How to work Needs Review, Reported, Removed, and related queues — and when to attach a removal reason.

SubMouse Editorial guide — independent and not affiliated with Reddit. Steps cite public Reddit Help pages; menu labels can change.

Scope and boundaries

This guide is an operator how-to for working Reddit’s moderation queues. It assumes you already have Posts & Comments (or equivalent) permission.

For a plain overview of what moderators can and cannot do, see Reddit moderators explained. This page is for moderators clearing the queue day to day.

Where the queues live

Per Moderation Queue Help: find the queue in community mod tools, or via the left-hand Mod Queue entry. On the apps, Help describes the side menu Moderating section → Queues. Old Reddit still exposes moderation tools in the community sidebar.

Multi-community mods can use the community selector to view one, several, or all moderated communities in a combined queue (new Reddit Help wording).

Queue types

Needs Review — central list of items needing mod attention, including reports and filtered content. Help notes spam-filter removals go to the removed/spam-style queue rather than lingering only in Needs Review.
Reported — user-reported posts/comments that are still visible in the community listings; Help calls this important to prioritize.
Removed — content already removed; still accessible to the mod team. Help warns not to approve from here unless you are sure the removal was a mistake.
Edited — items that were edited after posting.
Unmoderated — posts that have not yet received a mod action. Help says most teams do not need to clear this; posts can be visible without manual approval unless filtered or spammed.

Filters and sorts (community, content type, oldest/newest/most reported, card vs compact) are documented on the same Help page. Keyboard shortcuts can be enabled from the queue menu on desktop.

Approve, remove, spam

Approve — restores filtered/spam-removed visibility when appropriate, or clears a report while leaving content up if it does not break rules. Help describes a moderator-only green tick after approve.
Remove — takes the item out of community listings and delists it more broadly; visitors via direct link see a removed notice, while mods can still see it in removed views.
Spam — removes and marks as spam so the spam filter can learn, nested under mod actions in card view on new Reddit.

Help’s standing note: if something is merely unpopular and not a rule break, letting votes handle it is often better than removing. Ignore reports + approve is the documented path when reports are wrong but you want the item to stop reappearing in queue.

Bulk actions exist (checkboxes / select-all patterns). Prefer bulk only when the same clear decision applies to every selected item.

Removal reasons and saved responses

After a remove in card view, Help describes a removal-reason control on the action bar. Saved Responses Help (updated 2026-10-08) covers creating reusable messages categorized for general, removals, bans, or mod mail (up to the documented limits), optionally tied to a community rule.

When applying a reason you can notify via mod mail or a distinguished comment (from you or the Mod Team), edit the canned text, and leave an internal mod note. Help states removal comments are locked from replies by default unless you change that option.

Suggested removal reasons may appear based on your saved removal responses; Help says you can still edit or ignore suggestions. Human judgment stays in charge.

Hypothetical triage checklist

Hypothetical shift plan for a mid-size community (illustration only):

Skim Reported first for safety and harassment.
Clear Needs Review filtered items that are obvious false positives or clear rule breaks.
On remove-for-rule-break, attach a removal reason that cites the rule name members already see.
Use Ignore reports + approve only when the content is allowed and reports are noise.
Avoid approving casually from Removed.
Leave Unmoderated alone unless your team’s policy is full review.

Related on SubMouse

Conceptual mod powers → article Reddit moderators explained.
Writing the rules your removal reasons point at → guide Writing subreddit rules.
User report/block/mute tools → guide Report, block, and mute.

Sources

Primarily Reddit Help: Moderation Queue (updated 2026-10-06) and Saved Responses / Removal Reasons (2026-10-08), plus Moderation Tools overview. SubMouse Editorial is not Reddit for Community and is unaffiliated with Reddit.

Reddit Help sources

Moderation Queue (Help last reviewed/updated: 2026-10-06)
Saved Responses (includes Removal Reasons) (Help last reviewed/updated: 2026-10-08)
Moderation Tools - overview (Help last reviewed/updated: n/a)

Reddit mod queue workflow for new moderators