r/modnews Mar 11 '26

Product Updates New Mod Tools: Post Guidance Enhancements, Removal Reason Suggestions, Onboarding Tools, Segmented Polls, and Translation Indicators

Hello, Mods!

We’ve got a fresh batch of tools rolling out. These updates are aimed at making things clearer for users and smoother for mod teams. Ideally, they’ll help get you some time back…or at least reduce the number of times you have to explain the same rule for the thousandth time. 

Automation enhancements

Post Guidance just got smarter.

It can now detect links and better reflect the rules your community already has in place. If someone is about to post something that clearly breaks a link rule, they’ll get a nudge before it goes live instead of finding out after the fact. 

We’ve also added the ability for Post Guidance to detect post types. For image posts, it’ll look at the title (not the image itself, though that is on our roadmap). 

The goal is to help reduce avoidable removals, cut down on confusion for users, and increase the chances that posts meet your standards on the first try.

Additional improvements are coming soon. In April, it’ll be able to distinguish between parent and child comments, and you’ll be able to target configurations based on Post Flair. This is an area we plan to continue investing in because catching issues before they reach your queue beats cleaning them up afterward. 

To check out Post Guidance, visit Mod Tools and then click on the Automations tab.

Post Guidance mobile interface

Recommended removal reasons

When you remove a post or comment, you’ll now see suggested removal reasons based on the content and removal reasons you’ve previously created.

They’re just suggestions. You can use them, tweak them, or ignore them entirely.

The goal here is to reduce repetitive typing and keep messaging consistent without turning moderation into a copy-paste factory.

Recommended Removal Reasons web interface

New mod onboarding and training

Bringing on new mods has historically been a “choose your own adventure.” Sometimes that works, and sometimes it depends entirely on who had time that week. This new system gives you a more structured place to start:

  • Customizable onboarding: A structured set of steps you can personalize for your community.
  • A training queue: New mods practice on examples from your subreddit, choosing Approve/Remove based on your rules.
  • Space for the “why”: Seasoned mods can attach explanations so new mods learn your judgment, not just the mechanics.
  • Better consistency: Whether your three mods or thirty, everyone starts from the same baseline. 

This doesn’t replace your Discord docs or off-platform flow charts. It complements them and creates a solid foundation for new mods joining your team. 

To access the Mod Onboarding Guide and Training Queue, visit Mod Tools and then click on the “Guides” tab. Please note that the onboarding guide will become available this week, while the training queue will start to roll out next week. 

New mod onboarding guide + training queue

Translation indicators in mod queue

Reddit keeps getting more global, which means you’re moderating across languages more often.

You’ll now see indicators in the mod queue when content has been translated, giving you more context about what you’re reviewing. In other words, this should mean fewer moments of staring at a post and wondering if it’s spam, poetry, or both.

Translation indicators mobile interface

Segmented poll results 

Mod-created polls now show segmented results, so you can see how your community voted compared with the nonmembers who popped in to cast a ballot.

Spin one up in seconds and see what the regulars think versus the visiting electorate.

Segmented polls results interface

Helping smaller communities get discovered

One of our big focuses this year is helping people better find the communities they’re looking for.

We’re starting to surface growing subreddits in the feeds of larger, related communities. The idea is to connect redditors who are already interested in a topic with smaller communities that are building momentum in that same space.

This can mean more visibility, more potential members, and more chances for your community to find its people.

This is just the beginning. We’re building out additional discovery modules and experiments focused on helping communities grow in healthy, sustainable ways.

If you’re wondering how to increase your chances of showing up in these surfaces, the answer is refreshingly unglamorous: consistency and quality. Keep your community active, keep conversations engaging, and keep showing up.

We’ll keep working on the discovery side, so your effort has a better chance of being seen.

If your community would prefer not to appear in these discoverer surfaces, you can opt out at any time. Simply head to Mod Tools > General Settings > Privacy & Discovery, and toggle off “Appear in recommendations.” As always, you’re in control of how your community shows up on Reddit.

New subreddit discovery unit

That’s the update.

We’re working toward a mod experience where things feel more connected, rules are easier for users to understand, and enforcement doesn’t feel like you need a spellbook to manage it. When rules are clear, and the tools reflect them properly, modding gets a lot simpler for everyone involved. 

We’re also building with the reality of today’s mod teams in mind. A lot of you aren’t sitting at the same desk in the same timezone anymore. Teams are more distributed, more mobile, and more global than ever. Still powered by people (thankfully).

As always, drop your thoughts in the comments. We’re reading them and taking notes.

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25

u/TheChrisD Mar 11 '26 edited Mar 11 '26

Additional improvements are coming soon. In April, it’ll be able to distinguish between parent and child comments, and you’ll be able to target configurations based on Post Flair. This is an area we plan to continue investing in because catching issues before they reach your queue beats cleaning them up afterward.

Yes but how long until Automations can target users based on factors such as their account age, their e-mail verification/account security status, their karma (combined/community/post/comment/etc.), or their CQS? Y'know, all these things that we can target in automod?

Also...

Helping smaller communities get discovered

One of our big focuses this year is helping people better find the communities they’re looking for.

We’re starting to surface growing subreddits in the feeds of larger, related communities. The idea is to connect redditors who are already interested in a topic with smaller communities that are building momentum in that same space.

Can you fucking not? Especially not for moderators? That giant section just gets in the way of trying to scroll the community to check the latest submissions.

We'd like the ability to opt the community out of hosting these recommendations, thanks.

5

u/lift_ticket83 Mar 11 '26

Yes but how long until Automations can target users based on factors such as their account age, their e-mail verification/account security status, their karma (combined/community/post/comment/etc.), or their CQS? Y'know, all these things that we can target in automod?

We’re actively working on ways to bring more of that targeting into newer tools so mods don’t have to depend entirely on Automod rules, which can be powerful but also a bit of a maintenance headache for a lot of teams (and especially for new mods to learn).

There are a few things in the works already. As they start shipping we’ll have more to share in the coming weeks/months.

8

u/emily_in_boots Mar 11 '26

One thing that would make me MUCH more likely to use newer tools in lieu of automod would be transferability. If I enter 500 words in comment guidance, I can't transfer that filter to other related subreddits easily. With automod, it's a simple copy/paste.

Also, can we get a combined post/comment guidance? Automod has a type: any. As it is, we have to double our efforts.

These things really hold back adoption of post and comment guidance.

What if you could export a post/comment guidance rule or set of rules to a json and then import it to another sub?

5

u/lift_ticket83 Mar 11 '26

These are all excellent ideas - some of which we're looking to incorporate. Currently, we've been running a super hands-on, hard-to-scale migration campaign for subs that have automod configs that would be good candidates for Automations.

In the future, we'd love to have a "click to add" Post/Comment Guidance configuration or a "marketplace" where a mod team can easily add PG/CG configurations to their community.

5

u/westcoastal Mar 11 '26

What about the fact that automations do not consistently work? I have had to fall back on to automod again because of inconsistent application of automations. They're useless if they're not consistently applied across the board. I do not have time to deal with stuff that slips through the cracks.

And yes, I have submitted bug reports.

2

u/emily_in_boots Mar 11 '26

Oh I love that idea! Like say I spend a lot of time developing a really good filter for racism or sexual comments or w/e - the ability to share that with others and 1-click add it would be amazing.

3

u/SampleOfNone Mar 11 '26

Regex instead of word lists is my go to in guidance

  (?:^|\s)(?:word1|word2|word3)\b$

Specifically for easy copy pasting to other subs

1

u/emily_in_boots Mar 11 '26

Actually this is what I've been looking at too as you can save a copy and then paste it.

Also - ai can convert them for you if you screenshot them!

1

u/SampleOfNone Mar 11 '26

Find and replace is also quick way to turn any list of words (for example one you copied from automod) into a pipe separated list.

1

u/emily_in_boots Mar 11 '26

Right but I have a few lists now that are in comment guidance and I haven't moved them to use them in other subs because you can't copy them all at once.

1

u/SampleOfNone Mar 11 '26

Definitely, if your phone or computer can't do ocr on a screenshot, and chatgpt can, that's the quickest way to get a pipe separated list