6 ms·

I have a feeling they won't have a hard time finding deranged weirdos who want to mod and will remove anything that could in any way raise an eyebrow of adverti

by hbn 3y ago

I have a feeling they won't have a hard time finding deranged weirdos who want to mod and will remove anything that could in any way raise an eyebrow of advertisers/payment processors/etc The worst mods for the community will be the best mods for reddit's bottom line. The power-tripping is payment in itself for those types.

ramesh31 3y ago
>The power-tripping is payment in itself for those types. As if the current mods are any different? Honestly I don't mind this at all. The big subreddits have become so ossified in their power structures, that each community is its' own little fiefdom now. There is massive friction to being able to post anywhere. Reddit would be objectively better with a less heavy handed approach to moderation, and some kind of site-wide formal appeals process that neuters the ability of any individual mod from going on a power trip.
- LordDragonfang 3y ago
  >There is massive friction to being able to post anywhere. Reddit would be objectively better with a less heavy handed approach to moderation Whenever I see this sentiment I'm honestly stumped as to how anyone's experience can be so different from mine. What exactly is it that you're trying to post that's so difficult? because from what I see in nearly every sub, they'd be improved by more moderation, since nearly all of them get stuffed with off-topic and low-effort content, often actively breaking the community rules in the sidebar.
  - ipaddr 3y ago
    Different subs have different rules and different formats on what they expect. Casually posting as you would in one thread might get you banned in another. Here is a good example. As a new user signed up for an account and posted in a sub got a lot of replies but didn't come back for a few months. Tried replying and was forbidden because of low karma points. Never came back.. The reason why you as a long term reddit user are stumped is because your experience is different.
    - sangnoir 3y ago
      > Different subs have different rules and different formats on what they expect This is a core feature that distinguishes Reddit as a "Community of communities". It's not a bug, it's a feature
      - ipaddr 3y ago
        It's false barriers that setup this tribal mentality where you think you have ownership in a community that someone else owns. Many are discovering this week that their ownership is fleeting
        sangnoir 3y ago
        It wouldn't be the first time in history that stewards attempted a popular revolt against the real power
  - ramesh31 3y ago
    >What exactly is it that you're trying to post that's so difficult? because from what I see in nearly every sub, they'd be improved by more moderation, since nearly all of them get stuffed with off-topic and low-effort content, often actively breaking the community rules in the sidebar. That's the problem, it can be anything. No, I'm not going to sit down and read every single bullet point of your specific subreddit rules so that what I'm saying perfectly jives with your little cult. I don't know how many times I've seen an interesting thread from a sub I've never visited, tried to add to the conversation, and got auto-moderated with zero recourse. No, I'm not going to "revise my post" to step in line with what you're expecting. I'm just never going to bother joining this community now. So long as a post is on topic and not abusive or threatening, there is zero reason to remove it. But Reddit has become a place where mods curate their userbase into a nightmarish echo chamber, quash all dissent, and then use it as a bullhorn for their own ideologies.
    - dale_glass 3y ago
      > No, I'm not going to "revise my post" to step in line with what you're expecting. I'm just never going to bother joining this community now. Good! I only visit well curated subreddits. I don't want drive-by visitors, floods of memes, or similar content. My bread and butter are subreddits like r/DebateReligion and r/AskHistorians. If the mods are not to my liking, there usually is an alternate sub on the same subject that is. So thank you for staying away.
      - ramesh31 3y ago
        >So thank you for staying away. And this is exactly why Reddit has gone to hell. Mods with that attitude. "I was here first, so therefore I get to unilaterally set the Overton window for all discussion herein. If you don't like it, you're banned." HN seems to be the last place on the internet where competing thoughts can exist. It's amazing to me that if moderation is so hard, why dang can do such a good job single-handedly with a user-base bigger than most subs.
        dale_glass 3y ago
  - nanidin 3y ago
    My local subreddit has become a proxy for /r/fuckcars and is also pushing a strong pro-new-airport narrative, among other things. There is a subreddit rule against “creating drama in the community” and any comment against the hive mind on these topics is interpreted by the mods as creating drama and removed, sometimes including a temporary ban. They more or less enforce the echo chamber. Disagreement is futile. Meanwhile, reporting comments that clearly violate the subreddit rules for things like ad-hominem attacks and spam in turn get the reporter reported to Reddit admins for abusing the report button. From my perspective a few of the elder mods stepped down and were replaced by activist mods that are moderating with strong, shameless ego to reinforce their preferred viewpoints and narrative.
    - LordDragonfang 3y ago
      That's unfortunate, and you've managed to present one of the few good counterexamples there. Unfortunately, "<city name>" isn't really a great topic for a singular community, since cities, by nature, host multitudes, and are inherently political entities. The best alternative is probably to create your own sub, or try to talk to one of the mods about it in private so as not to create drama.
      - nanidin 3y ago
        Unfortunately messaging the mods about moderation activity is also against the rules of that particular subreddit and will also result in a ban.
        LordDragonfang 3y ago
        Okay, you got me, those mods are on a power trip lol. Although it depends on the size of the subreddit - you tend to get a lot of idiots who complain incessantly about plainly justified moderation, and we have to remember that these are literally unpaid volunteers, they're entitled to take actions that make their job easier.
- garbagecoder 3y ago
  >As if the current mods are any different? People haven't liked this much when I've said it in the past, but I think there's more to this than just API pricing. I think there's a lot of general discontent about how reddit works that saw people more likely to support this strike. Some because it was the last straw, some to watch it burn. While I do think reddit is blundering and taking their free labor and content for granted, I think the power mods and more generally the karma system create a lot of anger that has piggybacked on this. I think you're right, but I think the new ones will be even worse and may actually cause the user exodus that will hurt them. It's these second order effects that Reddit doesn't seem to be taking into account because they're so confident this is mostly inside baseball to the average user. Yes, as far as API pricing. No as far as the enshittification with "new" styling, NFTs, and all the other dumb shit. And the power mods.
  - briffle 3y ago
    > People haven't liked this much when I've said it in the past, but I think there's more to this than just API pricing. I'm sure that the majority of this is WOULD YOU LIKE TO READ THIS IN THE APP? ITS BETTER true, but i think the API is one of the worst parts now. But there is WOULD YOU LIKE TO READ THIS IN THE APP? ITS BETTER some functionality I use for old.reddit.com, that I'm pretty sure will be next on the chopping block...
  - fluidcruft 3y ago
    Admin has been particularly horrible lately. Mods complaining is the tip of the iceberg. Today's Reddit is a far cry from what it used to be. Honestly I do have this sort of feeling that I could care less if it dies.
    - SV_BubbleTime 3y ago
      It’s not exactly new. It’s just that it’s being seen now. You know the best day I ever saw on Reddit? The day after Trump was elected. The bots and mods and preppanned Clinton themed party made for seemingly ONE DAY of actually unique and genuine content if you could get past all the crying in some places. 2016 is when I learned just how much the narrative is controlled. When they had nothing to post, it was a completely different place. I’m sure because I dared mention Trump as a date reference some people won’t believe me.
potatolicious 3y ago
> "The worst mods for the community will be the best mods for reddit's bottom line." Will it though? Twitter's moderation policies have all but collapsed and the net result is a near-total flight of high-profile high-dollar advertisers. Like others have mentioned in the thread, the people who will most likely want to take over these subs are going to be some combination of bigots, cranks, and the severely deranged. That doesn't seem like it will do good things for user participation or advertiser attractiveness. Who wants to advertise on /r/movies if the mod team is exclusively made up of chemtrails connoisseurs and the main topic of discussion is what movies are secret plots by the Jewish cabal?
- hbn 3y ago
  What? They're not gonna put a bunch of edgy 4chan guys on the mod teams, that's not what advertisers like. They'll get the type of people who moderate every other mainstream site. Extremely left-leaning authoritarian types.
- brightlancer 3y ago
  > Like others have mentioned in the thread, the people who will most likely want to take over these subs are going to be some combination of bigots, cranks, and the severely deranged. That doesn't seem like it will do good things for user participation or advertiser attractiveness. So why would Reddit do it? More likely, Reddit will pick moderators who are extremely advertiser friendly and who will squash "controversial" viewpoints -- as we've seen on other sites/ services, those "controversial" viewpoints are things like the precautionary principle, biological sex, free speech, free assembly, freedom of conscience, etc. What supports the argument that it will go to "bigots, cranks and the severely deranged"?
TMWNN 3y ago
>I have a feeling they won't have a hard time finding deranged weirdos who want to mod and will remove anything that could in any way raise an eyebrow of advertisers/payment processors/etc Remember, "Most of What You Read on the Internet is Written by Insane People". <https://np.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/9rvroo/most_of_what_you_read_on_the_internet_is_written/ https://np.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/9rvroo/most_...>. This also applies to powermods, assuming they're not being paid on the side to push some ideology.

by hbn 3y ago

ramesh31 3y ago

>The power-tripping is payment in itself for those types. As if the current mods are any different? Honestly I don't mind this at all. The big subreddits have become so ossified in their power structures, that each community is its' own little fiefdom now. There is massive friction to being able to post anywhere. Reddit would be objectively better with a less heavy handed approach to moderation, and some kind of site-wide formal appeals process that neuters the ability of any individual mod from going on a power trip.

LordDragonfang 3y ago
>There is massive friction to being able to post anywhere. Reddit would be objectively better with a less heavy handed approach to moderation Whenever I see this sentiment I'm honestly stumped as to how anyone's experience can be so different from mine. What exactly is it that you're trying to post that's so difficult? because from what I see in nearly every sub, they'd be improved by more moderation, since nearly all of them get stuffed with off-topic and low-effort content, often actively breaking the community rules in the sidebar.
- ipaddr 3y ago
  Different subs have different rules and different formats on what they expect. Casually posting as you would in one thread might get you banned in another. Here is a good example. As a new user signed up for an account and posted in a sub got a lot of replies but didn't come back for a few months. Tried replying and was forbidden because of low karma points. Never came back.. The reason why you as a long term reddit user are stumped is because your experience is different.
  - sangnoir 3y ago
    > Different subs have different rules and different formats on what they expect This is a core feature that distinguishes Reddit as a "Community of communities". It's not a bug, it's a feature
    - ipaddr 3y ago
      It's false barriers that setup this tribal mentality where you think you have ownership in a community that someone else owns. Many are discovering this week that their ownership is fleeting
      - sangnoir 3y ago
        It wouldn't be the first time in history that stewards attempted a popular revolt against the real power
- ramesh31 3y ago
  >What exactly is it that you're trying to post that's so difficult? because from what I see in nearly every sub, they'd be improved by more moderation, since nearly all of them get stuffed with off-topic and low-effort content, often actively breaking the community rules in the sidebar. That's the problem, it can be anything. No, I'm not going to sit down and read every single bullet point of your specific subreddit rules so that what I'm saying perfectly jives with your little cult. I don't know how many times I've seen an interesting thread from a sub I've never visited, tried to add to the conversation, and got auto-moderated with zero recourse. No, I'm not going to "revise my post" to step in line with what you're expecting. I'm just never going to bother joining this community now. So long as a post is on topic and not abusive or threatening, there is zero reason to remove it. But Reddit has become a place where mods curate their userbase into a nightmarish echo chamber, quash all dissent, and then use it as a bullhorn for their own ideologies.
  - dale_glass 3y ago
    > No, I'm not going to "revise my post" to step in line with what you're expecting. I'm just never going to bother joining this community now. Good! I only visit well curated subreddits. I don't want drive-by visitors, floods of memes, or similar content. My bread and butter are subreddits like r/DebateReligion and r/AskHistorians. If the mods are not to my liking, there usually is an alternate sub on the same subject that is. So thank you for staying away.
    - ramesh31 3y ago
      >So thank you for staying away. And this is exactly why Reddit has gone to hell. Mods with that attitude. "I was here first, so therefore I get to unilaterally set the Overton window for all discussion herein. If you don't like it, you're banned." HN seems to be the last place on the internet where competing thoughts can exist. It's amazing to me that if moderation is so hard, why dang can do such a good job single-handedly with a user-base bigger than most subs.
      - dale_glass 3y ago
- nanidin 3y ago
  My local subreddit has become a proxy for /r/fuckcars and is also pushing a strong pro-new-airport narrative, among other things. There is a subreddit rule against “creating drama in the community” and any comment against the hive mind on these topics is interpreted by the mods as creating drama and removed, sometimes including a temporary ban. They more or less enforce the echo chamber. Disagreement is futile. Meanwhile, reporting comments that clearly violate the subreddit rules for things like ad-hominem attacks and spam in turn get the reporter reported to Reddit admins for abusing the report button. From my perspective a few of the elder mods stepped down and were replaced by activist mods that are moderating with strong, shameless ego to reinforce their preferred viewpoints and narrative.
  - LordDragonfang 3y ago
    That's unfortunate, and you've managed to present one of the few good counterexamples there. Unfortunately, "<city name>" isn't really a great topic for a singular community, since cities, by nature, host multitudes, and are inherently political entities. The best alternative is probably to create your own sub, or try to talk to one of the mods about it in private so as not to create drama.
    - nanidin 3y ago
      Unfortunately messaging the mods about moderation activity is also against the rules of that particular subreddit and will also result in a ban.
      - LordDragonfang 3y ago
        Okay, you got me, those mods are on a power trip lol. Although it depends on the size of the subreddit - you tend to get a lot of idiots who complain incessantly about plainly justified moderation, and we have to remember that these are literally unpaid volunteers, they're entitled to take actions that make their job easier.
garbagecoder 3y ago
>As if the current mods are any different? People haven't liked this much when I've said it in the past, but I think there's more to this than just API pricing. I think there's a lot of general discontent about how reddit works that saw people more likely to support this strike. Some because it was the last straw, some to watch it burn. While I do think reddit is blundering and taking their free labor and content for granted, I think the power mods and more generally the karma system create a lot of anger that has piggybacked on this. I think you're right, but I think the new ones will be even worse and may actually cause the user exodus that will hurt them. It's these second order effects that Reddit doesn't seem to be taking into account because they're so confident this is mostly inside baseball to the average user. Yes, as far as API pricing. No as far as the enshittification with "new" styling, NFTs, and all the other dumb shit. And the power mods.
- briffle 3y ago
  > People haven't liked this much when I've said it in the past, but I think there's more to this than just API pricing. I'm sure that the majority of this is WOULD YOU LIKE TO READ THIS IN THE APP? ITS BETTER true, but i think the API is one of the worst parts now. But there is WOULD YOU LIKE TO READ THIS IN THE APP? ITS BETTER some functionality I use for old.reddit.com, that I'm pretty sure will be next on the chopping block...
- fluidcruft 3y ago
  Admin has been particularly horrible lately. Mods complaining is the tip of the iceberg. Today's Reddit is a far cry from what it used to be. Honestly I do have this sort of feeling that I could care less if it dies.
  - SV_BubbleTime 3y ago
    It’s not exactly new. It’s just that it’s being seen now. You know the best day I ever saw on Reddit? The day after Trump was elected. The bots and mods and preppanned Clinton themed party made for seemingly ONE DAY of actually unique and genuine content if you could get past all the crying in some places. 2016 is when I learned just how much the narrative is controlled. When they had nothing to post, it was a completely different place. I’m sure because I dared mention Trump as a date reference some people won’t believe me.

potatolicious 3y ago

> "The worst mods for the community will be the best mods for reddit's bottom line." Will it though? Twitter's moderation policies have all but collapsed and the net result is a near-total flight of high-profile high-dollar advertisers. Like others have mentioned in the thread, the people who will most likely want to take over these subs are going to be some combination of bigots, cranks, and the severely deranged. That doesn't seem like it will do good things for user participation or advertiser attractiveness. Who wants to advertise on /r/movies if the mod team is exclusively made up of chemtrails connoisseurs and the main topic of discussion is what movies are secret plots by the Jewish cabal?

hbn 3y ago
What? They're not gonna put a bunch of edgy 4chan guys on the mod teams, that's not what advertisers like. They'll get the type of people who moderate every other mainstream site. Extremely left-leaning authoritarian types.
brightlancer 3y ago
> Like others have mentioned in the thread, the people who will most likely want to take over these subs are going to be some combination of bigots, cranks, and the severely deranged. That doesn't seem like it will do good things for user participation or advertiser attractiveness. So why would Reddit do it? More likely, Reddit will pick moderators who are extremely advertiser friendly and who will squash "controversial" viewpoints -- as we've seen on other sites/ services, those "controversial" viewpoints are things like the precautionary principle, biological sex, free speech, free assembly, freedom of conscience, etc. What supports the argument that it will go to "bigots, cranks and the severely deranged"?

TMWNN 3y ago

>I have a feeling they won't have a hard time finding deranged weirdos who want to mod and will remove anything that could in any way raise an eyebrow of advertisers/payment processors/etc Remember, "Most of What You Read on the Internet is Written by Insane People". <https://np.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/9rvroo/most_of_what_you_read_on_the_internet_is_written/ https://np.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/9rvroo/most_...>. This also applies to powermods, assuming they're not being paid on the side to push some ideology.