- Open DM
- Time Commitment
- Time Zone
- Moderation Process
- Reddit Group Chats
- Mod Subreddit
- Mod Intro Wiki
- Upvote Posts
- Rules
- Archive Modmail
- Minimalist Photography Examples
- Comments
- Top 25 Posts
- Automod
- Plagiarism
- Extras
(To Top) Open a DM with the user. This is where the users training will take place, and where they can raise any questions, comments or concerns.
Potential Message:
Hello {user}, I'm happy you decided to join our Mod Team! I'll be guiding you through the quick training process, that way you can hit the ground running. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please don't hesitate to reach out and I'd be happy to help however I can. Until I give the go ahead, please refrain from doing anything besides commenting, as we run our sub in a very unique way, which needs explanation. ( This means that we hope you will not do anything related to automod, queue, modmail, description, etc, until the training is complete ). Lastly, please keep in mind that you are free to message any of the other mods on this team without prior permission (we are friend-mods), and that mistakes happen, and it is okay if you make one. That's how you learn. If it's alright with you, I'd like to get right in to this, that way you can get going as soon as possible.
(To Top) Give user the expected time commitment to moderate r/minimalistphotography.
Potential Message:
I'd like to quickly let you know the amount of time you can expect to put into moderating. We try to be flexible, and we are okay if mods need to take a break, however if you're not on break, we'd hope that you'd spend a few minutes, 1 or 2 times a day, at your convenience. This is a baseline, and could change depending on the day, and whether or not you take on additional responsabilities (which are optional).
(To Top) Ask for the users time zone, and give yours. This will help with scheduling and communication.
Potential Message:
Right away, I'd like to ask whether or not you're willing to share your time zone. While it is not necessary, it may help with coordination. My time zone currently is {Mod's time zone}.
(To Top)
This step is to explain the unqiue moderation process that we use to moderate r/minimalistphotography. This will help give new mods a better understanding of what they are stepping into.
Potential Message:
I'd now like to let you know a bit more about our moderation process on this sub. It is unique compared to other subs, and is a lot more complex, however, it seems to work, as since April 2023, we have grown from 277 to over 4,000 members. As a team, we personally (as in us, and not an automation), welcome all first time posters to the subreddit, via commenting on their first posts. In addition, we try to have at least one comment on each post, as it drives up engagement and helps a supportive and active subreddit. In the beginning, this will be your only assignement, however, there are other jobs that you can take on if you so wish. To help the growth of our subreddit, one of our mods sends out around 10 invites to users a day to join our sub. To avoid this being like spam, we are very selective in who we choose. We vote on every potential invite recipient as a mod team, and, if/when an invite is sent, we include the photo that we hope the user will post, as well as our reasoning behind why we feel they'd be a great addition to our sub. Finally, our queue: in the spirit of maintaining quality minimalist photos, the mod team of r/minimalistphotography votes on all photos that users attempt to post (our automod immediately removes all posts, so that we may vote on it). Once a photo is deemed minimalist, or not, then, a mod will either approve or deny the post in queue, depending on the result of the vote. If you're open to all of the above, we'd like to add you as a moderator now. In the beginning, as we go through this training, you'll have limited permissions, however once we've finished the training, we'll give you the rest. Do you have any questions or concerns? Would you like to continue the training?
(To Top) Add the new mod to the Reddit Group Chats, explaining their purpose. This will help in the orientation of the new mod, and help with the flow of information.
Potential Message:
Continuing on, I'd like to invite you to our 2 mod chats on Reddit. They are "Mods - Minimalist Photography", and "MinimalistPhotography friendship". The names are pretty self explanatory however the first is for sub related topics, and the second is for the mod team to communicate as friends. Feel free to pop into either and say hello.
(To Top) Invite the new mod to MP mods, and explain the purpose of it
Potential Message:
As a team, we have a private subreddit (r/MPmods) as well as a private Discord server. For now, I'd like to invite you to the subreddit. In it, you'll be able to see that this is where our mod team votes on all mod team decisions, as well as mark any vacation we are taking (in the pinned post). This is to ensure that everyone knows how many mods are able to actively moderate at a given time.
(To Top) Unique has graciously written out a Wiki entry to help the introduction and training of a new mod. Send the user to it.
Potential Message:
One of our mods (Unique-Public), has graciously create a Wiki entry to help in the training. This will be the longest part of the training (~15min), however we ask you to read it through and follow any intructiions, as it will give you some of the basic building blocks needed to help moderate. You can find the entry here: https://www.reddit.com/r/minimalistphotography/about/wiki/mod_handbook/
(To Top) Ask the new mod to upvote all posts on r/minimalistphotography. Emphasize that this is not mandatory, as we cannot tell someone how to vote.
Potential Message:
Small thing: to help give the sub a lifely feeling, we ask that you upvote posts on the sub. This is not mandatory, as we can not tell you how to vote, however it would be appreciated.
(To Top) Show the rules and ask if any explanation is needed.
Potential Message:
Our sub has a few rules. These rules are not very complicated, or very obscure, however we ask that you check them out, and, if you have any questions or concerns, please let us know. The rules can be found on the sidebar here: https://www.reddit.com/r/minimalistphotography/
(To Top) Teach new mods to properly archive modmail.
Potential Message:
As previously mentioned, we invite users to our sub daily, hoping to help bring even more amazing minimalist photographers into our group. As such, our modmail can start to fill up. Due to this, we ask that you periodically check modmail for messages that have the subject "Invitation to join and post", or some variant thereof. When you see these messages, we ask that you archive the message if and only if: a) the user has not replied, or b) a user replied but another mod has responded - otherwise, we ask that you don't action modmails for now. Please also keep in mind that if you choose to take on additional jobs in our mod team, you may become more involved with modmail. This is just a general baseline. Do you have any questions, comments or concerns?
(To Top) Give examples of minimalist photography to new mods.
Potential Message:
As a mod of a minimalist photography sub, it's good to know a little about what can be considered minimalist and what can't. We ask that you please skim through these, taking a look at what is considered minimalist. If you want to see posts that aren't minimalist (by our team's standards), feel free to take a look at the removed items in queue. Many minimalist photos can also be found... on our sub! https://www.reddit.com/r/minimalistphotography/wiki/index/definition/, https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/photography/discover/minimalist-photography.html, https://minimalistphotographyawards.com/minimalist-photography-awards-winners-2023/. (More links can be found on our sidebar).
(To Top) Give the new mod the scoop on comments.
Potential Message:
You may recall that I mentioned earlier that we try to have at least one mod comment on every post. We don't have strict standards for this except be nice, be personable, and be unique (no copy/pasting). If a post has the "First Post" flair, please also make sure to welcome them to the sub. In addition, no matter the flair, try to work their username into the comment so you can ping them. I would also like to mention that even if a post already has a comment on it, it is okay to add another! Feel free to take a look through recent posts to see examples, and, if you see one without a comment, try your hand at commenting on it. Questions, concerns?
(To Top) Explain the procedure for top 25 posts.
Potential Message:
If you sort our sub by 'Top' -> 'All Time', you will see the most-liked posts in this sub. Scroll down 25 posts, and everything from there up is in the top 25. We reward users for achieving top 25 by giving them a flair saying that they are in the top 25 (except for 1st and 2nd, as they have special rank). If you see a post in the top 25 and that person does not have the respective flair, feel free to give it to them. If you notice someone dropped out of top 25, do nothing, as they get to keep their flair. You may also notice comments on these posts congratulating users on reaching certain milestones (25, 20, 15, 10, 5). Please check this periodically and add a congratulations when you see a photo has achieved a milestone.
(To Top) Explain the point of automod
Potential Message:
We use Automod to help in the running of the sub. It is what takes down all posts for voting by the mods. It's what assigns posts the level that you will see when scrolling through the sub. We ask that you look but don't touch.
(To Top) Explain what to do in cases of suspected plagiarism.
Potential Message:
If you see a post that you suspect is plagiarized. Please bring it to the attention of the rest of the mod team. In the beginning, we ask that you don't do anything besided alert us. Our normal process when we find plagiaried posts is to first delete the post, then ban the user, and finally message r/ModSupport to let the Reddit Admins know about it.
(To Top) Explain a couple of additional points that are necessary to ensure the new mod works well as part of the team.
Potential Message:
A couple other things I'd like to mention:
- If you ever need a break, or feel like you no longer wish to be on the mod team, that is okay. Please just make sure to give us ample warning ahead of your break/leaving so that we can make sure that all roles are filled and no one mod is given too much too handle.
- The rules of our subreddit weren't put there on a whim, and they were the result of much discussion and debate. Please do not change, remove, or add rules unless yuou've discussed it with the entire mod team before hand.
- Commenting on posts helps a lot, however the expectation is that when you join the mod team, once the training is done, you'll join Discord and participate there in addition to commenting. If this is not acceptable to you, please makew sure to let me know.