this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2023
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To be clear, not talking about this community, obviously πŸ˜›.

What's the point of writing down rules, if mods just do what they want? But I suppose that's the risk you take when you call someone a liar in a small community; they might be a mod.

Edit: I'm not trying to say that mods suck, they perform a useful and often thankless job. Just that it can be difficult for small communities to get a healthy number of good mods, which can become a problem.

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[–] thepaperpilot 20 points 1 year ago (2 children)

A ttrpg called .dungeon got a remaster recently and I keep coming back to one of the screenshots on the store page, because I'm such a big fan of the rules for community moderation it enumerated:

[–] Stumblinbear@pawb.social 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

#5 is the worst rule there. I've been called that for the most milquetoast of statements. You really have to be more specific. This community sounds like an annoying pain to be a part of tbh, I don't have time to feel like I'm stepping on glass every day

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] eltimablo@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Nothing says "well-moderated community" quite like vague, easy-to-bend rules!

[–] pinkdrunkenelephants@lemmy.cafe 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Nothing says bootlicking by applying the same bad-faith thinking you accuse others of having without caring about the fact that humanity has had to operate on good faith the entire time it's existed.

[–] eltimablo@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Define "bootlicking" please.

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[–] Omega_Haxors@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

If you have to step on glass to not side with genocide and oppression then that sounds like a you issue.

[–] freeindv@monyet.cc 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

A prime example of the vitriol he's talking about!

[–] Omega_Haxors@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

It's true, I have zero chill.

[–] lemillionsocks 1 points 1 year ago

A lot of moderated instances with vague rules like that have quite a bit of nuance. The mods usually arent jerks looking to ban everyone who doesnt agree with them, and if they are then they did you a favor good riddance. One of the issues with the classic "but mah free speech" sea lioning that occurs on reddit is it makes it hard to actually keep things moderated and civil. People get outraged and start going "the rule says that Im not allowed to be an asshole, but I was specifically being a asshat and I think if you really wanted no asshats you should make a rule about it"

Which does lead to granular rules that actually do remove nuance and discretion from enforcement.

[–] Stumblinbear@pawb.social 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Clearly you have no sense for nuance. Not everything anyone disagrees with is siding with genocide and oppression just because they disagree. It's concerning that that's immediately what you assumed.

[–] Omega_Haxors@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago

Nuance nonces on their way to defend nazi war criminals.

I really need to make that a bot.

[–] thepaperpilot 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I probably should've clarified its the last few that I felt were relevant to this post. I understand it sucks when you feel like anything you say may get you banned due to someone else's interpretations, but in practice I don't think it really becomes an issue.

Perhaps be a bit more careful when first joining a community as you learn how the community tends to act and behave, and where the lines tend to be drawn, but then after that you should have a general sense of what's allowed, and if you do go over the line the mods are much more likely to just give a warning instead of a ban if you're a regular.

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I like that! For more minor infractions that aren't a perma-ban, I hope that they explain to the person THAT they got banned, and WHY.

It also helps that they said upfront that they're liberal with bans, rather than saying that all bans are forewarned and then simply not giving the warning.

[–] SaltyIceteaMaker@lemmy.ml 18 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I get the feeling you're speaking from experience

[–] StalksEveryone@futurology.today 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Your honor, the prosecution is sullying the defendant’s reputation

[–] moosetwin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 year ago

Your honor, the prosecution just hit me with a whip

Lol perhaps πŸ˜…

It was a small community dedicated to shit talking another community, neither of which I was part of. A few posts showed up in my feed and one had a take I thought was kinda unreasonable, so I commented. I had a nice discussion with one community member, but OP came in hot. After a half-hearted effort to try to defuse, and being blatantly lied to in a few replies, I just told him he was a conniving liar.

A few days later I tried to comment on a different post, but I was banned.

Not a big deal, I'm not invested in either community, but it made me think of the struggles growing Lenny from these small nascent communities, into more more mature communities.

[–] UndercoverUlrikHD@programming.dev 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

There are potentially 3 different groups of people that may ban you for a comment. If you break a community rule, a moderator may ban you as you would expect from reddit. However, since reports also notify the admins of the community instance and the admins of the instance of the reporter, you may end up banned by an admin if they believe you are breaking an instance rule.

The modlog is great for transparency, but lemmy should also make it clear what group has banned you and why. I haven't been banned before so I'm not sure what that process looks like currently though.

This is my first time. I'm not even sure where to find the modlog in jebora.

And yeah, notifying me that an action has been taken against me and the reason for that action would help me understand that I've done something wrong, what it was, and how to modify my behavior.

[–] samsy@feddit.de 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

My main account got a temp ban for 14 days, the first 3 days I just thought Lemmy is broken, again. My feed was lost, but "all" worked.

A notice or a simple warning would be nice the next time.

[–] SigloPseudoMundo@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yup, I got a 30 day ban & still don't know why. Someone must've just gotten butthurt lol. I'm probably gonna make the same mistake again Β―_(ツ)_/Β―

[–] samsy@feddit.de 2 points 1 year ago

Simply browse to your instance, go to moderations-log search your username and you find the reason.

[–] VikingHippie@lemmy.wtf 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I got into an argument in the main Technology community a couple weeks or so back and while I admit that it got too heated so that both of us broke the "be excellent to each other" rule, I still feel that an immediate 3-day ban with no warning or notification (I had to check the modlog to find out why I suddenly couldn't comment there) in a group where I'd never broken the rules before was ridiculous.

Didn't help any that the mod almost immediately unbanned the other guy who had been equally unexcellent during the exchange and initially got the same ban and left mine in place..

[–] pinkdrunkenelephants@lemmy.cafe 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

It happens on Lemmy all the time. I've been shadowbanned at least three times, all on the bigger instances.

I really, really suspect that the big Lemmy instances are being run by Reddit admins or spooks or some-such. They're moderating their instances in the exact same way Reddit did minus the profiteering. The censorship is the exact same.

Also, the fact that it's possible to shadowban people and the software itself doesn't circumvent that by auto-messaging you or putting a banner on the top of your screen when you are banned from an instance or community is reason #589238923 why Lemmy fucking sucks ass.

[–] eltimablo@kbin.social 7 points 1 year ago

It's because the most insufferable people from reddit all came over to Lemmy/kbin when they got banned for being exceptionally insufferable.

[–] Omega_Haxors@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago

It really does feel like the more popular instances are nazi bars run by the same kinds of people who made reddit shitty.

[–] Neve8028@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I really, really suspect that the big Lemmy instances are being run by Reddit admins or spooks or some-such. They’re moderating their instances in the exact same way Reddit did minus the profiteering. The censorship is the exact same.

It's just the reality of online content moderation. The good mods/admins are people who are passionate about a topic and want to provide a space for discussion and community building. When it comes to the "power mods" or whatever, like those we saw on reddit who moderated 100+ subs, they're just in it to stroke their own egos.

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[–] Omega_Haxors@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Lemmy world's admins silently banned me from the entire instance after I said that anticommunism is equivalent to pronazism.

The only reason I knew is because the amount of weird harassing comments I was getting from there suddenly dropped off.

[–] Amends1782@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Your opinion is braindead, however, I'll defend to the death your right to say and have it. Shouldn't have been banned for that. Shame on them.

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[–] mp3@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Some improvements I'd like to see, but maybe I'm missing something and could be a bad idea

  • The submitter gets notified if an action is taken on content they've submitted or on their account.
  • Define rules with a tally of how many times a user breaks each of them, with well-defined consequences that can be programmed.
  • The addition of polls
  • Restrict polls to users already subscribed to the community at the time of the poll creation, or with a minimum of xx days subscribed and/or xx amount of submissions, upvotes, etc
  • Have the rules voted by the community, and moderators elected/impeached by its community.
[–] SomeoneElse@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 year ago

I implement the first two and the last rules in all the communities I moderate. Everyone gets either a message or a comment if they break the rules/I remove their comment/I give them a warning. I also reply to the vast majority of mod reports made, explaining what action I’ve taken and why. All my communities have a one-warning-then-you’re-banned rule, but bans are rarely permanent.

I repeatedly state that I’m looking for moderators, that I welcome all constructive feedback and suggestions regarding the way the community is run and what the rules are. I make it clear I want the communities to be a community effort. I’ve never ever vetoed a suggestion someone’s made - I always offer to let the community decide. What happens? People complaining/criticising but never taking me up on the offer to hold a vote on whatever it is they don’t like. It’s like shouting in the wind and it’s exhausting.

[–] vivadanang@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Have the rules voted by the community, and moderators elected/impeached by its community.

lol so you want to increase the amount of work mods do and then vote them out when they do shit you don't like.

here's an idea: become a mod yourself. do the unpaid work of cleaning up the trash so other people can whine in entitled posts like this about how all the mods are trash. jfc

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[–] EmperorHenry@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Being in favor of free speech means allowing the people you hate to talk and say what they want to say too.

Being against free speech is authoritarian.

[–] PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Eh sometimes. Paradox of tolerance is a real danger.

But it's good to allow people a chance to grow.

[–] EmperorHenry@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The worst thing you can do is burn bridges with people you disagree with.

The best way to make a bigot not be a bigot anymore is for the people they hate to be friendly to them.

There's this one black musician that has gotten quite a few grand wizards of the KKK to leave the clan, just by having friendly conversations with them.

Doing that makes them realize that they're going through the same shit as the people they hate, which then makes them realize that the people they really should be directing their hate toward are billionaires.

Because we're all getting a lower wage that we should be, we're all paying a higher interest on debt than we should be, we're all paying higher rent than we should be. We're all paying more for our necessities than we should be. And the billionaires' unbridled narcissistic avarice is why we're all suffering.

That's why every media outlet always twists narratives to make people hate each other. If we're fighting each other, we won't focus on the real evil that's looming over all of us.

[–] PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 year ago (8 children)

while I absolutely agree with you in a private setting, in a public setting I believe it does more harm than good to provide a platform for people to preach hate.

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[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago

I've been shadow-banned from a few subreddits when I was still on the site.

Not. One. Warning.

on r/images or r/gifs or something, I 'and my ax'ed on some random thread. Banned. Thread context? All deleted. No warning, no explanation, and when I asked for feedback I got something like "the ban holds" or something.

Honestly, I'm a dick a lot of the time, but I simply can't reconcile a ban for "and my ax". Ban me for the actual stuff I do, sure. A warning would be excellent. But that one bugs me the most as I can't learn from it.

[–] Slow@lemmy.today 1 points 1 year ago

Does Lemmy need political news? This is big shit and news like this is usually just upsetting.

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