4 ms·

Lotta commenters here clearly proclaiming they've never had the ~opportunity~ misfortune of moderating even a medium sized online community.

trollied 3y ago
Yeah. It’s loads more difficult without an easily searchable backup. I was also quite active trying to detect and stop certain scammers, but it’s more or less impossible now.
NovaDudely 3y ago
I have never done it but it seems like one of the most thankless endevours you can take on. If you do it right, from the outside it looks like you are doing nothing. It is like the duck on the pond. Looks calm on top but the legs are frantically keeping them in place.
- tudorw 3y ago
  my only experience led to 'delegate fast, most people are reasonable' I helped build Jolt.co.uk & Squadlinks, a large UK gaming site during the Quake/Counterstrike era, while we had issues with occasional individuals, on the whole our forums were nice places to hang out, we had legions of gamers who loved taking ownership of their sub, they'd then sub delegate moderation, being liberal with trust engendered trust and we maintained a virtuous spiral, I imagine because our audience were closely aligned it made things a lot easier.
  - weego 3y ago
    I worked a lot on blueyonder cs/dod communities at the time online and on irc. It was mostly OK, the biggest eye opener at the time (I was 20ish) was when I'd hop onto one of the other admins (female) irc account and holy hell that was an experience in private conversations.
    - tudorw 3y ago
      well recalled, that is very true and I am glad you raised that, obnoxious, on the other side of the coin, I fondly recall the UK Multiplay series of LAN events, for me these events showed that in person, people are just nicer, perhaps online it's not just the 'safety' of anonymity, it's closer to machismo posturing with a dash of mob rule combined with the tragedy of the masses, in real life, with a ratio of about 999:1 I saw a lot of good respectful behaviour and it was a great to be a part of that, that community had community at the core in a very genuine way, they deserved their success.
sdflhasjd 3y ago
I moderated a moderately sized gaming community forum during 2010-2015 as the "head admin". It is a very thankless job, but harder than moderating the forum was moderating the mods themselves. Power corrupts, but the tiniest bit of lame internet power corrupts absolutely, and the only people that ever apply to be moderators are those that seek this lame power. It starts off with reasonable people but slowly becomes a cabal of knobs with unquestionable authority who hire more of the same people until you've got an insular group of narcissistic, condescending mods that are just there to defend their own power.
- boomskats 3y ago
  > It starts off with reasonable people but slowly becomes a cabal of knobs with unquestionable authority who hire more of the same people until you've got an insular group of narcissistic, condescending mods that are just there to defend their own power. As a Serb living in the UK this hit me pretty hard.
- account42 3y ago
  Do you think anything could be done to keep moderators from going off the rails? Would making mod actions as transparent as possible help? How about user feedback that could see mods. Obviously you'd still need the dictator at the top to be benevolent but that seems to be more likely at least until the community gets big enough that selling out would actually pay.
  - MichaelZuo 3y ago
    They have to be paid, so that people other then the petty power seekers with their race-to-the-bottom dynamic apply to become mods.
  - zamnos 3y ago
    Do you? What if, instead the system promoted a random active user to moderator status, with a strict term limit, with the possibility of being kicked out if too unpopular. Power shouldn't be given to those who seek it, and kind of low stakes Internet forum seems like a way to thrust power unto those that aren't.
s_dev 3y ago
How many subscribers is medium sized?
grt_thr 3y ago
I was number 3 admin for two defaults back when there were only 20 defaults. Power mods are a cancer that got all the regular mods banned and then ran the places to the ground.
mardifoufs 3y ago
It's a completely volunteer job. Why do it if it's so horrible? Especially for free, for a corporation like Reddit? Either it's not as horrible as it is being often portrayed or the mods get something out of it too.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- hombre_fatal 3y ago
  The day to day chore can still be a horrible experience even though you get something out of it. Whether it's a sense of charity (best case scenario) or a power trip (much more common), it doesn't mean the job is pleasant, but it may make the mission worthwhile for someone.

trollied 3y ago

Yeah. It’s loads more difficult without an easily searchable backup. I was also quite active trying to detect and stop certain scammers, but it’s more or less impossible now.

NovaDudely 3y ago

I have never done it but it seems like one of the most thankless endevours you can take on. If you do it right, from the outside it looks like you are doing nothing. It is like the duck on the pond. Looks calm on top but the legs are frantically keeping them in place.

tudorw 3y ago
my only experience led to 'delegate fast, most people are reasonable' I helped build Jolt.co.uk & Squadlinks, a large UK gaming site during the Quake/Counterstrike era, while we had issues with occasional individuals, on the whole our forums were nice places to hang out, we had legions of gamers who loved taking ownership of their sub, they'd then sub delegate moderation, being liberal with trust engendered trust and we maintained a virtuous spiral, I imagine because our audience were closely aligned it made things a lot easier.
- weego 3y ago
  I worked a lot on blueyonder cs/dod communities at the time online and on irc. It was mostly OK, the biggest eye opener at the time (I was 20ish) was when I'd hop onto one of the other admins (female) irc account and holy hell that was an experience in private conversations.
  - tudorw 3y ago
    well recalled, that is very true and I am glad you raised that, obnoxious, on the other side of the coin, I fondly recall the UK Multiplay series of LAN events, for me these events showed that in person, people are just nicer, perhaps online it's not just the 'safety' of anonymity, it's closer to machismo posturing with a dash of mob rule combined with the tragedy of the masses, in real life, with a ratio of about 999:1 I saw a lot of good respectful behaviour and it was a great to be a part of that, that community had community at the core in a very genuine way, they deserved their success.

sdflhasjd 3y ago

I moderated a moderately sized gaming community forum during 2010-2015 as the "head admin". It is a very thankless job, but harder than moderating the forum was moderating the mods themselves. Power corrupts, but the tiniest bit of lame internet power corrupts absolutely, and the only people that ever apply to be moderators are those that seek this lame power. It starts off with reasonable people but slowly becomes a cabal of knobs with unquestionable authority who hire more of the same people until you've got an insular group of narcissistic, condescending mods that are just there to defend their own power.

boomskats 3y ago
> It starts off with reasonable people but slowly becomes a cabal of knobs with unquestionable authority who hire more of the same people until you've got an insular group of narcissistic, condescending mods that are just there to defend their own power. As a Serb living in the UK this hit me pretty hard.
account42 3y ago
Do you think anything could be done to keep moderators from going off the rails? Would making mod actions as transparent as possible help? How about user feedback that could see mods. Obviously you'd still need the dictator at the top to be benevolent but that seems to be more likely at least until the community gets big enough that selling out would actually pay.
- MichaelZuo 3y ago
  They have to be paid, so that people other then the petty power seekers with their race-to-the-bottom dynamic apply to become mods.
- zamnos 3y ago
  Do you? What if, instead the system promoted a random active user to moderator status, with a strict term limit, with the possibility of being kicked out if too unpopular. Power shouldn't be given to those who seek it, and kind of low stakes Internet forum seems like a way to thrust power unto those that aren't.

s_dev 3y ago

How many subscribers is medium sized?

grt_thr 3y ago

I was number 3 admin for two defaults back when there were only 20 defaults. Power mods are a cancer that got all the regular mods banned and then ran the places to the ground.

mardifoufs 3y ago

It's a completely volunteer job. Why do it if it's so horrible? Especially for free, for a corporation like Reddit? Either it's not as horrible as it is being often portrayed or the mods get something out of it too.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
hombre_fatal 3y ago
The day to day chore can still be a horrible experience even though you get something out of it. Whether it's a sense of charity (best case scenario) or a power trip (much more common), it doesn't mean the job is pleasant, but it may make the mission worthwhile for someone.