Reddit apparently wants to show moderators some love amid sitewide disconnect. The platform has announced a new rewards program to acknowledge moderators who offer helpful advice to other moderators.
The Moderator Rewards Program is a tiered system that rewards moderators with trophies and special flair for their helpfulness in answering questions from other moderators. As you earn comment karma from your helpful replies, you will progress through the tiers and receive trophies and flair that reflect your level of moderator expertise and helpfulness.
The moderator support team writes in the announcement post:
Reddit can be a complex place for newbie and expert Mods alike, and the knowledge you share with each other here is incredibly powerful. The Mod Helper Program is a new system that awards helpful Mods with level-specific trophies and flair based on comment karma in r/ModSupport. This will both recognize Mods who are particularly helpful and reliable sources of knowledge for their fellow Mods, all with the goal of celebrating your support of each other and fostering a culture in this community where mods readily collaborate and learn from one another.
Starting August 24th, your comment karma in r/ModSupport will earn you trophies and special flairs. Trophies showcase your contributions and signal your expertise to other mods. The trophies update monthly, and you"ll keep them until you reach the next level. The first trophies will appear in October later this year. Your Special Flair, like "Helper" or "Expert Helper," is based on your current comment karma and updates automatically as you level up.
In addition, Reddit has also introduced a new Modmail Answer Bot, which auto-responds with “several links to Help Center articles that may help answer your question”. If the bot gets it wrong, you can respond with “more help” and it will create a ticket that will be handled by a human admin.
Reddit is also merging the Mod Help Center with the existing Help Center “to ensure that all of our support resources are easy to find and accessible from the same location.”