**Reddit Launches Moderator Rewards Program Amid Sitewide Discontent**

Amid growing discontent among Reddit's moderators, the company has launched a "Mod Helper Program" to reward moderators who offer helpful advice to other moderators. TechCrunch reports: The Mod Helper Program is a tiered system that awards helpful moderators with trophies and flairs. Reddit users accrue karma by receiving upvotes and awards, and lose karma if they receive downvotes. The program rewards moderators who receive upvotes on comments in r/ModSupport. Comment karma earned in r/ModSupport will be rewarded with trophies that will "signal to other mods that you are a source of valuable information," the moderator support team announced on Thursday. Each rank awards unique trophies and flairs, ranging from "Helper" to "Expert Helper." Reddit launched a similar program in r/help earlier this year, which rewards users who accrue karma by responding to other users' requests.

Reddit also launched the Modmail Answer Bot, which automatically responds with relevant links to the site's Help Center. If the recommended articles don't answer a specific request, it will create a ticket that will be handled by a human admin. The bot is designed to streamline moderator requests so the admin team can focus on more complex issues. Additionally, Reddit is merging the moderator-specific Help Center with its sitewide one to ensure that support resources are "easy to find and accessible from the same location."