3 ms·

Democratically voted mods will never work for any moderately sized forum. The problem is the forums would be brigaded by terminally online “interest groups.” S

Democratically voted mods will never work for any moderately sized forum. The problem is the forums would be brigaded by terminally online “interest groups.” See how the alt right infiltrates gaming groups. The reasonable voices are outnumbered and taken over.

guerrilla 3y ago
Kind of like in real life. Shitty people have more resources.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
tensor 3y ago
It's definitely a hard problem, but also an extremely important one as real life democracies also suffer issues like this to some extent. Obviously you'd need a bunch of rules around who could vote to prevent brigading, e.g. tenure and activity on the forum at a minimum. But also, this could be an excellent platform to experiment and discover systems that DO work. I think it's worth trying in any case, as the status quote already "doesn't work" in an even worse way. Special interest groups grab control and there is no way at all to unseat them.
haunter 3y ago
>See how the alt right infiltrates gaming groups Goes both ways (if you insist to use the traditional political compass). GCJ is a perfect example of that. I use the "terminally online" word for these people rather.
- redmerchant2 3y ago
  I agree but I’d caveat the equivalency. Sure GCJ and other overly leftist subs are annoying. But there is a world of difference of spamming “[video game] is secretly about trans fem boy communism” by GCJ types. Vs alt right groups talking about (real life) minorities not deserving equal rights. Subjectively, I avoid any overly politically forced sub. However let’s not push the “both sides” argument.
kimbernator 3y ago
Agree. It's already democratic in Reddit's current form in the sense that anybody can just start a community to replace one with moderation they don't like. The subreddit with the moderation that works the best often wins out.
- tensor 3y ago
  This is not remotely democratic without discovery. E.g. if you start an alt, the original would need to be force to display the alt as an alternative. Otherwise it's too easy to control the narrative and prevent anyone from even finding out about the alternative. Today, the primary sub generally actively bans any mention of alternatives. Also the most obviously named forum will attract the new users simply because of the name.
  - gremlinsinc 3y ago
    what about of each breakaway pointed to reach other under an opposing views area, where people can go to read the other side, or the group that's breaking away?
anon7725 3y ago
> terminally online “interest groups.” In my view, terminally online interest groups are responsible for the current protests against Reddit. Several of the smaller low traffic area-specific subs that I frequent have been taken offline (some threatening permanently).
johnnyanmac 3y ago
Yeah, that's the big issue. There's no incentive to want to be a public unpaid moderator, except arguably bad ones. Someone wanting to run for power creates and runs some of the worst communities out there. For better or worse, the best moderating schemes on a moderately large group is via a paid position. At least there a mod has a "boss" that you can hope to appeal to should they abuse their power. May not always work but it's more security than hoping an admin pays attention to a subreddit's drama.

guerrilla 3y ago

Kind of like in real life. Shitty people have more resources.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

tensor 3y ago

It's definitely a hard problem, but also an extremely important one as real life democracies also suffer issues like this to some extent. Obviously you'd need a bunch of rules around who could vote to prevent brigading, e.g. tenure and activity on the forum at a minimum. But also, this could be an excellent platform to experiment and discover systems that DO work. I think it's worth trying in any case, as the status quote already "doesn't work" in an even worse way. Special interest groups grab control and there is no way at all to unseat them.

haunter 3y ago

>See how the alt right infiltrates gaming groups Goes both ways (if you insist to use the traditional political compass). GCJ is a perfect example of that. I use the "terminally online" word for these people rather.

redmerchant2 3y ago
I agree but I’d caveat the equivalency. Sure GCJ and other overly leftist subs are annoying. But there is a world of difference of spamming “[video game] is secretly about trans fem boy communism” by GCJ types. Vs alt right groups talking about (real life) minorities not deserving equal rights. Subjectively, I avoid any overly politically forced sub. However let’s not push the “both sides” argument.

kimbernator 3y ago

Agree. It's already democratic in Reddit's current form in the sense that anybody can just start a community to replace one with moderation they don't like. The subreddit with the moderation that works the best often wins out.

tensor 3y ago
This is not remotely democratic without discovery. E.g. if you start an alt, the original would need to be force to display the alt as an alternative. Otherwise it's too easy to control the narrative and prevent anyone from even finding out about the alternative. Today, the primary sub generally actively bans any mention of alternatives. Also the most obviously named forum will attract the new users simply because of the name.
- gremlinsinc 3y ago
  what about of each breakaway pointed to reach other under an opposing views area, where people can go to read the other side, or the group that's breaking away?

anon7725 3y ago

> terminally online “interest groups.” In my view, terminally online interest groups are responsible for the current protests against Reddit. Several of the smaller low traffic area-specific subs that I frequent have been taken offline (some threatening permanently).

johnnyanmac 3y ago

Yeah, that's the big issue. There's no incentive to want to be a public unpaid moderator, except arguably bad ones. Someone wanting to run for power creates and runs some of the worst communities out there. For better or worse, the best moderating schemes on a moderately large group is via a paid position. At least there a mod has a "boss" that you can hope to appeal to should they abuse their power. May not always work but it's more security than hoping an admin pays attention to a subreddit's drama.