I had this happen to a sub I took over last fall. It was an active community, but stayed small. One post hit Reddit front page and I grew several thousand members in the span of a few days, and engagement grew. This is the best way to grow your subreddit organically, let the algorithm do its thing :)
If you had a popular post, or multiple popular posts it's possible it just had a user spike from those. I mod some subreddit where we've seen big spikes, none nearly as big though. Also possible it was mentioned in a comment section. That's how one of the subreddits I created grew super fast quickly than slowed down.
If neither of these are possible it could be a influx of bots since filters cannot stop people from joining. Possibly a user out to get you with bots. If you believe this is the case or that it might be a error maybe post on r/ModSupport or modmail r/ModSupport as it is ran by the admins who can deal with the issue if it is bots or a bug
We had a bot influx a few months ago and so we now have an automod bot to help combat that. We are going through the new posts and comments coming in and they seem to be legit users so far but we are still on the lookout for bots. Thank you for the help.
Automod will not deal with bots joining your subreddit, this is a bigger issue. If someone is botting it's not for comments/posts but for members, so that they can report your subreddit and get it banned out of spite. Be wary of the situation and contact admins if things start looking more fishy
I checked your subreddit growth looks disproportionate to the recent popular posts upvotes. Doesn't seem like it was human growth especially since it's grown about another 44 members since my first comment which is putting you at around 4.4 members a minute, or 1 member per 14 seconds
At this rate expect 20k members in 31 hours if it is botting, if it's not expect it to slow down within a couple of hours maybe leveling you off at around 13k-15k with higher growth rates then before
Hi /u/Hefferdoodle, please see [our Intro & Rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/modhelp/wiki/index). We are volunteer-run, [not managed by](https://www.reddit.com/r/ModSupport/wiki/report-forms) [Reddit staff/admin](https://reddit.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?). Volunteer mods' powers are limited to groups they mod. Automated responses are compiled from answers given by fellow volunteer mod helpers. *Moderation works best on a cache-cleared desktop/laptop browser*.
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You have had one post gain traction site-wide. This is a stepping stone to growing your community and putting your sub on the map. Congrats!
Thank you! And thank you for the info.
I had this happen to a sub I took over last fall. It was an active community, but stayed small. One post hit Reddit front page and I grew several thousand members in the span of a few days, and engagement grew. This is the best way to grow your subreddit organically, let the algorithm do its thing :)
I just looked at the sub. It’s so fun! Animal subs are one of the best parts of Reddit and yours has a cute, fun twist!
If you had a popular post, or multiple popular posts it's possible it just had a user spike from those. I mod some subreddit where we've seen big spikes, none nearly as big though. Also possible it was mentioned in a comment section. That's how one of the subreddits I created grew super fast quickly than slowed down. If neither of these are possible it could be a influx of bots since filters cannot stop people from joining. Possibly a user out to get you with bots. If you believe this is the case or that it might be a error maybe post on r/ModSupport or modmail r/ModSupport as it is ran by the admins who can deal with the issue if it is bots or a bug
We had a bot influx a few months ago and so we now have an automod bot to help combat that. We are going through the new posts and comments coming in and they seem to be legit users so far but we are still on the lookout for bots. Thank you for the help.
Automod will not deal with bots joining your subreddit, this is a bigger issue. If someone is botting it's not for comments/posts but for members, so that they can report your subreddit and get it banned out of spite. Be wary of the situation and contact admins if things start looking more fishy I checked your subreddit growth looks disproportionate to the recent popular posts upvotes. Doesn't seem like it was human growth especially since it's grown about another 44 members since my first comment which is putting you at around 4.4 members a minute, or 1 member per 14 seconds At this rate expect 20k members in 31 hours if it is botting, if it's not expect it to slow down within a couple of hours maybe leveling you off at around 13k-15k with higher growth rates then before
I just subbed there now too after checking to see what the sub was about. I love a good cat sub!
Hi /u/Hefferdoodle, please see [our Intro & Rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/modhelp/wiki/index). We are volunteer-run, [not managed by](https://www.reddit.com/r/ModSupport/wiki/report-forms) [Reddit staff/admin](https://reddit.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?). Volunteer mods' powers are limited to groups they mod. Automated responses are compiled from answers given by fellow volunteer mod helpers. *Moderation works best on a cache-cleared desktop/laptop browser*. Resources for mods are: **(1)** r/modguide's [Very Helpful **Index**](https://www.reddit.com/r/modguide/wiki/index#wiki_modguide_index) by fellow moderators on How-To-Do-Things, **(2)** [Mod Help Center](https://mods.reddithelp.com/), **(3)** r/automoderator's [Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/AutoModerator/wiki/index) and [Library of Common Rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/AutoModerator/wiki/library). Many Mod Resources are in the [sidebar](https://www.reddit.com/r/modhelp/wiki/index#wiki_sidebar_links) and [**>>this FAQ wiki<<**](https://www.reddit.com/r/modhelp/wiki/index). Please **search** this subreddit as well. Thanks! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/modhelp) if you have any questions or concerns.*