https://www.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/149gyrl/announcing_mobile_mod_log_and_the_post_guidance/
created by lift_ticket83 on 14/06/2023 at 19:38 UTC*
0 upvotes, 60 top-level comments (showing 25)
Hi, Mods
Following up on recent posts, we’re writing to share updates on our upcoming suite of mobile tools and our Post Guidance pilot program.
As promised, we are committed to the mobile product roadmap we shared last week[1]. This week we are launching Mod Log on mobile. Mods on mobile will now be able to view all admin, mod, and automoderator actions within our native apps from the mod log. Each of the log units will show relevant information about the action, and link out to the post or comment when applicable. This experience will first launch on Android, and will then be rolled out to our iOS app on 6/28 **(editorial note: this ended up shipping late on 6/30 due to delays on our end).**
1: https://new.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/142kh8s/improvement_to_the_mobile_mod_queue/?sort=qa
As a new user of a community, subreddit rules can be confusing. Unless users know where to look out for them, they can be difficult to notice (this is especially true on a mobile device). Too often this leads to users inadvertently breaking the rules and having their posts removed by the mods of a community. Most of the time this leads to frustrated users abandoning their attempted posts. Other times this leads to users messaging the mods asking why their post was removed. If things go well they’ll try to post again (hopefully successfully this time). If things don’t go well, this conversation between the mod and the user can devolve, leading to more significant frustrations.
More importantly to you, we know it’s hard to surface the rules of a subreddit to users. It’s even harder to ensure a user reads the rules of a subreddit prior to posting. This leads to mod teams spending more time than they should be removing rule-breaking posts within their community and responding to frustrated users who modmail the team asking why their post was removed. To help alleviate this workload mods utilize automod by writing scripts to help filter out rule-breaking posts. Automod is not intuitive to use, which leads to mods either spending more time than they should on understanding how to operate automod or they copy/pasta and shoehorn in another subreddit’s automod configuration to fit their subreddit.
This frustrating circle of life on the site leads to burnout for both users and mods. In the words of the great Robert Hunter, this darkness has got to give.
In January we reached out to mods for feedback while teasing a new tool called Post Guidance. Since then we’ve hosted a number of mod discussions to share designs and gather reactions for our engineers. This week we are officially launching the pilot program which will be enabled within a variety of subreddits that previously volunteered to help test it out.
Shameless plug: Post Guidance was built on our new Developer Platform[2], offering a peek into how mods and devs can add new customizations to their communities and tools. Pending continued testing, our goal is to make this tool generally available in September.
2: https://developers.reddit.com/
https://reddit.com/link/149gyrl/video/pob9itona16b1/player
Post Guidance is intended to be a supercharged concept of Post Requirements and a more easy-to-use tool where moderators can migrate and set up their subreddit rules and automoderator configurations (it even works with Regex!). It will then preemptively alert users with a custom message that they are breaking a specific direction when trying to craft a post.
For this pilot program, this feature will only be available on desktop. We will eventually bring this to mobile once we successfully test it. We plan to get to contributor parity across all platforms before launching this more broadly. We will first enable the feature for mods this week, allowing them time to get their Post Guidance configurations set up and tested. We will then turn on the user-facing portion of this feature.
With this feature, you'll be able to create a more guided posting experience. This should lead to an increase in successful posts due to redditors being alerted to avoidable rule violations (e.g. post formatting mistakes, off-topic discussions, redirecting users to megathreads or partner subs, etc.) so that they can fix them prior to posting. In turn, mods will have to spend less time removing posts and responding to users asking why their post was removed.
Have any questions about this feature? Curious about the pilot program? Let us know in the comments below!
Comment by lift_ticket83 at 14/06/2023 at 19:38 UTC
1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
We acknowledge many subreddits are currently protesting, we respect that. Some of these subreddits are currently enrolled in our beta program. That said, we are still planning to work on and continue to launch mod tools. We look forward to working with these teams once they’re ready to do so.
Comment by teanailpolish at 14/06/2023 at 19:46 UTC
197 upvotes, 2 direct replies
You made rules and stickies even harder to find on mobile but know they can be difficult to find now? So you use a tool available to a small number of subs and only on desktop despite the push for mobile friendly tools?
Not a good look pushing back the first of the mod tools either if you want subs to stop the blackout
I will save my questions for when it is actually rolling out after improvements from the testing
Comment by Watchful1 at 14/06/2023 at 19:52 UTC
46 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Curious if you've taken advantage of the whole controversy to reach out to mods and get specific requests of things that need to change in the official app. Things that people who currently use third party apps to mod want before they are willing to switch.
And specifically recently, in the last two weeks, not stuff you had been planning and already building for a while now.
Comment by ExcitingishUsername at 14/06/2023 at 19:47 UTC
90 upvotes, 1 direct replies
One of the reasons we don't use the current post requirements is that that we can't see when/where users are getting stuck and giving up, which we can see (and reach out) by looking at removed posts if we leave that feature off. Is there a way we can get such analytics/feedback in this new feature? Our communities that haven't been forced to close would love to try this feature if that can be added.
Also, any word on when we'll get the ability for users to opt-out of receiving (potentially explicit) images in chats? I'm not aware of any other chat platform missing that as a feature. And can you comment on why Reddit stopped even blurring ones in invites?
Comment by Isentrope at 14/06/2023 at 20:27 UTC
37 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Is there a way to turn off how aggressively the app pushes you to use it if you go on Reddit from another site or browser? It seems like the app is almost something I could use for mod queue with some of the recent updates, but modmail has been a better experience on mobile browsing for me.
Comment by Mathias_Greyjoy at 15/06/2023 at 01:00 UTC
30 upvotes, 3 direct replies
For almost an entire year, in every modnews post, I ask for this change to removal reasons. I've never even gotten an acknowledgment from an Admin that they've seen my suggestion. I get that I'm one person, and not entitled to a response, but these posts usually don't have that many comments, maybe 30-100, and I was really hoping that this would be acknowledged by now.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Can you please offer the option to send *both* a modmail *and* a stickied comment for removal reasons with one action? I find I need to send *both* to users breaking rules. It's incredibly tedious to do all this every time I remove something-
1. Hit remove.
2. Select the right rule.
3. Select removal reason Private: Modmail, and send.
4. Approve the post/comment.
5. Remove the post/comment again.
6. Select the right rule.
7. Select removal reason Private: Sticky comment, and send.
As well as the fact that this seven step process makes it very likely that I'll hit the wrong rule and/or make some kind of mistake. Can you imagine what this is like when you get to a post with multiple comments in it you have to remove? The way some of my subreddits are setup, some posts require the removal of dozens or hundreds of comments.
Now can you imagine what this is like on mobile? I'm genuinely sorry to say, but your official mobile app is *so awful*. I have been trying in good faith for almost a year to use the official app for modding, the experience is like **pulling teeth**. I want it to be good. It is so bad.
Comment by ANGR1ST at 14/06/2023 at 20:23 UTC
82 upvotes, 1 direct replies
I really appreciate that you guys are trying to un-fuck the moderator experience on mobile, and how much of a pain in the ass it can be to deal with Apple and Google.
But I think this really points to a need to leave the 3rd party tool API in place until say, the end of the year. Give yourselves time to find a solution and for the tools to adapt.
Comment by ShaneH7646 at 14/06/2023 at 19:45 UTC
159 upvotes, 2 direct replies
I'd assume a lot of the features on this roadmap have been rushed to release and are actually just barebones buggy messes because of it?
Comment by riiga at 14/06/2023 at 20:30 UTC
20 upvotes, 1 direct replies
How will post guidance work for users submitting from old reddit?
Comment by fighterace00 at 14/06/2023 at 20:51 UTC
25 upvotes, 1 direct replies
You acknowledge rule visibility is paramount but this feature only addresses the minority making posts. This system does nothing to address other content and behavior.
Instead stickies were moved to being like 5 pixels tall and rules on mobile were hidden behind some small text link that at least used to be able to tab over. Stickies don't even appear if sorting by new which most my users use.
If you care about rules and announcements make them on the user landing page.
Comment by [deleted] at 14/06/2023 at 19:47 UTC*
391 upvotes, 3 direct replies
[deleted]
Comment by Scooby359 at 14/06/2023 at 21:37 UTC
30 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Things that are still rubbish on the mobile app:
I can do all these already on third party apps. How many months or years until the Reddit app catches up?
Comment by [deleted] at 14/06/2023 at 21:42 UTC
36 upvotes, 2 direct replies
Why weren’t basic features like mobile mod logs a thing Day 1?
Comment by 7hr0wn at 14/06/2023 at 20:16 UTC
45 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Mod Centric User Profile Cards - launching next week (we experienced a small delay during engineering and we were forced to bump this to next week).
What *are* User profile cards?
Comment by TitusRex at 14/06/2023 at 20:08 UTC
56 upvotes, 1 direct replies
At least postpone the API changes until the ModQueue and ModMail work well in the official app.
Comment by 7hr0wn at 14/06/2023 at 19:51 UTC
25 upvotes, 1 direct replies
What are the current limits on the keywords and phrases?
Will there be an easy way to convert automod to PostGuidance?
Is automod going away?
Comment by desdendelle at 14/06/2023 at 19:43 UTC
154 upvotes, 1 direct replies
You guys basically pissed all goodwill you had with your asinine behaviour. Why should I (or any other mod, really) believe you when you say this new feature will work, especially considering that you have a bad track record when it comes to moderation tools?
Comment by SweetMissMG at 14/06/2023 at 19:57 UTC
20 upvotes, 0 direct replies
For subs that function for TV shows, during those live episode threads where we get hundreds of comments a minute sometimes, we really need a comments tab on mobile. Any chance this is something coming down the pipes?
Comment by Yay295 at 14/06/2023 at 20:53 UTC
16 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Shameless plug: Post Guidance was built on our new Developer Platform, offering a peek into how mods and devs can add new customizations to their communities and tools.
It sure would be nice if everyone who doesn't currently have access to the Developer Platform could at least know what it's capable of. Is it just an Automod replacement that runs before a post is posted?
Comment by The_Pip at 15/06/2023 at 16:00 UTC
8 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Actually trying to help here: Maybe Reddit should push back the API changes until the app can properly replace the 3rd party apps feature-wise. I know that will be tough to do that fast, but the timeline is artificial, so extending it should be on the table.
Removing accessibility and mod tools without replacement seems like a bad business decision. Replace those things first and then change the API. (I'd rather the API changes be made much less severe, but I think Reddit should out the horse before the cart either way.)
Comment by EatSleepJeep at 15/06/2023 at 14:57 UTC
6 upvotes, 0 direct replies
it even works with Regex!). It will then preemptively alert users with a custom message that they are breaking a specific direction when trying to craft a post.
It helps people work around our language filters in real time! Then we get to go do more manual removal of words and phrases that have slight variations and weren't caught by the filter.
This saves us time how exactly?
Comment by impablomations at 14/06/2023 at 21:03 UTC
22 upvotes, 1 direct replies
it’s hard to surface the rules of a subreddit to users
Surface? I know Reddit loves it's corporate jargon, my favourite one from the past being "rest assured this pain point is on our radar", but how in the hell do you 'surface' something to someone?
Comment by [deleted] at 14/06/2023 at 21:45 UTC
24 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Any updates on CSS for new Reddit like you promised?
Comment by cocojumbo123 at 16/06/2023 at 21:05 UTC
4 upvotes, 0 direct replies
We aknowledge our past cake was shit, here's our new cake.
Sir, it's still shit.
Oh, c'mon can't you see, we're doing our best, now it has sprinkles on top of it and it only took us 10 years to deliver.
Comment by that_username_is_use at 17/06/2023 at 08:59 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
allow 3rd party apps
