Reddit's top user leaves platform after harassment • Hacker News Board

Re: Reddit's top user leaves platform after harassment

#461

Post by sumnobody » Fri, May 22, 2020, 1:19 AM UTC

bredren wrote: post #15

I am a freshman moderator of /r/portland. I had thought working as a moderator would be a great way to help grow the subreddit's base. Offer more useful real world interaction points and basically have a big impact on Portland. Instead what I've found is that 99% of the time the moderators are dealing with bad actors and that has to be the primary focus to keep the sub from falling apart. It isn't just dealing with t…

I would take an aggressive stance againsnt these assholes that are vandalizing someone's property. It's petty, immature, and crosses a line. Physical mentorship is the only way to get through to pieces of shit like that.

Re: Reddit's top user leaves platform after harassment

#462

Post by pdonis » Fri, May 22, 2020, 2:01 AM UTC

staycoolboy wrote: post #414

pdonis wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I want to participate, but I lack impulse control, so I'm excluded. That's not fair. Yes, it is, because the problem is not the garden, it's you. You want to participate, but you don't have a basic skill (impulse control) that is required for participation. It's like saying you want to be a concert pianist, but you don't know how to play the piano, so you're excluded and that's not fair.

That is why I said I'm ambivalent to the previous comment's statement about benefits from toxic personalities. I think your argument mixes up things you can control (skill) with things you cannot control (impulsivity), if the latter could be controlled it wouldn't be impulsive. And I admit that is a big gray area. There's a continuum of toxicity online, and there are going to be some moderation rules that are subject…

> I think your argument mixes up things you can control (skill) with things you cannot control (impulsivity), if the latter could be controlled it wouldn't be impulsive.

First, we're not talking about a binary distinction; things aren't either "can control" or "can't control". It's a continuum.

Second, if it's really true that you can't control your impulsive behavior, that still doesn't change the fact that that behavior will make it virtually impossible for other people to deal with you in certain contexts. It's still up to you to recognize the impact that your behavior has on others, and to make choices about what you can realistically do or not do--or about how much work you are willing to do or how much risk you are willing to take to be able to participate in certain activities (for example, if it turned out there was a drug that enabled you to control your impulsive behavior, would you take it in order to enable you to do something you wanted to do?).

> I see the argument as more akin to web developers choosing not to implement alternate or semantic constructs which in turn excludes blind people.

Ok, so what "alternate or semantic constructs" could the programmers of HN, for example, put into their code so it won't exclude people who can't control their impulsive behavior?

> we don't have a universally clear way to make discourse available to people who sometimes suck at it.

It's not that we don't have a "universally clear way" to do this. We don't have a way at all. "Sucking at discourse" is simply not something we know how to accommodate for. The only way we know of to deal with it is for the person who sucks at discourse to learn how to not suck at it.

Perhaps at some point we'll have an AI or something similar that can mediate such discussions so all parties can participate. But we don't have anything now.

Re: Reddit's top user leaves platform after harassment

#463

Post by as1mov » Fri, May 22, 2020, 5:34 AM UTC

jakelazaroff wrote: post #321

as1mov wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if you take it up with them politely and this is their response? https://imgur.com/a/jhmGXzJ

Find or create another community. There are basically two scenarios here. One, a lot of people agree with you — in which case you should be able to appeal the decision or splinter off successfully. Two, most people disagree with you — in which case the mod is probably right, or at the very least you're simply not welcome in the community. Let's also not forget that we're talking about violence in response to moderati…

The problem with the first suggestion is the fact that the moderator in the above screenshot mods 1000+ subreddits. You can be pretty sure they mod the other subreddits too with the same mindset, how many of them do you recreate? This is the whole problem that has caused the drama in the past few days.

> Let's also not forget that we're talking about violence in response to moderation decisions. So even if that's their response, it's still not okay to e.g. threaten them.

Agreed.

Re: Reddit's top user leaves platform after harassment

#464

Post by thepangolino » Fri, May 22, 2020, 6:31 AM UTC

Thank god he left. He’s a pathetic excuse for a human being.

That being said, a great number of the active mods on that platform seems to be a couple steps away from becoming power tripping maniacs. It’s one thing to stop spam and illegal content. It’s another to censor discussions because whatever content was posted can be interpreted as against rule 4.1B §2. How hard is it to leave the content up and let users downvote it if it’s not so relevant?

Re: Reddit's top user leaves platform after harassment

#465

Post by dang » Fri, May 22, 2020, 6:41 AM UTC

teddyh wrote: post #55

Someone1234 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Maybe if mods were more transparent across all the subs. Don't get me started. Particularly "muting" posts with auto-moderator (silently hiding them for others without notification/warning/explanation). It was originally created for spam control but is regularly abused for generic moderation. It needs more controls placed on it. To give a recent example, I wrote a long reply in /r/fitness's daily discussion but it…

> /r/politics has a huge dictionary of phases and idioms that result in auto muting. None of which are defined in their rules. This is true here on HN too. One such word that I’ve seen to cause comments get auto-killed is “m∗sturbation” (censored for obvious reasons), and I am sure there are others.

Here's the list:

  masturb circlejerk faggot nigger feminazi shitstain lmgtfy.com #maga

...plus a bunch of spam sites. Why those words and not others? Shitstained if I know. These things tend to get added when somebody does something, and then stay there.

Re: Reddit's top user leaves platform after harassment

#466

Post by ahaferburg » Fri, May 22, 2020, 9:22 AM UTC

MattGaiser wrote: post #120

1024core wrote: post #92

Reddit just hasn't scaled well, and it looks like the operators of Reddit have no interest in scaling it properly. Case in point: the moderation system. Now, if you're passionate about some niche topic, and create a sub for it and become the moderator, then fine; you rock. Things work well for you and your subscribers. But if you're a sub of a large interest area (say, the country of India). How do you moderate there…

> Reddit just hasn't scaled well, and it looks like the operators of Reddit have no interest in scaling it properly. Has anyone scaled online moderation well? Facebook, Twitter, Stack Overflow, etc. all struggle with moderating their communities.

Hacker News?

Re: Reddit's top user leaves platform after harassment

#467

Post by jason0597 » Fri, May 22, 2020, 10:14 AM UTC

nromiun wrote: post #266

1024core wrote: post #92

Reddit just hasn't scaled well, and it looks like the operators of Reddit have no interest in scaling it properly. Case in point: the moderation system. Now, if you're passionate about some niche topic, and create a sub for it and become the moderator, then fine; you rock. Things work well for you and your subscribers. But if you're a sub of a large interest area (say, the country of India). How do you moderate there…

The naming system in reddit is very misleading. For example /r/india is as much related to India as /r/politics to US politics. The toxicity is so much that they can give 4chan a run for their money.

It's funny that 4chan has fallen victim to bad growth as well. The gamergate controversies and the 2016 election really brought out the worst of the people there. I remember years ago it wasn't nearly as toxic and you could sometimes have a good time there. Some boards are trying to cling on to those times

Re: Reddit's top user leaves platform after harassment

#468

Post by bluntfang » Fri, May 22, 2020, 12:16 PM UTC

dgzl wrote: post #427

bluntfang wrote: post #400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you mind sharing the screenshots of the conversation with the /r/portland mod team as well as the article you tried to post? And if you haven't been cancelled from different social groups in portland, how do you know about how rife the cancel culture is? Can you explain a little bit about how it has affected people you know?

I'm not sure what benefit sharing the screenshots would have, I'm not trying to out the mod or get vengeance. The video I posted was about a Lake Oswego woman going nuts and verbally abusing some local PD who were handling the situation with elegance. My title was something like "this is why I don't trust when people senselessly dog on the police." It was removed because there wasn't anything specific to Portland or…

>I'm not trying to out the mod or get vengeance.

Getting the actual conversation and actual article you tried to post gives a lot of context into why you believe you were cancelled. I don't want you to out the mods, I want to understand their side of the story.

I've heard your side, and it sounds like the content didn't fit the vibe of the subreddit, as per the mods. They told you that and you threatened to break their rules again. Yes, you were threatening to break their rules.

I'd say they gave you a chance, and given this particular story re: mod harassment, didn't want to engage with an aggressive user.

> No rules broken, just intimidation and censorship.

A moderator of a forum asking you to not do something is not intimidation. It's asking you to adhere to the vibe of the subreddit. The description of the article you tried to post was obviously an attempt at rabble rousing on your part. There are helpful and constructive ways to voice your opinion. If you have consistent trouble doing that, I would consider therapy to try and understand why people see you as aggressive when you try to share your opinion.

There's nothing wrong with asking for help when you're struggling to fit in socially, especially if your opinions diverge from the norm. Being different is HARD.

Re: Reddit's top user leaves platform after harassment

#469

Post by m-p-3 » Fri, May 22, 2020, 12:35 PM UTC

ramphastidae wrote: post #51

eganist wrote: post #4

Relationship Advice lead-ish mod here. We were one of the subs "called out" as being controlled by Gallowboob with the original post and subsequent reposts. We (buu700 and I) added Gallowboob some years back largely to have insight into how other teams modded their subs at a time when we were growing quickly and needed to know what to do to keep up. While useful in meeting that goal, we quickly realized it was pretty…

Why do you free work for a for-profit social network, especially if you say yourself that the work negatively impacts your mental health and that the community you are moderating is toxic? What are you getting out of this?

I moderate a sub because if found it useful, I want to make sure it thrives and it's my way of giving back to the community, even if I don't participate as much as some other redditors.

Re: Reddit's top user leaves platform after harassment

#470

Post by st1ck » Fri, May 22, 2020, 1:43 PM UTC

twic wrote: post #96

ramphastidae wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you free work for a for-profit social network, especially if you say yourself that the work negatively impacts your mental health and that the community you are moderating is toxic? What are you getting out of this?

> Why do you free work for a for-profit social network They don't. They do the work for a community they're part of. The social network hosts that community, and tries to make a profit doing so. I organise a meetup that's held in a pub (well, not at the moment). People coming to the meetup spend money on the pub's beer and pizza. Am i doing free work for a for-profit public house?

You can likely get a kickback from the pub, but you can also negotiate a deal where everyone wins. E.g. discount or freebies for meetup members, or you can run a small contest every night with prize fulfilled by pub.