r/ModSupport • u/TheOpusCroakus Reddit Admin: Community • 1d ago
Mod Topics Monthly Recap | August 2026
Hello! Welcome to the August edition of the Monthly Recap, where I briefly recap our Mod Topics posts on the moderation discussions that were posted for the month. I’m also here to update Helper flair, take suggestions for future Mod Topics topics, and for general merriment!
August Discussion and Support threads
Let’s take a look back at our weekly series of moderation-focused discussion topics that happened in August. As mentioned above we’re always looking for suggestions for future topics, so feel free to throw ideas out there!
August 4, 2026: User flair
August is hot and we started off hot with u/JabroniRevanchism asking about user flair. How and when do you use it? Who makes it? Who gets it? So. Many. Questions. But y’all had So. Many. Answers.
August 6, 2026: Guidance, not guesswork. Getting smart with post and comment guidance
A wild u/PossibleCrit is sighted! And they came with questions about post and comment guidance!
August 11, 2026: Share your username origin stories
All superheroes have an origin story. u/sodypop popped in to ask how you got your username! There were some great tales! (I was really happy u/eatmyasserole showed up! lol) I was working on some other stuff at the time of this post, but mine is a reference to the alter ego of Opus the penguin from Bloom County.
August 13, 2026: How are you transparent?
Speaking of superheroes, u/AsteriskRX saved the day by talking about transparency! They might not have x-ray vision, but they do want to see how you let your community know what you’re doing and when!
August 18, 2026: Tools, toys and timesavers: Digging into Developer Platform apps
u/PossibleCrit returns to talk about what is possible with Devvit (also known as Developer Platform) apps! u/SampleOfNone uses over 60 of them in their sub!
August 20, 2026: Finding potential mods in your community
u/techiesgoboom popped in to ask how you identify users who participate in your community that might make a good mod!
August 25, 2026: Shibboleths, Rituals, and Festivities: What cultural norms make your community unique?
u/JabroniRevanchism showed up to introduce the word “shibboleths”, and to also ask what sorts of stuffs are unique to your community?
August 27, 2026: How do you help new members navigate your community's learning curve?
Coming back rested and ready, u/techiesgoboom wrapped up the month by asking how you help your members learn the ropes in your community! We all hoped it wasn’t going to be trial by fire, and y’all did not disappoint!
Friendly reminder to update your Devvit apps
u/fsv reminded everyone early in August that Devvit apps just don’t update themselves! You have to do it! Yes, YOU! So it’s a good time to check in on any apps that you have to see if there are any updates that will keep them functioning properly in your communities. Thanks for the reminder (and for all of your Devvit apps), u/fsv!
Moderator Share & Tell
Here’s where you get to share your exciting news from last month with us! What awesome things happened in your communities?? There’s gotta be something! TELL ME. Last month…
We learned that a lot of you really enjoy the Mod Topics conversations that we’ve been having in here for a while now! I also find them very enjoyable and interesting! We’re always open to suggestions for future topics if you have ‘em! Really. Please help. lol
Flair updates
User flair is assigned to the top 10% and top 25% of users who are consistently constructive and helpful in their replies to posts and comments in this sub over the course of the past twelve months. As of this post, these are your current flaired helpers.
- TOP 10% HELPERS
- u/Amyaurora
- u/Charupa-
- u/Emily_in_boots
- u/FFS_IsThisNameTaken2
- u/Halaku
- u/InGeekiTrust
- u/Itskdog
- u/neuroticsmurf
- u/SampleOfNone
- u/thepottsy
TOP 25% HELPERS
And that brings us to the end of August! Thank you so much to everyone who stops by to help in whatever form it takes. Whether it be comments, testing, feedback, assistance, you name it. If you’re here and it’s helpful, we’re appreciative! THANK YOU.
I’ll guess we’ll meet back here at the end of September and do this again! In the meantime, I’ll see y’all here, there and everywhere! Thanks again!
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u/SampleOfNone 💡 Top 10% Helper 💡 1d ago
Thanks for the reminder for everyone to update their devvit apps https://developers.reddit.com/r/SUBREDDIT/apps
There have been quite a few updates, Automod Neo gained some really cool capabilities, Mod Recruit apparently can get even better because that has an update as well. The app list pinned at the top of this sub got some new apps the last few days as well, including a comment feed app
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u/TheOpusCroakus Reddit Admin: Community 1d ago
Hi! Oohh! What are the new capabilities of Automod Neo? Love it when updates actually make something better!
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u/SampleOfNone 💡 Top 10% Helper 💡 1d ago
Read report reasons, parent_comment checks and actions, count number of images in a post and an is_approved check was added 🎉
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u/InGeekiTrust 💡 Top 10% Helper 💡 1d ago
Great recap! I love these! I also was glad eatmyasserole showed up lol to the origin story post 😭
Also Opus Emily I think is top 10% now, can’t imagine she got downgraded
I aspire to use 60 apps like sample now 😭
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u/TheOpusCroakus Reddit Admin: Community 1d ago
HAPPY CAKE DAY!
Oh, my goodness. How did that happen? I've fixed that up! Thanks for pointing that out!
And did you know that there are two users that have an asserole in their username? I just barely realized that within that last couple of months! A couple of times I was like, "Why does this person act like we've never had this discussion." DIFFERENT PERSON, OPUS. XD
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u/emily_in_boots 💡 Top 10% Helper 💡 1d ago
Before I even saw it! <3
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u/TheOpusCroakus Reddit Admin: Community 1d ago
Ninja edit! =D WE CAN'T LOSE YOU!! <3
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u/InGeekiTrust 💡 Top 10% Helper 💡 1d ago
Ahhhhh thank you! You’re the first one to wish me happy cake day! I had no idea about the two users- I wonder if it comes from something 😭.
Make sure you tell me if there’s another geek, I’ve had several impersonators with malicious intent! I’m glad asserole is just another fun user! Great story!!
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u/Old_One_I 1d ago
Moderator share and tell: our community just hit 100,000 members today. We started with roughly 35,000 a few months ago.
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u/TheOpusCroakus Reddit Admin: Community 1d ago
Dude, what?? That's amazing! Congratulations! I'm pretty sure I told you that you'd be good at this! <3
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u/Old_One_I 1d ago
It is amazing! I’m just a little tired today, I stayed up all night , I’m not built like I used to be lol . Thank you Opus <3
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u/brightblackheaven 💡Top 25% Helper 💡 1d ago
Oh hey that's neat 🤩
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u/TheOpusCroakus Reddit Admin: Community 1d ago
Isn't it?? Thanks for hanging out and helping out! =D
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u/PurplePassiflor1234 1d ago
Awesome recap, thanks Opus <3
Last month a couple of the dorky automated Easter eggs I programmed into automod got tripped and made a bunch of nerd-hearts happy including mine. We also held our first ever House of Refuge (Emotional Support Thread) and our first SFW Thirsty Thursday - both got some great comments! Our most active posters kept us up to date on fandom happenings and we gained a "Sister Subreddit" after reaching out to the mods in a related sub. It's been a lot of fun!
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u/TheOpusCroakus Reddit Admin: Community 1d ago
Thanks for being here! <3
Tell me more about these Easter eggs! I love stuff like that!
I had to look up your Thirsty Thursdays and it did not disappoint! You were spot on with Noah Wyle! =)
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u/PurplePassiflor1234 1d ago
Thank you! I'm so happy to be here <3
Since The Librarians franchise gives me such fun stuff to work with, I've been able to do some very fun automations. Anyone asking after a Greg Cox official tie-in book with very specific wording will have a visit from "Judson" directing them to a random shelf in the Library "behind Pandora's Box, watch out for the dust." Another specific word set will trigger "Cassandra" having a math hallucination. A seasonal one will trigger St Nick/Odin to ask if the reveller would prefer gifts or glory, but it's Uncommented until November. Users might get "Audited by Charlene" or end up in a Guardian training session with Stone or Baird. They may get sucked through a time portal with Vikram or learn magical martial arts with The Monkey King. The first user to trigger each rule gets an automatic User Flair assigned, I get an automatic modmail, then I delete the flair assignment lines from the code so they are the only one to get that Flair while leaving the automation live for other users to trip over.
It might be too nerdy even for a bunch of Librarians, but if it makes one person smile, if it brings a little magic and joy, then it did what I wanted it to.
Hard to believe a month ago I had no idea what YAML was. But I can't take credit. Many other mods have posted their automod rules, I just had to copy and change some words.
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u/FaxCelestis 1d ago
Another month of zero information on what to do about user-impersonating bots.
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u/RandomComments0 💡Top 25% Helper 💡 1d ago
I would install botbouncer and evasionguard. There are many devvits that can help you with your bot problems. Automod would with age/karma filters doesn’t hit everything, but a combination of several different things will make it more tolerable.
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u/FaxCelestis 1d ago
I have both of those. I in fact have boots largely handled in my corners of reddit.
My issue is entirely with the lack of guidance or even acknowledgement of there being an issue.
Where is the manual for what to do if you are suddenly beset by bots? Where are the discussions and round tables of moderators discussing this topic? Where is the road map of what Reddit itself is doing to combat this problem? And where is the accountability for that?
Reddit publishes a transparency report that is supposed to answer some of these questions, but it is really just an accounting ledger, numbers of actions taken rather than anything substantive or actionable.
I should not have to use third party tooling to perform basic functions of my role as a moderator. Third party tooling that answers to no one and whose support could end on a moment’s notice, by the by.
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u/RandomComments0 💡Top 25% Helper 💡 1d ago
Those are excellent points. I apologize I thought you were a newer mod. I’ve read more of what you and Opus are discussing and I absolutely agree more needs to be done by Reddit. I dislike that they are using AI for this though. It has processed many accounts as bots who aren’t bots, so they need to switch their approach.
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u/PossibleCrit Reddit Admin: Community 1d ago
Hey FaxCelestis! I was taking a look and it seems you've asked this a few times now. Is there more info you can provide about what's going on?
Our latest transparency report would have some information on our own efforts to cut back on these behaviors and is a great spot to ask the team more directly about their work. Based on when this one was posted I'd imagine another will be coming in the next couple of weeks.
If you need additional help removing spam in your community, this article contains some tips and best practices on how to use the existing tools in your toolkit, like reputation filtering or post & comment guidance. Otherwise, this post has a library of helpful developer platform apps teams have used to find success, including apps like Bot Bouncer, Modmail Automator, and more!
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u/FaxCelestis 1d ago
Yeah, I keep bringing it up because it keeps being a problem.
There are bots running rampant across subreddits. BotBouncer is great, but it is also a third party developed application and is fallible. I should not have to tell you that outsourcing security to a third party with no oversight and who answers to no one but themselves is not great.
Reddit has taken multiple steps to make running these impersonation bots easier, not harder. Restricting post history visibility is at the forefront of these problems.
My disappointment is mostly that you (not you specifically, but reddit in general) have provided zero transparency into actions taken to prevent these issues from happening to begin with. The transparency report is lip service: it provides no actual information beyond statistics. You have foisted off the responsibility of handling the onset of generative AI bots onto unpaid volunteers and given zero actionable guidance.
You want to build a community for moderators? How about actually providing support and guidance and brotherhood on one of the biggest issues facing nearly every moderator on the platform today?
I have bots handled on my tiny slices of Reddit. There are many, many places where they are not, and I as an end user in those subreddits have no way to handle them.
So I’m all ears. I would love to hear about what Reddit is doing to combat user-impersonating bots in-house. Not statistics, not faux transparency, not “use this third party tool”, actual action items and roadmaps. Because from what it looks like from here, you are paying lip service to the idea of combatting user-impersonating bots. You may be performing Herculean tasks to combat them, but the actual effects of it downstream are invisible, and that leaves those of us moderating in the dark.
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u/PossibleCrit Reddit Admin: Community 9h ago
Thanks a ton for clarifying! Sorry that this continues to be an issue for you and others, FaxCelestis.
Cutting down on behavior like this is one of the reasons for projects like app labeling and Modernizing Reddit’s infrastructure. Both of those posts should include more information about upcoming plans. The first step is making sure that all of the good bots are registered and moved over to the developer platform. That's something that teams are working on now and you should have seen messages in your mod mail about it over the last few days.
Behind the scenes the safety team is also running many different automations to more proactively catch these accounts. While we can't really reveal the secret sauce here, if you suspect our teams are missing accounts using the
spamreporting option would be the fastest way to get the content in front of the appropriate team to review. The various safety filters like crowd control and reputation filtering can help to cut back on this behavior as well.
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u/brightblackheaven 💡Top 25% Helper 💡 1d ago
Oh yeah! Something cool I wanna share:
We're gearing up to hit 700,000 members in r/witchcraft :). Sub stats bot estimates 18 more days!
We've been planning some stuff for a while, like a gif party celebration post, a silly sub bingo card, a mod team Q&A, considering maybe doing a logo and banner contest, and hopefully an AMA as well.
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u/TheOpusCroakus Reddit Admin: Community 1d ago
Hey! That's amazing! I had no idea that your sub was that big! I would love to hear all about it when you hit that milestone! Sounds pretty fun! Congratulations!
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u/brightblackheaven 💡Top 25% Helper 💡 22h ago
Hehehe we're sneakily pretty happenin', too! 175k-220k+ weekly visitors, depending on the time of year (weirdly). Hoping for a good turnout for the celebrations!
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u/TheOpusCroakus Reddit Admin: Community 22h ago
I honestly had no idea. Gonna hit you up if I need a spell! XD
I bet you'll have a great turnout for your celebrations!
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u/bwoah07_gp2 1d ago
My "Moderator Share & Tell" is on August 23, 2026, r/thomasthetankengine hit the 30,000 members milestone!
For comparison, 3 years ago around this same time, we hit 10,000 members on September 2, 2023. In a few days we are approaching September 2nd, but it just makes me happy seeing the community grow.