You think a Moderators job is easy? Think again

The article posted on Mashable is a good read on a 25 year woman Alex Chrum's experience as a moderator on the site "Debate.org". As it's clear from the name itself, site is a treasure trove of spam and hateful comments. Some controversial, some racist and some outright insensitive. I think the article's a good for anyone who think a Moderator's job is easy.

Some excerpts from the article:

Most of us don’t see this version of the Internet. Unless you’re the target of an attack by so-called trolls, avoiding the dregs of social media is rather simple. You click away from a thread that turns nasty, unfollow a friend who says something reprehensible, or avoid sites infamous for their Lord of the Flies approach to social interactions. People like Chrum are the stopgap between innocent users and thrill-seekers who want to test the boundaries of common decency. But trying to protect the rest of us online can be a personal sacrifice — one that drains the mind and spirit.

We don’t know much about the inner lives of those who vet the Internet. We take for granted that they try to shield us from the worst content, but we rarely wonder aloud how doing so might affect their happiness and mental health.

Their role in regulating the Internet is largely undervalued. Moderators are but a small part of the inertia that drives the web, and the infrastructure we’ve built to make online communities safe is, at best, a promising improvisation and, at worst, embarrassingly broken. The attacks launched against Williams, Sarkeesian and Jezebel in the span of a few weeks make that much clear.

A useful comparison, she said, might be to think of moderators as the digital equivalent of a police officer or emergency room nurse. Moderators don’t witness the same visceral life-and-death scenes, but the nature of their job exposes them to aspects of the human experience that most of us try to avoid.

On the Internet, that can include identifying child pornography or reviewing rape or death threats. Over time, Englander added, most professionals find a way to break their lives into pieces, separating themselves from the trauma they see, and maybe even becoming desensitized to it.

She could quickly reject some comments using the site’s code of conduct, but others straddled a faint line between provocative commentary and offensiveness. If a user, for example, states that the world would be a better place without homosexuals, does that count as a violent threat or slur, or is it simply a moral perspective? If someone asks whether it’s ever acceptable for a man to strike a woman, and a user replies that the woman might deserve it, should that be considered appropriate for the “intellectual and thought-provoking conversation” the site says it values?

The process of interpreting a user’s intent wore Chrum down. As she’d try to plumb the psyche of a stranger, Chrum would occasionally glance down at piece of artwork taped to her computer monitor. The small card, decorated with her favorite soothing colors of purple and green, read: “Keep calm and be nice to people.”

The slogan became Chrum’s mantra, but it was hard to follow at times. She had to exercise restraint, no matter how badly she wanted to confront a user over hateful comments.

Read whole article here: When Your Job Is to Moderate the Internet's Nastiest Trolls

The article also list some actual posts which Alex Chrum had to moderate. You can also try to see whether you would have agreed with Alex by guessing whether the post should have been approved or disapproved.

So for what it's worth, I say Thanks to all the Moderators who actively moderate TDF and keep this forum clean from BS. :toast:

Now that the article is out of the way, I would just like to ask a few questions to members of this forum:
1. Do you think job of mods is an easy task?
2. Do you think a mod is even necessary? Or do you think moderators suck and you should be given freedom to post whatever you want to post on a forum? (Talking about forum in general, not just TDF)
3. Finally, who do you think should be our Superhero Mod? Or could he be a Silent guardian? A watchful protector? Could he be a hero that TDF needs but not deserve?

A Hero ! just like me ! lloll

G

Vyom said:
1. Do you think job of mods is an easy task?

No Job is easy, No Job is too difficult.
Every Job needs the right person to do it.

Vyom said:
2. Do you think a mod is even necessary? Or do you think moderators suck and you should be given freedom to post whatever you want to post on a forum? (Talking about forum in general, not just TDF)

Doesn't the freedom depends on the site's ToS. A lot of forums do not allow religious/political discussions.
I am fine for giving freedom as long as its not spamming/illegal.

Vyom said:
3. Finally, who do you think should be our Superhero Mod? Or could he be a Silent guardian? A watchful protector? Could he be a hero that TDF needs but not deserve?

I don't like the idea of a single Superhero.. There could be multiple heroes.

Vyom said:
1. Do you think job of mods is an easy task?
2. Do you think a mod is even necessary? Or do you think moderators suck and you should be given freedom to post whatever you want to post on a forum? (Talking about forum in general, not just TDF)
3. Finally, who do you think should be our Superhero Mod? Or could he be a Silent guardian? A watchful protector? Could he be a hero that TDF needs but not deserve?

1. Mods job are not easy, I moderated a private tracker site for few days. But I want to do mod job again so bad
2. Mods are necessary, take TDF as a example. New comers dont know where to post what. Also get rid of trolls and bots.
3. What TDF is, should remain as it is

Vyom said:
Now that the article is out of the way, I would just like to ask a few questions to members of this forum:
1. Do you think job of mods is an easy task?
2. Do you think a mod is even necessary? Or do you think moderators suck and you should be given freedom to post whatever you want to post on a forum? (Talking about forum in general, not just TDF)
3. Finally, who do you think should be our Superhero Mod? Or could he be a Silent guardian? A watchful protector? Could he be a hero that TDF needs but not deserve?

1. Well put by [MENTION=154968]Gen.Libeb[/MENTION]. I agree with him 100%
2. Depends on the nature of the forum. If the forum demands no rule except no to spamming, then everyone is free to say whatever.
3. No. Absolute power leads to Absolute corruption.

For me, the need of mods implies the mentally mutilated nature of people that require those. Don't get me wrong, higher level authorities like policeman and mods are the need of this society but think of why we need them? It's just because people have lost the ability to judge a situation by themselves. They are not able to control their emotions and sometimes are swayed by some comments they feel inappropriate. Should they feel offensive in the situation they blast their views on someone, many times which is just so uncalled for.

I think if everybody think rationally, take criticism constructively, and try to put their feet in others' shoes, we would most definitely won't require someone else to police us.

but not gonna happen anytime soon [pointing to second para]

vyom said:
the article posted on mashable is a good read on a 25 year woman alex chrum's experience as a moderator on the site "debate.org". As it's clear from the name itself, site is a treasure trove of spam and hateful comments. Some controversial, some racist and some outright insensitive. I think the article's a good for anyone who think a moderator's job is easy.

Some excerpts from the article:
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Long wall of text
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Now that the article is out of the way, i would just like to ask a few questions to members of this forum:
1. Do you think job of mods is an easy task?
2. Do you think a mod is even necessary? Or do you think moderators suck and you should be given freedom to post whatever you want to post on a forum? (talking about forum in general, not just tdf)
3. Finally, who do you think should be our superhero mod? Or could he be a silent guardian? A watchful protector? Could he be a hero that tdf needs but not deserve?

tldr :\
Mods have a separate hidden forum you know
THey will be laughing at this thread of yours
PS: they are not paid for this.
PS2: there are a lot of people that have a lot of time and nothing else to do.

Gollum said:
tldr :\

No tl;dr. I already posted "excerpts" from the Really long article that I read. The original article is worth reading.
The excerpts is of course a good read too.

thanks for sharing.

There is a mod called "thetrader" at torrentinvites forum.I think he is the busiest mod.

T

Moderating an online forum is a damn tough job as you've to read all posts in the section you're overlooking. Though generally people are not paid but it does require a skillset. Not everyone can be a moderator.

Vyom said:
No tl;dr. I already posted "excerpts" from the Really long article that I read. The original article is worth reading.
The excerpts is of course a good read too.

very good, now stop showing off

get back to work and close this thread.

Gollum said:
very good, now stop showing off
get back to work and close this thread.

When I created this thread, I wasn't a super mod.

Anyway, will keep this thread open unless it starts to go out of hand. This thread can serve as a platform for those who wants to ask anything from me directly.

Offtopic: Why have you put same avatar as kaz?

It was difficult to recognize you w/o your Gollum avatar.

[MENTION=77264]Vyom[/MENTION] you really deserve it .

Gollum said:
very good, now stop showing off
get back to work and close this thread.

dafq i thought [MENTION=121890]kaz[/MENTION] was posting this :\

Vyom said:
Offtopic: Why have you put same avatar as kaz?
It was difficult to recognize you w/o your Gollum avatar.

He hasn't..Its some bug..Even his location is same as mine :shock:

[MENTION=85950]Gollum[/MENTION] eats [MENTION=121890]kaz[/MENTION].

^

[MENTION=85950]Gollum[/MENTION] a hacker or this (@kaz ) innocent cat is to blame

amjath said:
^
[MENTION=85950]Gollum[/MENTION] a hacker or this (@kaz ) innocent cat is to blame

I guess promoting Vyom to super mod was worth it because of this thread.

It looks as if he is showing off although he created this earlier.

anyway, locking it.

I wasn't showing off.

Anyway guys, this is how a thread goes "out of hand". Thanks for demonstrating an example.

Also, now that this thread is closed, please direct any questions or concerns to me or directly report it through the "report button" located below everyone's avatar. Enjoy the forum. :doublethumb: