4 ms·

The fact that a discussion topic has centralized moderation is weird to me. Why should a group of biased imperfect individuals control a topic like r/news? Seem

The fact that a discussion topic has centralized moderation is weird to me. Why should a group of biased imperfect individuals control a topic like r/news? Seems like a ripe area to develop automated moderation using the distinct preferences of each user.

twelfthnight 3y ago
Who would develop the automated moderation? Reddit? They would do so in a way that optimizes their profits, not your interests. There's no perfect solution. If you suggest "let users vote/democracy", then you'll start getting propaganda convincing people to vote for their agenda. If you leave the mods in charge then you get these mini dictatorships. If you let Reddit control then you get a profit seeking algorithm that stuffs any criticism of people who pay Reddit. One of these solutions is probably better than the others, but there are some major tradeoffs.
isaacremuant 3y ago
I'm sorry. Do you think HN is unmoderated? Unless you're in a very free speech leaning place, which are unfortunately and increasingly harder to find, every forum is modded and the mods hold varying degrees of influence. And the site wide admins, when there's such a thing, hold more.
- pokstad 3y ago
  HN isn’t Reddit. I like HN moderation. I come here for the more niche HN discussions. Reddit is much larger than HN and attracts people from a very wide spectrum. A handful of moderators don’t always do the best job at that scale. Especially for larger subreddits.
  - isaacremuant 3y ago
    I don't think I understand how it relates to your initial point, then. The one about imperfect mods and topics.
- CyberDildonics 3y ago
  unfortunately and increasingly harder to find They aren't hard to find. The reality is that the people who want to say 'whatever they want' are usually just looking to spout endless conspiracy theories, vaccine denial, pro putin propaganda, election denial and lots of other nonsense misinformation with no evidence behind it. The problem is that these people don't just want a place to say it, they want to find a large audience to broadcast to normal people trying to have normal discussions. Normal people don't want them around, people running sites don't want them around and talking to each other isn't what they want. Finding a place to say what you want is easy, finding a place where you can foul up normal message boards and everyone just lets you do it is the challenge.
  - isaacremuant 3y ago
    [dead]

twelfthnight 3y ago

Who would develop the automated moderation? Reddit? They would do so in a way that optimizes their profits, not your interests. There's no perfect solution. If you suggest "let users vote/democracy", then you'll start getting propaganda convincing people to vote for their agenda. If you leave the mods in charge then you get these mini dictatorships. If you let Reddit control then you get a profit seeking algorithm that stuffs any criticism of people who pay Reddit. One of these solutions is probably better than the others, but there are some major tradeoffs.

isaacremuant 3y ago

I'm sorry. Do you think HN is unmoderated? Unless you're in a very free speech leaning place, which are unfortunately and increasingly harder to find, every forum is modded and the mods hold varying degrees of influence. And the site wide admins, when there's such a thing, hold more.

pokstad 3y ago
HN isn’t Reddit. I like HN moderation. I come here for the more niche HN discussions. Reddit is much larger than HN and attracts people from a very wide spectrum. A handful of moderators don’t always do the best job at that scale. Especially for larger subreddits.
- isaacremuant 3y ago
  I don't think I understand how it relates to your initial point, then. The one about imperfect mods and topics.
CyberDildonics 3y ago
unfortunately and increasingly harder to find They aren't hard to find. The reality is that the people who want to say 'whatever they want' are usually just looking to spout endless conspiracy theories, vaccine denial, pro putin propaganda, election denial and lots of other nonsense misinformation with no evidence behind it. The problem is that these people don't just want a place to say it, they want to find a large audience to broadcast to normal people trying to have normal discussions. Normal people don't want them around, people running sites don't want them around and talking to each other isn't what they want. Finding a place to say what you want is easy, finding a place where you can foul up normal message boards and everyone just lets you do it is the challenge.
- isaacremuant 3y ago
  [dead]