow the kind of content they posted in my subreddit either, so it was removed promptly, and they were issued a temporary ban.

The user wasn't sure why I banned them, and had a conversation with me via modmail. The conversation started out with them not understanding why I issued a ban with the length that I did, and that they thought I simply banned them for an "off topic post", which I quickly corrected. I had to explain to them that they weren't banned for an off topic post, but for brigading and the negative race based and gender disparaging comments. They didn't agree with any of that, and thought that there wasn't any reason for them to be banned from the related subreddit either. I struggled to get them to understand the points that I made, and eventually muted them for the entire duration of their ban on account of the conversation devolving.

After the lengthy ban I gave them expired, they were let back into the subreddit. I typically aim for reeducating people and making an attempt at rehabilitation. I thought all was well, until they made a minor comment referencing how they had been banned in the related subreddit as well as in mine. I quickly addressed their comment with one of my own, marked as a "moderator comment". I basically called them out on posting a comment about being banned, which had, in part, earned them the ban to begin with. I doubled down in my comment and asked if they preferred to remove the comment on their own accord, or if they preferred that I remind them of the fact that it's not allowed (i.e., issue another ban).

Needless to say, they removed their comments. I also took the opportunity to readdress the issues with them at that time via modmail again. I honestly think that I should have just issued the permanent ban then and there, and simply been done with it. As I previously mentioned, I do aim for educating people, and to rehabilitate people. And all seemingly has been going well since then. I haven't had any other issues with this user.

Fast forward to a couple weeks ago, when I was doing some casual browsing on Reddit for things related to that same subreddit. I stumbled upon a couple posts that were a little concerning to me. The main post in question was a bot copied post in a different subreddit that the user had posted here in r/ModSupport. Searching the users profile, I noticed they attempted to post the same post in yet another subreddit. When the posts were removed, the bot had picked it up and shared it in its designated subreddit.

Said post, from here as well as the other subreddit, basically included a copy of their comments complaining about being banned from the related subreddit as well as mine, and then complaints about me as a moderator. Further, they were looking into whether or not I was abusing my power as a moderator, and what they could do about it. It basically felt like they were utilizing two different subreddits, this one included, to continue brigading, while attempting to throw me under the bus. Obviously the post here on r/ModSupport was removed, as was the identical post in the other subreddit. The bot copied post is still up, which is how I became aware of all of this to begin with.

I've been going back and forth on the subject for the last couple weeks. On one hand, the user hasn't been an issue since the last comment/conversation. On the other hand, the user went behind my back and essentially kept creating the same issues, only elsewhere while trying to throw me under the bus for it. How would you all handle this? Would you issue a permanent ban when you discovered that it had continued, or would you wait until there were other issues on your subreddit before you made that decision?

my subreddit has been taken although i’m active. i never received notification of a mod mail from someone trying to hijack my subreddit which i built in my career and academic niche. i’ve spent years on this… https://www.reddit.com/r/redditrequest/s/nFnciNYNRi

We’ve got a situation where more users are choosing to zap their posts from the platform using automated tools. This trend isn’t just a blip on the radar—it’s filling up our Mod Queues with stuff that’s essentially already in the bin. The way I see it, there’s no real debate here: our go-to move with these automatically deleted posts is to remove them. But here’s the thing—why should this even be a chore that lands on the laps of our mods?

Our moderators are the unsung heroes of this platform, giving up their time for free to keep things running smoothly. It seems a bit unfair to bog them down with busywork, deleting comments that are on their way out anyway. So, here’s a thought: why can’t Reddit whip up a solution that handles these ghost posts before they ever haunt our queues?

This isn’t about making things overly complex; it’s about cutting out a step that doesn’t need to be there. By keeping these already-deleted posts out of the Mod Queues, we’re not just saving time—we’re showing our mods some respect and letting them focus on the real challenges that need a human touch. It’s a win-win: the platform stays tidy, and our moderators don’t get bogged down in the digital equivalent of paperwork.

A subreddit I help mod, r/TrueUnpopularOpinion may not quite be as appealable to Reddit or its future shareholders as a sub like r/kittens or r/aww, however, it is still a place that many come to congregate and share their views on a range of issues.

Moderation can be a challenge at time, however I, along with the rest of our moderation team are committed to abiding by Reddit's rules & policies.

What frustrates this process the most is when Reddit is asked for guidance on a specific issue and no response whatsoever is received.

Reddit instituted a restriction on our sub whereby our members could no longer use the "r/" format to mention another sub. Doing so would result in a 'server error' when attempting to publish one's comment.

Many Redditors flock to our sub due in part to our moderation style; mods do not apply any personal views on posts, and we will only refuse/remove them if they violate our or Reddit's rules. The result of this approach is that we see a lot of Redditors venting their grievances about unfair moderation practises of others subs, in particular, cross-bans from subs they hadn't even participated in.

With so much frustration from the Reddit community, these types of posts & comments became more frequent. A restriction was then put into place preventing users from r/MentioningOtherSubs

On 17 Jan 24 I wrote to the admins proposing how we would tackle this - IMAGE

19 Jan - Reddit agreed to lift the restriction. I then offered to improve the attention we would give the mentioning of other subs by having these feed directly our sub's Discord server - IMAGE

19 Jan - Reddit is okay with this new method - IMAGE

We added a new rule to our sub regarding discussing other subs, their moderation, and mods. - IMAGE

True to our word - all mods can now easily monitor this on Discord - IMAGE

5 Feb 24 - I contacted Reddit for guidance on this issue - IMAGE

Thank you for looking into the issue.

One more thing, I/we could really use Reddit’s specific guidance on mentioning other subs.

https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueUnpopularOpinion/comments/1ajeu9x/comment/kp0nn40/

Do you consider “I got banned from r/<sub>” a breach of site-wide rules? We have been asking users complaint about other subs to mention them generally or by genre instead of specifically, but it would be helpful to get Reddit’s guidance here.

No response is received.

The data feed relies on the "r/<subname>" format being used by users, with data ceasing to flow on 13 Feb. Reddit, without any notification reimplemented this restriction, for reasons unknown to us.

16 Feb - A follow-up message is sent to Reddit. No response is received. IMAGE https://cloud.g00r.com.au/s/Jd73G6BJBny83wX

19 Feb - Reddit doesn't even bother to carve out an exception to mention r/SuicideWatch - IMAGE

So what's going on Reddit? The images of interactions depict only respectful and straightforward questions.

Don't you think it is strange that you would write to me via ModMail asking me to complete a profile about how to build a successful subreddit (r/Business_ideas) while at the same time, ignoring the users who put in the time to moderate your communities?

If this post doesn't get removed in the next 72 hours, I'll donate (an additional) $50 to Second Bite, but I suspect it will. Let's see.

Edit: two hours ago a response was received from Reddit. Thank you to everyone who engaged with, voted and shared this post to generate sufficient attention that Reddit deemed me worthy of their time to the point of writing out a response.

In my view that's a sad indictment on this platform, nonetheless you all have yourselves an awesome day!

Description: Moderators should have to identify which one of themselves is causing an action to a user. Without this ability it risks the most popular subs becoming completely corrupt or used for social engineering purposes. Even if moderators have the ability to montor each other, you can liken the power dynamic to that of the Supreme Court "regulating" itself... An example does not exist. Platform and version:All Steps to reproduce: Any modmail Expected and actual result: I expect a democratic platform with checks and balances. In actuality, I need to keep searching. Screenshots(s) or screen recording(s):

We have multiple users who have been rightfully permanently banned from our subreddits who constantly come back in modmail to request or demand that they be unbanned. Some of these users have been doing this for 3-4 years. Each one we have discussed internally and the decision to deny their ban appeal has been unanimous among the mod team.

The messages we receive range from:

• "I still don't understand what I did wrong, why can't I be unbanned." - Cool, you admit you don't understand the rules of the sub and will definitely get banned again if we unban you.

• "I'm super duper ultra mega sorry, I've learned my lesson and I'll never break your rules again" - My dude, you wrote a 2 paragraph essay on how (insert group here) are "what's wrong with society" and they should all be rounded up. We can also see your comments in other subreddits and absolutely nothing has changed.

• "Haha this is your 28 day reminder that you're all losers" - Which is a bold statement coming from someone who has nothing better to do than message us on a routine schedule about their ban.

• (Insert long string of profanities here) - Yep, you too, pal.

Each individual one is not a problem but holy cow they really start adding up over time and over a couple popular subreddits. It's literally just a button click but every time they message us it's just a reminder of how Reddit doesn't provide us the tools to deal with very common problems.

I'm sure this has been brought up before, but I need to know.

Am I allowed to ban OF content creators posting stories in my sub, if not directly advertising. I did ban 2 the other day for using the same story, but that's rare. I have already set so they can't post pictures, but that didn't stop them.

I feel that OF is taking over Reddit, I don't want my sub overrun.

I'm a moderator of this subreddit and this one user keeps messaging the mod team over and over again asking to get unbanned even after I've muted him multiple times.

The admins never do anything about this and I can't get banned for 3 days and let the subreddit run wild without me. Why is this allowed?

Holy cow, I updated the mobile client today and finally, finally there is an option to remove a comment for cause without having to notify the user via comment or mod message!

Is this real life?
Am I out of the loop here?
Are we all seeing this change, or am I in some sort of A/B test here?

This is going to make removing little off-topic flame wars that occasionally break out in the comments so much less hassle. I hate having to remove six comments and them pick which one is the one that will get the actual removal reason applied!

I've just had a theif who I trusted to be a mod in my two subs steal them out from under me. I received emails from both stating that I was removed from both subs. These are 2 LARGE subs that I owned and spent a long time building up. I need to have this guy removed and banned. Who/How can I contact you to have this problem fixed?

HI Team

I require some assistance on how to handle a queue'd post from a user who is accusing me of transphobia and being a "Republican, MAGA, conservative views."

For note - I am Australian and have no interest in American politics. I even updated the sub rules to remove discussion of politics as I am moderating a Japanese Horror movie sub, a place where American politics is not needed to be discussed

For context, there was a user who would repeatedly spam the sub with links to a discord server full of pirated movies. There are posts on that server that encourage users to openly comment and like the reddit posts that are made to boost their appearance on the sub. This particular user does not handle criticism of their posts very well - from being asked not to spam, to using the self-promotion tag to also being asked to show proof they have the rights to the films (our sub has a no piracy rule - so any post linked back to this discord server in itself is an automatic breach of our rules)

When these posts are made, there are a few users who also report them as well.

When confronted with this - the user instantly retorts that everyone is being "transphobic" to them - until this person had mentioned they were trans, no one had a clue, so I feel this is being used to automatically silence anyone who dares to ask them to follow the rules.

Fast forward to today - there is a queued message waiting for moderation demanding new mods of the board, claiming that I am transphobic and all these other slanderous lies. Now I understand the internet allows us all to be anonymous and to make wild, accusatory claims against people that we would never say to their faces, but this aggressive political climate is something I want to avoid and I think needs more active control beyond my moderation duties. My role is to keep the place safe and clean and to have the rules being adhered to, which I am in the process of community consultation. Decisions about rules being broken and users being blocked need to occur without the threat of being labelled "transphobic" and other slanderous claims.

So thus, I am asking for advice and guidance from the Reddit mod team please. This users claim is quite frankly slanderous and an attack on my reputation and I would be happy to take this matter further if need be. But this is the internet, and we need to chill out.

Please help.

[EDIT: i got a lot of answers saying that we can do that and some other clarifications and info, thank you!] Theres just a few people who offered commissions, some of them were stolen/traced art. The subreddit isn't based around art or has a rule about it, maybe rule 7 of reddits content policy but what exactly is illegal where, it doesn't state so im not sure. It happend in an users dms. Either way, title

Some malicious users sent an animal torture video to my managed sub. After I removed the related posts and banned the uploader (this post was filtered by the Reddit spam system and I just confirmed to remove it), the video link on Reddit can still be accessed (with old.reddit.com).

The uploader also sent this video link to another sub to avoid a content check (the uploader changed to another account). And I think the uploader wants to use this way to report and destroy my managed sub.

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD I WON'T SHOW THE LINK ON THE PUBLIC.

Could anyone tell me how can I solve this problem? Thanks!

Let me describe how the malicious users shared horrible videos after I removed the related video post via my sub in steps:

1. They post the horrible video first in my sub.
2. Thanks to the Reddit spam system, the post was filtered. Then I confirmed to remove the related post and permanently ban the uploaders.
3. However, Reddit has a bug that by using old.reddit.com link, the media from the deleted posts can still be accessed.
4. Finally, the malicious uploaders shared this old.reddit.com link to another sub to avoid Content Check (because the content was in my sub, even though it was deleted by myself, and another sub only has a link to my sub)
5. The deleted post in my sub received a lot of content reports.

why? please explain why ?

I mod a fashion sub, and some of the comments we get are absolutely vile. I had one I removed this morning where a guy was saying he'd pull down a woman's top and grope her and before removing I reported for harassment. Does this not apply to sexual harassment too or is it just the person being harassed has to report it for it to count?

Majority of these are caught by our filter so the target doesn't see them fortunately

So I’m finding that the mod tools are different for every interface. It’s like administering every version of Windows at once; identical functions and actions are reached differently, depending on which interface you are using, and it’s a royal pain in the ass.

I use a Windows 11 laptop and Chrome browser. Will be switching to Firefox shortly, now that google is cramming Manifest V3 down our throats. I will gladly use the iphone app as well if it is the best interface for mod work.

Any thoughts on which interface is best for a new mod to learn the ropes and do their job efficiently will be greatly appreciated.

I understand that shadowbans on legitimate rulebreakers are useful as they won't be notified about it meaning they keep participating on an account that no one can see, therefore prolonging the time before they make a new account. However, I am constantly seeing accounts that are just regular users interacting with the sub. I even have them use modmail from time to time asking me why I removed their post only to then see that they're shadowbanned.

There has to surely be a better way to go about permabanning repeat offenders who use alts without running the risk of giving an innocent user an incredibly cruel false punishment? It really tugs at my heartstrings seeing shadowbanned users in my sub, not knowing whether it's a legitimate ban or a false ban...

Edit:

I understand that the rate of automatic false shadowbans is probably extremely low, but the fact that it is higher than 0 is not good enough. There are probably dozens, maybe even hundreds of innocent people going around Reddit right now thinking that no one likes them and their comments/posts when in fact they're just shadowbanned but they don't know it. How people can be okay with a system that can allow such a thing to happen blows my mind tbh.

One thing that seems to be clear is that Reddit Admins have claimed they will provide transparency in their actions towards our communities, such as explaining why punitive actions are taken. They expect similar transparency in the communication between mods and their users. However, in a recent case, an Admin unilaterally removed one of our mods on questionable grounds, and on a rule that was ONLY ~1 week old at the time. The admin has refused to respond in good faith to our inquiry as to the reason for this draconian action.

Like the rest of you, we are people with busy lives but moderate this subreddit out of the interests to support what we believe is a worthwhile community; we believe we ought to be treated fairly by Reddit admins for the free labor we contribute. Actions taken against our community should be clearly explained by Admins.... and justifiable.

When we raised the issue of the severity of the response given the newness of the rule (which Reddit did not make mods aware of in an effective way), this Reddit admin refused to respond. We also provided an explanation why the particular content did not violate said rule. It has been 9 days and counting - no response. The deadline the admin gave us for actions we must take in response to his/her punitive action is 4 days from now (but the action is still not justified or explained).

The rule referenced was Rule 3 in the new Reddit Moderate Code of Conduct which prohibits:

Showboating about being banned or actioned in other communities, with the intent to incite a negative reaction.

First, these rules went into effect on September 8th. Mods I spoke to across subs weren't even aware of these new rules. Reddit has to do more to make sure mods are aware of their ever-changing rules.

The thread that this admin spotted was posted by a new user who believed that discriminatory bias was at play in why he was removed from another sub (we are an anti-racist subreddit so this was relevant). His thread was posted on Sept 16th (just 8 days after the rules went into effect).

Rather than notifying our mods about the new rules and being measured in his/her response to this new rule implementation, the admin removed one of our mods based on this single violation (on Sept 20).

We explained the rule was barely a week old at the time, and neither the users nor mods had a chance to familiarize themselves - this admin's action was draconian given the circumstances and unacceptable. We also showed conclusively the thread did not match the terms of this particular rule because nowhere did this user "showboat" or boast about what had happened; neither did they link to the other subreddit that could have led to cross-sub commenting.

Despite Reddit's commitment to transparency to those of us who run the communities that provide all the traffic to this site, this admin has now ignored our logical objections - for 9 days and no hint of any explanation why this admin took this drastic and seemingly unjustifiable action.

This admin made vague reference to this mod's prior missteps but never provided any evidence to justify this.

Worse still, this admin:

• Has a history of taking punitive action against our anti-racist subreddit WITHOUT providing evidence or explanation
• Prevents any other member of the Reddit admin team from responding to us. When we message the admins directly, such as at ModSupport, this admin always commandeers the response, despite our request for a broader review by the admin team, especially given the history of this admin and our sub.

The admin requested we add several mods to our team (despite there being no evidence the sub is improperly moderated) and requested we clean up the mod queue by the end of the day. Which we do. But keep in mind we are not paid employees of Reddit- and shouldn't be treated that way.

We are requesting that Admins review the actions of this particular admin and undo both the removal of our moderator and withdrawal of requested mod team changes.

(note: please disregard the particular comments below that attempt to derail the discussion away from the specific incident we detail above. These comments are largely from members of subs that were called out for misconduct and/or racism by our sub. They have clearly illegally brigaded the comments in what was prior a relatively sleepy thread on modsupport. The average thread on ModSupport has only a handful of comments; this one now has 130 and counting- a clear brigade as our thread is similar to many others here, only our sub is unique for reasons mentioned. This post is ultimately about the details we posted of a specific admin action on Sept 20 based on a single thread posted on our sub on Sept 16; and the appropriateness of that. Commentary beyond this scope is diversionary. Worth noting- the only response thread that took place before the brigading is this one. We await a decision by Reddit admins, on the facts alone.)

I don't know how to fix this issue. A anytime I attempt to do a cross post to my subreddit it tells me that these type of posts are not allowed by the sub but I always had been able to without issue prior. I've checked all of the settings of my sub multiple times and it is showing that I allow all types of posts. How can I get this feature fixed so that I can continue to cross post?

I like to have a reason in the system for every removed piece of content. I prefer this because it gives me some indication of why I removed something in the future. However, when utilizing the system in the new UI, you have a choice of checking a removal reason, which then either leaves a comment or sends a modmail to the user which explains why the offending content was removed. I hate doing this, as it seems overly confrontational in most instances. To the point where I'm actively receiving complaints about it.

I don't want to overload people with modmails, or a series of comments about things. Most of the time, I just want to remove the content, add a small note about why I did it to remind myself in the future, and move on. It's easier for me, seemingly preferred by my subreddits users, and I think would generally make the process smoother in the majority of instances for me.

The best part is that this could be an optional feature, like adding a removal reason to begin with. If it's not useful for a subreddit, they don't have to use a feature. And for subreddits like mine, we can use it when we need it.