Using the right words: How to write rules that users understand

Howdy all, u/fashionborneslay here with another post in our Mod Topics series!. Today we are going to talk about rules and how to write them so that they are understandable.

Every moderator has been there and every moderator has wondered what makes rules great and what makes them easy to follow within their subreddit. Making them long and over explaining them can cause users to not want to read them or maybe they might understand what you are trying to convey. Less can be more in these situations.

Writing rules can be time consuming and hard if everyone on the team isn’t on the same page. Sometimes, being simple in your wording works best especially if the subreddit is for silly purposes like memes that may not take itself so seriously. If you are wanting to run a more serious or strict subreddit then rules with more explanation may be needed. It’s all about how you and your team can align to make the load easier. 

When crafting your rules, you have options to create a name, a description, an (optional) custom report reason, and note whether it applies to comments, posts, or both.

https://preview.redd.it/4cssi4tzhzwg1.png?width=1968&format=png&auto=webp&s=89910b5266ba6b6c90ffd02fd355e34ff3d0b1b9

• Your rules names and the full descriptions live in your sidebar or on the subreddit about page on Mobile, this is where users go when they want to learn more about the norms of the community. It’s helpful for these rules to be descriptive, and provide any extra context needed. 
  • Tip: keeping your descriptions direct and concise can remove ambiguity. 
• By default the "Name" is also seen by users when reporting. It’s helpful to use custom report reasons to keep those short and describe the kind of content you’re looking to remove to make that decision easier for that reporting user.
  • Protip: Write your report reason as if the user has never read your full rules.
• Tl;dr: “post about cats” is the rule name, “post does not include a cat” is the report reason, and “please ensure the primary focus of all posts is about cats” can be the description. 

To see more on editing rules check out our Help Center Article.

There’s many ways to run a community and finding that balance that makes rules easy to follow but also allows enforcement amongst your team. How do you and your team come up with rules that suit the community? How do you scale your rules as your community grows and expands?