What is the best way to grow a subreddit?
I've had one with a great name for 6 years now. It has 15K members but I think the vast majority are bots. There are only ever 5 or 6 people online at any moment, and I'm the only guy who ever posts on it and hardly anybody ever comments. Yet it's even been linked to on Wired magazine.
Yet somebody else's newer subreddit on a similar subject is growing fast and has different members posting and dozens of commentators each day.
TBH though, it's a lot of work and you can get banned at any moment. I owned r/sexrobots and it received the ban hammer because I forgot to moderate it for a couple of days when I was travelling. They refused to give it back to me.