Report Guard

Report Guard is a Reddit moderation app that watches reported posts and comments, decides whether the report pattern needs action, and gives moderators a clear modmail record of what happened.

Use it when a subreddit wants fast protection against report pile-ons, heated comment chains, or high-risk reports without making moderators constantly refresh the queue.

Quick Definition

Report Guard answers one moderation question:

"Has this content been reported enough, or seriously enough, that moderators should be alerted or the conversation should be locked?"

It can respond in two ways:

Mode	What Report Guard Does	Best For
lock	Locks the post or comment, then sends modmail.	Communities ready for automatic intervention.
monitor	Sends modmail only. It does not lock content.	New installs, tuning thresholds, or cautious teams.

Feature Map

Feature	Plain-English Purpose	Example
Report thresholds	Act when a post or comment reaches enough reports.	Lock a post at 3 reports or a comment at 2 reports.
High-risk escalation	Act faster when report reasons mention serious terms.	A report containing "doxx" can trigger at 1 report.
Rule-aware alerts	Translate report keywords into likely subreddit rules.	harassment=Rule 1: Be civil appears in modmail.
Thread surge detection	Protect a whole post when multiple comments in it get reported.	3 different reported comments in 30 minutes can lock the parent post.
Monitor-only mode	Test decisions without enforcement.	See what would have locked before enabling locks.
Manual lock and alert	Let a moderator run Report Guard from a post or comment menu.	Lock a thread and send a standardized modmail note.
Unlock reviews	Remind moderators to revisit content after a lock.	Send a review prompt 45 minutes after Report Guard locks a post.
Impact report	Summarize how much work Report Guard handled.	Send modmail with locks, alerts, surges, duplicates skipped, and estimated time saved.

Feature Reference

Report Thresholds

Report thresholds are the basic trigger.

Target	Default Threshold	Meaning
Post	3	A post is eligible for action when it reaches 3 reports.
Comment	2	A comment is eligible for action when it reaches 2 reports.

Example:

Event	Setting	Result
A post has 2 reports.	Post threshold is 3.	No lock. Report Guard records a threshold miss.
A post has 3 reports.	Post threshold is 3.	Report Guard locks or monitors the post.
A comment has 2 reports.	Comment threshold is 2.	Report Guard locks or monitors the comment.

High-Risk Escalation

High-risk escalation lets serious report reasons trigger faster than normal report volume.

Default high-risk keywords:

harassment
threat
violence
doxx
hate
spam

Default high-risk threshold: 1.

Example:

Report Reason	Normal Comment Threshold	High-Risk Threshold	Result
"This is harassment"	2	1	The comment can trigger after 1 matching report.
"Spam bot"	2	1	The comment can trigger after 1 matching report.
"I disagree"	2	1	No high-risk match; normal threshold still applies.

Rule-Aware Alerts

Rule-aware alerts do not change content by themselves. They make the modmail easier to understand by labeling likely subreddit rules.

Mappings use this format:

keyword=Rule label

Example:

harassment=Rule 1: Be civil
doxx=Rule 4: No personal information
spam=Rule 3: No spam

If a report reason contains doxx, the modmail can include:

Likely rules: Rule 4: No personal information

Thread Surge Detection

Thread surge detection watches for several different comments in the same post being reported within a short window.

Default behavior:

Setting	Default
Detect thread surges	on
Reported comment threshold	3
Time window	30 minutes

Example:

1. Comment A in a post gets reported.
2. Comment B in the same post gets reported.
3. Comment C in the same post gets reported.
4. All three reports happen within 30 minutes.
5. Report Guard treats the parent post as a thread surge target.

In lock mode, the parent post can be locked. In monitor mode, moderators receive an alert without a lock.

Monitor-Only Mode

Monitor-only mode is for observing what Report Guard would do.

It still:

• Evaluates reports.
• Applies thresholds.
• Detects high-risk report reasons.
• Detects thread surges.
• Sends modmail alerts when configured.
• Records metrics.

It does not:

• Lock posts.
• Lock comments.
• Schedule unlock reviews, because no lock was applied.

Use monitor-only mode when first installing the app or when changing thresholds.

Lock Mode

Lock mode is the active enforcement mode.

When a post or comment meets the configured rules, Report Guard:

1. Checks whether the target was already handled recently.
2. Locks the post or comment if it is not already locked.
3. Sends a modmail alert if notifications are enabled.
4. Schedules an unlock review if that setting is enabled.
5. Records the action in recent activity and metrics.

Manual Lock And Alert

Moderators can run Report Guard: lock + alert now from a post or comment menu.

The manual action:

• Works even if Report Guard automation is disabled.
• Requires the moderator to have post moderation permissions.
• Opens a form with the target ID already filled in.
• Allows an optional moderator note.
• Allows the moderator to decide whether to send modmail.
• Locks the selected post or comment unless it is already locked or unavailable.

Unlock Reviews

Unlock reviews are follow-up reminders. They do not automatically unlock content.

Default delay: 45 minutes.

When Report Guard locks content, it can schedule a later modmail prompt that asks moderators to review whether the thread has cooled down.

The review prompt includes:

• Target link.
• Author.
• Original lock time.
• Original decision reason.
• Suggested review questions.

Impact Reports

The Report Guard impact report subreddit menu action sends moderators a modmail summary of app activity.

The report includes:

• Current automation mode.
• Reports evaluated.
• Locks applied.
• Monitor alerts.
• Modmail alerts sent.
• Duplicate actions skipped.
• High-risk escalations.
• Thread surges detected.
• Unlock reviews scheduled and sent.
• Estimated moderator time saved.
• Recent decisions.

Settings Reference

General Settings

Setting	Default	Accepted Values	What It Controls
Enable Report Guard	on	on or off	Whether automatic report handling is active.
Automation mode	lock	lock, monitor	Whether Report Guard locks content or only alerts.
Send modmail notifications	on	on or off	Whether actions create modmail notifications.

Threshold Settings

Setting	Default	Accepted Values	What It Controls
Post report threshold	3	Whole number from 1 to 50	Reports required before a post qualifies.
Comment report threshold	2	Whole number from 1 to 50	Reports required before a comment qualifies.
High-risk report threshold	1	Whole number from 1 to 50	Reports required when a high-risk reason matches.

Risk And Rule Settings

Setting	Default	Format	What It Controls
High-risk report keywords	harassment, threat, violence, doxx, hate, spam	One per line or comma-separated	Which report reasons lower the threshold.
Rule-aware escalation map	Default keyword-to-rule mappings	keyword=Rule label	Which rule labels appear in modmail.

Thread Surge Settings

Setting	Default	Accepted Values	What It Controls
Detect thread surges	on	on or off	Whether comment clusters can trigger parent-post action.
Thread surge comment threshold	3	Whole number from 1 to 50	How many different reported comments count as a surge.
Thread surge window minutes	30	Whole number from 1 to 50	How far back to count reported comments for surge detection.

Review And Safety Settings

Setting	Default	Accepted Values	What It Controls
Exempt distinguished content	on	on or off	Whether moderator/admin distinguished content is skipped automatically.
Schedule unlock reviews	on	on or off	Whether Report Guard sends later review prompts after locks.
Unlock review delay minutes	45	Whole number from 5 to 1440	How long to wait before sending an unlock review prompt.

Moderator Actions

Action	Location	What Happens
Report Guard impact report	Subreddit menu	Sends a modmail report with activity and impact metrics.
Report Guard: lock + alert now	Post menu	Opens a form, then locks the post and optionally sends modmail.
Report Guard: lock + alert now	Comment menu	Opens a form, then locks the comment and optionally sends modmail.

Modmail Reference

Report Guard action alerts are meant to answer the most important moderator questions without requiring another click.

Field	Why It Matters
Target link	Opens the post or comment that triggered the action.
Author	Shows whose content was handled.
Signal count	Shows the report count or thread-surge count.
Action	Shows whether Report Guard locked, flagged, monitored, or found content already locked.
Source	Shows whether the event came from a post report, comment report, thread surge, or manual action.
Decision	Explains the rule that caused the action.
Likely rules	Shows matched subreddit rule labels when configured.
Report reasons	Shows available user and moderator report reasons.
Settings snapshot	Captures the settings used at decision time.
Manual note	Includes moderator-entered context for manual actions.

Impact Metrics

Report Guard tracks activity so moderators can see whether the app is reducing repeated work.

Metric	Meaning
Reports evaluated	How many report events Report Guard reviewed.
Threshold misses	Reports that did not meet the configured threshold.
Locks applied	Posts or comments Report Guard locked.
Modmail alerts sent	Notifications sent to the moderator team.
Duplicate actions skipped	Repeat events ignored because the target was already handled recently.
Errors handled	Problems that were handled without interrupting the app.
Monitor-only alerts	Decisions that alerted moderators without locking content.
High-risk escalations	Decisions where high-risk report reasons lowered the threshold.
Thread surges detected	Parent-post actions caused by reported comment clusters.
Unlock reviews scheduled	Follow-up review reminders scheduled after locks.
Unlock reviews sent	Follow-up review reminders delivered to moderators.

Estimated time saved is directional. It is meant to show whether the app is reducing moderator effort over time, not to be an exact measurement.

Setup Recipes

Cautious First Install

Use this setup when the team wants to learn how Report Guard behaves before allowing locks.

Setting	Value
Enable Report Guard	on
Automation mode	monitor
Post report threshold	3
Comment report threshold	2
Send modmail notifications	on
Schedule unlock reviews	on

After a few days, review the impact report and adjust thresholds.

Busy Community

Use this setup when report volume is high and moderators want obvious pile-ons locked quickly.

Setting	Value
Automation mode	lock
Post report threshold	3
Comment report threshold	2
Thread surge detection	on
Thread surge comment threshold	3
Thread surge window minutes	30

High-Risk Safety Focus

Use this setup when certain report reasons need immediate moderator attention.

Setting	Value
High-risk report threshold	1
High-risk report keywords	Add terms that match the community's safety policy.
Rule-aware escalation map	Map those terms to the subreddit rules moderators use.
Send modmail notifications	on

Safety Behavior

Situation	What Report Guard Does
App is disabled	Skips automatic action. Manual moderator actions can still run.
Content is below threshold	Records a threshold miss and takes no direct action.
Comment is below threshold	Also updates thread-surge tracking for the parent post.
Content is already locked	Does not lock again; can still notify that it was already locked.
Content is removed, deleted, or missing	Skips safely.
Content is distinguished	Skips automatic action when the exemption is enabled.
Same target reports again	Skips duplicate handling for 7 days after a lock or monitor-only alert.
Monitor-only mode is enabled	Sends alerts only and never locks.
Unlock review fires	Sends a reminder only; it does not unlock content.

Built With

• devvit
• typescript