/r/StarTrek founder and primary steward from 2008-2021

Currently on the board of directors for StarTrek.website

  • 72 Posts
  • 1.2K Comments
Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 11th, 2023

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  • You’re not going to find a sympathetic ear from the mods of this community (believe me I’ve tried, oh have I tried) but I understand where you’re coming from and agree. The Lemmy network in general is comprised of a lot of people who are here (I’m sorry to say) because they are too poorly socialized even for reddit, and there are too few mods/admins in the overall network are who know what it means to be the adult in the room. The result is that most places with authentic activity are too toxic for “normies” and the places willing to enforce something as simple as good manners are quieter.

    I still believe a critical mass of more ah, well-adjusted people can improve the culture, but that day gets further and further away as long as the existing culture remains in the state it is in.




  • The most difficult parts of moderating on Reddit aren’t the trolls or spammers or even the rule-breakers, it’s identifying the accounts who intentionally walk the line of what’s appropriate.

    IMO only a human moderator can recognize when someone is being a complete asshole but “doing it politely”, or trying to push an agenda or generally behaving inauthentically, because human moderators are (in theory) members of the community themselves and have an interest in that community being enjoyable to be a part of.

    Humans are messy, and finding the right balance of mess to keep things interesting without making a place overwhelming to newcomers is a fine balance to strike that I just don’t believe an AI can do on it’s own.




  • Not trying to victim blame or anything, but I find it hard to believe that someone operating a low-moderation instance would truly expect people who don’t like moderation to stay away.

    Don’t get me wrong I agree with your sentiment and dislike that behavior, but what I’m saying is that asking or expecting users not to go on witch hunts or to behave in a certain way is a fool’s errand that will always lead to burnout. A more sustainable approach for admins and mods is creating space for what they want to host and not trying to control what they don’t.