Comment by 😎 flipperzero
Re: "Hi. I’d love to hear from anyone who has experience as a…"
You could say those are types or subsets of people called moderators but they do not define the entirety of what constitutes being a moderator, or what moderation involves (speaking as the mod of s/music and s/tilde on here, and being the admin of hashnix.club). **so glad the list didn't keep going phew~**
Moderation involves making sure conduct on your platform by a userbase, the contact and interaction generated as public or privately accessible discussion, follows in adherence to whatever etiquette, guidelines, rules, and terms you establish in part to the purpose of the space you publish for public accessibility.
That in mind, it's easy to line up - following terms, reasonable conduct.
20 hours ago
17 Later Comments ↓
A friend of mine was a topic list mod on a (2000s-style) forum for a few years. The most important, he says, is to spot unhealthy flame very quickly and close the topic or, if things go out of hand, ban the toxic member. And the second most important was to not force the conversation onto people (which also would not be on the mod's "job description" anyway). Keeping the discussion to the topic, eliminating unhealthy r/confidentlyincorrect type of people, ensuring that the conversation is healthy are pretty much what it's all about
🚀 lars_the_bear · 20 hours ago:
I administered and moderated a large-ish forum for law students twenty years ago. It was a nightmare. It was almost a full-time job, dealing with all the complaints, keeping the discussions roughly on topic, and telling folks off for breaking the rules.
A problem I had, which I suspect other forums wouldn't, was distinguishing between academic discussion, and badly-disguised requests for free legal advice -- which we couldn't allow, for insurance reasons.
I guess it probably wouldn't be so bad, with a smaller forum with a narrower topic area. But the experience certainly put me off doing it again.
I mod a few subreddits and the main thing is making sure you ban any kind of affiliate link but always include your own since you're a mod and the rules don't apply to you.
it's also a good idea to declare an anarchy week and then retroactively apply rules and ban people when the week is over.
That's what being a reddit moderator is all about!
Things here are generally calm and require no moderation. The subs I moderate never required my interference.
My personal take is to let people speak, and even off topic discussions often result in valuable or interesting conversations.
One can always mute someone they don't wish to hear from, and thread originator can make it read-only (I think) if things get too hot.
Having said that, I've been involved in a couple to unfortunate situations where I had to ask Skyjake for help.
Alright, I'm just gonna say it - can we please -leave- the reddit-founded practices away from the smallnet side of anything called etiquette? "ban any kind of affiliate link but always include your own since you're a mod and the rules don't apply to you"? Dismissing people who are potential reasonably resolvable folk as "r/confidentlyincorrect" or related preconception? These ideas seem borderline authoritarian. IDK, edging too close to potential moderator abuse seems inappropriate to encourage, in respect to terms of platforms as it pertains to user and host alike (otherwise, what's the point).
Especially in this protocol ecosystem in which (I'm under the observation, anyways) that the whole point of the smallnet is to -get away- from the practices of the web and to give eachother better benefit of the doubt than to treat everything so extremely or excessively, in part to the minimalism, the calmer patient-paced environment as described in the comment before this one.
** edit - *facepalms self not immediately interpreting the sarcasm of jprjr's previous comment after reading their new one* *extends -all- above to self as well, btw* @~@
My reddit-mod comment was me making fun of reddit mods.
I moderated 00's forums and a subreddit similar in size and moderation level to r/AskHistorians. I concur with @pirkka's friend. It's mostly about identifying problem topics and trolls by behavior and the fights that result from their influence. I can't stress enough that it's about that, not moral expression, which should be diverse.
These days social media has made almost everyone engage in old school troll behavior without realizing. The worst ones are no longer the obviously nasty types crawling out of the sewers, but rather the ones very adamant about how good they are and eager to point out deviation.
I would also add that rules are just there for a framework, moderator discretion is vastly more important.
I was an IRC operator on one of the major late 90s networks. I didn't think very hard about it, I just got rid of people obviously up to no good. It was pretty straight forward. Spammers, bots (some were allowed,) threats, and abusive language. Topics were handled by channels and channel operators. I was a channel operator as well on several channels. It was so informal and smallish (~20 people) that you only had to be a jerk to really find yourself removed from the channel. In the primordial internet there were no codes of conduct other than the informal and unwritten "don't be a jerk."
So just cause I don't want to sweep it under (because I feel that's also important to moderation, see something say something) - did jackal's link get removed because it was malicious?
I saw it for a moment and wondered what was up with it, or that it should even be linked if in case it was malicious.
@flipperzero It wasn't a real link, probably just US amateur radio jargon for restrictions.
Oh, maybe I need this story from you...
The moderator in this BBS has the authority to manage that subspace.
I haven't seen anyone using the moderator feature since I arrived. Delete and more. This BBS was quiet and peaceful.
So even if you are granted a moderator, you can act without worrying about it.
You can be able to deal with Subspace if something happens later.
Even if it doesn't, Skylake will probably take care of it.
I'm also a Discord moderator, and my biggest job there is to get rid of spam.
@flipperzero Thanks for breaking that down in such an easy-to-understand way! I'm glad to see that the nuances of moderation are pretty much the same as they are in Japan. :)
@pirkka So even overseas, there are people who are "confidently incorrect." In my experience, those types of people tend to be too proud to apologize, which only makes the flaming even worse... Thank you for sharing your valuable perspective!
@lars_the_bear That sounds... incredibly tough, beyond even what I can imagine. It's interesting (and a bit surprising) how much the role of a moderator can change depending on the community. I'm sorry for making you recall such a painful experience, but thank you so much for sharing it!
@jprjr I totally would have missed the point if I’d only read your first comment. That was a close one! lol
I love the sense of humor in overseas sarcasm. It’s great. XD
@stack I completely agree with you. I've only been reading and translating the topics that catch my interest, so I don't see everything, but I've never come across a post here that felt like it needed moderation. That’s exactly why I love this BBS so much.
Still, it’s a surprise to hear there were such incidents in the past. I hope it stays peaceful from now on! :)
@Aeolus I truly agree that things should be diverse. It's a shame, though, that some people misunderstand this and take it as "anything goes"... On Japanese social media, even the smallest comments can spark intense flaming, which is exactly why I ended up here.
"Moderator discretion is vastly more important" — I'll definitely keep that in mind! Thank you!
@darkghost One of my favorite phrases is "Simple is best," and that sounds exactly like what you're describing! "Don't be a jerk" is also such a clear and great rule. I started getting into the internet in the mid-2000s, so I can only imagine what it was like back then, but it sounds like it was a very comfortable place to be. :)
@sy Thank you so much!!! Even Gemini AI translated it as a "link," so I was convinced it was a URL. Your explanation was really helpful!
@balloon I hope the day never comes where I actually have to use those moderation tools, and I’ll be praying it stays that way! For me, this is the most comfortable place in the entire world. There’s no provocative speech just for attention, no toxic replies, and no media outlets fueling the fire.
I only asked because I wanted to be prepared just in case, but I’ve realized once again that if I ever do get stuck, I have you and so many other friends to lean on. I guess I was just overthinking it, lol.
Original Post
Hi. I’d love to hear from anyone who has experience as a moderator (even outside of this BBS), or if you have friends who are mods—what kind of things do you keep in mind? In Japan, "moderator" usually brings to mind people on YouTube Live, Twitch, or Wiki sites. Is it the same overseas? I’d appreciate any insights you can share. Thanks!