A lovely article from an unexpected source.
This is another nice one about Poole:
http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/features/4chans-overlord...
Chris Poole
11–20 of 165 posts
Re: Chris Poole
#12Re: Chris Poole
#13Huge respect for Chris, and I'm very happy he's feeling that sense of relief. I took a shot at moderating a few smaller subreddits, and managed to find myself hating every moment spent doing it. It sure makes the majority of internet look like selfish ingrates, even though it's usually just a vocal minority. I just stay away from Reddit now for the most part; primarily due to seeing the kind of place you get when the…
>primarily due to seeing the kind of place you get when the barrier for entry is non existent.
you think reddit's bad, try 4chan!
I was 4chan "janitor" (lesser-mod) for 18 months or so and I agree, these sorts of positions really twist your perception of the community you're moderating. When you're buried in reports -- and these are 4chan reports, which means not just spam, but gore, cp, raids, etc. -- it becomes all too easy to dole out harsh penalties to people who may have just made an honest mistake. I essentially stopped browsing 4chan for fun; I saw it only through the lens of the janitor interface.
Chris, to his credit, frequently expressed his gratitude to the volunteer staff for doing what he knew was a thankless, soul-crushing job. He wondered aloud why we didn't go volunteer our time at a puppy shelter or something instead. I'm sure he asked himself that question too.
I'm no longer in that position; I outed myself as a janitor and was immediately terminated. I've come to the conclusion that I'm not really suited for these sorts of roles. Having access to privileged information and special powers makes me uncomfortable. The good news is that I've recently returned to 4chan as a regular, anonymous user, and I'm really enjoying it. I hope Chris experiences something similar. He deserves it.
Re: Chris Poole
#14I'm always expecting articles about multimedia or video compression from that domain, and I'm always let down.
Re: Chris Poole
#15I don't blame Chris for selling in the slightest and I'm happy that he's been able to let go, but I kind of wish he had found somebody a little more likeminded to take over the place. Chris has always been an excellent citizen of his own community, and always seemed to really "get" what made a lot of the community work. Other than one incident at the end of his tenure, "m00t" was always very well-loved (for somebody…
Probably not easy finding a buyer at all, so I don't know if he had the option to be picky to that degree.
Re: Chris Poole
#16Huge respect for Chris, and I'm very happy he's feeling that sense of relief. I took a shot at moderating a few smaller subreddits, and managed to find myself hating every moment spent doing it. It sure makes the majority of internet look like selfish ingrates, even though it's usually just a vocal minority. I just stay away from Reddit now for the most part; primarily due to seeing the kind of place you get when the…
>primarily due to seeing the kind of place you get when the barrier for entry is non existent. you think reddit's bad, try 4chan! I was 4chan "janitor" (lesser-mod) for 18 months or so and I agree, these sorts of positions really twist your perception of the community you're moderating. When you're buried in reports -- and these are 4chan reports, which means not just spam, but gore, cp, raids, etc. -- it becomes all…
Reminds me of the Mark Twain story "Two Ways of Seeing a River". You ought to check it out.
Re: Chris Poole
#17I'm really glad Chris has found a way out of 4Chan, so he can pursue other awesome things. I've only hung out with him a handful of times, but always found him to be a pretty inspiring and funny. On to new things!
Re: Chris Poole
#18Good points, but a minor pet peeve:
It's moot, not Chris. Maybe Chris Poole, but again, probably moot. Has been moot. Always will be moot.
Are you friends with him? Do you have lunch with him? Do you work with him? In all odds, no.
It's really quite annoying seeing people refer to people by the first names like they actually are familiar with them. Were you a fan of Steve? Ever go on walks with Zuck?
Seriously, it's so fucking phony--especially when the person in question already has a name they're well-known by in their community.
Re: Chris Poole
#19Huge respect for Chris, and I'm very happy he's feeling that sense of relief. I took a shot at moderating a few smaller subreddits, and managed to find myself hating every moment spent doing it. It sure makes the majority of internet look like selfish ingrates, even though it's usually just a vocal minority. I just stay away from Reddit now for the most part; primarily due to seeing the kind of place you get when the…
>primarily due to seeing the kind of place you get when the barrier for entry is non existent. you think reddit's bad, try 4chan! I was 4chan "janitor" (lesser-mod) for 18 months or so and I agree, these sorts of positions really twist your perception of the community you're moderating. When you're buried in reports -- and these are 4chan reports, which means not just spam, but gore, cp, raids, etc. -- it becomes all…
"not just spam, but gore, cp, raids, etc." (I'm assuming cp means children)
"The good news is that I've recently returned to 4chan as a regular, anonymous user, and I'm really enjoying it."
I've never visited the site, and really don't want to. So maybe I'm missing something, but why would you want to associate yourself with a place like that? It seems like even spending time there as an anonymous user would change your perception of the world for the worse. I see people post screenshots on Reddit sometimes and it seems pretty deviant.
Re: Chris Poole
#20I've often linked Chris Poole's approach to this with Matt Haughey at Metafilter. I can remember being amazed at how well mathowie moderated metafilter with a remarkably light touch and yet still set the tne of the site. Moot was less keeping the users in line than keeping the rest of the world out but their ability to not interfere at times when I think most of us would want to say or do something is an incredible skill.