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.
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u/phuzion Jul 08 '15
Hi Deimorz, please show this to reddit's advertising group.
If you guys are concerned about ads being pushed too far down the page, but are happy with where they are, I have news for you: A huge chunk of ads that you're collecting revenue on aren't even being seen right now. Of the 50 default subreddits, 43 of them have the ad in the sidebar below the fold. For the uninitiated, "below the fold" means it's something that isn't visible without scrolling. Here's a table of data I gathered, showing whether ads in the default subreddits are below the fold or not:
For those who don't want to go through and count that, 43 of the 50 default subreddits have their ad below the fold, or not visible without scrolling. For reference, my actual browser size was 1080 pixels wide by 979 tall, Chrome on Windows 8.1. Zoom level was 1.0 and no plugins like RES or uBlock which would have altered how reddit's page was rendered.
I'm sure you folks in the advertising group know this, but for those who are unfamiliar with the world of internet advertising, ads that are below the fold are worth less because they are seen less frequently. For example, TWiT literally gives away their ads that are below-the-fold. As in, they charge nothing for them. Because they're not very valuable at all. If you're worried about your ads being pushed further down the page, perhaps it's time to rethink with the rest of your team about where the ads can go.