as a professional moderator and someone who works in the digital policy space for a smaller platform, this position is such a bummer. I totally see where you're coming from and feel similar frustrations, but it's the ultimate letdown that the failures of the huge platforms seem to have completely eclipsed the very real and well intentioned work that people are doing to try their best to make the internet safer in smaller spaces.
As a longtime SomethingAwful forum member I think about content moderation in social spaces A LOT, particularly where it intersects with publicly traded companies on a death march to grow their user base and drive up engagement numbers.
I feel like the answer is in smaller, self governed social sites and a return to the sense of community you find on messageboards where the disincentives for poor behavior are public shaming and banhammers. I'm more interested these days in spending time on slack and discord servers than Twitter or one of it's spinoffs.
Moderation just cannot work on for-profit platforms. No amount of money can make someone care about the wellbeing of a community. But look anywhere where moderators are *volunteers* and actual members of the communities they moderate, and you'll find excellent, thriving online spaces.
The future of online discussion is nonprofit, ad-free, open ans community owned and operated.
Garbage Day has a well-moderated (in my opinion, but it is moderated) Discord, so I have to say I don't get this take. I mean moderation was around before Twitter and it'll be around after Twitter.
That Paulina Alexis wiki article is indeed odd, but I noticed that you said it always refers to her by her first name, then quote a section that only uses her last name to refer to her.
This is what an unmoderated internet looks like
as a professional moderator and someone who works in the digital policy space for a smaller platform, this position is such a bummer. I totally see where you're coming from and feel similar frustrations, but it's the ultimate letdown that the failures of the huge platforms seem to have completely eclipsed the very real and well intentioned work that people are doing to try their best to make the internet safer in smaller spaces.
As a longtime SomethingAwful forum member I think about content moderation in social spaces A LOT, particularly where it intersects with publicly traded companies on a death march to grow their user base and drive up engagement numbers.
I feel like the answer is in smaller, self governed social sites and a return to the sense of community you find on messageboards where the disincentives for poor behavior are public shaming and banhammers. I'm more interested these days in spending time on slack and discord servers than Twitter or one of it's spinoffs.
Moderation just cannot work on for-profit platforms. No amount of money can make someone care about the wellbeing of a community. But look anywhere where moderators are *volunteers* and actual members of the communities they moderate, and you'll find excellent, thriving online spaces.
The future of online discussion is nonprofit, ad-free, open ans community owned and operated.
I recently started back hanging around twitter. I’m thinking I probably couldn’t have chose a worse time.
Garbage Day has a well-moderated (in my opinion, but it is moderated) Discord, so I have to say I don't get this take. I mean moderation was around before Twitter and it'll be around after Twitter.
That Paulina Alexis wiki article is indeed odd, but I noticed that you said it always refers to her by her first name, then quote a section that only uses her last name to refer to her.
If your twitter feed is serving you inaccurate garbage, that's a you issue tbh. Git gud and engage with better accounts