r/collapse • u/LetsTalkUFOs • Jul 07 '22
Meta Feedback Regarding Comment Moderators
Hey Everyone,
The moderation team has gone through some significant changes in the past two months. The level of overall moderation is still in flux and we don’t think it is generally sustainable. The subreddit is still growing at an increasing rate and not expected to wane. We've been looking at solutions for increasing our overall bandwidth and would like to discuss this specific proposal:
Comment Moderators
We create a new level of moderator which moderates ONLY comments. We subsequently seek out users to fill out this role who are in good standing and good contributors.
We'll be referring to moderators with full permissions as Full Moderators here, just to make the distinction clearer. This approach would allow us to keep our (reasonably) strict filters when interviewing/accepting new Full Moderators in place while still making it easier for a wider range of users to contribute as moderators. Comment Moderators would be able to read and respond to modmail, but we'd only expect/allow them to respond to mail related to comment removals. They would not have the same level of responsibility or expectations as Full Moderators, but would still be essential to helping maintain quality discourse across the subreddit.
Currently, the only two user ‘levels’ on the subreddit are Full Moderators and regular users. This is obviously the standard across most subreddits (the exceptions being r/science and r/worldnews), but we don't think this makes it the best or most sustainable approach at scale for serious and nuanced subjects. It requires a very small, dedicated, active group of individuals to keep up with moderating, meta aspects, and running community events.
You can read more of the technical specifics regarding this proposal here. Currently, a significant majority of the existing moderators are in favor of this proposal. We still generally prefer to run significant changes by the community first and invite your feedback on this approach.
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u/VeronicaX11 Jul 08 '22
There is something almost poetic about it.
A bunch of people, trying to organize and come together to fight against inevitable and unavoidable decay.
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u/LetsTalkUFOs Jul 08 '22
I don't see it that was personally. We're less fighting against it and more simply trying to help maintain and elevate discussion surrounding the observation of it in all its contexts. Everyone still has their own personal opinions about what is possible in terms of future outcomes, but it's a question we ask all moderators when interviewing them. No delusions there really.
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Jul 07 '22
The transparency is appreciated, I do hope that the growth of this sub stays limited. Subs that explode in popularity tend to die just as fast. And I can understand growing moderation to keep things in check. Just make sure they don't have some hidden agenda and/or exhibit megalomaniac behavior.
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u/thekbob Jul 07 '22 edited Jul 07 '22
We concur; that uncontrolled growth leads to downfall of sub quality.
However, we realize collapse awareness isn't limited to backwater internet denizens for much longer. We still want this sub to be a meaningful place for observation and discussion of the topic.
Hence this call for additional support. Some of us on the mod team are still green, but the past few weeks were pretty rough (on many levels).
Just having more folks will aid in ensuring we keep the community as close to its original intent as much as we can. We also realize that moderation should be the voice of community in action, thus we do read and respond to feedback in the mod mail as often as we can.
We're unpaid internet janitors, just wanting to help out where we can.
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u/Slooooopuy Jul 07 '22
Moderation is a challenge in any popular forum. Good luck. This seems like a fine approach. My own hope is that you guys are able to do whatever will keep the conversation civil. Doesn’t seem to be a huge problem in this sub, thankfully.
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u/BadAsBroccoli Jul 07 '22
I'd not trust myself to moderate. I make too many mistakes moderating my own comments. lol
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u/PrairieFire_withwind Jul 07 '22
Good call. Always worth a trial period at the very least.
I always see forums as struggling with signal to noise ratio going down the tubes.
Keeping the signal high is hard work. Splitting the work could lighten the load.
I am sorry you guys take such a hit. Collapse is a hard subject for many and as such they vomit their feelings on you guys.
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Jul 08 '22
Hiya. Just wanted to mention that I feel it is somewhat difficult to get a discussion post going here. I appreciate you want a nuanced take, but there is only so much nuance to the fact we’re all going to perish. It would be nice if people were allowed to have discussions for the sake of sharing, many of us have only this platform to do so.
The other bit is that I wish there was more moderation of US politics related content. Whilst this is indeed an American website collapse knows no borders and I bet there is an international audience on this sub who would like to see not always US centric news. Also, I feel this is not the appropriate sub for US users to debate left v right related matters.
Thank you
A foreign reader
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u/EndStageCapitalismOG Jul 07 '22
I agree but there has to be a good appeal process.
I've run numerous Facebook groups and bad mods can wreck a group, especially if there's no appeal process on their decisions.
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u/Devadander Jul 09 '22
I hate to be a wet blanket, but I think the quality of the casual Friday posts has declined dramatically and draws in the shills.
Love the moderation of this sub, thank you all
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u/threadsoffate2021 Jul 08 '22
I think the mods here are doing quite well, all things considered. Been a lot of shit hitting the fan and in everyones' faces in society over the past couple of years....you can't help but see a lot of spillover into subs like this where the average person is starting to see the writing on the wall and panic.
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u/dumnezero Jul 08 '22
The subreddit is still growing at an increasing rate and not expected to wane.
I see what you did there.
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u/mattseg Jul 09 '22
This is a stellar sub. Per example I was really impressed with the civility in the gun discussion earlier this week. That said, I'm happy to help. I don't have a lot of bandwidth, but I do support the vision of this sub.
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u/Did_I_Die Jul 09 '22
are in good standing and good contributors.
who decides that?
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u/LetsTalkUFOs Jul 09 '22 edited Jul 09 '22
Initially, only the Full Moderators. Once there are some Comment Moderators all moderators will be able to vote on Comment Moderator applications. Although, deciding they are in good standing and good contributors would be separate aspects from actually evaluating their application itself (assuming they are interested and actually apply).
We don't currently have any strict or explicit criteria for what would constitute 'good contributor', but I would likely use some combination of these properties:
Shows an understanding of collapse either through academic or self-study.
Shows the ability to cite sources for relevant claims.
Shows the ability to provide high quality comments and content in the subreddit
Acts in accordance with Reddit's and the subreddit's rules.
Has has some level of participation in r/collapse
Account age is not less than thirty days
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u/BurgerBoy9000 Jul 08 '22
Very much appreciate the transparency!
Unrelated question: does anyone else have the weekly thread downvoted when you log back in despite upvoting it?
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u/2farfromshore Jul 08 '22
The problem isn't moderating the content, the problem is the content. I'm here primarily for the links now because as predicted threads have become crammed with social media comedians in performance for karma opiate. And so once again, the curse of the normal curve.
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u/MustLovePunk Jul 07 '22
This happened in two other subs that I know of (antiwork and latestagecapitalism) but without asking for the input of the community.
The growth of those subs seemed great at first, but then I think their popularity caught the notice of people from outside communities who started brigading (maybe bots) in an attempt to quash ideas they disagreed with. A lot of trolling and off topic arguments. Some of the mods became authoritarian. Those subs became unmanageable to the point where manners and nuance were completely lost. People were getting perma banned for innocuous or unfounded reasons, while other people were dominating the conversations in combative ways. I’ve been on Reddit for about 5 years and I still don’t really get moderation, but it seems like if one wrong person gets in they can quickly change or even destroy a sub.