Read The Rules

The hardest task for mods is to get users to Read The Rules . My app makes it easier for users to Read The Rules and holds them accountable for doing so. No more, "I didn't know I couldn't do that."

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Inspiration

I was inspired to create Read The Rules when a colleague said "I wish we could put the rules in front of users face before they post." From that point I knew that the best use of Devvit was going to be with facilitating users to Read The Rules.

What it does

At its most basic, Read The Rules makes reading easier for users by providing a clean and interactive portal into the subreddit's rules. Features such as Mod Message and Images for Rules allow moderators to add sorely needed context to their rule sets. The Pin The Rules feature puts the interactive experience front and center by making it the first post people see so no one can miss it.

That said, Read The Rules is so much more powerful. For communities plagued with people posting rule breaking content, mods can choose to force their users to confirm they have read the rules by submitting a simple acknowledgement. Users that failed to Read The Rules will have their posts removed, but can have them auto restored by simply reading the rules and confirming they have done so.

Moderators are in control! The User Management feature allows moderators to lookup users to view their acknowledgement, revoke it, or set it manually. Several exceptions and whitelists can be set so that users with good history don't have their posts removed by accident:

  • Karma Exceptions (subreddit or sitewide)
  • Account Age Exceptions
  • Exemptions for Approved Users List
  • Username Whitelist
  • User Flair Whitelist
  • Grace Period Mode

The app is able to take proactive actions if mods so choose, such as automatically adding users to the Approved Users List after they Read The Rules (useful for restricted communities). User flairs can be assigned automatically for users that Read The Rules. Banned users are required to Read The Rules again before they can post after their ban is lifted.

Moderators are able to customize the app visually as well with 30 themes to choose from (light and dark mode supported for all of them). You can also set custom post titles, custom Mod Messages, and include images and animations within the rules themselves. This app expands rules to a level never before seen on Reddit.

How we built it

I actually built the first version of Read The Rules over a year ago. All it did was show rules and allow an acknowledgement to be set. It was honestly a terrible user experience. Rules rendered within a Devvit form that didn't even support markdown for multiple lines. The Devvit form doesn't support required fields for booleans so users had a hard time realizing they needed to toggle the "I agree" checkbox.

For the Hackathon, I decided to give it the love it needed and expand it into the powerhouse it is today. I created an interactive experience using Devvit Web and a Custom Post. I utilized Blocks app configuration settings so I can group settings into useful sections. Redis handles everything except the settings.

Since this is an established app I have marked the new features as Beta Mode in the settings. I will ask for at least 3 months for communities to submit feedback before removing the Beta Mode label. Despite the label, the features are fully build in accordance to the hackathon rules.

Challenges we ran into

The biggest challenge was incorporating all the custom features that subreddits were asking for. Since every community is different I needed to support a variety of customizations and make them all work together without conflicts. It took many hours of testing and rebuilding to get them to work successfully.

The custom themes were a challenge as well since I am not much of a front-end developer. However, I was not about to force a bright theme on communities that go through the trouble of darkening their subs so I committed to the customization.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I am proud that over 750 communities across Reddit rely on various versions of the app. 150+ have already upgraded to the new versions I made for the hackathon. Reception for the update has been positive.

It warms my heart when I get messages such as the following:

"Your application is much appreciated in my Subreddit."

"I love your app."

"How the hell did you do this??? :0 It's incredibly creative, but.. HOW???? WHAT IN THE WITCHCRAFT IS THIS?"

What we learned

I learned so much about front-end programming doing this app that I am now much more comfortable designing the UI for websites than ever. I dread the UI side much less now, lol.

Also, I learned a lot about how moderators interact with their communities. I had to balance out the moderator needs for customization with the communities' need for clarity and simplicity. These needs don't always go hand in hand so balance and tradeoffs need to be considered at almost every step of the process.

What's next for Read The Rules

The future of Read The Rules will evolve as Devvit evolves. My primary purpose will be to eliminate pain points imposed by the limitations of Devvit itself. At the same time I wish to bring more features such as Video support, humanity checks to prevent bots from acknowledging rules automatically, and MORE CUSTOMIZATION!!!

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