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I am a moderator of quite a few subreddits on reddit. I am modding both a largish political subreddit and a network of smaller art subreddits. And it is a huge difference, art subreddits are great because you can be nice and almost never have to ban an account while political subreddits are a nightmare.
If you have any questions you can ask them here if you want.
Thank you for kinda verifying what I’ve always felt was the truth about Reddit — it’s not a "wretched hive of scum and villainy" — it’s all up to the subreddit.
Some communities are toxic; most are not. When the whole "GamerGate" debacle swept the internet, I started hearing from people who didn’t visit Reddit talk about the site, and it was like they were talking about a completely different site than the weird little subreddits (like /r/soylent) I visited, where everybody is generally just cool to one another.
Do you also notice a similar difference not just between art/political subreddits, but between larger/smaller ones? Does a larger subreddit, regardless of the subject, sometimes just have a higher occurrence of shitty people?
Smaller subreddits tend to have a much more homogenous group of people which is nice and everybody is upvoted and everybody is nice, some people would call it a circle jerk, but I call it just a bunch of people having fun and the best thing is that you don’t have to moderate much.
The bigger a subreddit gets tho the more diverse the community that frequents it gets and the more disagreements happen and the more a subreddit needs to be moderated. I wouldn’t call it more shitty people just more people with different opinion and just from statistics more trolls appear and so on.
Well, there are some really horrible subreddits there too, but the biggest ones are usually tightly moderated and ban you for racism and insulting people.
Reddit is/was what you want it to be largely. It’s sort of like a miniature internet to itself. Don’t go the racist parts of it an be shocked you’ve stumbled across racists. That said, I think some groups wind up too unruly for effectual moderation and so a subreddit can be hijacked and wind declining in civility which is shocking if you’ve been a longtime member, but the solution there is to go to the inevitable replacement subreddit that’s better moderated.
Really interesting to think about content moderation as we cede more and more of our time to platforms controlled by corporations. If the current trend of privatization of our digital and physical lives continues (say, if Uber ends up eclipsing public transit), where will that leave free speech and standards of human decency? Profit doesn’t always line up with freedom and equality.
Prominent industry critic Shanley Kane penned an outraged post describing Poole as responsible "for a decade + of inculcating one of the most vile, violent and harmful ‘communities’ on the Internet." For marginalized groups, she wrote, the decision "sends not only a ‘bad message,’ but a giant ‘fuck you.’"
Where she thinks it’s ‘violent and harmful’, I think it’s ‘iconic and creative’. I see it like this: Christopher Poole created one of the few really unique places on the internet with its own identity. It has also helped shape the way we use the internet now, and is probably the biggest influence on the current pop-culture of ‘memes’. Sure a lot of bad stuff has come from 4chan, but I think the good stuff heavily outweighs the bad. Also, he seems like a good guy, who never ‘sold out’ 4chan. He’s also one of the most prominent personas when it comes to anonymity on the internet.
Great article. There is some issue with formatting of the right-aligned textboxes – their colored shadow covers some text in Microsoft Edge, no matter what zoom setting.
On an iPad, the moving boxes are really annoying. They cover 4 lines of text above them, so when I encounter one, I have to lay it flat, read the 4 lines and pick it up again.
Sorry to hijack your comment for this, but I didn’t want to fill the otherwise topical discussion with my design nitpick.
This was a really good article. Moderation is a unusually secretive element of websites, and I think it would benefit social media platforms if they explained their processes.
Honestly, I find this topic quite fascinating, but this article became far too repetitive and long after some point. At the very least a clearer structure would help finding the interesting bits between the repetition. Either way, bad writing, but absolutely amazing journalism!
There is no such thing as unbiased moderation. Each medium is moderated in accordance to its foundations and respectively its owner(s) stance on things, which more often than not has to align with PC and populist trends.
The Verge is left leaning (especially in opinion and cultural pieces), but they’re not far left compared to places like Salon, which are hilariously, mindnumbingly far left.
Comments
I am a moderator of quite a few subreddits on reddit. I am modding both a largish political subreddit and a network of smaller art subreddits. And it is a huge difference, art subreddits are great because you can be nice and almost never have to ban an account while political subreddits are a nightmare.
If you have any questions you can ask them here if you want.
By SaltySolomon on 04.13.16 11:12am
Thank you for kinda verifying what I’ve always felt was the truth about Reddit — it’s not a "wretched hive of scum and villainy" — it’s all up to the subreddit.
Some communities are toxic; most are not. When the whole "GamerGate" debacle swept the internet, I started hearing from people who didn’t visit Reddit talk about the site, and it was like they were talking about a completely different site than the weird little subreddits (like /r/soylent) I visited, where everybody is generally just cool to one another.
Do you also notice a similar difference not just between art/political subreddits, but between larger/smaller ones? Does a larger subreddit, regardless of the subject, sometimes just have a higher occurrence of shitty people?
By PatientZero on 04.13.16 2:22pm
Smaller subreddits tend to have a much more homogenous group of people which is nice and everybody is upvoted and everybody is nice, some people would call it a circle jerk, but I call it just a bunch of people having fun and the best thing is that you don’t have to moderate much.
The bigger a subreddit gets tho the more diverse the community that frequents it gets and the more disagreements happen and the more a subreddit needs to be moderated. I wouldn’t call it more shitty people just more people with different opinion and just from statistics more trolls appear and so on.
Well, there are some really horrible subreddits there too, but the biggest ones are usually tightly moderated and ban you for racism and insulting people.
By SaltySolomon on 04.13.16 2:57pm
Reddit is/was what you want it to be largely. It’s sort of like a miniature internet to itself. Don’t go the racist parts of it an be shocked you’ve stumbled across racists. That said, I think some groups wind up too unruly for effectual moderation and so a subreddit can be hijacked and wind declining in civility which is shocking if you’ve been a longtime member, but the solution there is to go to the inevitable replacement subreddit that’s better moderated.
By wrath0fkahn on 04.14.16 11:33am
Double post, sorry.
By wrath0fkahn on 04.14.16 11:43am
Really interesting to think about content moderation as we cede more and more of our time to platforms controlled by corporations. If the current trend of privatization of our digital and physical lives continues (say, if Uber ends up eclipsing public transit), where will that leave free speech and standards of human decency? Profit doesn’t always line up with freedom and equality.
By Nicholi on 04.13.16 11:46am
Where she thinks it’s ‘violent and harmful’, I think it’s ‘iconic and creative’.
I see it like this: Christopher Poole created one of the few really unique places on the internet with its own identity. It has also helped shape the way we use the internet now, and is probably the biggest influence on the current pop-culture of ‘memes’. Sure a lot of bad stuff has come from 4chan, but I think the good stuff heavily outweighs the bad.
Also, he seems like a good guy, who never ‘sold out’ 4chan. He’s also one of the most prominent personas when it comes to anonymity on the internet.
By Moreworkzugzug on 04.13.16 12:56pm
Moot is awesome, I’ve always loved hearing his thoughts. I absolutely think he seems like an intelligent, cool, and thoughtful guy.
By DrunkHeart on 04.13.16 7:13pm
Great article. There is some issue with formatting of the right-aligned textboxes – their colored shadow covers some text in Microsoft Edge, no matter what zoom setting.
By thedrum808 on 04.13.16 1:15pm
Move your mouse…
By ahlam99 on 04.13.16 1:24pm
Doesn’t do anything.
By VoxMediaUser3073068 on 04.13.16 3:29pm
I’d like to apologize, refreshing the page got the shadows to move with the mouse.
By VoxMediaUser3073068 on 04.13.16 4:22pm
It was kind of a hassle moving my mouse back and forth every few paragraphs Looked cool, though!
By Rensa on 04.13.16 8:42pm
On an iPad, the moving boxes are really annoying. They cover 4 lines of text above them, so when I encounter one, I have to lay it flat, read the 4 lines and pick it up again.
Sorry to hijack your comment for this, but I didn’t want to fill the otherwise topical discussion with my design nitpick.
By Wagninger on 04.14.16 2:24am
this comment section is going to be gold…
By pappu on 04.13.16 1:46pm
The article is way too long. Would work better with more edit, subtitles, eyes and sections.
By MedievalBudha on 04.13.16 2:32pm
Yeah
Really wanted to read it but I am too tired this evening.
Someone got a good TL;DR version?
By cy.starkman on 04.14.16 8:52am
TL;DR People are despicable and can ruin other peoples’ psychological health even through secondhand effects
By PatientZero on 04.14.16 2:05pm
wow
By cy.starkman on 04.17.16 10:39pm
Thanks for this article, I’ve often wondered about how moderation is handled by companies. I think it’s an important topic that needs more air time.
By CPx on 04.13.16 4:36pm
This was a really good article. Moderation is a unusually secretive element of websites, and I think it would benefit social media platforms if they explained their processes.
By VoxMediaUser3073068 on 04.13.16 7:57pm
What an amazing article. Love the content and presentation, beautiful fonts and design elements.
By elasys63 on 04.13.16 8:02pm
Honestly, I find this topic quite fascinating, but this article became far too repetitive and long after some point. At the very least a clearer structure would help finding the interesting bits between the repetition. Either way, bad writing, but absolutely amazing journalism!
By David Mulder on 04.13.16 8:30pm
There is no such thing as unbiased moderation. Each medium is moderated in accordance to its foundations and respectively its owner(s) stance on things, which more often than not has to align with PC and populist trends.
If I were to rate ‘The Verge’ on a scale:
L—————C—————R
_^v
Where as I wish it was
L—————C—————R
_________^v
By MindYourMind on 04.13.16 9:06pm
The Verge is left leaning (especially in opinion and cultural pieces), but they’re not far left compared to places like Salon, which are hilariously, mindnumbingly far left.
By wrath0fkahn on 04.14.16 11:29am