Creators Spicy Tea

Starting a Subreddit: The How To For Beginners

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by

Alley – Creators Spicy Tea
in

So, you’ve decided to make a subreddit! Hell yeah! Let’s get super honest, it has potential to provide community, engagement, promotion, and overall wonderful experiences. Now let’s flip that table. It is also a lot of work, for absolutely no pay ever. There are specific aspects of creating a subreddit that you must know before going in. We’re going to get into those first few quick tips, and then we’re going to get into some real meat and potatoes here. We’re going over the foundational elements of a new sub, potential rules and policies to put in place And why is crucial to have them, and then we will chat on moderation infrastructure for a hot second. But first, let’s dig into just some quick notes that everyone should know before starting a subreddit.

Quick Notes on Starting a Subreddit:

  • Once you have created a subreddit it is there for eternity and in perpetuity. That means that you are never going to be able to delete it. That is not an option. The only reason a subreddit will ever be deleted is through admin action. Some of those reasons could look like:
    • Reprehensible violations of content policy such as underage or non-con.
    • Repeated violations of the content policy
    • Violation of TOS regarding commercial NSFW activity
    • Severe doxing privacy breaches or non-con
    • Impersonating or misleading sub intent
      • This applies if a subreddit is impersonating another community brand creator or Reddit feature.
    • Harassment or targeted hate
    • Illegal content or linking to illegal content
    • Ignoring admin warnings or violations of moderator code of conduct.
  • Be careful when you’re making that sub. That subreddit name is forever. You only get one chance to get it right. Is your spelling correct? Any punctuation that you added is it necessary and correct?
  • Are you absolutely certain you want to take this very long-standing project on. Once you take on this long-standing project you cannot get rid of it unless you adopt it out or you have it taken down by admins for any of the above reasons or for non-moderation.
  • Let’s say your subreddit that you created gets taken from you for non-moderation. While yes you will have the chance to appeal for it back, it’s highly likely you will not get it back. If a subreddit is taken, but not completely removed, it then goes through a adoption process. And any single other user who applies on r/redditrequest and is chosen by admins can adopt that sub.
    • You absolutely must keep that in mind if you are creating a subreddit under your stage name. Because if you create that, and you let it go unmoderated, any Jack Jim Joe or Johnny can now have that sub and do whatever they want with it put whatever they want in it under your name.
  • Let’s talk the real real pause that we should all take before starting a sub. If your sub, not you, but users on your subreddit, violate any of those big main rules, your account could go down with that subreddit.
    • When you take on and create a subreddit, you are making agreement, through the moderator code of conduct, to Reddit itself that you will moderate, maintain, and babysit that community. You are agreeing to all of that responsibility in that moment. If you do not fulfill that agreement, your account could be gone.

 Foundational Elements

Your Account Requirements

  • Reddit account with sufficient age and karma to create a subreddit
    • (typically 30+ days old with positive karma, There is a specific amount of karma you must have, that will never be shared. Only admins know this.)

A complete understanding of Reddit’s content policy, particularly regarding:

  • Prohibited goods and services
  • Personal information protection
  • Commercial activity restrictions
  • User Agreement (as a moderator you are now not only responsible for enforcing your own behavior in following this, but now every other user of your sub.)
  • The mod code of conduct

Familiarity with mod support groups

I love being able to help in these moderating groups. That being said, if you are not diving in with a team and you are diving into this alone, that could be pretty isolating, and You may find yourself having a few questions that you can’t quite answer and just want some people who get it. As with everything, there are subreddits for that.

Subreddit Configuration

A clear subreddit name that reflects its purpose 

  • Search your subreddit name concept through Reddit to ensure that it has not already been taken, or that you are not replicating another sub.

Distinctive subreddit icon and banner reflecting your marketplace theme

  • Icon:
    • Will be round when on the sub, keep the main focus of images in the center.
    • The optimal size for this is roughly 256 x 256 pixels. 
    • Just from my own personal experience, no research to back this up, I will say PNG’s tend to look a lot better.
  • Banner:
    •  Each device shows a different visible aspect ratio for this. That being said, the recommended size is 1920 x 384 pixels
    • When on desktop the visible area is roughly 1600 x 200 pixels
    • When on the app the visible safe zone is about 640 x 120 pixels
    • Old Reddit displays a ratio of 640 x 128 pixels
    • When on a tablet the aspect ratio is roughly 1,200 x 160 pixels
    • General Best practice is to ensure that all crucial aspects of your content are in a centered area of approximately 1,320 x 180 pixels
  • Upload and check all devices for quality.
    • To do this, enter the mod tools section.
      • Quick tip: adjusting all of these settings is going to be incredibly significantly easier on desktop. 
    • Once in mod tools, on the left hand panel, scroll until you reach ‘‘look and feel’.
    • Click community appearance 
    • Select icon and banner to upload each

Customized color scheme and appearance settings

  • While you are still in community appearance, you can adjust the subreddits color scheme.
    • Key color: changes the color of join button and links 
    • Base color: effects specific elements like shading buttons borders and the background color. 
    • Pinned Post color: That one’s pretty straightforward, but it changes the color of your pinned posts.

Tailored subreddit description explaining the purpose and scope

When writing your subreddit description, your goal is to quickly and clearly explain:

  • Who the sub is for (buyers, sellers, content creators, fans, niche-specific users, etc.)
  • What happens in this sub (buying/selling, discussions, media sharing, education, etc.)
  • Any core values or expectations (e.g., “respect-based community,” “zero tolerance for harassment,” etc.)

Best Practices:

  • Keep it concise and direct, ideally under 300 characters.
  • Lead with your niche or core function (e.g., “This subreddit is a safe, verified space for NSFW creators to share and sell custom content.”)
  • Include content type allowed (e.g., “Images, GIFs, Video Posts”).
  • Make a clear statement about NSFW status and age restrictions.
  • Close with a reminder that users must follow both Reddit’s rules and your own.
  • Use formatting tools (like bold or bullet points) sparingly to help key details stand out

Clear posting and engagement guidelines pinned in a highlighted post to the top of your subreddit

This is your pinned rules post—not just the official rules inside the mod tool settings. It gives users a visible, no-excuses reference when they visit or try to post. These rules will also be available for them to view in the sidebar on desktop and within the subreddit menu. But we do not want to give any reasons for someone to say I did not know.

Best Practices:

  • Use a friendly but firm tone
  • Break into a numbered or bulleted list so it’s easy to skim
  • Link to full rules in your sidebar or wiki for extra clarity
  • Include examples of what’s acceptable and what isn’t, especially if you’re managing a marketplace or creator-focused sub to avoid any unwitting violations. I would especially do this if you have any rules that are a bit convoluted.

Sections to include:

  • What’s allowed (such as custom requests, sale posts, nudity, SFW only or promo content)
  • What’s not allowed (such as underage-looking content, vague or spammy posts, very poor quality posts)
  • What must be included in posts (List any optional posting or commenting formatting requirements you have)
  • Reminder of consequences for breaking rules (while yes you do want to let people know the general concept of what happens when they violate their rules, you don’t want to give literally all of it away.)
  • A reminder of the purpose of the sub.

Example post structure:

(Title) READ THIS BEFORE POSTING

(Body) Welcome to r/YourSubName. All users must follow these guidelines when posting:

  1. Summary of rule # 1 (be sure to hit the main points on each)
  2. Summary of rule #2
  3. Summary of rule #3
  4. Formatting guidelines
  5. Any other absolutely crucial information you think you might need.

Full rules are in the sidebar and wiki. Violations of the rules can result in actions such as temporary or permanent bans from the subreddit. Mods have final say on post removals and bans.

Any relavent questions or concerns can be sent to the moderators using modmail.



Custom post flairs to categorize listings (e.g., “Selling,” “Buying,” “creator” “Non-creator”)

Set Up

  • Looking back into your mod tools, scroll until you find ‘look and feel’
  • After selecting that, scroll to post flair
  • Toggle ‘enable post flair on’
  • This is required if you are allowing flair
  • Toggle ‘let users assign and edit’ on
  • This allows community members to choose and apply their flair to their post.

Activating

  • Click the button labeled ‘New flair’ 
  • looking step by step at the available fields and what they are:
    • Setup: This is your flair title. Try and keep this a bit short, you only have 64 characters. 
    • Color: Once this is selected, you can customize the background color. Toggle the section that says background color. After doing so the color options will pull up. Select your color. 
    • Text: This section within this flare color area designates whether your text will be dark on a light background, or your text will be light on a dark background. When selecting this along with your other colors, keep in mind accessibility needs. This must have high contrast so everyone can see it.
    • For mods only: designate that this flare can only be used by moderators. 
    • Allow users to edit:  This will allow users to change the text of your flare. If you have enabled emojis this will also be an option.
      • You can absolutely restrict how much leeway they have. You can restrict it so that all they can edit is emojis, text, or both. You can even set a limit on the number of emojis.
    • The final option is to add CSS  formatting. If you are unfamiliar with that, this resource could help.
      • That resource not only covers adding formatting to it but also setting up filters for each flare, it also shows how to make clickable buttons in the sidebar for each filter. There is a simpler way and we will go over that soon.

User flairs to identify trusted users, or just add personality.

This will be a small notation next to the poster or commenter’s username.

  • While still in mod tools, go back to ‘look and feel’.
  • Select ‘user Flair’s
  • Toggle on flair
  • (Optional) Toggle ‘let users assign and edit’ on
    • This allows community members to choose and apply their flair to their post.
      • If you do not turn this on and you want these flairs to be used, you are the one responsible for assigning them to each user.
  • Follow all of the steps above for 9. Custom post flairs -> Activating 

FAQ post or wiki covering common questions

While neither of these are necessary, we’re going to pretend they are. If you have your wiki setup with everything you need on it or at minimum a post or two explaining everything users need to know, it’s going to be a lot easier to redirect questions to that post or that wiki rather than re-answering them time after time after time again.

Some aspects of a wiki that we would recommend:

  • Your very first page should be your index. This is going to link to all other wiki pages, and any other important external links that must be seen.
  • If you are requiring verification, you need to have a fully written out comprehensive verification wiki page to help people understand what they need to do. This can help reduce the amount of incorrect verification attempts that you receive. It’s not going to end it, but it will help reduce it for sure.
  • You could absolutely dedicate a page to the subreddits journey or it’s growth or its morals or values or themes. People are joining the subreddits for the thematic content. Lean into that.
  • If you do have a public list of banned users, it would be a great idea to slap a page in the wiki with that list.
  • Definitely consider a frequently asked questions page. This can cover just about everything:
    • Formatting
    • Allowed posts
    • Mention of any restrictions users might come across such as a karma limit.
      • It is entirely up to you if you disclose the amount of karma or account age or any other account requirements that a user must meet before engaging. Multiple selling subs do not provide that information to protect against scammers, that being said multiple due. Very many general NSFW subs do and then there are those who don’t as well. There are pros and cons to each side. It is going to be up to you to decide what you are going to disclose.
    • How and why to contact the moderators. Such as reporting harassment, or how to inquire about why a post did not go up.
    • What steps a user should take in the case of unwanted messages comments etc.
    • A great idea for NSFW subs is to include a section on how users can protect themselves and their privacy, and their intellectual property.

Rules and Policies

Comprehensive rules including:

  • Prohibited content:
    • items and services advertised or requested (for a marketplace)
    • Media, keywords, etc
    • If you are running a NSFW sub, please please include in your rules in this section that even if an image is completely SFW, no minors are permitted in any imagery or video. If you miss anything that contains this, and Reddit catches it, the poster, the subreddit, and your account are at serious risk. If you do not have anything stated on your sub, that either specifies this, or specifies the below bullet point, you have a harder chance of fighting any actions taken by the admins.
  • In your rules you absolutely should list the requirement that all users follow reddit’s rules, content policy, etc and never post anything in violation of those rules. Users posting violations on your sub does not only affect that user. It runs the risk of the mod team losing the sub, and even losing their accounts.. 
  • Required information:
    • in listings, ads, or request (for a marketplace)
      • Such as a request post must include multiple sections such as services needed, budget, specific requests, payment method etc 
    • or required information in all posts / per post flair
      • This could look like age, gender, etc
  •  Pricing transparency requirements (for a marketplace)
  • Age Verification requirements (mainly for a marketplace, unless required with verification)
  • Verification requirements (optional)
    • This should include a breif outline of the steps the user needs to take to verify, You can absolutely include the steps in full in your wiki in your verification page. But it would be helpful to give a short concept of what to expect. At bare minimum, you must have it listed that users must verify if you are requiring that. If people continually post without verification, and you don’t have that listed anywhere very public and very open, it does kind of fall on you the extra work you are having to do.
  • How to handle disputes (for a marketplace),
  • Privacy protection standards
    • Such as outlined and set out rules and enforcement of violation for things like doxing, etc.
  • Consequences for rule violations
    • You absolutely should have these written out somewhere. And available to users. This prevents any user from being able to say well, I didn’t know there would be a consequence, I know for certain it was a rule, therefore I shouldn’t get in trouble. Please hear me out on this, you want to be as transparent as possible on all the rules and all of the consequences. I am currently helping moderate 21 subreddits. Believe me when I tell you, the arguments will come, and you will want to pull your hair out, so minimizing any potential for excuses will definitely help.

Verification process for sellers/buyers to establish trust

  • It is entirely up to you if you are going to require verification on your sub. If you choose to do so, please understand that most verification processes are manual. That is unless you partner with another subreddit that is made for verification such as r/imreal or r/letsverify.
  • Your verification requirements must be crystal clear, comprehensive and cohesive. That is of course unless you want to be answering a million questions everyday about verification. Which you don’t, I promise. Some very common requirements look like: 
  • The dreaded pictures. I have completed over a hundred verifications now between my two accounts. So I have a very strong understanding of the general requirements and some of the ones more unique to NSFW subs. Now every subreddit is going to request different specifics to fit their needs. So make this your own process, that knocks out all the details you need to have confidence in your posters and commenters.
    • In most pictures there is a sign required that is crumpled, flattened back out (to fight digital manipulation and cat fishing)
      • That sign is often required to have the username of the user, the subreddit name, and the date the verification is submitted.
    • In regards to the person holding the sign, one of the biggest rules is that their hand holding the sign must be in the image in full. That helps ensure that nobody is forcing them in that picture and holding that sign up for them. It’s definitely not perfect, but it is a step.
    • When it comes to requiring photos of users for verification it’s important to take into account and respect those who are faceless. If they never post their face in their content, as verifying moderators we don’t need to see it either. Most subreddits will get around that by requiring either up to your chin, or up to your nose.
    • We then see most common at least two (or more) photos taken from two different angles showing as much of the creator as possible.
      • It is entirely your choice whether or not you require or allow nudity in verifications. You absolutely do have the right to require that if you are a NSFW sub that allows nudity to be posted.
        •  Allow me to just speak for people like me, I do not post nudity publicly anywhere that is not paid. So if I see your sub requires nudity in a verification, I move on. And so do very very very very many others. And I even specifically teach others to not verify if they are in any way uncomfortable with nudity being given for free for any reason. For many many people that is a violation of their set limits and boundaries. That being said, if you are unable to tell if that person in your modmail is the same as the one on the account without seeing their boobs or their crotch, that is your right to enforce.
    • It is almost always a requirement for verification photos that they are not altered or digitally changed in any manner. That is to help fight AI, deep fakes, things along those lines. 
    • The overall goal of these photos is to be able to cross-reference it with the content on the actual account itself. This is helping you make sure that the person that is in all of those posts, is also the person who is coming to you in modmail.
  • You should also include locations where a user can upload their content to then pass along to you. Be so sure you clarify to them that any verification album must be left up forever. And that it must be accessible without having to request access.
    • Commonly used are: Imgur (SFW only), Redgifs (allows both), Google Drive, Dropbox (the final two both allow NSFW and SFW)
    • Once again, be certain to let them know there should be three things they make so sure about their albums. It needs to be private, it needs to be completely accessible to the team without having to log in or request access, and it can never be removed.
  • If you are requiring age verification, You need to decide the process for how you will determine the accuracy of the user’s age. We generally look at the following two options, though there are others:
  • A link to the users adult content website in which they are fully verified as a content creator, not just as a user. Most adult content sites do not verify their users. Do not ever rely on that.
    • Common site that are used and accepted for verification purposes are:
      • ManyVids
      • Fansly
      • ExtraLunchMoney
      • IWantClips
      • SextPanther
      • Streamate
      • MyFreeCams
      • Camsoda
      • Youporn
      • Adultwork
      • Onlyfans
      • LoyalFans
  • Some teams do accept a heavily redacted government issued identification document that does include the birth date.
    • Most teams will request all information to be fully redacted except:
    • The date of birth 
    • The user’s image on the document. Now we come into some issues here because there are many faceless creators. For those, just as above some workarounds are given, and that usually includes redacting everything in the document image above the nose.
  • Be sure to tell users where to submit verification. Many many users are either just brand new to the community, or they are brand new to the platform entirely.
    • I will be honest I haven’t seen some teams say to send verification through DMs. That is an immediate no for me. That tells me that there’s likely not as much understanding of running the subreddit as there could be, or a very large lack of organization.
    • Best practices is to always keep every single thing in modmail. If it has to do with moderation it should be in modmail. It’s easier to keep a permanent running record, and if things go south, admins will be better able to assist moderating teams if everything is in moderating spaces.
  • You should also include any time constraint expectations users should generally expect for hearing back from you. This does not have to be a hard and fast timeline, you can give estimates. In fact I highly suggest giving estimates or a well stretched range.
  • If a user is struggling with subreddit verification, here are a few resources that could help:

Moderation Infrastructure

Reliable co-moderators to help manage the community

  • This is likely going to take you some networking to do so. If you have friends on Reddit currently utilize them if they are willing. But:
    • You are going to very much so want somebody with some experience. The back end in moderation of Reddit is maybe not necessarily terribly hard to grasp, but she’s a fickle beast and she can throw some serious curve balls. Having someone on your team who has knowledge and experience is going to save your butt.
  • If you have not had the chance to network or have not been able to locate any other potential moderators, there are other options.
    • If you are already seeing some traffic on your sub, consider pinning a post at the top on your highlighted post saying you’re looking for a moderator.
      • I highly highly highly suggest screening them before adding anyone to anything. Get a concept of who they are and their ability and their experience and their time constraints.
    • If you want to skip over that you can always attempt a post in r/needamod
  • Aspects to consider when choosing a moderator:
    • Do their time zones assist with yours. For example, if I am PST, I’m going to want someone with a different time zone so that someone is awake watching as often as possible. To reduce the need for this I highly suggest auto moderator.
    • Do their overall morals and values as a community leader align with yours and the communities itself?
    • Do you think that when the shit hits the fan and you have users screaming you down, do you think that this person that you are considering will back you up, and be a good teammate in that moment of stress.
    • Has this person had any experience moderating at all.
    • Do they have any knowledge or understanding of Reddit’s UI and the moderation back end.
    • And honestly this is a really big one, because once the sub grows you are going to be spending a lot of time with these teammates. So, do you like this person enough to spend a lot of your free, unpaid, time with.

AutoModerator configuration with rules for:

  • Removing posts that violate content requirements
  • Filtering potentially problematic content
  • Enforcing karma, account age, or other user requirements.
  • Preventing spam and scams
  • There is genuinely so much more you can do with automod this could be a whole resource on AutoMod, here’s the deal I’m going to be up front. I don’t know Jack diddly about it. What I do know is very smart people with very awesome abilities who set this up for me a few times. Dig into those linked resources for more info.

Moderation tools like:

  •  Mod Tools (Native in Reddit Desktop)
    • Why: This is your command center. Used for:
      • Editing rules
      • Managing banned users
      • Setting post requirements
      • Accessing mod queue
      • Configuring subreddit look & feel
        Tips: Always use desktop for this, it’s way more functional than mobile.
  • AutoModerator (Essential)
    • Why: This is your first line of defense. It runs automated actions based on post content, flair, account age, karma, and more. Use for:
      • Removing posts missing required info (like age or verification)
      • Blocking specific keywords (like Telegram scams or spam phrases)
      • Auto-approving verified users
      • Auto-responding with reminders or rules
    • Setup: Takes time to configure, but once dialed in, it reduces your daily lift by 80%.
    • Resource: Reddit AutoMod full guide
  • Toolbox Extension (Browser Add-on for Mods)
    • Why: Adds a ton of power-user features not available natively. Use for:
      • Bulk user banning
      • Pre-set removal reasons
      • Fast access to user histories
      • Tagging users with internal mod notes
    • Install: Available for Chrome and Firefox. Toolbox GitHub
    • Enables super clean moderation without bouncing in and out of threads.

System for reviews or reports

This will primarily be seen in selling communities and marketplaces, however, every single sub of every single theme of any kind of content is going to have users who are not great. There will be reports and that’s almost a guarantee. No matter what kind of subreddit you run.

  • Multiple subreddits have user ban lists that are public to help protect everybody else.
    • If a user is reported to your subreddit for inappropriate behavior, scamming, you name it, you have an option to create a public list sharing the names of everybody who has been reported and found to be in violation.
      • If you choose to have this list and publicize it, you must make sure you’re dispute processing system is on point. You’re going to have a lot of people very mad at you. Because this is people’s literal income, which they pay their rent with, and also some people’s only access or only opportunity for these kind of NSFW experiences. You will get blow-back. Make sure your dispute processing is airtight so that nobody can argue it. They still will, but you will be correct.
    • A lesson we are pulling from r/FetishBuyersCommunity: lock any post with a very negative review or a scam report. This is going to prevent the person who Is being reported from just comment blasting that post, either from the reported account or any alternatives they have, and saying horrible things about the reporter, the community, etc.
      • Understand this, you will have members in modmail ripping into you if they are being penalized for scamming, or even minor rule breaks. They will come in saying horrific things. We just witnessed that today and it resulted in two global bans from over ~30 subs each. Here’s the thing y’all, you’re going to want to say shit back. Lord knows I do. It takes every ounce of my self control to not snap back and say you are the dumb ass who scammed or violated the rules and disrespected the community. Do not do that though. Because when you are in modmail, you are representing your subreddit and the platform. And you must maintain the moderator code of conduct which we linked above. You have to keep your head. Keep the high road, and remember that any sub they get banned from, will cause harm to their account. But you let your mouth run wild and you get reported in modmail, that causes harm to your account and your sub.
        • Something I know one moderator does because they also have a little bit of a hard time maintaining that perfect professionalism while being screamed at over modmail, is to utilize AI. If they get to the point where they cannot word the things they need to word appropriately and professionally, they plug in what needs to be explained, and base their response off the AI response.
  • It is crucially important that you do not only host these reviews and these reports only on the sub. We just recently watched r/FetishScammers go down overnight. Sellers depended on that sub. It kept us safe physically, financially and mentally. Thankfully, our team was prepped up enough that there were backups of everything. And more community members chipped in to help get what we did not have backed up. If we had not had that already, years and years of crucial safety information would have been gone.

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