3 ms·

> Moderation is the organic balance To me, it seems very inorganic outside of specific platform niches that allow for self moderation of subsets of the network

> Moderation is the organic balance To me, it seems very inorganic outside of specific platform niches that allow for self moderation of subsets of the network (Reddit somewhat, IRC, discord, Mastadon, etc.). A single globally shared moderation policy with local deviances to accommodate local customs and laws does not seem “organic” as much as forced. Compare this to the real world. If I go to my local business networking group, there is one set of moderation policies that is strictly enforced. If I go to my local pub, there is a very different set of moderation policies that is loosely enforced. If I went to my business networking group and behaved as if I was under the moderation policies of my local pub the contrast in behavior would be stark. Church has one set, school another, the local swingers club another, the gentleman’s club another, etc. Compare this to many social media platforms where it seems like the moderation policies attempt to moderate a baseline of behavior consistently across all communities regardless of whether they are pubs, business groups, or otherwise. I suspect (maybe hope?) we are going to start seeing organic social start happening as groups start trying to increasingly assert their own identities and moderation policies that are incompatible with a global standard.

antigonemerlin 3y ago
You're absolutely right. I think the problem is that connecting everyone to everyone is a mistake. As John Oliver (I think, I can't find the source of the original quote now), puts it, "Facebook is the Walmart of social media." Yes, everyone and your mom is on there... but that means every post is going to be seen by your mother. That is frankly, terrifying. Building on your analogy, it'd be like if in the real world your local pub mates and your business friends met. These are two different communities that most certainly cannot be welded into a single forum. >I suspect (maybe hope?) we are going to start seeing organic social start happening as groups start trying to increasingly assert their own identities and moderation policies that are incompatible with a global standard. I think this is exactly what you're seeing. Of all the different social media models, personally, it's reddit and discord that won out for me, along with a smattering of more niche like Hacker News and the discussions page on Github. You can't and shouldn't build a community that satisfies everybody.
- virtuous_sloth 3y ago
  Google circles FTW
  - smazga 3y ago
    Everybody likes to laugh at google+, but circles were the most intuitive and useful abstract for sorting social groups that I have ever used.
- charcircuit 3y ago
  >but that means every post is going to be seen by your mother This is solved by people just make another profile to keep it separate. It is okay not to add your mother on your hobby account. >These are two different communities that most certainly cannot be welded into a single forum. But sites like Facebook are not just a single forum. Each group can be it's own community. People can keep two discussions separate. >You can't and shouldn't build a community that satisfies everybody. I don't think this is impossible. It is hard to scale a community to billions of people, but large social media sites are an existence proof that it is possible. Though at that scale it is more of a meta community compared to smaller subcommunities that are made which are more comfortable for humans to interact with. I don't think it's impossible to find a set of rules that a billion people would be willing to agree to.
  - tsimionescu 3y ago
    > This is solved by people just make another profile to keep it separate. It is okay not to add your mother on your hobby account. Note that Facebook and many other social media sites go out of their way to prevent the same person having two accounts. It is against their terms of service, and they do try to enforce it in various ways.
    - charcircuit 3y ago
      Okay? Facebook lets you create multiple profiles using the same account. In your example the problem was that someone's mom was reading all of their posts and not that they wanted to use different login information for each profile.
bigfudge 3y ago
I’m not sure those places are as different as you say, at least in terms of a baseline for acceptable behaviour that is common to all. Overtly, individualised racist or mysogybist abuse isn’t really acceptable in any of those places, and social media companies have t even managed to enforce that as a standard across much of their networks.

antigonemerlin 3y ago

You're absolutely right. I think the problem is that connecting everyone to everyone is a mistake. As John Oliver (I think, I can't find the source of the original quote now), puts it, "Facebook is the Walmart of social media." Yes, everyone and your mom is on there... but that means every post is going to be seen by your mother. That is frankly, terrifying. Building on your analogy, it'd be like if in the real world your local pub mates and your business friends met. These are two different communities that most certainly cannot be welded into a single forum. >I suspect (maybe hope?) we are going to start seeing organic social start happening as groups start trying to increasingly assert their own identities and moderation policies that are incompatible with a global standard. I think this is exactly what you're seeing. Of all the different social media models, personally, it's reddit and discord that won out for me, along with a smattering of more niche like Hacker News and the discussions page on Github. You can't and shouldn't build a community that satisfies everybody.

virtuous_sloth 3y ago
Google circles FTW
- smazga 3y ago
  Everybody likes to laugh at google+, but circles were the most intuitive and useful abstract for sorting social groups that I have ever used.
charcircuit 3y ago
>but that means every post is going to be seen by your mother This is solved by people just make another profile to keep it separate. It is okay not to add your mother on your hobby account. >These are two different communities that most certainly cannot be welded into a single forum. But sites like Facebook are not just a single forum. Each group can be it's own community. People can keep two discussions separate. >You can't and shouldn't build a community that satisfies everybody. I don't think this is impossible. It is hard to scale a community to billions of people, but large social media sites are an existence proof that it is possible. Though at that scale it is more of a meta community compared to smaller subcommunities that are made which are more comfortable for humans to interact with. I don't think it's impossible to find a set of rules that a billion people would be willing to agree to.
- tsimionescu 3y ago
  > This is solved by people just make another profile to keep it separate. It is okay not to add your mother on your hobby account. Note that Facebook and many other social media sites go out of their way to prevent the same person having two accounts. It is against their terms of service, and they do try to enforce it in various ways.
  - charcircuit 3y ago
    Okay? Facebook lets you create multiple profiles using the same account. In your example the problem was that someone's mom was reading all of their posts and not that they wanted to use different login information for each profile.

bigfudge 3y ago

I’m not sure those places are as different as you say, at least in terms of a baseline for acceptable behaviour that is common to all. Overtly, individualised racist or mysogybist abuse isn’t really acceptable in any of those places, and social media companies have t even managed to enforce that as a standard across much of their networks.