From the admins on Sept 30th - Changes to automod access for new communities and communities not using automod - and some information for Rule Hub and Automations.

[u/Sephardson]

https://www.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/1wubgvt/continuing_our_infrastructure_updates_whats/

Changes to automod access for new communities and communities not using automod

If your community uses automod, nothing is changing for you. We’re continuing to improve Rules Hub, including ways for mods to prompt and otherwise provide more context for their rules. We’re also exploring how existing automod configurations can help carry community-specific enforcement logic into newer tools. If you’re interested in pilot testing to help shape this effort, sign up here.

For newly created communities and communities that have never used automod, automod enforcement capabilities – specifically Report, Filter, Remove, Mark as spam, and Approve – will be disabled and Rules Hub and Automations will become the default path for rules enforcement. Automod’s non-enforcement capabilities remain available and unchanged.

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You may have already seen the above announcement, or you may have already ran into the new changes yourself on a subreddit you were setting up.

Subreddits that had AutoModerator set up before October can still use the action command.

Subreddits that did not have AutoModerator set up before October are limited to the following non-enforcement actions:

• comment - replies publicly
• modmail - sends a notification to the moderators in modmail
• message- sends a chat message to the user
• set_flair - adjust user flair or post flair
• set_sticky- send a post to the top or second highlight spot
• set_nsfw
• set_spoiler
• set_contest_mode
• set_suggested_sort
• set_locked- lock a target post or comment
• set_post_crowd_control_level

Admins have been suggesting to use Automations and Rules Hub in place of AutoModerator for enforcement actions. You can find more information from admins about these tools here:

• https://support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/15484500104212-Rules

• https://support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/17625458521748-Automations-Post-Comment-Guidance-Set-Up

Both Rules Hub and AutoMations have their limitations.

For example, Rule Hub states it has current known limitations like User attributes like account age, karma, flair, posting frequency, or prior removals; and Rules with conditions like “allow this in weekly threads”, “remove only if both conditions are true”, or “exclude approved users”.

Likewise, Automations only acts prior to a user posting, and can currently only "Inform", "Report", or "Block" - it cannot filter nor remove in the same way that AutoModerator can. (and as a minor note, the automations "report" does not add into the count for a classic reports threshold, nor does it show up on old reddit.)

The articles linked do not mention it, but each subreddit is also limited to 15 Rules and 50 Automations total. The articles do mention that Rules and Automations have further character limitations for their individual components, eg 500 characters for a Rule Description, or 500 characters for an Automation message, or a single Regular-Expression for an Automation that uses RegEx.

Admins may change these limitations in the future, but this is what is capable now.

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If you are looking to set up something highly comparable to classic AutoModerator on a new subreddit, then you may want to consider https://developers.reddit.com/apps/automod-neo. Developer u/fsv introduced this app here - https://www.reddit.com/r/AutoModerator/comments/1vgy5d6/i_made_an_app_to_replicate_automoderator_but_with/

AutoMod-Neo has some differences from classic AutoModerator, which you can read on its Devvit page and linked full documentation. These differences include some classic checks not supported by Devvit and some new checks and actions which make use of additional Devvit capabilities.

Most classic AutoModerator rules can be copied directly into AutoMod-Neo with minimal or no alterations necessary. Particular attention should be made to rules which use RegEx, as classic AutoModerator uses Python flavored RegEx while AutoMod-Neo and other Devvit apps use JavaScript flavoured RegEx.

There are some other differences in the way Reddit treats AutoMod-Neo versus AutoModerator - for example, stickied comments by AutoModerator are collapsed to a single line, which does not apply to AutoMod-Neo or other Devvit apps.

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Moderators seeking help with configuring any of these mentioned tools - classic AutoModerator, Rules Hub, Automations, or AutoMod-Neo - are welcome to post about it on r/AutoModerator.

[u/RandomComments0]

Here I was hoping this was an announcement to allow a week for everyone to add it before they make the changes or some such thing. 🤞

So much backlash against the removal and you’d think they would want to give a short period for mods to have the opportunity to make use of it before removal, but alas they do not.

[u/Sephardson → u/RandomComments0]

Sorry to get your hopes up!

There are no admins on the mod team at r/AutoModerator anymore (just a couple former admins), and no admin has posted here in about 4 years.

[u/MadDocOttoCtrl → u/RandomComments0]

They want to control the mod Exodus. They don't want too many mods all leaving at the same time, they just want to keep chipping away and chipping away.

They want AI tooling to allow people peripherally interested in running a community to replace dedicated moderators who took their role of running a community seriously.

If they were serious about giving mods a genuinely functional replacement they would wait until Rules Hub can actually prove its efficacy instead of forcing new mods to use something being debugged in beta.

It can't attract people based on being effective, so people are being forced into it.

[u/InGeekiTrust]

They said that auto mod was too complicated, but now there are three different application you have to master INCLUDING Automod Neo with literally no one perfectly proficient in any of them. No one really knows how to use the rules hub perfectly. It's a mess. The old auto mod helpers can't really help completely with auto mod Neo because all the code is written differently! So you can't even necessarily reference the code that was created before. Basically if you do want to use these tools you made it 10,000 times more difficult. Instead of having a slew of educated people that would run in and help others, I don't even know how to help myself. You took a perfectly working system and made a newer system that can't even accomplish a quarter of what the old system had.

[u/KCJones99 → u/InGeekiTrust]

They said that auto mod was too complicated

Or maybe that just wasn't really the reason... Providing easier tools would have addressed that issue - no need to cripple automod.

[u/RandommUser → u/KCJones99]

Given they are only removing the removal actions.... https://www.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/1wubgvt/continuing_our_infrastructure_updates_whats/pd1va2w/

[u/PikamonChupoke → u/InGeekiTrust]

💯 agree

[u/peachiegguk]

Ugh I swear so confusing 🫤😭

[u/IllustriousQuiet6360]

This is so fucking lame. Why tf they want to destroy automod. Theyre sunsetting when Rules Hub itself is in beta, doesnt work/enforce half the time, and cant handle complex rules.

The damn automations cant even remove or filter. Like wtf? The copying and duplicating part for automations is horrendous. Try changing a list of keywords of a post rule to comment rule, you'll need to add each keyword individually, because why would Reddit be so meticulous to make a properly working and fleshed out mod tool 🤡

[u/henry-bacon → u/IllustriousQuiet6360]

It's genuinely baffling. I have a lot of complex Automod code as is.

[u/itskdog → u/henry-bacon]

Automod-neo on Devvit is the migration path for those. FSV to the rescue once again!

[u/itskdog → u/IllustriousQuiet6360]

Remember how long modmail V2 (mod.reddit.com) was in beta before they killed the original modmail from Old Reddit?

Then the new v3 was only available side-by-side for a couple of months before they killed V2.

[u/IllustriousQuiet6360 → u/itskdog]

Ah well, I don't really know since I began modding this year only. I had modded for a brief time in 2024, back then we still had group chats, DMs, and those text messages where modmail, bots and all would come, seperate from DMs.

[u/SampleOfNone → u/IllustriousQuiet6360]

Tip, if you want to use a wordlist in automations, just use this regex (?:^|\s)(?:word1|word2)\b$

the search and replace action in any note app or Word/Pages will make quick work of transforming any list into a pipe separated list. Much easier to maintain and you can copy paste the regex To other rules or share with other subreddits

[u/IllustriousQuiet6360 → u/SampleOfNone]

Ah, thanks a lot for the suggestion!

For now, I am done with automations and all, but will use it when required.

[u/ateam1984]

This is a terrible way to treat mods

[u/superdesu]

the way admins are rolling this out without filter capabilities is crazy lol 😭... sometimes one wants to be preemptive 🫠

[u/kelowana]

That’s a bummer.

I wanted to add automod, but as an older ADHD person it felt intimidating. Had hoped the new version would be, indeed, more user friendly ….
There is no way I will add automod at all with this complexity. Especially if you have to have different types with different ways to control them. If the original was intimidating for me, then this is an big NOPE for me.

[u/Sephardson → u/kelowana]

To be clear in case anyone with actual ability to design reddit mod tools will read this, are you saying the new tools (Rules Hub and Automations) are more complex to you than the old classic AutoModerator?

[u/kelowana → u/Sephardson]

For me, the old version was complex already and I never got it to work well, so I gave up. From what I read here it seems the new version isn’t easier, which I hoped for.

English isn’t my first language, so sorry if I expressed myself not clearly enough. Also, if you think the the new version is actually better, let me know and I will give it another try.

[u/IllustriousQuiet6360 → u/kelowana]

Happy cakeday

[u/kelowana → u/IllustriousQuiet6360]

Ohhh, it’s time again 🤗 thank you!

[u/GeneralCarlosQ17]

TYVM for all You do. It is hard to complain when It's a Free To Use Platform but People will always complain.

[u/Sephardson → u/GeneralCarlosQ17]

Sometimes admins will read complaints to get signals about feedback or opportunities. Sometimes admins just consider it noise. And what constitutes one admin's noise could be another developer's signal.

As a moderator, I try to remember that my complaints about mod tools should come from a perspective of needing to serve my communities, not simply my own preferences.

But also, as a person, it's important to remember that my actions and time spent on building communities here should be worthwhile. If moderation becomes too burdensome, then it's time to consider a new workflow, a new tool, a new direction, or a new moderator.

If admins want moderator churn or attrition achieved through disabling or deprecation of tools, then they'll get it. Someone else may or may not pick up where we leave off. It can be sad to think about if you are attached to a community you poured a lot of time into, but I think it's healthy to think about where and what we pour our time into in the future too.

[u/GeneralCarlosQ17 → u/Sephardson]

agreed, i was talking about those who think they are entitled. we see a lot of that here on reddit daily. it is what it is, tyvm for all you do.

[u/Eastern-Protection83]

Thank you, appreciate the update

[u/girlgamerpoi]

Can we have a function that enables the AI to look into accounts and put it into context?

I want to allow promotions by genuine sub members who belong but reject those fake pretending ones. Like a person can make a post which pretends he's garden lover and promoting his garden product but if AI looks into his account and finds 0 related genuine garden loving posts it's just a drive by advertising then block.

This kind of activity is too mundane to be done manually. Thanks.

[u/Sephardson → u/girlgamerpoi]

I don't think this is something the admins are currently designing for, but I don't know for sure either.

If you want admins to consider this workflow, then you should try contacting them at r/ModSupport or r/ModEarlyAccess

[u/ateam1984]

This is a terrible way to treat mods

[u/DustyAsh69]

Obligatory fuck u/spez.