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They also get to make arbitrary decisions with no accountability. Essentially, the site is their personal fiefdom. Why would they waste their time unless they a

They also get to make arbitrary decisions with no accountability. Essentially, the site is their personal fiefdom. Why would they waste their time unless they are benefiting in some way?

fnordpiglet 4y ago
Probably the same reason people waste their time playing video games or reading science fiction. Scoundrels!!
- cactusplant7374 4y ago
  In those cases you aren’t exercising control over someone else’s creative expression.
  - fnordpiglet 4y ago
    You’re ascribing a negative motive by establishing one could exist. Surely there are petty tyrants on Reddit. But the much simpler, most generous, and most likely explanation is they enjoy a hobby and enjoy fostering a healthy community around their hobby, and that this itself is a hobby of theirs. The word moderator wasn’t invented for social media, and the role is crucial in any healthy intellectual community. Because your creative expression may very well be disruptive to everyone else’s, and while you’re free to be creative in your expressions in general, others are free to exclude you from their community. The moderator gets the unpleasant job of being the executor of that will. I think the most important thing is most moderators I know hate the function of moderator. But the community is important enough they do it anyways. So, I guess I take it back. It’s more like producing a video game or editing science fiction. It’s work we do to be sure everyone can enjoy a hobby we love.
    - ilyt 4y ago
      > You’re ascribing a negative motive by establishing one could exist. Surely there are petty tyrants on Reddit. But the much simpler, most generous, and most likely explanation is they enjoy a hobby and enjoy fostering a healthy community around their hobby, and that this itself is a hobby of theirs That seems to be near exclusive to smaller communities > Because your creative expression may very well be disruptive to everyone else’s, and while you’re free to be creative in your expressions in general, others are free to exclude you from their community. The moderator gets the unpleasant job of being the executor of that will. Well, if you get good moderators, sure, that works. > So, I guess I take it back. It’s more like producing a video game or editing science fiction. It’s work we do to be sure everyone can enjoy a hobby we love. Nope, it's creating zero value of its own. Janitor or gargabe man would be better comparison
    - ilyt 4y ago
      > You’re ascribing a negative motive by establishing one could exist. Surely there are petty tyrants on Reddit. But the much simpler, most generous, and most likely explanation is they enjoy a hobby and enjoy fostering a healthy community around their hobby, and that this itself is a hobby of theirs That seems to be near exclusive to smaller communities. I definitely seen it, I also seen ones that mostly self-moderated with mod hammer only being used in more excessive cases (basically members telling other members "dude, that's not okay because of x, we dont do that here" and mods only needing to intervene in more severe cases. But near-every bigger one seems to devolve into a clique that pushes their personal playground in direction they want, despise what their users think, but the social forum is big enough and not bad enough yet for most people to leave because of that. > Because your creative expression may very well be disruptive to everyone else’s, and while you’re free to be creative in your expressions in general, others are free to exclude you from their community. The moderator gets the unpleasant job of being the executor of that will. Well, if you get good moderators, sure, that works. But for already mentioned reasons it often gets to be executor of only their own clique's will, despise what the actual users of the forum think > So, I guess I take it back. It’s more like producing a video game or editing science fiction. It’s work we do to be sure everyone can enjoy a hobby we love. Nope, it's creating zero value of its own. Janitor or garbage man would be better comparison, unnoticeable when doing the job well, but the place would quickly fill with garbage if not
breck 4y ago
Exactly. As soon as you get subs over 100K you get anon mods out there accepting bribes, kickbacks, and/or on weird power trips. Bravo to the mods on the tiny subs, but in my experience (both as a mod of a top sub and as a contributor) the anon mod behavior becomes 20% toxic when a sub gets popular.
- ilyt 4y ago
  And don't forget the obligatory rules that are so vague nobody can actually adhere to them and still have conversation yet got invoked only when mod wants to have excuse to ban something
2OEH8eoCRo0 4y ago
Why is there always, "but they're getting rich!" Who cares? I'm sure the mods are aware. They do it anyway because it's beneficial having a healthy community that they are also users of.
raverbashing 4y ago
Like one proeminent example some years ago (gallowb...) and I'm sure there are more modern ones as well

They also get to make arbitrary decisions with no accountability. Essentially, the site is their personal fiefdom. Why would they waste their time unless they are benefiting in some way?

fnordpiglet 4y ago

Probably the same reason people waste their time playing video games or reading science fiction. Scoundrels!!

cactusplant7374 4y ago
In those cases you aren’t exercising control over someone else’s creative expression.
- fnordpiglet 4y ago
  You’re ascribing a negative motive by establishing one could exist. Surely there are petty tyrants on Reddit. But the much simpler, most generous, and most likely explanation is they enjoy a hobby and enjoy fostering a healthy community around their hobby, and that this itself is a hobby of theirs. The word moderator wasn’t invented for social media, and the role is crucial in any healthy intellectual community. Because your creative expression may very well be disruptive to everyone else’s, and while you’re free to be creative in your expressions in general, others are free to exclude you from their community. The moderator gets the unpleasant job of being the executor of that will. I think the most important thing is most moderators I know hate the function of moderator. But the community is important enough they do it anyways. So, I guess I take it back. It’s more like producing a video game or editing science fiction. It’s work we do to be sure everyone can enjoy a hobby we love.
  - ilyt 4y ago
    > You’re ascribing a negative motive by establishing one could exist. Surely there are petty tyrants on Reddit. But the much simpler, most generous, and most likely explanation is they enjoy a hobby and enjoy fostering a healthy community around their hobby, and that this itself is a hobby of theirs That seems to be near exclusive to smaller communities > Because your creative expression may very well be disruptive to everyone else’s, and while you’re free to be creative in your expressions in general, others are free to exclude you from their community. The moderator gets the unpleasant job of being the executor of that will. Well, if you get good moderators, sure, that works. > So, I guess I take it back. It’s more like producing a video game or editing science fiction. It’s work we do to be sure everyone can enjoy a hobby we love. Nope, it's creating zero value of its own. Janitor or gargabe man would be better comparison
  - ilyt 4y ago
    > You’re ascribing a negative motive by establishing one could exist. Surely there are petty tyrants on Reddit. But the much simpler, most generous, and most likely explanation is they enjoy a hobby and enjoy fostering a healthy community around their hobby, and that this itself is a hobby of theirs That seems to be near exclusive to smaller communities. I definitely seen it, I also seen ones that mostly self-moderated with mod hammer only being used in more excessive cases (basically members telling other members "dude, that's not okay because of x, we dont do that here" and mods only needing to intervene in more severe cases. But near-every bigger one seems to devolve into a clique that pushes their personal playground in direction they want, despise what their users think, but the social forum is big enough and not bad enough yet for most people to leave because of that. > Because your creative expression may very well be disruptive to everyone else’s, and while you’re free to be creative in your expressions in general, others are free to exclude you from their community. The moderator gets the unpleasant job of being the executor of that will. Well, if you get good moderators, sure, that works. But for already mentioned reasons it often gets to be executor of only their own clique's will, despise what the actual users of the forum think > So, I guess I take it back. It’s more like producing a video game or editing science fiction. It’s work we do to be sure everyone can enjoy a hobby we love. Nope, it's creating zero value of its own. Janitor or garbage man would be better comparison, unnoticeable when doing the job well, but the place would quickly fill with garbage if not

breck 4y ago

Exactly. As soon as you get subs over 100K you get anon mods out there accepting bribes, kickbacks, and/or on weird power trips. Bravo to the mods on the tiny subs, but in my experience (both as a mod of a top sub and as a contributor) the anon mod behavior becomes 20% toxic when a sub gets popular.

ilyt 4y ago
And don't forget the obligatory rules that are so vague nobody can actually adhere to them and still have conversation yet got invoked only when mod wants to have excuse to ban something

2OEH8eoCRo0 4y ago

Why is there always, "but they're getting rich!" Who cares? I'm sure the mods are aware. They do it anyway because it's beneficial having a healthy community that they are also users of.

raverbashing 4y ago

Like one proeminent example some years ago (gallowb...) and I'm sure there are more modern ones as well