I think this misses why subreddits work. I have seen subs with very inactive mods and ill-defined subreddit rules still flourish. This is because most content

I think this misses why subreddits work. I have seen subs with very inactive mods and ill-defined subreddit rules still flourish. This is because most content is self-policing by upvotes. Downvoted post dies in new so trolls know they can't reach a large audience. It's actually kind of amazing how quickly can newcomers can learn and adapt to the implicit rules and begin reinforcing it on others. This does lead to problems when a smaller sub gets brigaded by a larger ones (or ends up on /r/all) and the original community can't outvote the outsiders.