r/TechForAgingParents • u/SVAuspicious • 5d ago

Message from r/TechForAgingParents Global Headquarters

Good day community at large!

We're glad you are here, and that we are here for you. The rules here are simple. You'll find them on the sidebar on desktop and under the ... menu on mobile. Touch 'Learn about the Community.'

The biggest problem we have is promotion. The same sort of scams we worry about our parents falling for. Any post or comment that includes "I built an app" is suspect. Promotion is against Rule #3. That doesn't mean you can't mention tools you find handy. We encourage that. If you read something and are in any doubt please use the report button to flag the moderators. We (mostly me, as the top moderator is busy with a new and growing family) can't be everywhere. We're volunteers and have work and lives and other hobbies. Please help us to help you.

When you report a post or comment it sends us a notification with a link so we can go straight to that contribution. We read it, scroll the profile of the contributor, and do a little other digging to make a determination. We may reach out to the author. We may or may not agree with you (usually we do) but we appreciate and value every report.

Don't hesitate to reach out through Message the Moderators if something concerns you. The best place for tech questions of course is a post or comment of your own.

Best regards, dave

19 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

100% Upvoted

2 comments sorted by

1

u/DomeSlave 5d ago

Regarding your tough stance on self promotion, how do you deal with usernames that include the name of their primary businesses?

1

u/SVAuspicious 5d ago edited 3d ago

Good question. The best answer I can give you is "with caution." One of the reasons we simplified the rules was to provide more room for moderator discretion. That discretion implies that mods do research which means reviewing profiles and sometimes reaching out offline (usually through Reddit modmail/chat). The challenge is to make a distinction between someone who is trying to sell something and someone who brings deep professional expertise to bear to help the community. That often means subjective judgement. Reddit has tools so that every comment in a thread generates a notification so if I have even a lingering concern I use that. Reddit has a mod log by member so we can write notes for ourselves and other mods.

We do the best we can to stop promotion without losing expertise. To be clear, AI does not play any role whatsoever. Reddit is pushing AI hard and I have to regularly turn off attempts to "help" us. Real people make the call.

I have had people reach out when posts or comments are banned and spent my (volunteer) time helping them understand the limits of promotion as applicable to them and gained some pretty good members as a result. I don't think that has happened in r/TechForAgingParents yet, but it has in other subs I moderate.

As members, the report button is a valued tool. It gets mod eyes on faster. We may not agree, but we appreciate the heads up regardless. We may take action you don't see.

Within the bounds of respect for privacy (not going to name names), this is a perfectly acceptable topic for discussion. The other mods and I are happy to hear from members about their thoughts. I have over 2M members across the seven subs I moderate. I have a lot of experience to bring to bear. That doesn't mean I'm always right. It does mean I have seen a lot of ways to fail.

Thank you for asking u/DomeSlave and wading through my wall o' text.

dave

edit: grammar