What is a Contributor Quality Score (CQS)?
The Contributor Quality Score (CQS) is Reddit’s classification system for measuring the likelihood that user accounts are ran by real people. They explain their reasoning for implementing this by saying:
was established to identify potential spammers or redditors less likely to contribute positively on Reddit.
The CQS has 5 rankings: lowest, low, moderate, high and, highest. These are based on signals sent by users on the platform. They do not fully detail what all the signals are, not which signals are weighted the most heavily. They do however list the below:
past actions taken on a redditor’s account, network and location signals, and steps a redditor has taken to secure their account (e.g. email verification).
They do also state that a user can increase AND decrease their second through their time on the platform.
What is my CQS?
With Reddit I have learned one thing to be true: there is a subreddit for everything. And it stands true in this scenario as well. There is a subreddit called r/WhatIsMyCQS that has created a bot to tell us this. Simply go to the sub, post a text post. Exactly type “what is my CQS” and post. Once you have sent that off a bot will respond in the comments with your score. The below image is the response I got for my moderating account. It only responds with your rank. It does not give you any details as to why you are at that rank.
How can creators use their CQS?
There’s not really a whole lot we can do with this information. If anything I would think it would be a great method to check in on the health of your account. If you see that score dip down below what it was, reevaluate your activity on the platform. Maybe take some extra steps towards securing your account. If you see the opposite occurring and that score is going up, you can rest assured you’re moving in the right direction with the platform.
How can moderators use a CQS?
We already know moderators can use bots, often automod, to filter out accounts that do not reach their minimum specifications. These requirements usually fall under the categories of minimum karma, minimum account age, etc. This is another filter that mods can utilize to filter out accounts that Reddit has deemed to be low quality, or under the quality ranking that the moderators have determined for their subreddit.
Final Thoughts
If you as an adult creator are promoting on Reddit you need to be keeping a close eye on your CQS. If your posts are getting caught in Reddit’s filters repeatedly, it could be due to a low score. Keep your eyes peeled on the Creators Spicy Tea Library for the next CQS resource all about how to raise a low score without losing your mind or your account.
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