/r/pencils: The Front Page of the (Pencil) Internet

There’s a Subreddit for just about everything these days.  Unsurprisingly, then, /r/pencils is the Subreddit for all the Internet’s fervent pencil hobbyists.  With daily posts and over 500 subscribers, /r/pencils is a lively community.  Its users go in-depth over everything pencil: there are discussions about utility, construction, rare makes, even sharpening – and if you have a seemingly unanswerable question about your obscure vintage pencil, you’ll still  find that it’s near-impossible to stump this community of experts.

To get a better picture of the /r/pencils community at large, we asked /r/pencil’s moderator, awyeah2, some questions about the subreddit’s history, the types of users most invested in the subreddit, and the trials and tribulations of being a moderator.

Hello, awyeah2!  First off, let me say that you’re doing a great job moderating the /r/pencils subreddit.  How long have you been moderating /r/pencils?  Were you its first moderator?

/r/pencils was started about five years ago, before I had even heard about Reddit.  About a year ago, I noticed that it was not being maintained, so I requested that it be transferred to me (Reddit has a process for situations like this). 

It seems like there are people on /r/pencils posting daily comments and topics.  How much activity do you expect on a weekly basis on /r/pencils?  

It’s not the busiest subreddit, but we currently have just over 500 subscribers, and it has been growing.  Page views have been growing significantly month-over-month.

How does /r/pencils compare to similar subreddits (/r/pens, /r/notebooks, etc) in terms of activity?

The other subreddits you mentioned have more activity, and I think that’s because they’ve reached more of a critical mass.  They’ve also been active longer.  I’m hoping that we can work toward that in /r/pencils.  We have been working with moderators of other subreddits to get listed as a link on their respective sidebars.  In return, we’re happy to link to them.  We hope this will drive more traffic in both directions!

Lots of people use pencils, but people whose occupations rely on them are most likely to put lots of thought into the type of pencil they’re using.  What sorts of people make up the predominant user-base of /r/pencils?  For example, are there more architects than writers on the forum?

I haven’t exactly done market research, but I think we have a really interesting mix of subscribers.  This includes people who use pencils for technical drawing, writing, and pencil enthusiasts.  I am a software engineer by trade – not exactly the type of profession you would associate with pencil and paper!

What really intrigues me about pencils is the sheer number of choices we have available to us.  I always thought that you went to your local drug store or office supply store and grabbed the $2 box of pencils and that was it.  

Then, a couple years ago, I stumbled across an article on some random non-pencil-related site about the Blackwing and how Palomino had re-introduced it to market.  The author was gushing over how much they loved it. I thought “$20 for a box of pencils? Yeah, right.”  So of course I bought a box.  These days, I still like to try other pencils, but I keep coming back to the Blackwing 602 (No, Palomino isn’t paying me for that testimonial).  I also use a Uni Kuru Toga 0.5mm, and the Field Notes Brand pencils are great too.

Having a central place on the ‘net to promote and discuss pencils makes for a healthy community of pencil enthusiasts.  Who are some of the most frequent contributors to /r/pencils?

In /r/pencils, like most other subreddits, we allow so-called “self-posts,” which are simple text posts by users, and links to be submitted, and we get a good mix.  

An example of a self-post might be someone new to the hobby asking for advice on a first pencil to purchase.  Our top link at the moment is a user asking: “What is the best lead?”

A link is a nice way to start a discussion related to a particular web page.  An example of that would be if a manufacturer releases a new product, someone may post a link to that product, and our community can discuss pros and cons.

I don’t want to put anyone on the spot, but I’m going to.  One recent addition to our moderation staff, awelfle, is the author of the blog Woodclinched, and we’ve seen a couple good links to articles from that site.

What sort of behavior and conduct issues do you come across as a moderator and how frequent do they occur? 

 So far, we haven’t really had any issues.  I haven’t had to ban anyone!

 The rules we’ve set forth are really simple:  We just want everyone to be civil, stay on topic, and obey the few site-wide rules that Reddit enforces.  

So, there you have it! If you haven’t already, stop by the /r/pencils subreddit and get in on the discussion!