Our sub grew to 10k with steady growth. The main reason was strong interest from teenagers and offering something new. We gave more freedom in language and content, allowed broader discussion, and avoided unnecessary bans. At the same time, we built a few GCs and a Discord, and focused on neutral moderation. We removed hate where needed, except when discussions were backed by data.

India has one of the largest digital user bases in the world, so naturally a big share of our audience comes from there. Currently about 60 % of our views are from India, 35 % from the United States, and the remaining 5 % mostly from the UK, Bangladesh, and Pakistan.

We also removed predators whenever we identified them. Earlier there had been no permanent bans related to teens, and so far only two permanent bans overall. On the moderation side, we built a diverse team of 26 moderators from different parts of India, along with Indians living abroad, to keep decision making decentralized.

Meritocracy is a key principle of our sub, and the credit for strengthening this approach goes to my second mod. Apart from a few senior mods, moderator positions now change based on contribution. Mods who are inactive are removed, which keeps a healthy flow of new moderators coming in. We have also focused on bringing in genuinely good moderators who do not create unnecessary personal ego issues in moderation, with only two exceptions who were later removed.

We reached 10k. It’s a 4 month old sub that became public 3 months ago.