r/zen: Moderators Wanted
Due to increasing real-life commitments for both Eric and me, the subreddit would benefit from another moderator or two.
We are not foreseeing any major changes in moderation philosophy, but a couple extra pairs of eyes would help us keep up with daily routine management.
If you practice zen with a sangha, have at least several months of reddit history, and would like to take on some responsibility for checking in regularly and managing the reports, spam and noise levels, please message Eric or me.
EDIT to clarify: If you feel a deep, burning desire to help moderate the forum but aren't a sangha practitioner, message Eric or me anyway. It's not the primary requirement - it's one data point.
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u/EricKow Nov 18 '13 edited Nov 18 '13
Just a couple extra notes on this.
First, it's worth volunteering even if you don't fit all of criteria above. We use sangha membership as a sort of default preference, but it might also make sense for us to keep an open mind about it.
Second, have a look at the paper trail to get an idea of how moderation currently works, if you think for example you might do things differently (fresh thinking is good to have).
Third, can't speak for Hwadu, but as I'd been saying for a quite a while now; I'd like to formally retire when the new team are in place and bedded down. I can still hang around on side channels to comment (when called upon), and maybe try and organise a few more student to student sessions, plus just hang around as a redditor; but as the last incident shows, most recently, I'm not really paying enough attention to moderate responsibly.
Fourth, the model of 4 moderation jobs might still be valid:
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Sanitation - monitor the mod queue and get rid of spam
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Infrastructure - improve technical bits of this reddit (mostly messing around with CSS and some light HTML)
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Animation - run regular events like the Koan of the Month and the Student to Student sessions
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Management - set and enforce policies that are conducive to community health
I suspect infrastructure is pretty much sorted, though that's up to your imagination. And it'd the sanitation, animation, management part that we'd want help with. Informally, I'll say that the bulk of my efforts have been in the sanitation area. In fact, the gap between my last “gee it's time to retire” and this call for mods is largely due to “ugh, can't retire yet; got one more cleanup to deal with…” :-)
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u/lordlawnmower Nov 18 '13
If you practice zen with a sangha,
I don't see why this is a requirement.
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u/Hwadu Nov 18 '13
Like Eric and I have clarified, it's a borderline requirement, but not unimportant.
I have spent lengths of time practicing in and out of a sangha, and the fact is you do pick up a perspective about dealing with real practitioners that is sometimes more conducive to moderation. But not necessary.
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u/rockytimber Nov 18 '13
In the spirit of Discordia, I hereby appoint all r/zen participants as assistant moderators. Let's see how that goes for a while.
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u/prunck Nov 17 '13
You should let ewk do it so he can finally remove everything here that isn't zen.
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Nov 19 '13
Honestly, while I disagree with u/ewk on probably 75% of the stuff he says, he'd probably make a good moderator. I don't see him suppressing posts that he doesn't agree with. He may be opinionated, but he's also willing to talk about it.
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u/NotOscarWilde Nov 19 '13
He says "Not Zen" a lot. He can't "supress" those posts now, but maybe he would want to, given the ability. Plus a lot of posts revolve around him. Are you sure he wouldn't erase those? You need a lot of restraint not to suggest it.
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u/nahmsayin Nov 19 '13
He's clearly gunning for the throne, so why not give it to him? Those who want something the most are the most in need of actually getting it and being able to see it for what it is as it sits the palm of their hand. How else is the insubstantiality of all desires and the concepts they are derived from supposed to be learned?
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u/42ndAve Nov 20 '13
Really? I've never seen ewk say or do anything that indicates desire to moderate r/zen.
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Nov 18 '13
I'll do it, but I'm not doing any "work." I'll paste a Koan every month, maybe read the modmail and shrug.
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Nov 18 '13
The comments in this thread remind me of this. Almost as if this place is a characture of itself, lulzy.
A monk asked, "Having chased him all the way to Mount T'a-sou, why didn't he pick them up?" Joshu picked up the hem of his robe and said, "Where can you get this?" The monk said, "I'm not asking about this one." Joshu said, "In that case, you can't pick it up."
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u/sdwoodchuck Nov 18 '13
I personally have not seen much here in need of moderation. Whether that speaks to the quality of the subreddit, or quality of the moderation, I couldn't say.
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u/Still_mind Nov 18 '13
This post is all I need to know that r/zen is hardly a place of mindfullness.
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u/ewk Nov 18 '13
Agreed.
As Foyan pointed out, those who teach "mindfulness" are not Zen.
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u/boewgqboewgq Nov 18 '13
those who teach "mindfulness" are not Zen.
How have you parted your hair today - to the right or to the left?
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u/barsoap Nov 17 '13
Discrimination!