3 ms·

The platforms that survive tend to be either incredible focused around a certain niche (ycombinator), or heavily moderated with a strong editorial hand (metafil

The platforms that survive tend to be either incredible focused around a certain niche (ycombinator), or heavily moderated with a strong editorial hand (metafilter). Slashdot is still limping on as a much less interesting site since it had money behind it but places like Kur05hin (however it was spelled) and its ilk quickly imploded. People like to complain about heavy-handed moderation but all the experiments to try and build self-moderating communities eventually get overrun with trolls and (worse) self-promoters. Any automated system will eventually be gamed, something that even huge sites like twitter and youtube are starting to realize now that state-level actors are using them for their own purposes.

dredmorbius 9y ago
I'm coming to agree there's no substitute for effective moderation. And despite occasional (and strong) disagreements with dang and sctb, they do a really good job on HN.
- intended 9y ago
  Oh its worse - After you make your peace with that, theres an entire world of rules and theories on moderation, all of it useful and important to get the job done. The cheat code to cut through that mess is - "I'm coming to agree that theres no substitute for good editorial control" Trust me on this, the proof is to painful to reproduced regularly.
  - dredmorbius 9y ago
    Also agreed. (You're going to have to try harder for an argument ;-)
    - intended 9y ago
      haha not arguing, just seeing how deep this rabbit hole goes. Like teachers, now editors are another social good that we need to manage information dissemination optimized for civilization's good.
      - dredmorbius 9y ago
        Always has been, or at least so long as mass media have existed. I've been exploring this topic, as a particular focus over the past year, though it's been an interest for some years. If you look back to the Catholic inquisition (and its precursors), Gutenberg, Martin Luther (500th anniversary coming up at the end of October), J.S. Mill (I've run across some excellent discussion by Hans Jensen: https://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/6x7u6a/on_the_role_of_universities_and_primary_education/ https://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/6x7u6a/on_the_... and http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00346760110081599 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00346760110081599 (available via Sci-Hub)). It's sobering.

dredmorbius 9y ago

I'm coming to agree there's no substitute for effective moderation. And despite occasional (and strong) disagreements with dang and sctb, they do a really good job on HN.

intended 9y ago
Oh its worse - After you make your peace with that, theres an entire world of rules and theories on moderation, all of it useful and important to get the job done. The cheat code to cut through that mess is - "I'm coming to agree that theres no substitute for good editorial control" Trust me on this, the proof is to painful to reproduced regularly.
- dredmorbius 9y ago
  Also agreed. (You're going to have to try harder for an argument ;-)
  - intended 9y ago
    haha not arguing, just seeing how deep this rabbit hole goes. Like teachers, now editors are another social good that we need to manage information dissemination optimized for civilization's good.
    - dredmorbius 9y ago
      Always has been, or at least so long as mass media have existed. I've been exploring this topic, as a particular focus over the past year, though it's been an interest for some years. If you look back to the Catholic inquisition (and its precursors), Gutenberg, Martin Luther (500th anniversary coming up at the end of October), J.S. Mill (I've run across some excellent discussion by Hans Jensen: https://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/6x7u6a/on_the_role_of_universities_and_primary_education/ https://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/6x7u6a/on_the_... and http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00346760110081599 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00346760110081599 (available via Sci-Hub)). It's sobering.