Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. A showerthought should offer a unique perspective on an ordinary part of life.

Rules

All posts must be showerthoughts
The entire showerthought must be in the title
Avoid politics
- 3.1) NEW RULE as of 5 Nov 2024, trying it out
- 3.2) Political posts often end up being circle jerks (not offering unique perspective) or enflaming (too much work for mods).
- 3.3) Try c/politicaldiscussion, volunteer as a mod here, or start your own community.
Posts must be original/unique
Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

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Moderators banning/censoring people arent oppressors violating your rights; they are customer service representatives curating a space for their intended customers. All this to say, I see you Karen. (lemmy.world)

submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago (24 children)

Communities are not owned by moderators. They are built by those that participate. The primary fallacy I see is the idea that anyone can start a different community and that size and momentum are meaningless. That is simply not the case.

An authoritarian or very active mod, in any community with public participation is actively abusing those users when they act in opposition to the interests of the community. A visible mod is a bad mod. The job of mod is as a janitor acting in the interests of the community. If you care about authority or steering, you shouldn't be a mod or admin.

Nothing about being a mod is hard. You don't need to read every post or comment. All you do is setup the basic guidelines and trust the community to vote and flag bad stuff. The community will always flag the bad stuff. The only part that really matters is that you set yourself aside and really look into any flagged issue while giving the benefit of the doubt in absolutely every possible way one can imagine while never allowing bigotry type abuse. This is how to be a good mod, to be an invisible mod. The job is only to herd bad bots and sort the flags from others.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago (5 children)

Those were a lot of different points. I think they’re important and I respect your view.

I‘m not sure though if I see it exactly the same:

ownership

i think this assumes a lot. You could of course start more communities and I did so. But of course your goal can be different.

authority

I agree, authority should not be important.

modding is easy

I dont think that is the case. Modding - especially good modding - is very hard, as you mentioned yourself. A mod needs enough restraint to take their ego out of the equation and needs to see when the community rules get broken and act accordingly. A lot of bad mods are too eager or too lax with bigotry.

only flagged content needs looking at

It needs to be looked at first and the rest is optional, yes. But a mod should definitely trust their gut and be an active part in the community they mod. Ideally under a different name though so to divide between mod stuff and non.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago (3 children)

I think it's ok to be somewhat active in my community that way people at least see that there's a mod present and didn't abandon the community. I haven't had to ban anyone yet, but I did give two people a gentle warning because they had started to get off topic and argue, which is outside the scope of the group.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

What if they got off topic. What would happen?

Also, do you think that you understand their conversation better than they do? All of them?