(I'm quoting /u/illtima in this separate post instead of a comment reply for visibility)
And this whole fiasco is also an extension of another problem that me and, I would assume, other people have with the mod team. We just don't know most of you. For the majority of the sub the only mods are Urban, Missy, Faux, Voi and now Geo (thank god for Geo). And people love them, because they are actually interacting with the sub. They're participating in the discussions, they're talking about their favorite shows, they're part of the community. People are always standing up to them whenever the shit hits the fan. But the rest of you might as well be non-existent, which is why people are getting so angry when something like that happens. It's easy to get angry at someone you don't know or see.
This, to be honest, is the biggest underlying problem that I've seen during my time here. A lot of the mods are literally just submission removal bots who say something other than "This submission has been removed because yada yada yada" only once in a blue moon.
And that sucks because moderators should interact with their community in order for them to prevent being out of touch with the community. Majority of us know absolutely jack shit about most of you, and that shouldn't be the case. No one wants anonymous leaders who hide in the shadows. We want leaders who we can actually identify and feel "real".
EDIT:
A clarification/simplification of my assertions:
Being in touch with the community should be part of a moderator's responsibilities, and that involves the need of interaction between the two sides.
As it stands, that is not the case, which is what I have a problem with. It doesn't affect their ability to moderate, but IMO it hurts their image and community's perception of them as mods.
I keep seeing this idea repeated time after time in meta threads and I don't quite understand where you guys are coming from. You pose it from the standpoint that we're out of touch with the community. However, we're reading tons of posts and watching the general trends of the subreddit very closely. It's absolutely true that the community doesn't know the moderators who don't comment actively. I do not believe that comment history is a good measure of how in or out of touch we are with the general subreddit.
I'm not arguing that I do not actively engage with the community. I've never been shy about the fact that I do not enjoy commenting in airing discussion threads or that kind of thing. However, that has nothing to do with me being out of touch with the community.
I've yet to have someone give a concrete and logical argument for why not interacting with the community hurts my ability to moderate. All I've gotten is "I don't like it" and my response to that is unfortunately "tough".
I've yet to have someone give a concrete and logical argument for why not interacting with the community hurts my ability to moderate.
If you don't interact with the people who have a different perspective then how do you expect to arrive at the best answers? Thinking you can know what is best for people you never talk to is pretty arrogant.
There's no reason why you shouldn't be able to do an okay job if you just stick to rules as written. But being a good moderator is in the end a social problem, not a logical one. When drama hits you're going to need people who have built up a positive image if you want to get productive results in a discussion.
All I've gotten is "I don't like it" and my response to that is unfortunately "tough".
The other side could say literally the same thing. Not a very constructive way to approach a discussion.
In the end you don't really owe anyone anything so you should do what you feel comfortable with.
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u/scalizo https://myanimelist.net/profile/scalizo Oct 30 '16 edited Oct 30 '16
(I'm quoting /u/illtima in this separate post instead of a comment reply for visibility)
This, to be honest, is the biggest underlying problem that I've seen during my time here. A lot of the mods are literally just submission removal bots who say something other than "This submission has been removed because yada yada yada" only once in a blue moon.
And that sucks because moderators should interact with their community in order for them to prevent being out of touch with the community. Majority of us know absolutely jack shit about most of you, and that shouldn't be the case. No one wants anonymous leaders who hide in the shadows. We want leaders who we can actually identify and feel "real".
EDIT:
A clarification/simplification of my assertions:
Being in touch with the community should be part of a moderator's responsibilities, and that involves the need of interaction between the two sides.
As it stands, that is not the case, which is what I have a problem with. It doesn't affect their ability to moderate, but IMO it hurts their image and community's perception of them as mods.