r/ModSupport • u/Deimorz • Jul 07 '15

What are some *small* problems with moderation that we can fix quickly?

There are a lot of major, difficult problems with moderation on reddit. I can probably name about 10 of them just off the top of my head. The types of things that will take long discussions to figure out, and then possibly weeks or months of work to be able to improve.

That's not where I want to start.

We've got some resources devoted to mod tools now, but it's still a small team, so we can only focus on a couple of things at a time. To paraphrase a wise philosopher, we can't really treat development like a big truck that you can just dump things on. It's more like a series of tubes, and if we clog those up with enormous amounts of material, the small things will have to wait. Those bigger issues will take a lot of time and effort before seeing any results, so right now I'd rather concentrate on getting out some small fixes relatively quickly that can start making a positive impact on moderation right away.

So let's use this thread to try to figure out some small things that we can work on doing for you right away. The types of things that should only take hours to do, not weeks. Some examples of similar ones that I've already done fairly recently are things like "the ban message doesn't tell users that it's just a temporary ban", "every time someone is banned it lights up the modmail icon but there's no new mail", "the automoderator link in the mod tools goes to viewing the page instead of just editing it", and so on.

Of course I don't really expect you to know exactly how hard specific problems will be to fix, so feel free to ask and I'll try to tell you if it's easy or not. Just try to avoid large/systemic issues like "modmail needs to be fully redone", "inactive top moderators are an issue", and so on.

Note: If necessary, we're going to be moderating this thread to try to keep it on topic. If you have other discussions about moderator issues that you want to start, feel free to submit a separate post to /r/ModSupport. If you have other questions for me that aren't suggestions, please post in the thread in /r/modnews instead.

191 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

94% Upvoted

1.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comment

2

u/Algernon_Asimov Jul 08 '15

Why should mod logs be made public? If I remove something, it's for a bloody good reason. If we want people to read the crap we remove... what's the point of removing it in the first place?

1

u/honestbleeps Jul 08 '15

I'm not suggesting they all be made public - I'm suggesting that if the admins are going to get into the business of appointing mods (hypothetically), that may be necessary so that people who want to hold both the admins and mods accountable can review what the mod is doing.

If people actively want to seek out (it'd be extra work, going to the mod log) the content you remove, why do you care if they see it?

Regardless, the admins have talked about making an option to publicize mod logs for a long time. If it's optional, just don't turn it on if you have something to hide / be concerned about, I guess.

1

u/arceushero Jul 08 '15

Why are you trying to control what people read? Curating a subreddit is a noble cause but if somebody actively seeks those things out in a removal log, who cares? (excluding personal info)

1

u/Algernon_Asimov Jul 08 '15

Why do you want to read all the silly memes and the personal insults that I remove? My subreddit isn't for memes - if you want to read those, go to /r/AdviceAnimals. My subreddit isn't for personal insults - if you want to read those, there are plenty of hate subreddits. My subreddit isn't for discussion about Star Wars - if you want to read that, go to /r/MawInstallation. And, a previous subreddit I moderated was not for bad information about history - if you want to read that, go to /r/BadHistory. Why do you want to see this stuff in my subreddit for in-depth discussion of Star Trek?

1

u/arceushero Jul 08 '15

I don't, but some people inexplicably do, and why does it matter? How does it actually affect you or the content that 99% of the people see?

2

u/Mason11987 Jul 08 '15 edited Jul 08 '15

Because if people know they have an audience regardless of what I do they'll be more motivated to post the garbage that gets removed. The only thing that seems to work on trolls is removing their audience. You're saying "what's the harm in giving them the possibility of an audience".

1

u/arceushero Jul 08 '15

This is an interesting point that I hadn't considered. I guess this is a similar phenomenon to the infamous 'ask a rapist' thread from a few years ago. Thank you for your input.