I shudder at the thought of "striving to become a Reddit moderator."
So much effort to achieve such a petty political goal. What sort of person does this?
I cannot comprehend people who would spend their life doing that... Out of all the things a person could do. Do Reddit moderators get a kick out of manipulating people's beliefs and banning people discussing niche topics? I don't get it.
A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator
471–480 of 996 posts
Re: A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator
#472I'm going to focus on the MODERATION ACCUSATION first since that seems to be the main issue. What moderating r/codingbootcamp actually looks like: I don't own the sub - I report to the owner who asked me to help after I'd been one of the most active and helpful contributors. The coding bootcamp industry is absolutely infested with astroturfing. Brand new accounts, manufactured conversations, fake testimonials. It's c…
I checked the actual /r/codesmith links you posted. They all seem fake. Most replies are from users who are either deleted, or new accounts with a single comment. Note: I am not saying the founder of Codesmith did this, or that these are fake 100%. Just suspicious.
And the fact that you used your real name when being a mod gives you strong credibility. You weren't looking to hide your involvement, since you weren't doing anything wrong, in your opinion. This is unlike the "fake" mods who will have multiple levels of indirection, with fake post histories, etc. Astroturfing / shilling 101 is never use your real name.
And overall, if what you're saying is correct, the author owes you an apology. And so does the HN crowd. HN, although a good crowd in general, is super-susceptible to "witch hunts". I don't like witch hunts + character assassinations. So that's why I'm defending you.
P.s. It's ironic that Lars, the author, is a master affiliate marketer + growth hacker. He's started an affiliate company that did $7 million in revenue. I don't say he is an unethical person. But from what I know about this field, it's almost always on the grey line (and he's also admitted to this). See his video: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/QnwHAnJwv-k. And this is just what is public, if we were to "dig up" some of his stuff, it is possible one could spin it to make him look bad. My point is, he shouldn't exaggerate things to make you look bad. And the same warning applies to me or anyone.
Re: A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator
#473Earlier quoted context omitted.
While Twitter has many problems it does seem to do a reasonable job of not promoting hate and violence towards a large audience. There's many messages critical of immigrants on my timeline but none calling for violence against them (or any other group that Twitter users dislike). Meanwhile posts about violence against Trump, Musk or celebrating the dead of Kirk did get massive upvotes and visibility on some of the bi…
You're either desensitized or simply don't follow accounts that attract any political issues at all if you say that. Twitter is absolutely, depressingly overridden with genocide apologia and putrid racism.
In general I'm not very interested or concerned with American politics since this is outside of my scope of influence. I cannot say how much that influences my experience but I can confidently say that I have not seen any genocide apologia and putrid racism.
The closest that I've seen is conversations about violence rates and nationality (in the context of immigration) but these topics have also been discussed in the liberal left Dutch newspaper (Volkskrant) and conservative center newspaper (Neu Zuricher Zeitung) that I read.
My main point would be that Twitter does a better job at not amplifying calls for violence than Reddit. I, obviously, do not have access to internal Twitter data so my assessment is purely anecdotal but nonetheless seems relevant to the conversation.
Re: A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator
#474Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm just continuing the thread of conversation? And also because figuring out biases is basic critical thinking? Especially relevant in this kinda thread. Furthermore, I'm sick and tired of self-created right-wing narrative of censorship when they're ever so eager to do it to the fullest possible extent they can with their current powers and societal acceptance. And then we're not just talking about random people bei…
The right-wing is playing the victim card for all it is worth and has done so for close to a hundred years now.
Exactly. It's very predictable.
Re: A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator
#475Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It’s highly unusual to have some sort of judicial process. Every forum I ever used prior to Reddit had a ban appeal process, as did most game servers. For a few games reading the ban appeals could be more fun than playing the actual game. This was usually moderators making executive decisions based on a user-submitted form, but it was better than nothing.
Reddit also has a ban appeals process. But it's the same people you're appealing to - the mods. Speaking for myself I generally will unban if people are nice and express understanding for why they were banned.
Really depends on who the mods are. I got two bans on reddit:
First one:
In a programming sub, as there was over 10 years a rather known bug. Typical discussion goes off and using the bug as a example of issues that never get fixed in the language.
Short term sub banned for breaking the rules. The stated "broken rule" was one of those very broad one's where you can hit any discussion with. Appeal the ban, stating that my comments are based on facts. Pointed to the github, the 10 year long discussion. No answer beyond "you are perma banned for breaking the rules".
Got private contacted by one of the main developers of the language, as he noticed my banned status and was unable to get a answer from me.
We gone over the bug in PMs. Bug got assigned to somebody and fixed. Thanks for fixing that 10 year old bug.
That was my first experience with mod overreach. But that did not undo the ban for "being right".
Second one:
In a specific country sub, i noticed there was factual proven misinformation. Corrected the user in a lengthy post, with multiple links to news articles. Short term ban by a mod, for "misinformation".
Appealed the ban, got into a whole discussion with the sub mod. Told him that he is using his own opinion, not the facts. Stated multiple times my news sources from my post (not entertainment news but professional news), inc reuters.
Stated that he is not following the rules by using his person opinion as basis for the temp ban and asked for escalation of the ban review. Asked to show what rule i broke (never got a answer beyond his personal opinions).
Other mod came in, stated that i "attacked the mod" by asking for a escalating of the review, and by accusing the mod of not being neutral (i mean, using personal opinion vs official news websites = your not neutral).
Perma ban ... Kafka lol. As you can guess, never got a answer to what "misinformation" that i broke.
/Insert slap head emoji ...
What did the mods gain? Maybe that short dopamine hit for "winning" by banning somebody. Sounds more like losing if you need to ban based upon your opinion, and not the facts, but hey...
O, made new account, and back on sub. Never got banned again. Did i change my posting behavior. Nowp ... If i see misinformation, i come with receipts (links to actual reputable news articles).
Its like, what do you gain? Its just power tripping people that love to mod. There are good mods out there but a TON of them are just nasty dopamine junkies, that want to "win arguments" with bans.
Re: A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator
#476Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well at least we can all agree violence is efficient way to create political problems
Remind me again how the American slaves were freed?
Your best example of a "historically efficient way to solve political problems" is a 4 year civil war that killed more than half a million people and, after all that, still left African Americans as second-class citizens for a century after?
I wonder what an inefficient way would look like.
Re: A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator
#477Earlier quoted context omitted.
While Twitter has many problems it does seem to do a reasonable job of not promoting hate and violence towards a large audience. There's many messages critical of immigrants on my timeline but none calling for violence against them (or any other group that Twitter users dislike). Meanwhile posts about violence against Trump, Musk or celebrating the dead of Kirk did get massive upvotes and visibility on some of the bi…
[flagged]
While I understand your frustration I would like to point out that I'm not American.
Other countries do exist and they also use Reddit and Twitter (despite the US politics spam we have to suffer through ;))
Re: A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator
#478Earlier quoted context omitted.
Reddit has a moderation problem, and it's a big one. They've now been asked to appear in front of Congress to address concerns about politically motivated violence being incited through their platform: https://oversight.house.gov/release/chairman-comer-invites-c... Personally I believe I've seen more people in the past few years wish a politically motivated death on somebody else via Reddit, than I have anywhere else…
Moderation on Reddit has been questionable for a long time and its killing the site. To give some examples: - /r/energy used to ban everyone in favour of nuclear energy - If you post on /r/conservative you can expect to receive a bunch of bans from unrelated (popular) subs. Doesn't matter what you posted, being associated with that subs "taints" your account enough for some moderators. - /r/UnitedKingdom banned me fo…
/r/AskBrits banned me for pointing out that there are several threads each day about immigration, each tailor made rage bait. Sometimes they’re not even a question.
I’ve personally caught a couple of Iranians and Russians brazenly posting such threads at 4am British time (working hours in Tehran) and the moderators did nothing. They simply allow such threads while deleting any thread that goes “is anyone sick of the constant threads about immigration?”
These threads generate so much engagement from people of all opinions that it makes the sub appear in people’s feeds as recommended content even if they’re not subscribed to the sub. It gives people the impression that there is only one political subject in the UK that gets any discussion.
I don’t know why the moderators of this sub do this, but the effects of their moderation are clear.
Re: A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator
#479Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're either desensitized or simply don't follow accounts that attract any political issues at all if you say that. Twitter is absolutely, depressingly overridden with genocide apologia and putrid racism.
> You're either desensitized or simply don't follow accounts that attract any political issues at all if you say that. There are some other options too. For instance, there are people who honestly believe that Twitter is now a much better place and feel right at home because they are the ones pushing the genocide apologia and putrid racism themselves.
While I understand your frustration projecting American political biased on this does seem a bit extreme.
I'm not an American, nor do I care very much about US politics (outside my sphere of influence). It's hard to discuss exactly what genocide apologia and putrid racism are without a closer definition but I do not see anything on Twitter that's not discussed in the left liberal Dutch newspaper that I read (Volkskrant) or the German conservative center newspaper that I read (NZZ).
Re: A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator
#480[deleted]