There seems to be an agreement among most in this subreddit, even mods, that the current moderator situation is sub-optimal. What can we do about it?
Discuss.
Posted Jul 26, 2009, 1:55 AM UTC
1059
I've never seen any moderator activity. This is not a big deal.
4
This is akin to saying "I've never seen democracy fail, so we don't need consent."
Our movement is not a pragmatic one. We are not reformers, seeking an optimal solution within the constraints of a "reality" created by the ruling class.
6
I don't happen to know whether moderation really is a problem. (Has anyone been unfairly moderated? Does the moderation structure chill speech, or make people uncomfortable, or feel cliquey?)
That said, here's the moderator powers:
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moderators page (add/remove them)
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edit page (change how the subreddit looks)
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ban users page (add/remove)
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spam page (I don't see anything there now)
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traffic page (see visitor stats)
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ban individual post
Maybe we could use a principle of giving moderators minimal extra power. So any user can see all the above pages, though not necessarily edit them. And bans could be logged, to draw attention to them.
Another idea is that anyone who creates a new moderator should post a short (maybe 1 or 2 line) comment on why this moderator was added. So when you browse the moderators page, for each moderator you can see a) who added them, b) the short comment and c) when they were made a mod.
And of course there's spreading out power, rather than concentrating it... I'm glad there's more mods here than any other subreddit I know. And I don't remember anyone complaining of being banned -- though please tell me if someone has been!
(Frankly, I don't know what moderators do; the only power I vaguely remember using was unbanning someone's post. There's never any spam in the spam tab or headlines I ever see...)
4
The only power that gets utilized is unbanning people posts. You can however ban posts, ban users, delete the reddit, change the reddit's details, etc.
2
The only power that gets utilized is unbanning people posts.
Moderators: the cause and solution of reddit's problems!
3
If it weren't for the autobanner, mods would be unnecessary
4
[deleted]
1
I made a suggestion in another thread. I'd like to heard opinions on how this could work or if this is complete BS or some suggestions on how it could be improved to make it work.
3
[deleted]
3
Discuss.
It has been / is being discussed: http://www.reddit.com/r/Anarchism/search?q=anarchism+mods
2
Yes, it is, but mostly in a "is this a good/bad thing" way. I want to talk about solutions.
3
Can't we just ignore this feature?
1
The spam filter will randomly ban people if left to its own devices.
5
it won't randomly ban people. it'll randomly filter articles.
3
Sorry, I meant randomly ban comments (and articles too for that matter).
3
[deleted]
1
Never remove a post or a poster unless it is related to vandalism or spamming.
So far, this subreddit is just a branch of socialism and mod act like one. If someone want to promote nazism here, then just ignore it.
1
So far, this subreddit is just a branch of socialism and mod act like one.
Explain.
5
The greatest sin of the current mod is the heading of this subreddit.
Anarchism: Unremorsefully Anti-Capitalist and Anti State(/r/Anarchism/) - Anarchism is a political theory which aims to create anarchy, "the absence of a master, of a sovereign." [P-J Proudhon, What is Property , p. 264] In other words, anarchism is a political theory which aims to create a society within which individuals freely co-operate together as equals. As such anarchism opposes all forms of hierarchical control - be that control by the state or a capitalist - as harmful to the individual and their individuality as well as unnecessary.
This subreddit is defined as socialist mutualist political wankfest. Before coming here, I expected some art, music, and A-cookbook semi legal shit as well as some anti police/law skillz/tactics. Instead you get a load of viva la resistance and solidarity bullshit. This subreddit's ideology, people and attitude are all too narrow.
-2
If you want some of that content here, submit it
i'm sure it would be accepted
6
I'm quite sure they feel privileged to be allowed to submit.
-4
I imagine that you'd feel a lot more comfortable here.
2
I am not an anarchist or a socialist or a libertarian.
-1
Some things are just impossible without changing the source code of reddit.
In a real anarchist society, you can basically change any man-made part of the society. As far as reddit goes however, you are limited by how they've coded up the website.
Of course, you can start your own website using modified reddit code, but will it actually have enough critical mass to get enough visitors? If so, then great. If not, then you'd have to make do with the deficiencies of reddit.
Or alternatively, we could modify the Reddit code in a way that could get committed back, such as per-subreddit moderation modules (classic moderator module, direct democracy module, etc.) or, you know, any other solution that we can implement without breaking compatibility with the current version of reddit.
Or, we could also just write a program that interfaced with reddit and controlled moderation -- ModBot. ModBot could be controlled by a voting interface hosted on a different site, and could be overruled by ModBot administrators (which would be limited to undoing what ModBot had done, nothing more).
I'm sure there are tons of ways we could use what Reddit and our ingenuity gives us to create a far more optimal solution. Thinking that we can't change anything is defeatist and ultimately un-anarchist. Our entire movement is a struggle against incredibly powerful forces -- and which is more powerful, the state, or limitations in a piece of free software?
I don't know the details of moderator powers on reddit, but say, for example, some griefer managed to get himself mod powers. How quickly could he be stopped before he kicked out all the other moderators (the real life equivalent of mass execution, for example)?
In real life, it's obviously almost impossible to kill everyone else. Reddit is a different sitation. People aren't on it 24-hours a day (as opposed to people living their own lives 24-hours a day) - so there may be a time when a griefer is able to kick out all the mods before any other mod can stop him.
After that, then he can ban everything...
I'm sure it's possible to change all this in code - but how much are we allowed to change anyway?
We're allowed to change nothing as users. We'd have to submit patches to the Reddit developers, and hope they accept them.
Getting accepted as a mod isn't difficult. All it requires is persistence. The scenario you described is probably feasible.
I find it interesting that most people look at a technical solution more than at a social solution.
All of this is only an option if a dedicated coder among us can be found to do it. Until then, it's just random ideas.
Exactly the point. No decent hacker will bottom-line something until they have a detailed spec.
I'm sure that we could all just get together and figure out something that will work within the technical limitations inherent in Reddit.
if we could we would've been able to figure it out by now.
Not necessarily.
I don't see when we've tried. Have we? In any event, I thought it necessary to try again.
yeah we've had discussions about this until we're blue in the face and so far all that's come of it that's worthwhile is the conversation sirgi and I had about changing the code base.