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Unpaid social media moderators perform labor worth at least $3.4M/year on Reddit

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Re: Unpaid social media moderators perform labor worth at least $3.4M/year on Reddit

#111

Post by nh23423fefe »

juanani wrote: post #87
Taywee wrote: post #77

Yeah, and home cooks do billions of dollars worth of free cooking per year for their friends and family. The fact that something can be valued in dollars doesn't actually mean that it's wrong that it's being done for no monetary compensation. You can put a dollar value on anything, including every constructive hobby, sport, and pastime that people do.

Except those who benefit from home cooking are your family and friends, not the investor class/ad traders. Cant see how this relates at all..

Should your family pay you to cook, or did you actually cook for them because you like it.

Re: Unpaid social media moderators perform labor worth at least $3.4M/year on Reddit

#112

Post by lamontcg »

Taywee wrote: post #77

Yeah, and home cooks do billions of dollars worth of free cooking per year for their friends and family. The fact that something can be valued in dollars doesn't actually mean that it's wrong that it's being done for no monetary compensation. You can put a dollar value on anything, including every constructive hobby, sport, and pastime that people do.

What it means though is that the people doing the work are often doing it due to power tripping, political axe grinding or outright being paid by other organizations to astroturf their viewpoints.

Nothing is actually "free" and reddit isn't getting free moderation, there's a cost to that which shows up in the quality of the moderation.

It is sort of similar to the aphorism that if the product is "free" that you are really the product. The moderation (at least on large subreddits) comes at a cost, it just isn't a direct financial cost that reddit pays.

Re: Unpaid social media moderators perform labor worth at least $3.4M/year on Reddit

#113

Post by mikkergp »

JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #8

I was thinking the other day about all the posting people do on Twitter for free. It's insane how much work people will put in for such little reward or effort except for internet clout.

I don't understand this post. People do all sorts of things for enjoyment and self-expression. All sorts of communities pop up like poetry slams, pick up sports activities. Like just because Twitter gets value out of it somehow means people shouldn't want to do it? Isn't the ideal business one where people feel like they get equal value out of an exchange?

Re: Unpaid social media moderators perform labor worth at least $3.4M/year on Reddit

#114

Post by OJFord »

jfim wrote: post #88
Taywee wrote: post #77

Yeah, and home cooks do billions of dollars worth of free cooking per year for their friends and family. The fact that something can be valued in dollars doesn't actually mean that it's wrong that it's being done for no monetary compensation. You can put a dollar value on anything, including every constructive hobby, sport, and pastime that people do.

Home cooking doesn't have a single business entity that aggregates this value though. Reddit would be worth much less without this free labor, as well as most other social media companies would without user generated comment.

It also isn't a public service which makes it quite different to me at least. A better analogy might be 'soup kitchen' staff, gurdwara kitchen staff (at least I assume they're volunteers?), church choir & bell-ringers, etc.

Re: Unpaid social media moderators perform labor worth at least $3.4M/year on Reddit

#115

Post by kelseyfrog »

jfim wrote: post #88
Taywee wrote: post #77

Yeah, and home cooks do billions of dollars worth of free cooking per year for their friends and family. The fact that something can be valued in dollars doesn't actually mean that it's wrong that it's being done for no monetary compensation. You can put a dollar value on anything, including every constructive hobby, sport, and pastime that people do.

Home cooking doesn't have a single business entity that aggregates this value though. Reddit would be worth much less without this free labor, as well as most other social media companies would without user generated comment.

Home cooking supports every worker and their children as future labor that aggregates into every business entity. A single business entity is not a requirement for this condition. See the entire underground economy of social reproduction.

Re: Unpaid social media moderators perform labor worth at least $3.4M/year on Reddit

#116

Post by effingwewt »

engineer_22 wrote: post #51
sweezyjeezy wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just curious - what kind of expertise do these people bill that amount of money for?

Any white collar professional in engineering (full spectrum) has billing rates over $100 at entry level.

Even trades do it. Electricians, HVAC, and moreso for commercial jobs.

The difference is in who is doing the charging. White collar professionals usually pay themselves and thus keep most of the money.

When it's a trade the company gets 80/hr with the techs making about 20/hr.In California of course more is charged and more is paid but its still a slap in the face. You are literally the kne doing all but administration/dispatch which is the easy part. As soon as tradesmen with can they usually start working for themselves, hire more people, and perpetuate the parasitic cycle.

Re: Unpaid social media moderators perform labor worth at least $3.4M/year on Reddit

#117

Post by GuB-42 »

meatsauce wrote: post #74
matthewowen wrote: post #33

I find the premise of this... bizarre, I guess? Reddit is a site that lets you create your own community about whatever (within some pretty permissive ToS grounds) you want and run it however you want. Why would you get paid for running your own little pet project community? I don't see how it's any more relevant than the labor of all the people posting and voting on content. To be fair it does seem like the group be…

"run it however you want" This isn't true. You either get in line or your community is banned.

Reddit may have some high profile cases where they banned a subreddit, I find Reddit rather tolerant. For example, there are several longstanding subreddits dealing with kinky sex, drugs, and kinky sex on drugs. Opposite and controversial viewpoints have their subreddits: prolife and prochoice, progun and guncontrol, vim and emacs, etc...

Most bans are for really terrible communities, and yes, for a few of them, I think it went a bit too far, I wouldn't have banned the_donald for instance, despite not wanting to have anything to do with them. Really, they do the minimum acceptable for a mainstream service.

Re: Unpaid social media moderators perform labor worth at least $3.4M/year on Reddit

#118

Post by boeingUH60 »

VoidWhisperer wrote: post #54
JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #8

I was thinking the other day about all the posting people do on Twitter for free. It's insane how much work people will put in for such little reward or effort except for internet clout.

Some of the more 'successful' of those people end up turning the internet clout into being an influencer which can end up making them a decent amount of money.. but you are right, in the vast majority of cases people won't get anything for the content they contribute to Twitter's platform beyond internet clout

One hyperactive Twitter user even got to be President...but was banned anyways

Re: Unpaid social media moderators perform labor worth at least $3.4M/year on Reddit

#119

Post by lostlogin »

kelseyfrog wrote: post #115
jfim wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Home cooking doesn't have a single business entity that aggregates this value though. Reddit would be worth much less without this free labor, as well as most other social media companies would without user generated comment.

Home cooking supports every worker and their children as future labor that aggregates into every business entity. A single business entity is not a requirement for this condition. See the entire underground economy of social reproduction.

Reddit’s core business is the comments, and moderation is a requirement. Some (many?jurisdictions have laws around what can legally be written, so moderation becomes important.

Cooking food isn’t the core business of my employer.

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