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Knowledge Base entry

How do you collaborate with admins when serious policy issues arise?

A practical answer page built from the knowledge base source.

FAQ Imported article

Reddit admins are employees of Reddit, Inc. who have platform-wide authority over all subreddits, in contrast to moderators who are volunteers with authority limited to their specific communities. Understanding the boundary between mod authority and admin authority, and knowing when to escalate to admins, is essential for handling the most serious policy issues correctly. The clearest situations that require admin involvement are those involving violations of Reddit's platform-wide rules rather than community-specific rules: content involving child exploitation, doxxing or personal information exposure, threats of real-world violence, coordinated vote manipulation at scale, or accounts that have been compromised and are being used for spam or harm. These are beyond the authority of any individual moderator to address and require the account-level actions — suspensions, IP bans, content removal from the platform — that only admins can execute. The primary channel for contacting admins about serious issues is through the admin contact form or by messaging the official admin subreddits such as r/reddit.com or r/ModSupport. Modmail sent to r/reddit.com is monitored by admins and is the appropriate route for reporting site-wide rule violations, requesting intervention in brigading situations that cross multiple communities, and flagging patterns of coordinated inauthentic behavior that require platform-level investigation. Providing specific, documented evidence — account names, post links, timestamps, and a clear description of the pattern — makes the report actionable and dramatically increases the likelihood of a timely response. For ongoing policy questions — whether a type of community is permitted, how a specific content category should be handled, or what the current admin guidance is on emerging issue types — moderators can consult the official admin documentation, the Moderator Help Center, and resources maintained in r/ModSupport. Establishing a respectful, evidence-based communication style with admins over time, rather than only contacting them in crisis situations, builds a working relationship that serves the community well when serious issues do arise.

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