Since my last post about hitting 50 members, things have really started to pick up and I thought I’d share a few things that made a difference.

First, I started getting more active in subreddits that overlap with what Hackeroos is about, such as Australia, hackathons, startups, coding, tech, and entrepreneurship. Sometimes I’d mention r/Hackeroos within a comment, but a lot of the time I was just being helpful or joining the conversation.

A few Aussie subreddits like r/Melbourne were really tough to crack because you need comment history in that sub and enough karma to even post, and then when I reached the mystery threshold, and messaged mods prior, a non-spammy post still got removed by them for “self-promotion” with no conversation back on how I could modify it to pass.

So I gave up there, and started focusing on subreddits where you can just show up and be part of the community without worrying about karma, like r/AskAnAustralian which has 5x the amount of members anyway.

I also kept adding different kinds of posts to my own community r/Hackeroos … some with images, some with questions, some with hackathon events, tech news, and Aussie news. One post was just a space for new folks to introduce themselves, and another was a call for volunteer mods (since r/needamod wouldn’t let me post yet). A couple of real true Aussie tech people stumbled across those on their own, and I made sure to respond quickly and make them feel valued. I was so, so happy that these 2 people were commenting, posting, and/or volunteering instead of just lurking.

It’s been slow, but there’s definitely a little momentum building now. If you’re growing something similar, my best advice is to find the communities where your “thing” makes sense, and talk to people. Also, keep posting! & Treat your first active members like gold.

Thanks so much for being a part of Reddit with me, as a fellow new mod. & Anyone who is curious about code, design, or product management is welcome in r/Hackeroos even if you don’t live in Australia. 🧡

There is someone that hasn't joined my very new sub r/AllThingsNelsonSnark but downvotes my posts. No comment made, just a downvote. I realize it's not very many, and doesn't really affect anything, but I'd still like to know who this person is, as I feel they downvote me for no reason on other subs as well. I'm probably paranoid, but, suggestions, please?

EDIT: Thank you guys for the advice. In the past couple days I've simply asked why they downvoted me, as doing so just because you disagree with what I've said, or personal reasons, that it is against Reddit Rules. I've also asked them to open a chat with me so we can resolve anything you feel may need resolving. Guess what, no one has taken me up on that and the downvotes, or at least some of them have been removed. This just proves to me these keyboard warriors are cowards.

So i mod for r/GenAlpha and we get a lot of stupid modmails and reports.

The community was made around last month and it's been slowly getting traction, but these last 2 weeks have been CRAZY.

Not sure if this is good or really good. Part of me think it is, lots of engagement on recent posts.

Edit With Tips! (Sorry, I forgot to include this at first)

So, this is a Deadlock space (I'm guessing the recent traffic the game got has aided a lot on this) But here are the things me and other mods did to help the space stand out:

- We tried real hard to brand the sub and make it feel unique. That included an original icon/logo (even if it was an edit of the game's logo) brand color, and original banners.

- We crossposted original content to similar subs (posts that used our subs color, showed the logo and name of the sub

- We are encouraging original content by doing a monthly highlight of members that share their original work in our sub.

- Partnered with other subs (even if they were small or starting out).

- Tried adding as much personality as possible on everything (banners have community memes, ie)

I have a question:
Why are posts like the one I show here (which is on a NSFW Profile and I do not have a problem with it) allowed to be posted on Reddit just fine, but AI Nudity, even if it’s tagged as AI created, is not allowed.
I don’t see it in the TOS anywhere and I’d like to discuss this with other Mods.
And if you’ve seen something in the TOS that says it’s forbidden please let me know.
M.

I have to format everything again?

I created r/CaliforniaRealEstate on April 6th, 2026 and I am the only moderator. I noticed that my own posts are going into the mod queue and require my approval before they're visible.

I've already checked all my settings and here's what I have:

Hold content for review(screenshot attched) - Posts, Comments, and LInks/Polls?Media are all turned OFF

Safery Filters(screenshot attched):

• Crowd contorl - OFF

• REputation - OFF

• Ban evasion - ON

• Harassment - ON

• Mature content - ON

None of these should be catching my own posts as the subreddit creator and only moderator. So why are my posts still going into the mod queue waiting for approval?

Is just a Reddit thing for brand new subreddit? Does it go ways on its own after certain period of time? Any help appreciated - still new to the mod sigh of things!

How is all your moderating going

I ran into 2 issues almost immediately after creating my group.

First, I seem to have set things up so I have to approve every post, which I actively do not want to do. I've searched and can't figure out how to let things post without requiring moderation.

Also, I got banned from two related communities this morning for letting folks know this community exists. That's upsetting at best and obscene at worst -- one of them had nothing in their rules to indicate that introducing a new sub was against the rules, and it's a group I actively participate in and I'm pissed I'm banned. I want to post about it in more places, but not at risk of being banned from them.

How am I supposed to tell people this new sub exists if telling people this new sub exists gets me banned?

We didn’t like the mods of a 40s sub so we left it and established our own 40s sub. But our new sub got banned for violating Rule 2.

The mods of the old 40s sub we left had a grudge on us for speaking our minds. We think that our new sub was mass reported in bad faith.

Anything we can do about this?

r/PawsAndDisorder was started in August of ‘25 and has been steadily growing ever since! It’s been a ton of fun fun! We now have 3 mods and I have 2 new greats friends!! Just wanted to share the great news! 🎉

This is genuinely a serious problem as reddit won't promote our sub on the home page

r/nuggetland

Help Wanted.

How do I get rid of the NSFW tag on my community.

I've tried everything to get rid of the NSFW tag

I just became a mod by creating my first community, r/CodeTrends I am hoping for it to become a hot-spot for searching for the newest and hottest trends on TikTok, Youtube, Reddit, Etc!

my next milestone is to hit 10 Visitors! If you could help with that, please do! And maybe post (; I am so

glad I found a little gap where I could make my own sub with no major competitors. I was looking through what gaps there were, when I looked on my kitchen counter, NeeDohs. And sure enough, there was no major competitor.

Any tips to grow my community?

Hi everyone,

I'm in the early stages of building r/InvisibleAndHeard, a new community for people living with chronic illness, invisible illness, disability, fatigue and long-term health conditions.

The idea is simple: create a genuinely supportive community where people can talk openly, connect with others who understand, share experiences and still have a bit of humour and normality.

We're starting from zero, so I'm trying to learn from moderators who have already been through the process of growing a community.

I'd particularly love advice on:

• What helped you attract your first 100–1,000 members?

• What types of posts actually generated conversation?

• What moderation rules did you wish you'd established earlier?

• How did you deal with trolls, misinformation and bad-faith users?

• What made people come back rather than simply join and disappear?

• What would you not do if you were starting again?

I'm not looking to spam or promote the community here — I'm genuinely interested in learning from people who've built successful subreddits.

If you could go back to day one of your community, what's the one thing you'd do differently?

Thanks in advance.

So I joined a subreddit with an existing rule that was made to reduce the amount of people who join to start issues and post negatively about the community. It’s one specific word we don’t use because it would make us hypocrites. Unfortunately there has been a large number of people verbally attacking me for trying to enforce this rule. A rule they had been mostly following for months without issue until I specifically asked them to respect that rule.

Does anyone know of a way to deal with this? I’m getting almost 100 downvotes any time I try to explain why the rule exists or the purpose in enforcing it. So much I even had an anxiety attack after being accused of being a misogynist and a Nazi for trying to enforce a rule I didn’t even make. I know it’s a very unusual situation, but does anyone have any suggestions or advice on how to deal with this community hatred I’ve suddenly encountered?

Hey everyone,

I need a quick favor from the community. I’ve been trying to get Reddit Admins to enable Community Achievements (user badges, streaks, etc.) for r/DelhiDilwale.

However, Reddit Admins just messaged me saying they won't enable it because their automated filters detected "mature content, nudity, or outrage-inducing posts" hidden somewhere in our sub.

I have gone through the mod logs and feed, but I genuinely cannot find these posts. They might be older spam bot posts, hidden links, or buried deep in old comment threads.

My sub got 1000 members before it's 1 month old. My sub is about AI companions so this guide will be about AI.

Cross posting is the key.

1. Cross post to more related subs. I find cross posting to AI subs works better than other big subs. For example, I made a post in r Duolingo about how AI helped me pass a language exam which saved me a lot of money and time. But few were interested and joined even if Duolingo uses AI and it's a big sub. And interestingly the post in r ChatGPT also didn't work because few people there are interested in Duolingo I guess. Notice how both GPT and Duolingo got A LOT of users. I guess somehow the overlap is still not big at least for the people in their subs.

2. Cross posting to big subs works better than small more condensed subs. Some small subs are more active and the members there seem to have an active circle. But still cross posting in bigger subs works better.

3. Cross post about what your sub is about and what makes it different. Make sure your sub's about section is clear about it too.

Creating celebration posts about reaching member's number milestones including a picture is also good. Example picture attached.

Here's the sub name if anyone wanna take a look.

r/BeyondtheAIAssistant

Hi everyone! 👋

We are DHY Boys, a group of three male dental hygiene students who create dental content and are passionate about building a positive online community.

We recently created r/DentalNerds, a new subreddit focused on dental hygiene, dentistry, and oral health education. Our goal is to create a welcoming space where students, RDHs, dentists, dental assistants, educators, and anyone interested in oral health can ask questions, share knowledge, and learn from one another.

This is our first time moderating a subreddit, so we are here to learn from more experienced moderators. We are especially interested in learning about:

• Growing a healthy, engaged community

• Creating effective rules and automations

• Encouraging meaningful discussion

• Preventing spam while keeping the community welcoming

• Best moderation practices and tools

If you have any advice, resources, or lessons you wish you'd known when you started moderating, we'd really appreciate hearing them.

Looking forward to learning from all of you, and thanks for having us!

- DHY Boys

I have been trying for a while and it doesn’t work any ideas?

Also where do I get moderators from, which can polish or just keep track once the community grows?