Meta How does the logistics of modding work here?

by toefirefire

First of all, I want to thank you guys for running this thing like a well oiled machine. It doesn't seem like there are that many mods and looking through posts it seems like a mod is always hiding somewhere ready to pounce on a one sentence answer or one of my harebrained questions. Do you folks have formal schedules of who is on call when? How many decisions are made on the spot and how many are consulted about?

Searocksandtrees

Hi, I'll give this a quick answer...

  • There are 30-something mods, I would say a minority of those actively moderate the subreddit. That's because everyone takes breaks due to burn-out, vacation, or just life; and some mods specialize in other subprojects (e.g. the podcast) rather than "moderation" per se
  • We don't have shifts or schedules or anything like that. It's strictly volunteer, if/as/when people have the time and inclination
  • However, when we're looking for new mods to increase our ranks (either because we've incurred losses due to attrition or inactivity, or due to subreddit growth), we do take into consideration the geographic location of the nominees, with a view to being able to provide round-the-clock support
  • I would say that the vast majority of mod actions are taken spontaneously, by a single mod, without consultation. Consultation does happen, though. We have a chat back-channel where we can collaborate when a mod wants other feedback. We use that to mentor new recruits, double-check gut reactions with others, track down dubious posts/posters, discuss borderline mod actions like bans, and so on.

Hope that helps! Ask away if you'd like to know more.

edit: btw, there's a fast way for mods to "be everywhere at once": we often use the /comments queue (https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/), so we can see all of the action in the sub in all threads. So for example, if I was reviewing comments, I could scan through the last 6-8 hours of subreddit activity in ~1 hour. So it doesn't take a huge investment of time for one person to review the sub for anything that might've fallen through the cracks.