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There's a lot of variance between individuals. Given the choice this sounds like an overall better job than working a busy McDonald's drive through (people are

There's a lot of variance between individuals. Given the choice this sounds like an overall better job than working a busy McDonald's drive through (people are assholes when they're hungry) but I'm not the kind of person that's particularly bothered by graphic violence. My opinion of humanity is dark enough to accommodate it. I'm sure many people would prefer McDonald's though. Some of the people interviewed were complaining primarily about the bad working conditions (and their complaints are valid as far as I care). I would wager these people are not as bothered by the content (though I'm sure they don't like it) as the ones who's primary complaints are about the content. They could probably do the job with less burnout if the rest of the job was made to suck less (i.e. it wasn't a shitty call center style job with all the accompanying baggage). Edit: Why am I getting down-voted? Can people legitimately not fathom that some people would not be seriously bothered by seeing this content? People post violent content to Facebook. Shock and gore sites exist because some people actively seek out(!!) the kind of content that these moderators are being exposed to. It stands to reason that the subset of the population that at least finds that content not mentally damaging is substantially larger than the group that seeks it out.

SomeOldThrow 7y ago
Like your dream life—I bet facebook is hiring.
- dang 7y ago
  Would you please stop posting unsubstantive comments to HN, especially ones that cross into being unkind? You've been doing this a lot lately, and we eventually ban that sort of account. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
bloopernova 7y ago
I think perhaps people feel that you are minimizing the horror and repulsiveness of the content by saying that these moderators have a better job than working at a fast food restaurant. My wife, who has worked in a busy McDonald's for 5 years, says this sort of moderation is far, far worse than anything she had to deal with. And she's had to deal with human waste, violence, and direct verbal abuse from customers. Your point about making the working environment better is a valid one, but think it is overshadowed by your assertion that the horrific content is acceptable to "many people". Your views do resonate with some people on Reddit though. I remember saying that I didn't like the pained yelps, limping, and whining of Dogmeat in Fallout 4, and I was attacked and ridiculed for that. I know I wouldn't last more than a minute at this Facebook moderation job, it would scar me for life. I don't think that means I'm "wrong", any more than your views are "right".
- dsfyu404ed 7y ago
  >I think perhaps people feel that you are minimizing the horror and repulsiveness of the content by saying that these moderators have a better job than working at a fast food restaurant. I think that perhaps those people need to realize that not everyone is as easily rattled as them. Some people go to the Holocaust museum and are mortified by the details of it and are sad for a week. Some people go and are like "yeah, people do terrible things sometimes, this is just the worst systemic instance to date" and then go out for beers afterward. Whenever there's an armed conflict there's some people who are F'd up by what they see and there's some people who say "yeah that sucked and I'm glad it's over" and there's people in between. I think it's pretty evident that the ability to cope with violence varies a lot between individuals. >My wife, who has worked in a busy McDonald's for 5 years, says this sort of moderation is far, far worse than anything she had to deal with. And she's had to deal with human waste, violence, and direct verbal abuse from customers. I've done that too. I'll take hospital janitor over anything in food service. The general public sucks. The floor doesn't complain when you didn't mop it up just the way it wanted. I'd probably try my hand at a moderating job before I went back to food service. Blood, violence, obscene pornography, etc, etc don't bother me. It's nasty but whatever, some people are terrible so what do you expect. There's other things that bother me but those aren't it. > your assertion that the horrific content is acceptable to "many people". There's levels of acceptable and there's a reason these employees are being paid more than those of the call center across the office park. I'm not suggesting that some employees find it acceptable in the abstract. I'm saying they are not so easily mentally harmed by it to consider it not worth the pay. I see it no different than a physically fit 20yo who finds a ditch digging job to be worth his while because he can handle it whereas the 50yo almost certainly cannot handle it without much greater negative health consequences. If you can hack it for the pay then why not. >I don't think that means I'm "wrong", any more than your views are "right". You're not asserting that nobody can do this job and I'm asserting that there exist people who can do this job (or at least people who whom the "shitty call center job" conditions are the primary irritant preventing them from doing this job). That said, the down-vote to reply ration makes me suspect that many people simply do not believe that some other people do not think like them.
gerbilly 7y ago
The fact that these kind of shock videos are even a thing, kind of disproves your point.¹ There are also people who are habituated with cutting into living bodies (surgeons) but the difference is they are highly paid. It's a bit unfair to equivocate and call this kind of work a good option for some people, when the vast majority of people who are in these jobs probably will be psychologically harmed by it² and are doing it because they have few other options. It is relegated to an underclass, like all dangerous and undesirable work. 1: Statistically at least. 2: See also: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228141419_A_Slaughterhouse_Nightmare_Psychological_Harm_Suffered_by_Slaughterhouse_Employees_and_the_Possibility_of_Redress_through_Legal_Reform https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228141419_A_Slaught...

SomeOldThrow 7y ago

Like your dream life—I bet facebook is hiring.

dang 7y ago
Would you please stop posting unsubstantive comments to HN, especially ones that cross into being unkind? You've been doing this a lot lately, and we eventually ban that sort of account. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

bloopernova 7y ago

I think perhaps people feel that you are minimizing the horror and repulsiveness of the content by saying that these moderators have a better job than working at a fast food restaurant. My wife, who has worked in a busy McDonald's for 5 years, says this sort of moderation is far, far worse than anything she had to deal with. And she's had to deal with human waste, violence, and direct verbal abuse from customers. Your point about making the working environment better is a valid one, but think it is overshadowed by your assertion that the horrific content is acceptable to "many people". Your views do resonate with some people on Reddit though. I remember saying that I didn't like the pained yelps, limping, and whining of Dogmeat in Fallout 4, and I was attacked and ridiculed for that. I know I wouldn't last more than a minute at this Facebook moderation job, it would scar me for life. I don't think that means I'm "wrong", any more than your views are "right".

dsfyu404ed 7y ago
>I think perhaps people feel that you are minimizing the horror and repulsiveness of the content by saying that these moderators have a better job than working at a fast food restaurant. I think that perhaps those people need to realize that not everyone is as easily rattled as them. Some people go to the Holocaust museum and are mortified by the details of it and are sad for a week. Some people go and are like "yeah, people do terrible things sometimes, this is just the worst systemic instance to date" and then go out for beers afterward. Whenever there's an armed conflict there's some people who are F'd up by what they see and there's some people who say "yeah that sucked and I'm glad it's over" and there's people in between. I think it's pretty evident that the ability to cope with violence varies a lot between individuals. >My wife, who has worked in a busy McDonald's for 5 years, says this sort of moderation is far, far worse than anything she had to deal with. And she's had to deal with human waste, violence, and direct verbal abuse from customers. I've done that too. I'll take hospital janitor over anything in food service. The general public sucks. The floor doesn't complain when you didn't mop it up just the way it wanted. I'd probably try my hand at a moderating job before I went back to food service. Blood, violence, obscene pornography, etc, etc don't bother me. It's nasty but whatever, some people are terrible so what do you expect. There's other things that bother me but those aren't it. > your assertion that the horrific content is acceptable to "many people". There's levels of acceptable and there's a reason these employees are being paid more than those of the call center across the office park. I'm not suggesting that some employees find it acceptable in the abstract. I'm saying they are not so easily mentally harmed by it to consider it not worth the pay. I see it no different than a physically fit 20yo who finds a ditch digging job to be worth his while because he can handle it whereas the 50yo almost certainly cannot handle it without much greater negative health consequences. If you can hack it for the pay then why not. >I don't think that means I'm "wrong", any more than your views are "right". You're not asserting that nobody can do this job and I'm asserting that there exist people who can do this job (or at least people who whom the "shitty call center job" conditions are the primary irritant preventing them from doing this job). That said, the down-vote to reply ration makes me suspect that many people simply do not believe that some other people do not think like them.

gerbilly 7y ago

The fact that these kind of shock videos are even a thing, kind of disproves your point.¹ There are also people who are habituated with cutting into living bodies (surgeons) but the difference is they are highly paid. It's a bit unfair to equivocate and call this kind of work a good option for some people, when the vast majority of people who are in these jobs probably will be psychologically harmed by it² and are doing it because they have few other options. It is relegated to an underclass, like all dangerous and undesirable work. 1: Statistically at least. 2: See also: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228141419_A_Slaughterhouse_Nightmare_Psychological_Harm_Suffered_by_Slaughterhouse_Employees_and_the_Possibility_of_Redress_through_Legal_Reform https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228141419_A_Slaught...