3 ms·
Only 70k comments a day? As a someone who has been a reddit default moderator for 6+ years (I help out in more than 1 default subreddit), I'd say they're still
by mahranch 10y ago
Only 70k comments a day?
As a someone who has been a reddit default moderator for 6+ years (I help out in more than 1 default subreddit), I'd say they're still small time. It's so bad over on reddit that even with a fully active staff, we have to utilize bots to automate much of the work. Without those bots, it would be impossible to have a community at the sizes we're talking. We simply wouldn't exist.
He overstates how bad the job is because they've never experienced "true" bad... The author should see if he could intern for a month on one of reddit's busier subreddits. If he asks, I'd be more than willing to give him an inside peek into one of our subreddits. Weekly 4chan raids, intra-subreddit brigades, people (spammers, SEO types, marketers, etc) trying to game us to reach the front page for profit, and then to add on top of that, we have all the same trolls and racists and psychopaths theguardian has to deal with. That's actually not true, they're not the same, there are more of them on reddit. Many, many more.
I know this isn't a competition, but I look at the average comment there and I can get a feel for what moderating there must be like. And I have to say, it looks like paradise compared to reddit. It would be a vacation and even that would probably be an understatement. Though, TheGuardian is the 128th largest website in the world while reddit is 28th (9th largest in the U.S). That's quite the discrepancy.
- elaus 10y ago> […] I look at the average comment there and I can get a feel for what moderating there must be like. And I have to say, it looks like paradise compared to reddit. Correct me if I'm wrong, but what you're seeing in the comment section of the Guardian is AFTER moderation has taken place – both longterm (blocking trolls) and short term (removing/blocking comments). So obviously it doesn't look as bad as what you're seeing WHILE moderating reddit comments and you can't really compare that. It's like I'm saying "moderating reddit is easy, I barely see any spammers or trolls there" (as a user).
- lucozade 10y agoThe Guardian has just done an analysis on comments and they get approx 2% that are blocked or deleted. So it doesn't look like they're fighting back the hordes and you just can't see it. And in the article, the chap says that removing the spammers and swivel-eyes is easy. What's hard is curating the discussion. If you read the comments on this article and on similar articles recently, this is the area that attracts the main criticism of the Guardian moderation. My guess wrt Reddit is that it's a much more difficult job to remove the spammers and front-page optimisers. The curation of a sub-reddit, if it happens at all, is probably easier as there'll likely be little or no real need to be subtle about it.
- mahranch 10y ago> t's like I'm saying "moderating reddit is easy, I barely see any spammers or trolls there" (as a user). Except since I have 6 years experience, I truly can get a feel for what their "before" looks like just by looking at the "after". That's what I meant. I can get a pretty good baseline on what their before looks like because at one point, our subreddits were smaller and had a similar baseline. Their comment system is about what reddit's was like circa 2011-2012. Coincidentally, I think reddit was approximately the same size traffic-wise.
- beeboop 10y agoCould I send you an email? I'd like to ask about your moderation experiences for a project I'm working on, if you have the time. Thanks!