4 ms·

Maybe its just me, but back in the day (early 2000s) we used to have raucous (but still very civil) discussions about controversial topics, with little or no mo

Maybe its just me, but back in the day (early 2000s) we used to have raucous (but still very civil) discussions about controversial topics, with little or no moderator interference. Shortly after cortex joined, submissions and comments which did not conform to a very narrow set of socio-political viewpoints started getting censored, and these days there is pretty much no room for controversial content. Sure, I can see that the site would look highly civil and somewhat interesting to a new user coming from, say, Reddit, but to me the fanatic censorship has turned the place into a boring echo chamber compared to what it used to be.

arkitaip 9y ago
Cortex has been a member since 2001 and a mod since 2007. You mean it's been going downhill for a decade because cortex? C'mon, don't be silly now.
- DashRattlesnake 9y ago
  > Cortex has been a member since 2001 and a mod since 2007. You mean it's been going downhill for a decade because cortex? C'mon, don't be silly now. That's a lot like trying to dispute the effect of Donald Trump's presidency on the US by noting that he has been an American since he was born.
gumboshoes 9y ago
To put it another way, the mods are modding. They're modding out reposts. Repetitiveness. Copypasta. The same-old rehashes. Trolls. Vitriol. Attacks on other users. Rule violations. Pile-ons. That's what makes it great and better than most of Reddit on any given day. That modding affects everyone. I had a comment deleted just last week: I was too chatty on an Ask Metafilter response and bloop, away it went.
- DashRattlesnake 9y ago
  > They're modding out reposts. Repetitiveness. Copypasta. The same-old rehashes. Trolls. Vitriol. Attacks on other users. Rule violations. Pile-ons. Eh, I don't think that's really a fair characterization. Yeah, sure, they delete dups, etc., but no one's complaining about that. The mods also delete stuff from an ever-increasing (but ill-defined) list of topics that "Metafilter doesn't do well," which basically means anything that could upset the cool kids or other favored groups. There's a lot of hype about Metafilter's famed moderation, but all it's really done has caused the site to reach a different failure mode. Rather than discussion, you get a bunch of commenting that's bracketed by passive aggressiveness and anxiety, carefully moderated into an illusion of civility.
  - gumboshoes 9y ago
    What you call "topics Metafilter doesn't do well" I call "same-old rehashes." They're topics the world doesn't do well. It's a feature of the site, not a bug.
    - DashRattlesnake 9y ago
      > They're topics the world doesn't do well. It's a feature of the site, not a bug. That's the standard justification, but it leaves a lot to be desired. For one, IIRC, even brand new topics have been moderated away because the mods judged discussion might not go in the "correct" direct (for lack of a better word). Two, avoiding disagreement to the degree Metafilter does is a recipe for tension and dysfunction.

arkitaip 9y ago

Cortex has been a member since 2001 and a mod since 2007. You mean it's been going downhill for a decade because cortex? C'mon, don't be silly now.

DashRattlesnake 9y ago
> Cortex has been a member since 2001 and a mod since 2007. You mean it's been going downhill for a decade because cortex? C'mon, don't be silly now. That's a lot like trying to dispute the effect of Donald Trump's presidency on the US by noting that he has been an American since he was born.

gumboshoes 9y ago

To put it another way, the mods are modding. They're modding out reposts. Repetitiveness. Copypasta. The same-old rehashes. Trolls. Vitriol. Attacks on other users. Rule violations. Pile-ons. That's what makes it great and better than most of Reddit on any given day. That modding affects everyone. I had a comment deleted just last week: I was too chatty on an Ask Metafilter response and bloop, away it went.

DashRattlesnake 9y ago
> They're modding out reposts. Repetitiveness. Copypasta. The same-old rehashes. Trolls. Vitriol. Attacks on other users. Rule violations. Pile-ons. Eh, I don't think that's really a fair characterization. Yeah, sure, they delete dups, etc., but no one's complaining about that. The mods also delete stuff from an ever-increasing (but ill-defined) list of topics that "Metafilter doesn't do well," which basically means anything that could upset the cool kids or other favored groups. There's a lot of hype about Metafilter's famed moderation, but all it's really done has caused the site to reach a different failure mode. Rather than discussion, you get a bunch of commenting that's bracketed by passive aggressiveness and anxiety, carefully moderated into an illusion of civility.
- gumboshoes 9y ago
  What you call "topics Metafilter doesn't do well" I call "same-old rehashes." They're topics the world doesn't do well. It's a feature of the site, not a bug.
  - DashRattlesnake 9y ago
    > They're topics the world doesn't do well. It's a feature of the site, not a bug. That's the standard justification, but it leaves a lot to be desired. For one, IIRC, even brand new topics have been moderated away because the mods judged discussion might not go in the "correct" direct (for lack of a better word). Two, avoiding disagreement to the degree Metafilter does is a recipe for tension and dysfunction.