Well, it’s one of those things where you either learn to compartmentalize, or you quit fast.
I moderated forums back in the early days of the internet. It was rough some days, to the point I had someone show up at my house because I wouldn’t let them abuse other users.
I moderated on reddit, and it was both easier and worse. People like to complain, but automod being able to filter out so much of the worst without having to see it at all made the job bearable. If I’d had to wade through the bigotry, the worst slurs, and similar stuff that a well crafted automod rule could magic away, I wouldn’t have done it at all.
But the fact that you have to constantly adjust the automod to catch up with the most persistent assholes is draining.
And that’s not getting into the stuff that isn’t hate speech, misogyny, bigotry, and that kind of infection. People think they can say anything they want, any way they want, and you stopping them means you’re the asshole, even after that went on a rant about fucking someone’s wife and kids (seriously, that’s a ban I had to make) because someone didn’t agree with their opinion of a flashlight. Seriously, that fucking happened.
Point being that while there are mods that go too far, the internet, and places like reddit or lemmy, would be unbearable without it. There has to be someone making those calls, keeping things from turning into the non stop scroll of venom and porn that used to be way too common back in the day.
krafty@feddit.online 1 week ago
I was a moderator on a web forum many years ago. I also had my own forums for a while. Some of the stuff that people would post probably scarred me for life. It was a time when things like rotten.com and goatse were popular. I can only imagine what it's like now on a big web site like reddit where they probably have a lot more traffic.
KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 week ago
Right there with you. I moderated on Gaia Online back in the day, and every now and then someone would get their jollies off by posting gore and CSAM. And of course, the mod team would have to clean it up because that’s what they do.
I actually had a better time modding on Reddit. At least no one posted CSAM once a month.
Though Reddit is the place I ended up modding a video that fucked me up for a little while…
db2@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Was it Mr Hands?