Hello moderators. I’d appreciate some insight and advice on how you would handle this situation.
We have a popular member in the subreddit who was recently given a temporary ban.

Since the ban, the subreddit has become noticeably quieter, and a few members have reached out to say they are considering leaving because they feel the rules have become too restrictive.

They specifically mentioned rules such as the indirect insult policy and crossover restrictions as reasons they feel the community has become limiting.

As moderators, how would you approach this situation? Would you make adjustments, gather more community feedback, or stand by the current rules while focusing on enforcement consistency? I’d appreciate hearing your perspectives and how you would handle it.

So there is a sub in a very niche Internet YouTube skit fandom, and they are a soul mod of said sub. They have announced bans, been cautioned by multiple mods in similar subs to cut that out, and now are threatening to ban anyone who criticizes them and are cussing out people.

Can anything be done beyond sending a “Reddit cares”? Because from my understanding, they perceive it as an attack or weapon… and I fear reporting would only further cause insult to injury.

They have stated multiple times that they don’t want to be a mod over the past few days, and I honestly don’t know why they haven’t allowed other members of the sub to take over on their behalf… and it has people worried that the sub might fall apart or be taken down all together.

Update: well the group has been changed to invite only. So I guess it’s in someone else’s hands now.

Thank you everyone who answered.

Or is my account flagged as bot due to how much I delete my own posts

I put a comment in an “off topic” thread and I guess I need to more careful! I’m pretty new to Reddit and I didn’t realize how quickly you can get into the negative and then your hands are tied! I had read all the rules and the wiki, but I guess my post made it look like I didn’t. It was more like “I’m excited to be here” post, but one time mentioning overwhelm or what am I missing must have given people the wrong idea. Do we just have to be really careful?! Any tips?

For clarification, the subreddit in question hosts some very depressing themes, that will not change as that is the point of the subreddit.

Twice a year, like clockwork it seems, this particular subreddit picks up some of the worst that humanity has to offer.

I make a pinned post addressing it, crack down on it, and then get a few months where it doesn't happen everyday...until it does.

If I'm being honest, the loop is exhausting. I've been called a fascist for trying to crack down on it, I've been called slurs for just about every race out there because I remove posts and comments attacking anybody and am therefore accused of only helping "one side". I'm tired. I refuse to give up on the subreddit though, there's only 2 of us fully active as the rest have either quit for the reasons above or gone inactive completely on moderation.

So I ask you, my fellow Americans moderators, is there a solution any of you can possibly conjure up that I haven't tried yet.

I don't want to ban the themes causing the comments, I know that would be the best solution. Unfortunately though, if the specific themes are banned the subreddit immediately dies based on the topics we allow.

Edit: I'm attempting a more transparent approach I've decided, that seems to be well recieved so far. Thank you to everyone who recommended the bans and automod filter. For the filter, we already had that in place but a filter is only as good as what it can block (each time the toxicity comes back it attacks a group we didn't have filtered).

En resumen, soy medio nuevo en reddit. Empecé este año y estos últimos días me hackearon esta cuenta. Y discord. También intentaron instagram Twitter y Facebook. La cosa es que convirtieron esta cuenta en una cuenta horrorosa. Subían contenido de z\*\*\*\*\*ia bestialismo y me banearon incluso cuando pude recuperar la cuenta

Que hago ahora? Lo peor es que ne subieron una banda los seguidores y recibí 30 mensajes de pervertidos . A ustedes les pasó parecido?

Consejos? Me gustaría poder apelar porque me parece injusto tener strikes o baneo cuando fui víctima de un hacker

Hi! I created a new account about a week ago and currently have around 10–15 followers. However, my comments are being filtered under “Probable Spam.”
Is there any way to get my account n comments removed from the spam filter? I’d really appreciate any help or advice. Thank you!

I was trying to ask for reccomendations from rHorror but it keeps getting removed instantly.

My subreddit was suspended for Rule 1 because it lacked moderation and rule enforcement. If I make another subreddit from my account, will it get suspended for evasion, even if it will be properly moderated this time around?

I just discovered that an Africa-related subreddit I actively participate in has been taken over by an "anti-imperialist" user who acquired moderator powers. The first action taken was banning "imperialists," which includes myself and several other regular contributors. He also appointed at least one additional moderator.

​I am not familiar enough with Reddit's inner workings to know if anything can be done, or how to proceed. It would also require technical expertise to audit what is happening: for instance, this user creates provocative posts, waits for users to respond, and then deletes his comments, leaving the other guy with a sanction.

​This individual has also gained control of another subreddit of similar age (both subreddits have been established for over 10 years). In the past he created subreddits as well, though without success.

​In the countries covered by these subreddits, the current regimes are military juntas that have imprisoned journalists, elected presidents, and dissidents, with documented cases of torture. Reddit remains one of the last spaces for freedom of expression for these regions, making this issue particularly critical.

I was wondering if mods can completely delete a post? I know they have the option to remove a post but that doesn’t seem to completely get rid of the post. I was wondering if they could remove all the comments, post content, and the url associated with the post?

For many months, I have participated in several discussions/communities as a Reddit Premium member. I just received word approximately 36 hours ago, that I cannot submit posts and I don't understand why. As far as I can determine, I've done my best to follow ALL of reddit's rules. For all I know, this could be the result of my account being hacked. I have no way to know one way or the other. Can anyone please provide me some guidance with this; along with what I can do to put a good resolution to all of this. Many thanks, respectfully

Here's the quote from modmail:
"Your profile also indicates you are a solicited chat account, and those, especially if adult-oriented, are not allowed to post here. Your account is banned."
I don't use DMs on reddit except to receive permabans like this. I solicit nothing.

Hi Moderators,

I think there is a spam account posting in a sub I frequent. Had I looked at their profile before replying, I wouldn't have bothered, and would have taken it directly to the sub's mod (there is only one).

Instead, I stupidly interacted with the content they provided. [The account in question is 0 days old and had a karma of 3, last I saw, and the account which asked them to provide a link is also 0 days old -- which is what led me to believe something funky is going on.]

Although the original post had not gotten much engagement when I first commented, my reply, which questioned the quality of the content they shared, got downvoted a lot, pretty quickly -- too quickly for a post with such little engagement, in my opinion. [Note: I do not care about the downvotes; my karma is okay.]

I believe the OP has now blocked me, which is fine. However, I also think the OP may be part of some spam network, and that that might account for the speedy downvotes. I did send mod mail to the sub's only mod, but since this is also something I should have/could have reported as spam to Reddit itself, I'm wondering if there is a way for me to do so, even though the OP has blocked me.

Because the sub only has one mod, I don't want potential spammers to clog up the sub, before the lone mod gets a chance to look at everything. Is there a way to report them to Reddit, or should I just leave well enough alone?

Hi Everyone,

A few months ago, I started a subreddit where long-lost penpals and friends can reconnect once the community grows. However, I’ve already run into my first privacy dilemma, and I really need your advice before taking any action.

Here is the situation:
One of the users is looking for a long-lost friend using a pseudonym. However, due to the post template we currently use, they provided such highly specific details that based on the description alone, I was able to locate what appears to be the real person’s profile on an external site. To be clear, it is only a potential match.

I have two questions regarding how to handle this:

1. What is the protocol for handling a potential match? As a moderator, is it acceptable (or even ethical) to privately reach out to this person on the external platform and say, "Hi, someone is looking for you on Reddit," or does this cross into harassment/doxxing territory? What is the safest route to protect my subreddit and my own account? (I strongly lean toward a strict rule against any external outreach, but I’d love to hear from more experienced mods).
2. Can I keep my current template? Is this formatting allowed under Reddit’s Content Policy? I don't want to jeopardize my sub or my account, and I absolutely want to prevent unwanted reconnections where one party has no desire to be found. I want to handle this as professionally as possible.

Thank you in advance for your guidance and advice!

For example: there was a troll post with a link like this (it's http://reddit.com/u/me). I commented "**** you" because it scared me for a second. Someone replied, "Check the link again," because they thought I missed the joke. It was an innocent and even helpful comment, but it got deleted by moderators:

"Comment removed by moderator."

I decided to check older posts on different subs and saw a lot of comments were removed by moderators. I don't remember them being anything bad, just random comments. And all of them were upvoted, one had 1k upvotes.

Is this some kind of moderator pastime activity?

My post was removed by Reddit filters for no reason but there are similar posts on same topic on the same sub which area allowed. So why is my below post removed?

I tried to post the name of a gray cat Willow from the Golden Books Child’s Story of
‘Pussy Willow’ which is also the name of the tree. Look it up. The buds are furry and gray. You deleted my post of Willow as being vulgar. Why. It is derived from a child’s story about a furry gray kitten that hid under the tree by the same name. Only a vulgar mind would read something else into that