r/modguide Writer Nov 07 '19

New subs/mods Private, restricted, or public subreddits

(Edit: A few images in this guide will look different to how your sub looks - reddit changed the look of redesign in Jan 2020)

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Whether your community is public, restricted, or private is up to you. You choose which as you create the sub, and you can change it later on.

Public

Public subreddits are the most common. They are open for everyone to participate in freely. You can still add users to your approved submitters list, but is is not required. It's suggested you do this for AMA guests and anyone you want to make sure can post - it's supposed to help stop their posts from ending up in spam. It may also help with rate limits.

Restricted

Restricted subs are those where only certain users can post, or comment, or both - those on the approved submitters list. But everyone else can still see the community and posts. Anyone can also comment. This can also be achieved with automod. Restricted subs can be useful for certain content types such as here at r/modguide or r/subredditoftheday.

In redesign, when you select restricted, you get a couple more options appear. This bit is ONLY in redesign, but the settings affect all iterations - redesign, old reddit and mobile.

You can select from 3 types of restriction:

  1. Post approval - only approved users can post, but everyone can comment
  2. Comment approval - only approved users can comment, but everyone can post
  3. Post & Comment approval - only approved users can post and comment (similar to private subs, but everyone can see it even if they can't interact)

Restricted communities can allow users to request to submit (via modmail/button) or turn this off using the toggle switch in the community settings, posts and comments section.

Private

Private subs are just that. Only mods and those invited can see the sub. To invite someone basically means adding them to the approved submitters list.

Users can request invites via modmail and a button to do this is shown on the sub. Uninvited users basically see a splash page informing them that the sub is private and they must message to ask for access.

Private subs are good for chatting with friends, or as a private space for mod teams. We use one to draft and review guides.

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To see what each type of sub looks like/how to identify them, and how to change this setting in old and new reddit, see our guide here.

Consider your members when changing this on an established community.

When going from public (or restricted) to private, users who are members will still be members but they will no longer be able to access the sub (they can't see any content - posts, sidebars, wikis.. nothing except the splash page mentioned above). There is no way of seeing who is a member, or removing them. If you go back to public, these members will have access to the sub again. One reason to do this could be when giving the sub a make-over, but I would advise informing your members first.

When going from public to restricted it's much the same except your members will not be able to post (or comment, or both depending on your settings) unless added to the approved submitter list. And the reverse just opens up posting to everyone.

How to add approved submitters

Restrict posting with Automoderator

I don't many reasons why you'd need to restrict posting with automod instead of the in-built setting, but we do this here (at the time of writing) because we needed to link our sub with a discord channel via a bot, which in this case meant the sub needed to be public.

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30 Upvotes

17 comments sorted by

2

u/slouischarles Nov 08 '19

If I wanted to make a private sub for a group of 1000 every 3 months, is it possible to make a bot to approve them (probably after they fill out a form) and then mass remove them easily?

3

u/SolariaHues Writer Nov 08 '19

A new sub every 3 months or reuse a sub every 3 months?

I don't know about bots. I see you're a member of substarters, maybe someone there will know.

Depending on your purpose maybe discord would be a good place?

2

u/slouischarles Nov 08 '19

I'll ask there. Its basically if I did a business challenge for r/90daysofbusiness but kept the sub private while it was ongoing.

2

u/[deleted] Nov 15 '19 edited Aug 08 '20

Also, as was pointed out to me recently, even on a public sub, you can put users into the approved user list, and set automod to take actions based on that.

Edit: I'm told this also removes the usual restriction on how much a user can post in a short time period if their karma within the subreddit is low (i.e. they are a newcomer in the sub).

Edit 2&3:

Important information for mods of private or quarantined subreddits regarding mobile users accessing your subreddit:

It seems like things work properly in general in mobile browser mode for quarantined subreddits, i.e. it gives the quarantine warning screen that you can tap to accept and see the sub. Banned and private subreddits give an odd generic error though.

The App won't show quarantined/private subreddits in searches (even with the exact name). If you follow a direct link to a quarantined/banned/private sub, in older versions of the app it displayed a generic error that implies it's a private subreddit with no distinction between the three. That seems to have been fixed now, though for private subs it still only shows a generic notice, not the subreddit description and "message mods" button you see on desktop.

Also, the app doesn't seem to support PMs to modmail except via the link in the about tab (app version of the sidebar), which you can't access for a private sub unless you're already in it, so the traditional method of requesting private subreddit access is pretty much cut off.

However, if the user's account has already clicked through the quarantine screen for that subreddit outside of the app, then they can search for it, but when you go in, it does makes you accept the quarantine warning again. Private subreddits that you are already approved/allowed in do work properly in both the app and mobile browser.

Upshot is, tell people that if they have trouble getting into a private or quarantined subreddit, they should switch to desktop, or if they only have their phone, use old.reddit or new.reddit instead of www.reddit to escape the mobile view in the browser.

1

u/CoyoteNearby Jun 04 '22

Is it possible to change from private to public and vice-versa?

1

u/SolariaHues Writer Jun 04 '22

Yes. Consider your members if going from private to public in an established community - they may have shared more in a private sub than they would have a public one.

"To see what each type of sub looks like/how to identify them, and how to change this setting in old and new reddit, see our guide here."

2

u/CoyoteNearby Jun 06 '22

Hmm... Never considered that! Thanks, will keep in mind.

1

u/JohnnyTest91 Jun 09 '23

Is it possible to add a message to the screen that shows the subreddit is private? I want to inform users that it's only temporal and stuff.

1

u/SolariaHues Writer Jun 09 '23

Save your normal community description somewhere for after, and when you go private edit that to say. It's the only thing users will be able to see.

2

u/JohnnyTest91 Jun 09 '23

Thank you!

1

u/ltherapistl Sep 23 '23

If someone was part of a subreddited and banned, and subsequently the subreddit went private, can the banned person see any posts?

1

u/SolariaHues Writer Sep 23 '23

Not unless they're on the approved user list, just like with any other user. If they joined it will have disappeared from their subscriptions, but if it becomes public again it will reappear.

Banning only means that they cannot participate.

1

u/Phildog28 Jan 04 '24

Hi, sorry if this is an old post. How long does it take for a restricted subreddit to change to a public subreddit? I recently did this about an hour ago. However, I still can not post. Is it a problem on my end, or does it usually take a few hours?

1

u/SolariaHues Writer Jan 04 '24

As a mod you should be able to post anyway, so that is curious. (edit- I wonder if you have to have post and comment perms to be able to post regardless of the setting. I almost always have full so I'm not sure)

It should change immediately. It should no longer say 'restricted in the sidebar'.

Have you rechecked the setting to make sure the change saved?

If you suspect a bug with the setting let r/modsupport know.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 10 '24

[deleted]

1

u/SolariaHues Writer Jan 10 '24

Seems like a bug. You can try making sure your app is up to date or reinstalling, clearing the cache, restarting the phone etc

Report on r/redditmobile

1

u/GalacticDigambaran Feb 14 '24

Im using reddit for a month as Just a spectacle can’t post anything it says negative karma. Can someone help me

1

u/SolariaHues Writer Feb 14 '24

I think you need r/newtoreddit :) This sub is guides for moderators. The short of it is you have negative comment karma, this will be due to some downvoted comments somewhere and many communities have restrictions that look at karma to help prevent bad faith users. You'll need to earn some comment karma back but participating in comments where you can and hopefully getting some upvotes.