This section goes over the process of onboarding a new mod. This includes letting them know our expectations of all mods, as well as getting them set up. For each potential new mod, the steps below should be completed, with adjustments made as needed on a case-by-case basis.
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Explain the requirements and expectations of all mods on the team, those being:
Before we continue with the training, I'd just like to cover our expectations of every mod on the team. We ask that all mods:
- Dedicate 5-10 minutes a day to mod tasks, such as commenting on posts.
- Notify the team in the Discord server if you're unnable to partipate for more than 48 hrs.
- Maintain a respectful and friendly tone in all interactions with both the mod team and community members.
- Actively participate in mod discussions on Discord, where we collaborate on decisions and improvements for the subreddit.Finally, while we cannot require mods to upvote nor tell them what to upvote, upvoting of posts and comments does make our sub seem more lively. Do with this as you will!
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Send the user a mod invite on Reddit. Give them the "user" and "flair" permissions. Once you've done this, let them know and ask them to give themselves the 'Mod' user flair. Also ask them to ensure their nickname in our discord server matches their username on Reddit (click on their icon, edit profile, change display name). This helps make sure everyone knows who's who, on both Reddit and Discord.
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Once the new mod has completed Step 1 and 2, go on to explain that the way we moderate r/minimalistphotography is unique, and provide an overview as to what we do differently.
I'd now like to share a bit about our moderation process, as we do things differently compared to most other subreddits. Some of the things we do differently are:
- Every post submitted to our subreddit is removed and voted on by the mod team to determine if it aligns with our concept of minimalism (which is constantly evolving as we learn and work with each other). - We aim to have at least one mod comment on every post. This is an important part of what we do, as we believe it helps foster a welcoming and engaged community.
- Some of our mods actively search for high-quality minimalist photos across reddit. If we find a photo on reddit that aligns with our concept of minimalism, we'll send the user an invitation to post it on our subreddit. -
Answer any questions the new mod may have, then continue on to explain the training process that they will go through.
Our training is designed to help you learn the tasks that need to be done to keep the subreddit running smoothly. To avoid overwhelming anyone with too much new information, you'll learn a new task every couple of days. The tasks that you'll be learning over the next week or so, in this order, consist of the following:
- Commenting on posts made in our sub, as well as welcoming the users who are posting on our sub for the first time.
- Congratulating users who make it into our Top 25 most upvoted posts, as well as awarding them a special user flair.
- Voting in our queue channel, where we decide if a post belongs in our sub.Once you’ve completed these initial tasks, there are many other ways to get more involved in the moderation of our community if you’re interested!
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Answer any questions the new mod may have, then start by teaching them Step 1: Comments.
The first task that we'll be covering is comments on posts. As mentioned, we try to have a mod comment on every post. If you come across a post without one, feel free to step in! We hope that all mods will check for posts in need of comments once or twice a day. Additionally, you'll also notice the "needs-attention" channel in our Discord server. If a post has gone without a mod comment for over 5 hours, our bot will send us an alert there, so if you happen to see an alert and have the time, please comment on the post, then delete the alert.
When making comments on posts, we ask that they be friendly and be unique (no copy-paste). Other then that, the message is entirely up to you. All comments should mention the user who posted, to alert them. To do this, you include "u/", followed by their username in your message. Finally, if you notice the post's flair is "First Post", please welcome them to r/MinimalistPhotography!
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Over the next couple days, ensure that the new mod has understood the instructions up until now, and is commenting properly and regularly. If you notice a lack of comments, feel free to give them a gentle nudge or ask them if they need help with anything.
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After a couple of days have passed since Step 5, continue with the new mods training. They're now moving onto Top 25.
We're now going to cover the second part of your training, Top 25. This has to do with the posts that make it into our Top 25 most upvoted posts (ever), and can be found by sorting our subreddit's feed by "Top" -> "All Time". We congratulate every user who reaches the Top 25, as well as any of the other milestones (top 20, 15, 10, 5, 3, 2, and 1). A couple things need to be done when a milestone (25, 20, 15, 10, 5, 3, 2, 1) is acheived:
If the user has made it into the Top 25, and they don't have the "Top 25 of All Time Photographer" user flair, please assign it to them. This is also true if they've reached the top 3, 2 or 1, with the "3rd Place All Time Top Photographer", "2nd Place All Time Top Photographer", and "1st Place All Time Top Photographer" user flairs respectively. It's important to note that these flairs are treated as trophys, so even if the user falls out of their position in the Top 25, they do not lose their flair.
In addition to the user flairs, when a post makes it into one of the milestones mentioned above, they should be congratulated by a mod, via commenting on the post. The comment should follow the same guidelines as all other comments in our sub (friendly, no copy-paste, mention user), and let the user know their current milestone achieved. If you gave the user a new flair, you can also let them know in your comment.
Our bot, which I mentioned during the last stage of your training, will also let us know in the "needs-attention" channel when a post has made a milestone. Please do congratulations and flairs in addition to the welcome comments we discussed earlier, not instead of.
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Over the next couple days, ensure that the new mod has understood the instructions up until now, and is congratulating members and assigning flairs as needed. In addition, make sure that they are continuing to do the comments from Step 5. If you notice a lack of welcome comments or congrats/flairs, feel free to give them a gentle nudge or ask them if they need help with anything.
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After a couple days have passed since Step 8, you should now give the new mod a choice between continuing on with training (Queue), or sticking with what they've learned so far. If they choose to continue with the training, proceed to Queue, otherwise, you can stop here. Please also make sure to give the mod the "General" role on Discord.
You've been doing an amazing job so far, and now you have a choice. You can either:
- Stop the training now, and continue to help with Welcome Comments, Congrats, and flairs, with the option to continue at a later date.
- Continue on and learn queue, which is where we vote and decide on whether or not a post is minimalist.Either option is fine, so it's up to you.
This section covers training a new mod to aid in Queue. For each new mod learning Queue, the steps below should be completed, with adjustments made as needed on a case-by-case basis.
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Once the new mod has decided to continue with the training and learn queue, have them learn a little bit more about minimalistphotography.
Before you start voting in queue, I ask that you please take a look at our subreddits description, the links in our subreddits side bar, and the conversations in the defining-minimalism channel in our Discord server to give you a better sense of what minimalist photography is. You can also take a look at the posts in our sub to see what our mods consider minimalist. Let me know when you've done this, and we'll continue!
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Once the new mod has gotten back to you, saying they've taken a look at the places mentioned in Step 1, continue by explaining how our Queue works. (Automation, Reaction Meanings, Invite Posts)
One of the biggest parts of moderating our sub is curating the posts. We can get a lot of posts each day, so we've tried to streamline the voting process as much as possible. It's constantly changing as we think of better ways to do things, however as of right now, this is how it works:
- Our Automod will automatically remove all posts when they're made to our sub. (This includes mod posts).
- Our bot will place all of the photos in the Reddit Queue into our "voting-and-discussion" discord channel, where the team can then vote on it.
- Votes are made by reacting to the message.
- Once 3 👍 reactions are made on a post, the Discord bot will delete the message on Discord, as well as approve the post on Reddit - it can take a minute.
- If 3 👍 are not made, then Jwoods224 (One of the mods), will handle the actioning of the post. Only jwoods224 has authority to approve/remove posts. - If the bot states that the post may be an invite, please check by following the modmail link provided.
- If the image linked in the invite is the same as the image in queue, you can tell the bot to approve the post immediately by reacting to the post with the :autoapprove: emoji.
- You should only vote with one of these (👍, 🤔, ❌, 👎) - however feel free to use these in addition to your main vote (🤮, 🔥, 😵💫).
- All discussions about a post being voted on should take place in a seperate thread.The emojis we currently use to vote on posts are the following: - 👍: I think it's minimalist. It should be approved.
- 🤔: I'm torn. It could be minimalist but it could also not be. I don't know which to choose.
- ❌: Not minimalist. I think it should be removed.
- 👎: Low quality. Ugly. Breaks Rules. Remove for other reason.
- 🤮: I feel very strongly about this one. It should NOT be approved. Please vote no.
- 🔥: I feel very strongly about this one. It should be approved. Please vote yes.
- 😵💫: I think this needs to be talked about. Please don't action this until we've discussed. (This will also stop the bot from automatically approving the post when 3 👍 votes have been made.)Does this all make sense to you? Do you have any questions?
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Once the new mods has said they understand Step 2, proceed to give them the "Queue" role in Discord and full permissions on Reddit. Now that you have full perms, please keep in mind that changes to our subs rules/description/design or any other changes are not made solely by one person, and are discussed by the entire team before hand. Please also do not action any posts in the Reddit queue, as all voting and actions should take place through the bot and jwoods224. Finally, please remember to continue doing Welcome Comments, Congrats, and flairs on Reddit. That takes first priority. You've been an amazing help. Thank you!
This section covers training a mod to vote in the photo pool. For each mod learning this, the steps below should be completed, with adjustments made as needed on a case-by-case basis.
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Once a mod has agreed to start voting in our photo pool, start by letting them know how it works, and the expectations for them.
The photo pool is where we vote whether to invite a user to post a specific photo in our sub. For the photo pool, we have higher standards than with queue: we believe it helps keep our sub filled with many high quality minimalist photos. To stock the photo poolm some of our mods search Reddit for images that could fit in our sub, and then will place them in the photo pool channel in Discord to be voted on by team members. Once votes have been made, we have designated mods who will then send the invite to the user (assuming the image was approved).
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Once the mod has read the above, and you've answered any questions they may have, continue on to explain the voting process.
The voting process for photo pool is in many ways like voting in Queue. The key difference is that you should be holding the images to a higher standard. A good way to think about it is: "Would this post make it into our Top 25?". Like with Queue voting, you use reactions (👍,❌,🤔,👎,🔥) to vote, with them all having the same meaning. A couple of other emojis we may use however are (1️⃣, 2️⃣, 3️⃣, etc), which can be used to specify which image you're voting yes to if the provided post links to an album (a Gallery, a collection). At this point, you don't have to worry about the sending of invites, however if you'd like to help with that, feel free to let me know and we can cover it after.
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Give them access to the photo-pool by giving them the "Growth" role on Discord. Also go on to explain that they're allowed placing photos in the photo pool if they so wish.
I've now given you access to the photo-pool channel on Discord, so feel free to take a look there. At the top of the channel, you'll find some guidelines that you can read-through to make sure you fully udnerstand everything before voting. Finally, if you see a post elsewhere on Reddit that you feel would belong in our sub, it's A-Okay to place it in the photo pool to be voted on. Please just first ensure that the user has not already posted any photos to our sub, and have not been sent any invites already. (The only exception being if they've been sent just one invite and it was over 3 months ago).
This section covers training a mod to send invites based on votes in photo pool. For each mod learning this, the steps below should be completed, with adjustments made as needed on a case-by-case basis.
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Once a mod has decided to help in the sending of invites, start by letting them know how it works.
Invites are sent based on the results of votes in the photo-pool. You'll now be helping send these out. We have a modmail template that should be used when sending out the invites, and we'll go over the complete process now. before we start, do you have any questions?
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Once the mod is ready to proceed, explain to them what the requirements are for an invite to be sent.
Due to photo-pool images being held to a higher standard, the criteria for what posts we approve are different then Queue. For images in the pool, they must meet the following:
- Have unanimous upvotes (👍)
- Have at least 3 upvotes (👍)If the image does not meet these conditions, then we won't send an invite for it, we just delete it. If the image has met these conditions, there are a few more things to check before sending an invite.
- Search modmail for any conversations with that user. (Do not include "u/" in the search).
- Either no invitations have to have been sent previously, or there must have only been 1, having occured at least 3 months ago.
- The user should have no prior activity on our sub. You can check by searching using our sub's search bar (enter the user's username with the "u/").If the image and user meet all of the conditions, then you can now send an invite. I'll go over how to do that, however first, do you have any questions?
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If the mod has no questions, or they've all been answered, then proceed to tell them how to send an invite.
To send an invite, first head over to Modmail and select the blue "+" icon. This will open up the draft for a new message. At the top, if it's not already, select r/minimalistphotography as the sender. Next, in the radio selection, choose the "To User" option. Place the user's username in the text box that should pop up (with u/). Now, choose the "Use a saved response" at the bottom, and pick the one named 'Invitation to Post (and join)'. Change PHOTO NAME to a short description of the photo and change PHOTO LINK to the URL of the photo we'd like the user to post. Keep in mind that the brackets and parentheses are part of the message and should not be changed. Before hitting send, add "Invitation to Post (and join)" as the subject of the message. Finally, send the message and remove the image from the photo-pool channel in Discord.
This section covers training a mod to track mentions of our subreddit elsewhere on Reddit. For each mod learning this, the steps below should be completed, with adjustments made as needed on a case-by-case basis.
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If the mod does not already have the "Growth" role on Discord, they should be taught Photo Pool Voting first. Otherwisem explain to them the quick and easy process involved.
We like seeing when people across Reddit mention our subreddit. To get notifications when someone uses "r/minimalistphotography" in a post or comment, we use [RedditComber](https://redditcomber.com/). To set it up, simply sign in with your Reddit account and then enter "r/minimalistphotography" as a keyword it should alert you to. From then on, it will send you alerts to your Reddit inbox anytime someone mentions our sub on Reddit.
When you get one of these notifications, if the comment/post did not take place in our sub, if it was complimentary/promotion, please copy and paste the link into the promotion channel - it it was a negative, please paste the link into the sub-talk channel. Due to us wanting to avoid any of our mods getting banned from any subreddits, please don't comment on these links. If you think a response may be necessary, just let us know when you share the link, and we'll discuss it as a team to reach a joint decision on the best course of action.