Subreddit Improvement Proposal (SIP) for r/HongKong: pinned posts, flairs, brainstorming megathreads, request AMAs, surveys, more cultural exchanges, events calendar.

Hey everybody, I’ve been researching decentralized movements for the last few years from cryptos to HK pro-democracy movement, and wrote a bunch of articles about the global digital resistance. The latest article is focused on best Reddit’s practices, because Reddit is essential for decentralized governance, since exposure of the information here depends on the quality and relevance of the content, rather than how many followers an author has.

During major protests and police brutality this sub had lots of newcomers and many online members, but now it’s kind of quiet, so it requires more work to keep members interested in the sub. I’ve decided to list some specific practices from other subreddits that can be implemented at r/HongKong in order to increase engagement, retention, and potentially attract more new users.

Here is a list of some of the suggestions:

(all examples with images and links can be found in the latest article)

1. Two sections “r/HongKong Rules” and “Before you post/ comment” in the sidebar take lots of space, but they basically duplicate each other, so it makes sense to keep only one of them, and use sidebar space for other resources.

2. Pinned posts. Currently there are two pinned posts for a very long time. One of them is a megathread with resources for anti-extradition protests, which is a good onboarding material, and another post is a reminder about 5 demands. Both of this posts are important. However, this limits mods’ ability to pin other posts, because only two posts can be pinned at the same time. A solution can be combining "5 demands" post into "onboarding resources" post, or moving onboarding materials into a dedicated Reddit wiki, which can be places in the top menu. Then mods will be able to pin other posts, which is necessary for many events. Feel free to suggest other solutions.

3. Flairs. Currently there are only 7 flairs available for filtering at the sidebar: Mod Post, Art, Image, Video, News, Offbeat, Add Flair. I’d suggest to add all existing filters to a “Filter by flair” sidebar, or add a button “show more”, which will show the whole list of available flairs. I’d also suggest to add some new flairs like Article, Tourism, Meme. Feel free to suggest other flairs.

4. Brainstorming megathreads can be a good experiment in order to build a better bridge between netizens and on-the-ground HKers. Best suggestions can be discussed, improved and translated to traditional Chinese and posted on LIHKG. Don’t get me wrong, HKers are very smart and creative, but international experience can be very valuable as well. HKers have already implemented many practices from activists in other countries. Brainstorming megathreads can be created and pinned during important events/challenges, or there might be some periodic brainstorming/suggestion threads like Sunday Suggest Anything thread. Periodic events can be listed in “Events Calendar” in a sidebar.

5. Ask Me Anything. AMAs are a great way to increase engagement and bring more people to a sub. Mods can approach activists, journalists, influencers of their choice or add a button to a sidebar like “request an AMA” using Google forms. AMAs are also a good way to inform a public about unfolding events. For example, activists and journalists sometimes approach me with questions about LIHKG, because I’ve written a few pieces about HK decentralized governance. It would be great if people can simply post their questions in this sub and get detailed answers. Periodic AMAs can be held weekly, e.g. Monday Ask Anything HK (MAAHK). Upcoming AMAs can be listed in “Events Calendar” in a sidebar. Feel free to suggest famous people for AMAs.

6. Surveys. Conducting anonymous surveys can increase engagement and attract some attention from news outlets. A survey can be conducted with Google Forms or other third party solutions like Survey Monkey and be presented in a Reddit post. Feel free to suggest questions, dates, and other tools for a survey.

7. Cultural exchange event with r/AskAnAmerican was a great event, so I’d suggest to continue this practice. You can look at the crypto community, which also survives in a highly hostile environment and relies on the decentralized governance with a very complex infrastructure. I’d suggest to negotiate with subs like r/CryptoCurrency (968K members), r/Bitcoin (1.3M members), r/btc (283K members), r/Monero (165K members). Another suggestion is to approach different privacy/security subs like r/privacytoolsIO (73K members) and r/privacy (673K members) because they also advocate for a high privacy. And, of course, subs of other protest movements across the world can be a good fit. Feel free to suggest more subs for the next cultural exchange event and please explain why they would be a good fit.

8. Event calendar. All upcoming events (AMAs, surveys, cultural exchanges, etc.) can be listed in the sidebar.

If you have any other suggestions, let everybody know in the comments.

If you’re interested in decentralized movements, you can also find some practical suggestions and tips in an open-source manual Decentralized Activism.

P.S. Similar Subreddit Improvement Proposals (SIPs) with a different content have been created in other crypto-related or activism-related subs.