Content moderators review the dark side of the internet • Hacker News Board

Re: Content moderators review the dark side of the internet

#21

Post by duskwuff » Sun, Dec 17, 2017, 12:19 AM UTC

s73ver_ wrote: post #12

DoreenMichele wrote: post #11

Bowden said that her team consisted of the odd conglomeration of people that were drawn to overnight work looking at weird and disturbing stuff. “I had a witch, a vampire, a white supremacist, and some regular day-to-day people. I had all these different categories,” Bowden, who is black, said. “We were saying, ‘Based on your experience in white-supremacist land, is this white-supremacist material?’” That right there…

Could you really trust the white supremacist to correctly ID the material, though?

Certainly. Their experience would allow them to recognize a lot of covert signals ("dog whistles") which would not be obvious to other viewers.

The same goes for pornography. There's a lot of weird porn which gets away with being on sites like YouTube because it's too esoteric to be recognizable by most reviewers. For example [NSFW but not explicit]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWW8_8fc0-E -- there isn't any exposed genitals or sexual activity in the video, but it's clearly made to arouse people with the right fetish. (Just look at the comments if it isn't obvious.) A reviewer who's familiar with "weird porn" would likely be much better at recognizing fetish material, even if it's a fetish they don't personally enjoy.

Re: Content moderators review the dark side of the internet

#22

Post by dang » Sun, Dec 17, 2017, 12:30 AM UTC

pmoriarty wrote: post #20

DoreenMichele wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Metafilter was the absolute worst social experience of my life. When I joined, it was common for individuals who did not fit in for some reason to be routinely ganged up on by other people. Mods would ask the person being ganged up on to stop posting, then let other people continue to make personal attacks against the person who had been asked to leave the conversation, who could now not defend themselves. If they di…

"Given the similarities of the populations and the actual overlap of membership, in recent months I have been forced to conclude that the difference in culture is due to a difference in moderation. So, you do good work and should be proud of that." Although the moderators certainly deserve credit for contributing to a civil atmosphere on HN, the users have a lot to do with it too. There's a lot of self-policing, as i…

Couldn't agree more.

Re: Content moderators review the dark side of the internet

#23

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Dec 17, 2017, 12:32 AM UTC

pmoriarty wrote: post #20

DoreenMichele wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Metafilter was the absolute worst social experience of my life. When I joined, it was common for individuals who did not fit in for some reason to be routinely ganged up on by other people. Mods would ask the person being ganged up on to stop posting, then let other people continue to make personal attacks against the person who had been asked to leave the conversation, who could now not defend themselves. If they di…

"Given the similarities of the populations and the actual overlap of membership, in recent months I have been forced to conclude that the difference in culture is due to a difference in moderation. So, you do good work and should be proud of that." Although the moderators certainly deserve credit for contributing to a civil atmosphere on HN, the users have a lot to do with it too. There's a lot of self-policing, as i…

[deleted]

Re: Content moderators review the dark side of the internet

#24

Post by coldacid » Sun, Dec 17, 2017, 1:17 AM UTC

pessimizer wrote: post #2

Building after building, filled with endless rows of workstations, manned by groggy censors forever reading notes between people they don't know, deleting some, changing a few words on more, getting paid half a penny per post reviewed.

If you want a picture of the future, imagine a nameless wage slave deleting posts — forever.

Re: Content moderators review the dark side of the internet

#25

Post by DoreenMichele » Sun, Dec 17, 2017, 1:22 AM UTC

pmoriarty wrote: post #20

DoreenMichele wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Metafilter was the absolute worst social experience of my life. When I joined, it was common for individuals who did not fit in for some reason to be routinely ganged up on by other people. Mods would ask the person being ganged up on to stop posting, then let other people continue to make personal attacks against the person who had been asked to leave the conversation, who could now not defend themselves. If they di…

"Given the similarities of the populations and the actual overlap of membership, in recent months I have been forced to conclude that the difference in culture is due to a difference in moderation. So, you do good work and should be proud of that." Although the moderators certainly deserve credit for contributing to a civil atmosphere on HN, the users have a lot to do with it too. There's a lot of self-policing, as i…

There's a lot of self-policing

The crux of my point is that I was really puzzled for a long time as to how on earth I could interact in two forums with some of the same members and people who are openly, persistently and consistently ugly to me in one successfully self police in the other and refrain from harassing me. That blew my mind for the longest time. It made no sense at all.

I eventually concluded that a difference in moderation must be the difference that makes a difference.

Perhaps that should have been said privately. I am not prone to flattery. That isn't the point of saying it here.

The point is that it is a clear example that demonstrates the power of moderation. As someone who has done some moderating myself, it is an intriguing contrast.

Re: Content moderators review the dark side of the internet

#26

Post by elboru » Sun, Dec 17, 2017, 1:31 AM UTC

coldacid wrote: post #24

pessimizer wrote: post #2

Building after building, filled with endless rows of workstations, manned by groggy censors forever reading notes between people they don't know, deleting some, changing a few words on more, getting paid half a penny per post reviewed.

If you want a picture of the future, imagine a nameless wage slave deleting posts — forever.

I'm not saying that's cool, but there are millions of people with worst jobs, or simply dying of hunger

Re: Content moderators review the dark side of the internet

#27

Post by intopieces » Sun, Dec 17, 2017, 1:51 AM UTC

One of the reasons I stopped eating meat was the that the industry itself is traumatic to the humans who process the animals and I wasn't comfortable participating in that economically.

So, I was happy to see that I don't use any of the services listed there, except a bit of YouTube. If I could avoid that one, I would too.

Re: Content moderators review the dark side of the internet

#28

Post by 1123581321 » Sun, Dec 17, 2017, 6:10 AM UTC

DoreenMichele wrote: post #17

dang wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's an interesting observation. There are excellent HN users who are trolls elsewhere. They just respect the rules here, because they understand the intention behind them and want HN to actually be the kind of site you get when the game has those rules. After encountering a few such users, I got more interested in explaining the intention behind the site: that it isn't about being nice or virtuous so much as havin…

Metafilter was the absolute worst social experience of my life. When I joined, it was common for individuals who did not fit in for some reason to be routinely ganged up on by other people. Mods would ask the person being ganged up on to stop posting, then let other people continue to make personal attacks against the person who had been asked to leave the conversation, who could now not defend themselves. If they di…

I completely agree with your assessment of Metafilter. The recent decision there to curtail the histrionic behavior in the political threads was a good step, but it’s probably not possible for them to restore the quality and quantity of comments now as too many good users have given up trying to contribute rather than face constant attacks from the same 50 or so users.

Re: Content moderators review the dark side of the internet

#29

Post by DoreenMichele » Sun, Dec 17, 2017, 6:35 AM UTC

1123581321 wrote: post #28

DoreenMichele wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Metafilter was the absolute worst social experience of my life. When I joined, it was common for individuals who did not fit in for some reason to be routinely ganged up on by other people. Mods would ask the person being ganged up on to stop posting, then let other people continue to make personal attacks against the person who had been asked to leave the conversation, who could now not defend themselves. If they di…

I completely agree with your assessment of Metafilter. The recent decision there to curtail the histrionic behavior in the political threads was a good step, but it’s probably not possible for them to restore the quality and quantity of comments now as too many good users have given up trying to contribute rather than face constant attacks from the same 50 or so users.

They very much have an in crowd. The rules for the in crowd are de facto different from the rules for everyone else

Historical comments by the previous lead mod essentially admit this is conscious and intentional. But if you try to point it out, you get all kinds of denial.