Unpaid and Abused: Moderators Speak Out Against Reddit (engadget.com) 363
In a joint investigation, Engadget and Point spoke to 10 Reddit moderators, and all of them complained that Reddit is systematically failing to tackle the abuse they suffer. Keeping the front page of the internet clean has become a thankless and abusive task, and yet Reddit's administration has repeatedly neglected to respond to moderators who report offenses. From the report: "I've had a few death threats," said Emily, who asked to be referred to by her first name and her Reddit username, lolihull, to prevent the online harassment from spilling over into her real life. [...] "I had three death threats this past month," said abrownn, who moderates r/Futurology, with more than 13 million subscribers, and r/technology, with more than 6 million subscribers. abrownn asked only to be known by their username. All the moderators interviewed confirmed they had received death threats, which they said can take a toll.
[...] It's hard to pin down how many moderators there are: Even the moderators themselves don't know, but most estimate their numbers are into the tens of thousands. Some spend hours each day working for free on the site. Whatever the actual figure, they far outnumber the higher-ranking and paid administrators, whose job it is to respond to the evidence that the moderators collect.
[...] It's hard to pin down how many moderators there are: Even the moderators themselves don't know, but most estimate their numbers are into the tens of thousands. Some spend hours each day working for free on the site. Whatever the actual figure, they far outnumber the higher-ranking and paid administrators, whose job it is to respond to the evidence that the moderators collect.
Why so many death threats? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Why so many death threats? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm guessing that it's easy to type out a death threat and the people doing it know that it is likely to have maximal impact. The majority of people doing it would probably crap themselves if they were confronted about it in person. It's weak and underhanded.
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The majority of people doing it would probably crap themselves if they were confronted about it in person.
There was a story a couple of years ago about a middle aged woman who was trolling someone online. A TV crew caught up with her on the street and asked her about it. She seemed rational and well spoken, said it was her "right" and "freedom of speech". A few days later she killed herself.
Re:Why so many death threats? (Score:5, Insightful)
-There is an EASY way to stop this. In order to communicate with a Reddit mod in any personal way, you need to go through a Cryptographically Signed process that PROVES your identity. Any communication mentioning death threats in ANY WAY gets auto-routed to a Special Task Force (paid) that works directly with the Police/FBI.
-No one ever even needs to SEE a death threat. I guarantee you, 1st time that ever happens to me I will be DEMANDING to speak to an owner IN PERSON and will NOT do any more work for them until it is Resolved to my satisfaction. PERIOD.
Re:Why so many death threats? (Score:4, Insightful)
you need to go through a Cryptographically Signed process that PROVES your identity.
Hahaha! oh wait, you're serious. Ok, walk me through that. "It's encrypted" isn't good enough. Prove... WHAT identity? Prove that it's tied to an email? pft. Tied to a credit card? Also not so good. Do you really want a background check just to question authority?
No one ever even needs to SEE a death threat.
Correct, it's not needed. But if they're an adult in society I can guarantee you it's going to happen. The same way that they're going to meet people who disagree with them, don't think they're good people, insult them, question their motives, cast unsubstantiated aspirations upon their mother, and call them gay. If you are in a position of authority where your job is to censor people, I can guarantee you that you will receive abuse. And I can also guarantee you that the position will be abused. Human nature is a bitch, isn't it?
Obligatory "go DIAF" statement that's needed in these threads so everyone can pad their victim card. There you go. If this is your first time... I guess you have to call someone at... it's not DICE anymore... it's BizX. Good luck with that. If you're not full of shit and you actually meant it when you said you wouldn't be "doing work" until it's "Resolved" then... well... sorry for kicking you off of slashdot.
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Soooo, your "guarantee" and all those capital letters was more along the lines of "bullshit".
Well in that case, I TOO guarantee that the first death-threat I receive from someone on Mars, I will be DEMANDING to speak to an owner of Mars IN PERSON and will NOT do any more space advocacy until it is Resolved to my satisfaction. PERIOD.
Whelp, this'll get to +5 insightful for sure now that I know the formula.
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shitcock
Shitcock [kym-cdn.com]
or
Shitcock Bitches [kym-cdn.com]
Re:Why so many death threats? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Why so many death threats? (Score:5, Insightful)
Except when they follow through and call in a SWAT team or turn up at your house. Those things happen regularly.
Re: (Score:2, Troll)
> an online death threat is the internetâ(TM)s equivalent of a strongly worded letter to the editor
-Bullshit. People that think like this are PART OF THE PROBLEM. Would you be OK if someone doxxed you and threatened you, your family/dog -- online or otherwise? If it's committed in writing, it is an Actionable Offense. Writing is much stronger than verbal, because the writer ALWAYS has the option to modify their speech before sending - or not send it at all. Someone makes a death threat to me, my
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Yeah, and also death threats are illegal in the UK. This isn't a problem for Reddit to solve; it's a police matter. These mods are just idiots if they don't go to the police.
(or... they're terribly unlucky if the police don't know what to do)
Re:Why so many death threats? (Score:4, Insightful)
Or: these aren't credible threats.
Or: these are people looking for attention.
There are quite a few options, and considering the trend to play the victim, combination of that first name and user as well as the source being well known for social justice activism which specializes in victimhood weaponisation suggests this is a standard "we have a victim here, company needs to do what we say" social justice attack vector.
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Note that the UK doesn't have the same level of free speech pr
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Don't like the moderation on Reddit - or for that matter, on /.? Then be glad you're not on Slate.
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You're talking about millions of active users. Are you telling me you're surprised out that group that a tiny percentage of those people might not be perfectly well adjusted (never-mind outright suffer from mental or emotional problems?)
The barrier to access and use websites is zero. I really have trouble figuring out how anyone can be surprised that out of millions of people, some of those people are capable of unacceptable social behavior.
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Because it is something you can say without consequences for saying it.
I can think someone is ugly, or just being a bad person. But I wouldn't say it to them to their face, or in a way they would track it back to me. Especially if I need to work with this person in the future. Because while I may be free to voice my ideas, having to work with a person who knows what I actually think of them, will just create extra friction with no benefit to me.
My opinions isn't going to change a person, especially if I
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It isn't at random.
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Kindof true though, I know people that went to prison for DUI and came out ruthless gangmembers.
Re: Why so many death threats? (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm pretty sure that the golden rule of Slashdot has always been Voltaire's line about defending speech one disagrees with.
Re: Why so many death threats? (Score:5, Informative)
Maybe so, but Voltaire never said it. It's a fictional quote by a biographer.
Re: Why so many death threats? (Score:5, Funny)
The golden rule of Slashdot is "never RTFA". Petrified and naked in hot grits or something.
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Well played, sir, well played.
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now that's a callback.
Re: Why so many death threats? (Score:3)
Reddit moderation is bullshit... (Score:5, Insightful)
.. like 90% of the channels you can tell people of low education and people who are young tend to be moderators. AKA people with lots of free time.
The reason reddit is so popular because it is a confirmation bias wonderland for people who are not very bright and that is most of our species. So reddit is a wonderland of egoboost for the none too bright and uninformed. It's just 100% drama generating machine between the informed, uninformed, young and old and it has to do with the karma and moderation system. Reddit is just one monkey ego war where opinions no matter how dumb are fought and defended by drive by upvoting and downvoting of whatever subgroup is most dominant on the sub unfortunately for our species .
The whole thing thrives off putting people of various ages and education backgrounds together and watching them go at it. It's just a battle royal, to a large extent.
Re:Reddit moderation is bullshit... (Score:5, Insightful)
I guess it depends where you go. I occasionally visit some of the smaller, more technically-oriented subreddits, like for programming languages and game development, and I've found most people there to be pretty nice and helpful.
Re:Reddit moderation is bullshit... (Score:5, Insightful)
Many larger subs are a shitpost idiocracy of noise, but the smaller ones can be pretty reasonable.
r/futurology is a terrible example of a subreddit. I think it might be a default subreddit, which means it gets a lot of random visits, and 99% of the posts there are pretty much fantasy clickbait. "Scientists discover way to use Earth's rotation to create free energy and world peace."
I will say that it is a harsh web site. When your're wrong on most subs, man, are you wrong.
My city's local subreddit is also dominated by a very narrow political/age spectrum where deviating from the party line will result in bans. I got banned for 30 days (only sub, ever) even though I had a positive karma of something like +5 for my history in the sub over hundreds of posts and comments.
Overall I mostly like reddit, but there are times where it's just too mean or too stupid. You have to put some effort into finding worthwhile subs and avoid most of the big ones.
Re:Reddit moderation is bullshit... (Score:5, Insightful)
This is perhaps true, but at the same time this describes most of the conversations on the internet between strangers. At least to Reddit's credit the possibility of downvoting eliminates the most obvious cases of trolling and flaming. Look at some other platforms like Facebook that do not allow downvoting at all and the discussion culture is many times more toxic because no matter how stupid a statement is there will always be a bunch of fools that like it and this feeds the trolls and the morons.
Reddit isn't perfect by any means, but it's a small step in the right direction. Keep in mind that the vast majority of online users have been discussing online for 10-20 years, and during that time both the number of platforms and the number of people have grown immensely. The internet and the culture that comes wth it is still very much a work in progress, even though we don't tend to think of it like that.
I like the moderation system of Slashdot over simple votes (in fact it was the main thing that got me to register here almost a decade ago precisely because I was fed up with the level and moderation of discussion elsewhere), although I admit I'm not sure if something like this would work on the scale of Reddit and the amount of content being posted there. If anyone is aware of other platforms doing interesting things with discussion moderation that's not just a simple free-for-all, I'd be interested to hear about them.
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Downvoting promotes groupthink. It's all well and nice when people push racists and bigots into the negatives, but post something vaguely unpopular and watch yourself get hammered.
It's the reddit equivalent of "shouting down" dissent. If they don't like what you are saying, they will try to silence you by any means necessary.
Re:Reddit moderation is bullshit... (Score:5, Insightful)
At least to Reddit's credit the possibility of downvoting eliminates the most obvious cases of trolling and flaming.
Most posts are downvoted simply because they present a different opinion, reinforcing the echo chamber.
I like to learn things, and have my opinions challenged in a constructive way. Reddit sucks for that. I can either pick a group of people who completely agree, or a group that disagrees. Both cases are rather pointless.
Massive polarization (Score:3, Informative)
It presages the American political landscape in 2018 where if you are not with Blue Team, you are assumed to be Red Team and that's the end of the story: they will censor you, exclude you, defame you, and try to get you fired from your job, depending on level of dissent.
The problem with Reddit is the users. Having seen them transplanted to other sites where they immediately begin calling for censorship and v [speak-easy.club]
Re:Reddit moderation is bullshit... (Score:5, Informative)
Slashdot's moderation system is the primary reason I still visit. A cap on the upward moderation leaves more comments on equal footing. And no fixed moderator means no boogeyman. When you take the moderation out of the hands of the few you still end up with (mostly) thoughtful discussion, and the conversation is more likely to reflect the views of the users rather than the overlords. I occasionally see contradicting viewpoints sitting at 5.
The interface probably holds it back a bit. That's necessary for Slashdot, whose users have no desire for a change, but if this moderation system were transported elsewhere it would be one opportunity for improvement.
Re:Reddit moderation is bullshit... (Score:5, Insightful)
.. like 90% of the channels you can tell people of low education and people who are young tend to be moderators. AKA people with lots of free time.
How is this different from most online forums?
The whole thing thrives off putting people of various ages and education backgrounds together and watching them go at it. It's just a battle royal, to a large extent.
How is this different from the rest of the internet?
I remember that in the past, "no matter who you are, you can speak your mind and only be judged by your words" was a good thing, but apparently now the trend
is neo conservatism (from both the left and the right) and a desire to see the return of noblety (whether blue blooded or academic).
My experience is similar (Score:3)
Re:Reddit moderation is bullshit... (Score:5, Informative)
I don't know the Reddit mechanism, but I can imagine Slashdot may provide a much better mechanism for picking moderators that have proven that they are also capable of making a valuable and civilized contribution to a discussion. Obviously, that selection begins with moderation, but thanks to this mechanism, it has had the chance to grow a culture of pretty OK moderation and pass it on to the next generation. Also, random selection of moderators helps tremendously here; this way, the culture of the group determines moderation as opposed to the individual moderators.
So, no, I think Slashdot is completely different. In fact, it is probably unique.
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Slashdot gave me 15 mod points after posting a few posts that got upmodded. It's really not that good, and can be abused (karma burning).
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I think that's exactly why it works: no single individual has too much of an influence specifically thanks to those limitations.
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.. like 90% of the channels you can tell people of low education and people who are young tend to be moderators. AKA people with lots of free time.
The reason reddit is so popular because it is a confirmation bias wonderland for people who are not very bright and that is most of our species. So reddit is a wonderland of egoboost for the none too bright and uninformed. It's just 100% drama generating machine between the informed, uninformed, young and old and it has to do with the karma and moderation system. Reddit is just one monkey ego war where opinions no matter how dumb are fought and defended by drive by upvoting and downvoting of whatever subgroup is most dominant on the sub unfortunately for our species .
The whole thing thrives off putting people of various ages and education backgrounds together and watching them go at it. It's just a battle royal, to a large extent.
So, kinda like Slashdot ...
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Most people aren't in that group as most people don't participate in cesspool that is most reddit discussions, especially the kind that goes in the garbage fire that is front page, and most certainly do not moderate them.
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:When all is said and done... (Score:4, Insightful)
Back in the BBS days, then Usenet, mailing lists and early forums I never got that kind of abuse. These days threats of violence and doxing are often the first thing you get hit with. And I have been doxed and had stuff sent to my home, my wife's home, our email accounts flooded etc.
It's illegal to own a shotgun for personal protection where I live, and I doubt it would be effective against floods of spam mail or people calling my employer.
All of that is designed to shut down free and open debate. It's censorship. Intimidation designed to silence views that the perpetrator does not like.
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You and your wife both own homes?
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Assuming you are right and I'm some kind of glorious asshole (and presumably all my friends are just wrong, they should hate me but haven't realized it yet) does that justify threats and sending stuff to my wife?
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I think you underestimate the power of words. I'm not so worried about an Internet tough guy showing up at my address. I am more concerned, however, with an Internet tough guy saying the right few words to send a team of heavily armed officers crashing through my front door.
The only time anyone ever managed to really annoy me in my many years as an admin/moderator was when someone registered a handle that was visually identical to my own, then proceeded to make bomb threats against government buildings, see
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Europe... (Score:2, Troll)
These days when n'erdowells make a death threat, their method of implementation is called SWATing, and no kind of weapon helps here, since they're relying on panicking law enforcement with a fake call.
You know, there still exist some countries, where the police hasn't felt the need to turn themselves into some kind of military branch.
And as long as you're not actively shooting at police, it will never cross their mind to take out their weapons.
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Not in this state, you don't.
Never understood why people want to be moderators (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Never understood why people want to be moderato (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Never understood why people want to be moderato (Score:4, Insightful)
Have to jump in here.
> It's the power and control they get from being moderators. Some people deal with this good feeling by becoming politicians.
I know it's all the rage to dump on politicians. But there are so many, many problems with where things are headed.
For example? Can in imagine if you're an *honest* politician? And one that just wants to solve a few problems, wants to generally 'fix' something they see broken? Not in it for the power, or money, but honestly just want to make things better.
Sure it's somewhat selfish in the end, because they want to make it better for their family, their friends, their community. But that's the sort of selfish we want!
So you have a TV interview. Or, say something on twitter. Welp. Everything is completely distorted out of context, quotes are taken and slapped together with other quotes, the list goes on. If you tell the truth? It will be distorted, taken out of context, and if you discuss something for an hour? They'll take a 4 second quote and slap it on the air.
Things I remember a Prime Minster I *didn't even like*, but couldn't believe he was being harassed for:
- he wore a sweater, and was mocked because it looked a little off
- he shook his son's hand one day, when he left for school -- everyone called him a cold, calculating bastard because he didn't hug his son (I didn't want hugs from my dad when 10!)
- his hair was too neat (boy, he sure must use a lot of hair spray!!)
- his smile is a little funny, he must be a psycho
I could list a 100 of these. What. The. Fuck.
How about people actually commenting on policy?
But no you become a politician, and every single aspect of your life is examined. People think death threats on the internet are bad? Well I wonder what sort of vile crap gets thrown your way, if you're a politician? I'm sure death threats would almost be preferable to some comments sent via no-return address letters, or phone calls, or whatever.
Yet, let's say you put up with all that. The threats, the vile spew coming out of people's mouths, the criticism for the smallest things, and hell -- even being criticized for doing what you said you'd do in campaign speeches?
Well, you put up with all that -- and you STILL get no-where often with the things you WANT to genuinely help with.
And then everyone dumps on you. Again. Because the opposition and sometimes even your own party works against you.
I don't know. I'd have to say that being an honest, open, caring politician is the worst job on the planet.
And this is what disturbs me. Because all day long, every day, I see little cracks like the one you made about politicians. I see them regarded as scum. I see what they do equated to a waste of time. I see them assumed as thieves, assholes, pricks -- when people aren't even aware of the person behind the office, nor of what they've done -- good or bad.
If people want things to REALLY turn around, then people need to create an environment where an honest, caring, loving GRANDMOTHER would be happy being a politician.
Why?
Because -- if only scum can stand the job, wtf!
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I've read the opinion that anyone who wants to be a moderator should never be allowed to be one.
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This.
I got booted from a thread, with a nastygram from the mods about 'here's where you send any appeal to your ban'. Sent email asking what post comment had resulted in this ban... got banned from ANY communication on reddit for 30d for 'harrassment'.
It's a cesspool.
These people are doing this for the epeen and (putative) power of being mods. If they don't like the consequences of being head shit-thrower in the shit-thrower zoo, walk the fuck away.
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You make me want to erase my post to mod you up.
Re:Never understood why people want to be moderato (Score:5, Interesting)
You mean like people who moderate Slashdot?
People want to build communities, for companionship and socializing or for free and open debate in a marketplace of ideas. Both of those things require moderation, and for people who get a lot from those communities it's a reasonable trade to make.
Re:Never understood why people want to be moderato (Score:5, Insightful)
The difference is that on Slashdot, all you really do is mod them down. You can still read all the app apps and all the GNAA, not to mention the cosmonaut Golden Girls.
No idea why anyone would, but you can.
The information is still there. That's the difference.
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Ding ding ding! We have a winner!
This is the root of why I stick around. Anyone can (and does) say anything here. I am free to read it all and make my own decision on who's an idiot and who I want to talk to.
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I got someone to pay me to not mute him in a forum. Also, it got me nude pics from girls and a few friends.
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I got someone to pay me to not mute him in a forum. Also, it got me nude pics from girls and a few friends.
So that's why the TLAs are hording all the porn.
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So many people are willing to do a job for a web site (in this case reddit) and not get paid for it. Suckers.
Some of us are volunteer distributors of insults. It's an enjoyable pastime. We get paid by the joy in our hearts of calling silly people silly people. And you are quite a silly people.
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Volunteer Moderators are dumb (Score:4, Interesting)
You can't get a tax write off for your time spent herding assholes on reddit as a moderator. If you have a need to help, volunteer at a library, food bank, or soup kitchen.
Reddit's business model heavily depends on people being so power hungry and loyal that they don't get paid for what is for some a full time job. As time goes on, the power hungry become somewhat insane, until they are deposed or regain their senses.
Re:Volunteer Moderators are dumb (Score:5, Insightful)
You clearly enjoy posting your outrage to Slashdot, otherwise you wouldn't keep coming here to do it. Slashdot is like it is because it has a user run moderation system. Clearly you get some value out of that.
It therefore doesn't seem unreasonable to thank the people who invest their time in making Slashdot/Reddit a better place to post and debate, and try to address their concerns lest you lose that resource that you use regularly.
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I honestly never really understood the value of Reddit. It's basically usenet, with a more centralized infrastructure. The only thing that accomplishes is that the assholes don't get groups for themselves, spill into other groups and troll there.
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I honestly never really understood the value of Reddit. It's basically usenet, with a more centralized infrastructure.
It's more like Slashdot with more than just computing (and politics) topics, except with an even shittier moderation system. People go there to ask questions or discuss URLs.
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One of the key features of usenet was exactly the absence of moderation. You could moderate (via killfile) if you so please, but you could choose yourself to do so, nobody forced it upon you.
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And that's why usenet died. It was a great idea in the early days. Then spam became a thing.
Re:Volunteer Moderators are dumb (Score:5, Interesting)
Personally, I think that many people prefer to live in an echo chamber where they see their own views reflected by those around them. That can be the case in boards and forums where those with conflicting opinions (conflicting with those of board ops) can easily be eliminated. Finding unbiased boards that actually allow a sensible exchange of diverging ideas has become rare. On many of the more insane ones, "diverging idea" already means "didn't drink the whole jug of kool-aid alone".
And that's sad. I mean, let's be honest here, we often found ourselves on the opposite ends of opinions. And yes, I do enjoy it. I already know my opinion, I don't need anyone else to have the same. That doesn't help me, it's great to feel supported, but in the end, it's not going to allow me to see a different angle. And I have to verify my view against that presented by another one. That's not always comfortable, because it just might give one input one didn't consider when forming an opinion.
But it sure leads to a better view of the whole picture.
And yes, that also means dealing with fringe views like religious nuts or nazis. Although, I have to admit, that's more a guilty pleasure of mine rather than trying to get sensible input, because usually what I take from a conversation with one of them is "Well, I might not have everything right. But at least I'm not THAT wrong."
It's a bit like watching afternoon TV with dysfunctional families.
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What's sad is that my post was modded "troll". Slashdot used to be one of those places were you could express a genuine opinion and make your argument, and even if people disagreed at least they wouldn't accuse you of trolling.
I feel like it's not just Slashdot though. Politics in general and most media has become more polarized.
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You can't get a tax write off for your time spent herding assholes on reddit as a moderator.
I can't get a tax write off for the time I spent arguing with people who are wrong on the internet either, yet here I am. Not because I expect to be paid for calling your post silly, but because I actively enjoy it.
Your post is silly.
Maybe do something more productive and go watch TV.
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You clearly know nothing about my cat.
Re: Volunteer Moderators are dumb (Score:2)
Simple (Score:2)
Vote with your feet, if you don't like the club rules, join or start another club.
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Assuming "club" as metaphor for a particular website on a particular domain:
Once I have started another club to compete with the existing club, what steps should prospective members take to find my club, and what steps should members take to become notified about activity in my club? In the current web platform, unless I missed something, recommendations and notifications deliberately do not work across clubs.
Re: Simple (Score:2)
Moderators are often out of control (Score:5, Interesting)
But unless there is a sub for people who spend 150 hours a week on redit moderators need to be cut way back in what they can do. Limit the number of subs any individual can moderate. Have a team who replace moderators who are clearly abusing their power.
And if that team has any spare resources, fight the shills, especially the chemical company shills.
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Suck it up...If you haven't gotten a death threat (Score:2)
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Oddly enough, nobody ever threatened to kill me. Not even in jest. And yes, I do moderate a few boards. None of them the size (or toxicity) of Reddit, but ... well, pick and choose your battles well would be my advice here...
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Also, I'll kill you for your blissful ignorance ! die die die, you capitalist commie infidel nazi chicken!!
Put your labels on the pile back in the corner, I'll ignore later.
Maybe it does help to not take death threats serious. Like, well, pretty much everything else on the internet.
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C'mon, say it like you mean it.
Why do they stay? (Score:2)
Even if I was paid, receiving a death threat with zero backup from above to deal with it is a good reason to quit.
If I was not even paid, why even wait for backup from above?
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What power? Since you can only moderate in the way the owner of the board wants, there is no power.
That kind of power is like riding a raging bull. Sure, everyone's afraid and runs from you, but in the end, nobody gives a shit about you. Everyone's running from the bull.
And it's also the bull that says where you're going.
Quit = Problem Solved? (Score:5, Interesting)
People desiring the power of a moderator that much, have historically rubbed people the wrong way ie. the kid who helps the teacher enforce rules.
I am 100% for worker's rights. However, being that they can leave at any time, with zero penalty (other than, you know, not getting to moderate), I struggle to sympathize here. People who crave the ability to exert power over others to the extent that they will endure death threats, for nothing, have issues of their own. It's kind of unsurprising that they evoke strong emotions from those with an equally strong hatred of being controlled. I mean, wars have been fought for less.
Rules of The Internet (Score:3)
8. There are no real rules about posting
9. There are no real rules about moderation either - enjoy your ban
Very well paid moderators: 'owned' subreddits (Score:3, Interesting)
I know from personal experience that, for one example, the AlbionOnline (MMO game) subreddit is controlled and operated by employees of Sandbox Interactive, the company that makes and sells the game. They quash any meaningful criticism of the game in the Reddit forums.
So that is an example of heavy bias in a Reddit forum where the mods are quite well paid for their effort.
It's a strange and beautiful world (Score:3)
Reddit is a sewer. (Score:2)
I bailed when a mildly technical post I made with regards to fan nozzles for cooling prints in 3D printers generated a lot of insults and animosity. There were plenty of good people asking useful questions, but too many "my dad designed jet engines for Boeing and he said that what you're saying is impossible" childishness and name calling.
So ... don't do it? (Score:2)
Seriously, you are choosing to moderate these forums.
And unlike most things we choose to get outraged about, you don't have to do it to eat (since they don't pay you anything).
I get that it sucks and all, but ... you know, just stop doing it?
Re: (Score:2)
Internet companies became convinced that their users should experience a sense of "community." The thing they didn't think about was that a sense of community comes along with a sense of ownership. So instead of just moving on, your community criticizes you for ruining "their" message board / site / game / whatever.
Maybe we need a public fund to sue (Score:2)
I am pretty sure that death threats are a criminal offense, so we should be be prosecuting those individuals. I assume the moderators haven't the time to spend or the knowledge to pursue that, and I am not sure the local police would know what to do. But stopping this kind of behavior would pay probably have a positive payback because it would curb future abuses. Reddit should be helping out with that.
So don't do it (Score:2)
Keeping the front page of the internet clean has become a thankless and abusive task, and yet Reddit's administration has repeatedly neglected to respond to moderators who report offenses.
Umm, then don't do it. If it really is that odious a task and you aren't being paid then feel free to do something else. If you continue to do it then it must not be all that bad. The nice thing about being a volunteer is that you can quite any time without any personal consequences. I assure you that the world will go on if Reddit moderators start quitting.
Re: (Score:2)
When have you been banned?
Re: (Score:3)
Nice victim-blaming there.
There are people on the Internet that will issue death threats because they disagree with you - whether or not you enter into any argument whatsoever.
And it doesn't matter how "controversial" you are. A death threat is a criminal offence. People can, do, have and will go to jail for uttering them in a serious manner.
"A key thing about responsible web usage" is that it's no different to the real-world, because it is the real-world. And you can no more threaten someone's life onli
Re: (Score:2)
I admin game servers, moderate forums, write articles, etc.
I have received such things. I treat them as the worthless, uninformed, non-threat that they are (it's not like they even know who I am, thus not a threat to me).
But that doesn't mean I invited them or even, in some cases, was even part of the dialog that led to them until people were asked to moderate their tone, leave, etc.
"but behave in ways that makes them more prevalent receivers of abuse?"
Abuse is very different to a death threat. Abuse bega
Re: (Score:3)
I was banned from /r/Futurology.
Fuck them.
Can't you leave your disagreement with /r/Futurology in the past?
Re:Fascist mods (Score:4, Funny)
Predicted the wrong thing, I'm assuming.
Re: (Score:2)
They're not volunteering for Reddit. Reddit themself doesn't offer moderation services for communities unless global rules are violated --- you can pretty much write anything you want, even junk nobody wants to see. These moderators are members of a Reddit subcommunity who either (A) Created the Community or "SubReddit", Or (B) Were appointed by the creator of the SubReddit, usually after Volunteering to help create more "Catered" content by enforcing that community's rules/standards on post