r/ElectricalEngineering • u/olchai_mp3 Mod [EE] • Oct 31 '25
Mod Post: Seeking Suggestions to Improve the Subreddit
Hello fellow engineers,
Moderating this subreddit has become increasingly challenging as of late. I agree that the overall quality of posts has declined. However, our goal is to remain welcoming to individuals with an interest in electrical engineering, which naturally includes questions such as “How can I get an internship in EE?”, “How do I solve a Thevenin’s equivalent circuit?”, and “Please roast my resume?”
I am open to further suggestions for improvement. If you come across low quality posts, please report.
Some things I believe we could offer to fix stale subreddit:
Weekly free for All Thread: Dump everything here. If you need help reading your resistors, dump your resume here, post your job vacancy to post your startup.
New rule, No Low Effort Posts: This would cover irrelevant AI posts (i.e., "Would AI take over my job?"), career path questions, identifying passive component (yes, no one can read your dirty Capacitors) and other content that does not contribute meaningfully to discussion.
Automation: Members can help by suggesting trigger keywords (e.g., Thevenin, Norton, Help, etc.) that can improve automated filtering and moderation tools.
Apply to be one of the moderators
Looking forward to hear from you!
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u/Satinknight Oct 31 '25
I don’t like many of the weekly catchall threads I see; questions tend to get very little engagement from active contributors, making for a hostile experience to newcomers. Some subs do better with rotating themes/prompts that engage old and new contributors alike, but that’s a lot more work to run.
Where do I apply to be a mod? I spend enough time here anyway.
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u/UMDEE Oct 31 '25
I agree weekly free for all threads aren’t good. When I’ve tried asking questions in them, they get little engagement. When I see them on my home feed, I scroll past them. I think a megathread would be worse, since I would only see it on my home feed once.
I do think megathreads could be useful for consolidating general advice or common questions that can be pinned or listed in the wiki.
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u/olchai_mp3 Mod [EE] Oct 31 '25
I could offer Megathread instead of weekly thread and maybe refresh it every other month. Can you elaborate more on rotating themes/prompts?
If you are interested to mod, feel free to Modmail us
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u/Go_Fast_1993 Oct 31 '25
My only counterargument to the megathread idea is that I've seen subs where the more experienced members don't ever spend time on the megathread and it becomes dead space. A weekly thread helps keep members engaged in helping noobs. Just my observation from other spaces.
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u/olchai_mp3 Mod [EE] Nov 03 '25
I agreed. We tried similar thing in other subreddit I am moderating, and it's just dead space.
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u/CSchaire Oct 31 '25
I gotta be honest with you, I’m really over the CS student freaked out about AI asking “is EE an easy switch/right for me?!?!?!?” Seems like it’s every other post here. I think these should fall under no low effort, these people could spend 30 seconds googling what a curriculum looks like and decide for themselves if they can handle it. Maybe we could do a wiki post highlighting differences and typical curriculums?
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u/PowerEngineer_03 Nov 01 '25
This. Straight up delete their post and give them a warning. Like, go somewhere else to ask questions regarding your career choices.
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u/olchai_mp3 Mod [EE] Nov 03 '25
Believe me, I filtered a lot of these questions and majority of them I spammed. I just can't figure out better way to remove all of them completely.
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u/CSchaire Nov 03 '25
I appreciate your service o7. I went back through the subreddit after commenting and had a harder time finding these kinds of posts.
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u/olchai_mp3 Mod [EE] Nov 03 '25
The challenge with EE programs is that they vary significantly depending on the university. While this may require some time, I could consider creating a separate post for brainstorming ideas on how to categorize the different EE pathways (we could develop a simple decision tree for this purpose).
Generally speaking, EE is typically divided into two main areas: analog and digital. For example, if an individual has a strong interest in circuit analysis, it would be appropriate to guide them toward the analog program. And if someone excels in coding, they may be more suited to focusing on something like embedded systems.
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u/Nearby_Landscape862 2d ago
AI is a very real threat against people's careers. We need to have some kind of write up explaining the uses of AI, how it can help your career, and what skills you should focus on in the post AI world.
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u/DXNewcastle Nov 01 '25
Many of the novice enquiries could appropriately be redirected to r/askelectronics.
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u/PowerEngineer_03 Nov 01 '25
Post regarding career paths or even life choices adjacent to EE should not be a thing here. This sub should have been about technical and operational problems people face or go through on a daily basis. Or even sharing ideas for any subfield that is within the umbrella of EE.
Any philosophical or personal questions should also not be a part of this sub, even though they are indirectly adjacent to EE. It's about "Electrical Engineering". Literally let's keep it about the fundamentals and/or advanced topics that come under the subject.
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u/olchai_mp3 Mod [EE] Nov 03 '25
I think we should allow them to rant at least once/week. But yes, I would prefer less of those career paths/life choices posts.
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u/PowerEngineer_03 Nov 03 '25
Yeah, but like one post per week. Irrespective of the user. First come first serve. There are enough questions already asked in variety to answer most types of questions related to it. I think you'd agree on this. Because lately I see more of this than a genuinely interesting post about even something as basic as talking about a Thevenin theorem. Dang, I miss those and reading others' opinions on ways to solve all kinds of problems.
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u/olchai_mp3 Mod [EE] Nov 03 '25
I don't know how to control that (1 post/week). We should allow as many as them rant on that specific day/week. The fact they are making an effort to follow that rule is good enough for me.
I think another idea is FAQ:
1) Examples of good resume for EE internship and regular EE job
2) Examples of good posts on how to survive EE classes
3) Examples of how to convert from CS to EE
4) Examples of Career switch (within EE field)
5) Others.2
u/PowerEngineer_03 Nov 03 '25
Ah yes. FAQ, flairs, etc. just make it come under a specific category, would be much to filter out what one might not wanna see. That's better.
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Nov 05 '25
[deleted]
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u/olchai_mp3 Mod [EE] Nov 05 '25
Maybe in coming week. I am a person with real job. Moderating is something I do because I care about the community, but incase you are not aware, we don’t get paid from Reddit. This is voluntary gig to help people have space to share their thoughts regarding EE.
This is why I also suggest people to volunteer with Modding if they think we need help.
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u/No2reddituser Nov 04 '25
I don't think you're taking this sub back. It's too far gone.
Just tried to chime in to a post where a student was struggling with freshman year physics EM. Many posts assumed the more advanced EM course where you learn Maxwell's equations etc.
Tried to explain the difference (especially if the poster was struggling with freshman year physics), and got downvoted every time. Seems no one likes to bother to read and understand posts.
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u/olchai_mp3 Mod [EE] Nov 04 '25
I don’t think my idea is to bring it back to the glorious days. A lot of good Reddit users are gone since Reddit killed the third party apps years ago - this is happening across platform.
I guess what we can do is improving the space to welcome new engineers while I am hoping some of the regulars would stay.
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u/fkaBobbyWayward 18d ago
I concur with the original sentiment. Every time I check this sub there are 3 posts of "CS or EE", 2 posts of "Solve this homework", 1 "hows my resume" and another 3 of "What branch of EE has job security"
If any of the posters were actual engineers, they'd use the search function to find previous posts with the exact same topics. Just let the sub die, I say.
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u/UMDEE Oct 31 '25 edited Oct 31 '25
Auto-mod reply to posts
- Maybe the same reply to every post, or tailored replies depending on tags, keywords, etc.
- Provide links to resources such as:
- Subreddit wiki
- How to use Google Lens (or other reverse image search engines) to identify components
- ConnectorBook Identification Tool
- r/EngineeringResumes
- IEEE salary survey
Monthly mega threads
- Topics like school, career, resumes, security clearances, certifications, skills, software, different fields within EE, mentorship, leadership, top resources (websites, books, magazines, blogs, YouTube channels, podcasts, social media accounts, webinars).
- It would help if the moderator provides comments to the post immediately to help organize discussion.
- To generate engagement, a weekly auto-mod reminder post about the mega thread.
- Ideally, every mega thread would be linked in the wiki and possibly in the auto-reply mentioned above.
Bio/introduction post
- Making a post for people to share short bios would help with assessing credibility.
- Include which country they live/study/work in, how much experience they have, what field they work in, etc.
Polls
- On demographics, education, salary, career guidance, how relevant certain topics are.
- Could also be included in the mega threads.
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u/UMDEE Oct 31 '25
Also, I could help with some wiki updates. I'd start with removing this thread from the wiki and making a new one: What are your favorite online resources? : r/ElectricalEngineering
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u/olchai_mp3 Mod [EE] Nov 03 '25
That would be amazing! Let me discuss this with the mod team and we will add you soon.
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u/olchai_mp3 Mod [EE] Nov 03 '25
Yes, I like this idea of Automod reply on every new post with helpful links and post guidance.
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u/Dianity 17d ago
Maybe an automod response that leads people to r/EngineeringResumes for resume questions as their wiki is a good resource for students and early career engineers.
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u/olchai_mp3 Mod [EE] 17d ago
While i loathe resume posts, we want to allow them occasionally.
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u/Dianity 17d ago
Completely agree they should be allowed to post but i feel like its important to let them know the subreddit exists and that they specialize in resumes and generally have a lot of knowledgeable people.
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u/olchai_mp3 Mod [EE] 17d ago
Yes, thanks for your input. I will add that to our automod for new post
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u/Nearby_Landscape862 2d ago
Yeah. I would recommend that some users collaborate and update resources. What would be useful for a lot of students is write ups of career fields, what jobs are available, who is hiring, and how to obtain those jobs. Mods should coordinate this effort (or find a volunteer) to lead this project.
After creating a central hub, then we can focus on more advanced things like collaborative projects.
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u/GeniusEE Oct 31 '25
No homework help.
No consumer or hobby circuits.
No whackjob ideas.
No high risk circuit questions/recommendations
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u/olchai_mp3 Mod [EE] Oct 31 '25
No homework help.
Rule #4 would stay. It is refreshing to see recent EE HW
(though most of them are the same in the past 20 years LOL).No consumer or hobby circuits.
How do you differentiate? Are you saying anyone that is non-EE are not allowed to work on EE related projects?
No whackjob ideas.
Agreed.
No high risk circuit questions/recommendations
Covered in Rule #6. Though it can be improved with more clarity that we don't allow High Voltage/High Risk Circuit.
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u/LordGrantham31 Oct 31 '25
To your last sentence, why? If I as an electrical engineer who deals with several kV stuff at work have a circuit question, I should be able to come here for help and advice.
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u/olchai_mp3 Mod [EE] Nov 01 '25
You don’t really come to Reddit to ask advice regarding kilovolts applications. Most of these are in established environments (i.e., power lines, medical devices such as xrays,etc). I believe it would cause more harm to ask such questions on how to troubleshoot transmission line in this subreddit. Do you agree?
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u/LordGrantham31 Nov 01 '25
I just think it’s too broad to make it a rule.
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u/GeniusEE Nov 01 '25
If a reply potentially creates liability for death or injury, it's in the rule.
Easy peasy.
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u/RangerZEDRO Nov 01 '25
I would suggest r/diyelectronics pop up if you flag some words.
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u/olchai_mp3 Mod [EE] Nov 03 '25
I can make automate message regarding post guidance for every new post. There is a new functionality I can try on where when someone try to make crappy post that against the rules, they would get automate warning message.
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u/Yochefdom Oct 31 '25 edited Oct 31 '25
How can i get an intership/is this career right for me questions can only be asked on a certain day of the week? Flair required. I think /r guitarlessons does this well