Because without mods, people tend to be horrible to each other. Just read through the modlogs sometime, it’s depressing how unpleasant some people choose to be.
If power corrupts, or power attracts the corrupt, why do we have moderators?
Submitted 11 months ago by cameron_vale@lemm.ee to nostupidquestions@lemmy.world
Comments
Lauchs@lemmy.world 11 months ago
otter@lemmy.ca 11 months ago
Having moderated for a while, it’s surprisingly sad with the kind of stuff we have to remove from even small and low stakes communities
cameron_vale@lemm.ee 11 months ago
“Unpleasant” is anything that strays outside a very small circle of behavior. Moderation is a force for mediocrity and an energy-suck. And doubly so given the people who seek the job. It’s inevitable
Lauchs@lemmy.world 11 months ago
“A very small circle of behaviour” - okay, lol.
You can hang out in unmoderated areas with people hurling slurs around at each other, personally I enjoy a more civilized experience where people aren’t just trolling each other.
livus@kbin.social 11 months ago
You do realise that in the fediverse you don't have to have a mod, right?
You can:
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run your own instance
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create whatever communities you like there
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federate with the rest of us
No matter how much modding or even defederating any of us did, you would have the complete ability to say whatever you like and even see all our content.
All we could do is choose whether to see it or interact with it.
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livus@kbin.social 11 months ago
I think you're starting from a false premise. "All power corrupts" is a demonstrably untrue maxim.
If it were true we would never have anyone with power over anything. Being the one in charge of taking the cat to the vet would somehow be corrupting.
MNByChoice@midwest.social 11 months ago
Too limit the number of people getting PTSD from terrible images.
dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 11 months ago
cameron_vale@lemm.ee 11 months ago
Also, the mods are subject to GIFT too. In all probability even even moreso.
Hello, yes, I think that I would be a great moral authority. I am just the person to tell people what they can and cannot say. That’s me to a T.
You don’t want that guy in charge in a million years.
cameron_vale@lemm.ee 11 months ago
Then do it with bots. Bots are uncorruptable or at least perfectly auditable.
dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Alright, we’ll write a bot that can accurately moderate arbitrary internet content with an acceptably low rate of false negatives and false positives.
You first.
cerement@slrpnk.net 11 months ago
bots are only “uncorruptible” in so far as they are built “corrupt” at their very conception
ristoril_zip@lemmy.zip 11 months ago
Unchecked, unanswerable power corrupts. On lemmy everyone is free to create their own sub. Heck they’re free to create their own instance. That makes the “power” of moderators pretty tame.
Compare that to the power a corporate CEO has over the typical employee. Especially since the 1970s and 1980s redefinition of the primary responsibility of the directors of a corporation to be “maximize shareholder value” instead of “maximize stakeholder value.”
Even in (small d democratic) politics, at least an aggrieved voter can run to replace a corrupt, abusive politician. Not many companies, probably no publicly traded ones, have a mechanism for the workers to replace the management. That’s where major corruption by power can be witnessed.
Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Just because some hall monitors let their title go to their heads, that doesn’t mean they wield power in any meaningful way.
You’re confusing petty tyrants and actual tyrants.
cameron_vale@lemm.ee 11 months ago
They control what I say. That’s pretty big.
Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world 11 months ago
They control what I say. That’s pretty big.
My, but you certainly have an outsized estimation of your own importance, don’t you?
No one is obligated to host what you have to say. You want to get your message out, find somewhere that will or host it yourself.
Like everyone else.
livus@kbin.social 11 months ago
They control what I say
No they don't. They just control whether you get to say it in that particular space.
Editors at publishing companies don't "control" what I say just because they can choose whether or not to publish my book.
cerement@slrpnk.net 11 months ago
a minor personal inconvenience is not censorship
Nighed@sffa.community 11 months ago
Power corrupts, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t need positions of power…
Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de 11 months ago
To quote Dr Cox: “People are bastard coated bastards with bastard filling.”
So we elect some people to be chief jerkfaces against all the other miserable sods, then the rest of us pricks have to bully the mods to keep things fair… or unfair in so many directions at once that the scales still balance out. Thus turning our weakness into strength.
Or at least, that’s the plan.
cameron_vale@lemm.ee 11 months ago
The worst are the good in heart, slinging bans and censors for the good of the underprivileged and downtrodden. They suck hairy balls.
fiat_lux@kbin.social 11 months ago
Because for anything that is built, someone else will set out to destroy or manipulate it for their own purposes. For example, spammers will use social media to try to boost their SEO and as an avenue for free advertising.
As much as I'd love if everyone could act with the best intentions towards others at all times, there is too much motivation and reward for anti-social actions. As a result, we have to have a complex system of rules and enforcement.
cameron_vale@lemm.ee 11 months ago
Yes, we need a control. But control by the worst of us is not a good control. And yes, there is a race to the bottom for control here.
neptune@dmv.social 11 months ago
I feel like you are close to asking good political science questions. Close. Are you advocating for anarchy? Or communism? No? Just a technocracy that “works”?
cameron_vale@lemm.ee 11 months ago
A self-reflective hivemind evolving towards moral perfection.
xantoxis@lemmy.world 11 months ago
[There are] no stupid questions, but there sure are questions with an obvious axe to grind.
Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Wonder what he got banned for.
cameron_vale@lemm.ee 11 months ago
Your masters appreciate your obedience. You are a good boy.
xantoxis@lemmy.world 11 months ago
It’s cool that you’re in here doing Baby’s First Anarchy and all, maybe you should do some reading on how anarchy and decentralized societies actually work and you won’t come across so… Like This?
But even if I agreed with the facile points you’re trying to make in this thread, you’re making them in the wrong place. This is a community about learning, and you’re here trying to influence people and win an argument. That’s not the type of question this community is built for. You are violating Rule 5.
But I guess if a mod removed your question for a rule violation, that would just be proving your point, am I right?