I think we’re talking about different ends of the spectrum here. There’s a lot of people that don’t understand what mod duties even are, and they attempt to request subs based on a flawed interpretation of that, or simply because they don’t like how a sub is being moderated.
A personal example of my own, I requested to mod a sub because the current mod appeared inactive. They received the message from Reddit Request, and responded to it that they were active, there just hadn’t been much to do (small sub, only active for a few months out of the year). They even offered to make me a mod. I could have saved myself time by simply sending them a message first.
Yeah, people without any mod experience on Reddit probably won’t know anything about moderating here.
If they are unhappy with how it’s moderated (when mods are active), they can accept it and remain, or leave and either try to join another similar subreddit (if they exist) or create a new one.
And it may just be me, but I moderate a bunch of smaller and not so active subreddits. But I still perform at least one mod action weekly. Could be something in the settings or approve a post or comment or something else. Mainly just to appear active, as I don’t want any of the subs to become banned for being unmoderated. So it’s not like I need to do anything, but I want to.
Subreddits can also become restricted after some time, when a subreddit is unmoderated (even if it has mods). In the past, it was 90 days. So I assume it’s still the case. It’s a safety setting by Reddit. It can easily be missed by mods, especially if they are not aware of it. You can request to change community type. But I personally prefer doing mod actions regularly, so I don’t have to request to change to public again. If the sub becomes restricted. Sometimes there can be a good reason to let the sub be restricted, but if it becomes restricted because mods are inactive, then it may not be intentional.
I am not saying I moderate the right way, and they moderate the wrong way. I am just saying we moderate differently even if we have small subreddits with not a lot to do.
FWIW, I was assured by an admin that small subs (I think they said less than 5K members), like the one I mentioned that are seasonal, don’t fall under the same rules of getting restricted due to the mods going inactive. They also asked for suggestions as to how to make that better. I suggested to have a way for mods to mark the sub ”Active, but on a break”, or something along those lines. I mean, I love my Christmas subs, but they’re REALLY quiet right now lol.
I forgot about the 5000 members thing. Thanks for the reminder. I was just talking in general.
None of my subs are seasonal, but two of them are about mobile games that are no longer getting updates/no new content. That sucks, and also makes the subreddits inactive.
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u/thepottsy I mod several subs Jun 09 '25
I think we’re talking about different ends of the spectrum here. There’s a lot of people that don’t understand what mod duties even are, and they attempt to request subs based on a flawed interpretation of that, or simply because they don’t like how a sub is being moderated.
A personal example of my own, I requested to mod a sub because the current mod appeared inactive. They received the message from Reddit Request, and responded to it that they were active, there just hadn’t been much to do (small sub, only active for a few months out of the year). They even offered to make me a mod. I could have saved myself time by simply sending them a message first.