The Aol Chat Room Monitor Revolt (2014) • Hacker News Board

Re: The Aol Chat Room Monitor Revolt (2014)

#11

Post by omegaham » Fri, Jul 03, 2015, 4:55 PM UTC

osconfused wrote: post #9

excitom wrote: post #8

Kind of off topic, but the "Aol" branding has always grated on me. It's an acronym, AOL, not a word.

Originally, yes it was an acronym, then they officially changed it to a word in 2006. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOL

Yep, just like KFC is no longer "Kentucky Fried Chicken" - it's just KFC.

Re: The Aol Chat Room Monitor Revolt (2014)

#12

Post by mendelk » Fri, Jul 03, 2015, 4:58 PM UTC

For those "out of the loop", this was probably posted in relation to this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9822580

Re: The Aol Chat Room Monitor Revolt (2014)

#13

Post by x43b » Fri, Jul 03, 2015, 5:04 PM UTC

omegaham wrote: post #11

osconfused wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Originally, yes it was an acronym, then they officially changed it to a word in 2006. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOL

Yep, just like KFC is no longer "Kentucky Fried Chicken" - it's just KFC.

"Yep, just like KFC is no longer "Kentucky Fried Chicken" - it's just KFC."

The very first words at KFC.com are "Kentucky Fried Chicken"

Doing a text search on the home page says Kentucky shows up two more times.

Re: The Aol Chat Room Monitor Revolt (2014)

#14

Post by jseliger » Fri, Jul 03, 2015, 5:11 PM UTC

gesman wrote: post #7

Also - lets not forget that chat room monitors were willing to put up with the AOL TOS, hours and conditions for one good reason: that sweet feeling of power to kick and ban other people (and likely to brag about it to their buddies).

that sweet feeling of power to kick and ban other people (and likely to brag about it to their buddies).

Yes: I wrote about that problem here: http://jakeseliger.com/2015/03/16/the-moderator-problem-how-... and there is some HN discussion here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9217628.

I don't really see a way around these problems: Paying people would be too expensive for sites like Reddit, and "volunteers" suffer from adverse selection.

Re: The Aol Chat Room Monitor Revolt (2014)

#15

Post by Zombieball » Fri, Jul 03, 2015, 5:18 PM UTC

RyanMcGreal wrote: post #10

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #4

>As described, Reddit is an interesting example where people voluntarily fill the same community leader role that Aol’s volunteers did, although they do so with fewer restrictions and more agency. // Presumably the current Reddit debacle is the stimulation for posting this now. The article mentions Buzzfeed and Youtube models too. Quite interesting.

I had to look up the current reddit debacle: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/new... I'm still not sure what's going on, though.

This /r/OutOfTheLoop thread is the go-to recap at the moment:

https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/3bxduw/why_wa...

Re: The Aol Chat Room Monitor Revolt (2014)

#16

Post by JanneVee » Fri, Jul 03, 2015, 5:23 PM UTC

This is partly what is happening. Reading in out of the loop subreddit the trigger is Victoria but the problem is different. The one I see as one of the biggest problems is. The unpaid volunteers aren't given the tools necessary to handle moderation of subreddits by reddit corporate. The tools moderators use comes from third parties and volunteers. [0] As an outsider I have understand why they are angry, trying to create safe spaces by sweeping(and inconsistent) bans of subreddits but not giving the tools to moderators to keep their subreddits clean.

[0]https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/3bxduw/why_wa...

Re: The Aol Chat Room Monitor Revolt (2014)

#17

Post by hammock » Fri, Jul 03, 2015, 5:50 PM UTC

x43b wrote: post #13

omegaham wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, just like KFC is no longer "Kentucky Fried Chicken" - it's just KFC.

"Yep, just like KFC is no longer "Kentucky Fried Chicken" - it's just KFC." The very first words at KFC.com are "Kentucky Fried Chicken" Doing a text search on the home page says Kentucky shows up two more times.

From 1991 to 2006, it was just KFC. http://www.snopes.com/lost/kfc.asp

Re: The Aol Chat Room Monitor Revolt (2014)

#18

Post by yk » Fri, Jul 03, 2015, 6:01 PM UTC

RyanMcGreal wrote: post #10

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #4

>As described, Reddit is an interesting example where people voluntarily fill the same community leader role that Aol’s volunteers did, although they do so with fewer restrictions and more agency. // Presumably the current Reddit debacle is the stimulation for posting this now. The article mentions Buzzfeed and Youtube models too. Quite interesting.

I had to look up the current reddit debacle: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/new... I'm still not sure what's going on, though.

As far as I understand, reddit did introduce a new search function yesterday, which pissed off mods of several subreddits. [1] Additionally they fired(?) an employee who acted as a interface between the r/IAmA mods and the people who do amAs [2], who are usually not redditors. So the mods of r/IamA set there sub to private. That means that only invited users can see the sub. From there quite a few other mods did declare their frustration with reddits communication, their solidarity with either the IAmA mods or Victoria and various other grievances. And either set their subs to private or at least declared their solidarity. And by now half of reddit is private and the other half rages agains the admins. ( Reddits front page, that is the ~20 highest upvoted posts on the site, are uniformly against reddit.) For a bit more details see [3].

[1] https://pay.reddit.com/r/self/comments/3bvkf0/stop_throwing_...

[2] ask me Anything, basically the community interviews someone interesting.

[3] https://pay.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/3bxduw/why_wa...

Re: The Aol Chat Room Monitor Revolt (2014)

#19

Post by cddotdotslash » Fri, Jul 03, 2015, 6:06 PM UTC

cddotdotslash wrote: post #6

[deleted] wrote: post #5

[deleted]

It doesn't seem like it. It's very clear to point out the differences between AOL's mandatory time commitment and rules and Reddit's "suggested tips."

For context, the original comment was asking if the article was encouraging Reddit moderators to sue Reddit.

Re: The Aol Chat Room Monitor Revolt (2014)

#20

Post by NoMoreNicksLeft » Fri, Jul 03, 2015, 6:34 PM UTC

JanneVee wrote: post #16

This is partly what is happening. Reading in out of the loop subreddit the trigger is Victoria but the problem is different. The one I see as one of the biggest problems is. The unpaid volunteers aren't given the tools necessary to handle moderation of subreddits by reddit corporate. The tools moderators use comes from third parties and volunteers. [0] As an outsider I have understand why they are angry, trying to cr…

I'm not sure the reddit community (either moderators specifically, or redditors in general) are intelligent enough to know what tools they need.

I once tried to suggest a new tool, and was attacked there for 3 weeks after on subredditdrama for requesting such a tool.

My crime? Suggesting that moderators be able to ban everyone who (wrongly) upvotes an offtopic post. This would allow them to steer things back on topic, by punishing those who refuse to stay on topic.