4 ms·

> I've given so much time to this person it's insane. _why_?

locallost 5y ago
Because (s)he believed in something and wanted to make a change. And a lot of times this will be for nothing, but believing enough in something to sacrifice a lot or even yourself is how almost any type of progress happens.
realce 5y ago
The message and intention is inspiring and I think engineered poverty is the greatest problem with American society, creating wells of trauma and hatred that make rational governance impossible and make political oppression very simple. There's other stuff - I strongly support a VAT and stuff like that, but the poverty>hatred pipeline is what I'm truly interested in.
rajin444 5y ago
I have a high level of skepticism for anyone who is a reddit moderator. This is purely speculative and anecdotal, but the ones I've known are not generally healthy, stable people.
- realce 5y ago
  I was a redditor for a decade before I did this, and I TOTALLY AGREE. Reddit moderation, esp for large subs of like over 50k, is outrageous. The power you can muster to influence debate and exposure at that level is immense, and there's basically no repercussions for abusive mods. The amount of time you have to devote to managing a community is immense, the ability to keep your mod team on point is hardly possible. It's really hard and thankless and can totally twist your head up.
- danielkyne 5y ago
  Reddit moderators are a whole breed of their own. Any that I've encountered (mostly for 100k+ subreddits) have lost any shred of empathy they once had.
  - papandada 5y ago
    Like living a thousand lives in parallel as a Walmart cashier. Shudder
- unethical_ban 5y ago
  I'm a reddit mod for a 100k+ geographical sub. I volunteered when I thought the mods did a poor job on something and DM'ed them, and one invited me to help. So every day or three, I hop on and help clean out the report queue if it's stacked up. Being a decent person, modding can be difficult because the internet is full of bad-faith people and idiots. Applying a consistent standard in a way that keeps the sub clean while allowing real conversation is tough, so it is a lot of judgement calls. I could go on, but it is a tough job. I do it because I want the "chatroom of the city" to be as friendly as possible. I tend to let "merely stupid" comments get downvoted to oblivion, but name-calling or straight-up disinfo (I tend to look at their profiles for context) gets deleted quickly. And yeah, I step away from it a few days a week, simply because caring too much will keep you steeped in horrible comments and stupidity far too much.
  - vorpalhex 5y ago
    > straight-up disinfo (I tend to look at their profiles for context) gets deleted quickly. That makes me extremely nervous. One can imagine a perverse mod who simply deletes comments based on which political subs they post in.
    - aero-glide2 5y ago
      I don't have to imagine. Many subs automatically ban you if you post in few specific subs.
    - ihattendorf 5y ago
      Honest question: what's the alternative? Maybe sign-off from multiple mods on every action? That'd be a tough sell to require double, triple, or more time from mods. Some sort of random review of x% of mod actions maybe?
      - vorpalhex 5y ago
        Have a N strikes policy, track in-sub user infractions. Have a public moderation log. Reddit is unfortunately woefully under-equipped for moderators so the above is a strictly out of band process for Reddit specifically.

Because (s)he believed in something and wanted to make a change. And a lot of times this will be for nothing, but believing enough in something to sacrifice a lot or even yourself is how almost any type of progress happens.

realce 5y ago

The message and intention is inspiring and I think engineered poverty is the greatest problem with American society, creating wells of trauma and hatred that make rational governance impossible and make political oppression very simple. There's other stuff - I strongly support a VAT and stuff like that, but the poverty>hatred pipeline is what I'm truly interested in.

rajin444 5y ago

I have a high level of skepticism for anyone who is a reddit moderator. This is purely speculative and anecdotal, but the ones I've known are not generally healthy, stable people.

realce 5y ago
I was a redditor for a decade before I did this, and I TOTALLY AGREE. Reddit moderation, esp for large subs of like over 50k, is outrageous. The power you can muster to influence debate and exposure at that level is immense, and there's basically no repercussions for abusive mods. The amount of time you have to devote to managing a community is immense, the ability to keep your mod team on point is hardly possible. It's really hard and thankless and can totally twist your head up.
danielkyne 5y ago
Reddit moderators are a whole breed of their own. Any that I've encountered (mostly for 100k+ subreddits) have lost any shred of empathy they once had.
- papandada 5y ago
  Like living a thousand lives in parallel as a Walmart cashier. Shudder
unethical_ban 5y ago
I'm a reddit mod for a 100k+ geographical sub. I volunteered when I thought the mods did a poor job on something and DM'ed them, and one invited me to help. So every day or three, I hop on and help clean out the report queue if it's stacked up. Being a decent person, modding can be difficult because the internet is full of bad-faith people and idiots. Applying a consistent standard in a way that keeps the sub clean while allowing real conversation is tough, so it is a lot of judgement calls. I could go on, but it is a tough job. I do it because I want the "chatroom of the city" to be as friendly as possible. I tend to let "merely stupid" comments get downvoted to oblivion, but name-calling or straight-up disinfo (I tend to look at their profiles for context) gets deleted quickly. And yeah, I step away from it a few days a week, simply because caring too much will keep you steeped in horrible comments and stupidity far too much.
- vorpalhex 5y ago
  > straight-up disinfo (I tend to look at their profiles for context) gets deleted quickly. That makes me extremely nervous. One can imagine a perverse mod who simply deletes comments based on which political subs they post in.
  - aero-glide2 5y ago
    I don't have to imagine. Many subs automatically ban you if you post in few specific subs.
  - ihattendorf 5y ago
    Honest question: what's the alternative? Maybe sign-off from multiple mods on every action? That'd be a tough sell to require double, triple, or more time from mods. Some sort of random review of x% of mod actions maybe?
    - vorpalhex 5y ago
      Have a N strikes policy, track in-sub user infractions. Have a public moderation log. Reddit is unfortunately woefully under-equipped for moderators so the above is a strictly out of band process for Reddit specifically.