I am a moderator for a subreddit that has about 2 million users, and from the inside looking out I can say that there's not much that can be done. Some people have the sub's goal at heart, and are...
I am a moderator for a subreddit that has about 2 million users, and from the inside looking out I can say that there's not much that can be done. Some people have the sub's goal at heart, and are just trying their best to clean up the "noise" so as to curate the forums to make a better experience for others - but even in my relatively benign community there are still some individuals on the moderation team (that also moderate other large subreddits) who seem to be in it for the "power" and "glory" and once they're on the team there is little to be done to remove them.
A part of the problem is that powermods are actually pretty active, and they serve the role of cleaning the community of messy non-related posts, which is usually something that the sub's creator wants - but in this activity you'll find a lot of personal judgements and unfair calls which doesn't get the attention that's needed because "good mods" (much like good cops) don't want to stir the pot because they enjoy their position.
It's a real catch 22. Want to make a difference within the mod team? Just hope that the creator of the sub is on your side, but even then (depending on what privileges they've given out) even they can get run out of their own community. So we're faced with a situation where a few individuals control the discourse of many.
It's not too dissimilar from the global economic system where those who "have" are distinguished from those who "have not", and the ones who "have" will find any and every excuse to bolster their Ego - and the few who see the theatre for what it is are left trying to do the best they can.
Not all big subreddits are compromised, and not all powermods are this desperate for validation/stimulation/whatever (believe it or not), but there is a culture of letting mods get away with things they shouldn't be getting away with, and there is a culture of adding mods that already operate on a big subreddit to mod other big subreddits.
It's one of the main reasons why I decided to move onto these forums, because maybe this will be different (and not as shitty and racist as voat).
If you're top mod, just remove the person and put all of their posts and comments on filter with automod. You said you tried to talk to them about things and the issue wasn't resolved, so what's...
If you're top mod, just remove the person and put all of their posts and comments on filter with automod.
You said you tried to talk to them about things and the issue wasn't resolved, so what's left?
It sucks, but some folks go through difficult seasons and take it out on others. It's not fair to your team or the community.
I solo mod all of my subs purely so I don't have to deal with this bullshit. My main sub is coming up on 300k subscribers, but my others are between 10k - 60k. Some of the subs have other mods, but they've never done anything. It's a difficult conversation, but getting rid of bad or underperforming mods is better for the community and mod team.
For better or worse, situations like this are part of how Reddit works. Moderators don't have to behave logically or fairly, and are generally allowed to do things like ban people from their...
For better or worse, situations like this are part of how Reddit works. Moderators don't have to behave logically or fairly, and are generally allowed to do things like ban people from their subreddits for any reason they want, or even no reason at all. There doesn't need to be a reasonable explanation. A moderator can choose to ban every user with the letter "e" in their username if they like.
If you think their behavior is rising to the level of harassment or a violation of the moderator guidelines, you could try reporting them to the Reddit admins. I've never heard of them doing something like forcing a subreddit to unban someone though, and I think they will only get involved if it's something extreme enough that the moderator would be completely banned from Reddit. Even then, it's a high bar before they'll take action, and this probably isn't to that point.
Realistically, about all you can do is move on. Continuing to contact the moderator (or other moderators in the same subreddit) is probably more likely to make them dig in their heels on it than start agreeing with you (and may even have them report you for harassment if you keep messaging them). I'm going to remove this post though, because there isn't anyone here that can help you, and it's drifting into territory that's a little too direct/personal for my taste.
I have to say, this really doesn't seem to be a "shady happenings on reddit" thing. Assholes (or, at least people you perceive as an asshole) exists everywhere.
I have to say, this really doesn't seem to be a "shady happenings on reddit" thing. Assholes (or, at least people you perceive as an asshole) exists everywhere.
I am a moderator for a subreddit that has about 2 million users, and from the inside looking out I can say that there's not much that can be done. Some people have the sub's goal at heart, and are just trying their best to clean up the "noise" so as to curate the forums to make a better experience for others - but even in my relatively benign community there are still some individuals on the moderation team (that also moderate other large subreddits) who seem to be in it for the "power" and "glory" and once they're on the team there is little to be done to remove them.
A part of the problem is that powermods are actually pretty active, and they serve the role of cleaning the community of messy non-related posts, which is usually something that the sub's creator wants - but in this activity you'll find a lot of personal judgements and unfair calls which doesn't get the attention that's needed because "good mods" (much like good cops) don't want to stir the pot because they enjoy their position.
It's a real catch 22. Want to make a difference within the mod team? Just hope that the creator of the sub is on your side, but even then (depending on what privileges they've given out) even they can get run out of their own community. So we're faced with a situation where a few individuals control the discourse of many.
It's not too dissimilar from the global economic system where those who "have" are distinguished from those who "have not", and the ones who "have" will find any and every excuse to bolster their Ego - and the few who see the theatre for what it is are left trying to do the best they can.
Not all big subreddits are compromised, and not all powermods are this desperate for validation/stimulation/whatever (believe it or not), but there is a culture of letting mods get away with things they shouldn't be getting away with, and there is a culture of adding mods that already operate on a big subreddit to mod other big subreddits.
It's one of the main reasons why I decided to move onto these forums, because maybe this will be different (and not as shitty and racist as voat).
If you're top mod, just remove the person and put all of their posts and comments on filter with automod.
You said you tried to talk to them about things and the issue wasn't resolved, so what's left?
It sucks, but some folks go through difficult seasons and take it out on others. It's not fair to your team or the community.
I solo mod all of my subs purely so I don't have to deal with this bullshit. My main sub is coming up on 300k subscribers, but my others are between 10k - 60k. Some of the subs have other mods, but they've never done anything. It's a difficult conversation, but getting rid of bad or underperforming mods is better for the community and mod team.
For better or worse, situations like this are part of how Reddit works. Moderators don't have to behave logically or fairly, and are generally allowed to do things like ban people from their subreddits for any reason they want, or even no reason at all. There doesn't need to be a reasonable explanation. A moderator can choose to ban every user with the letter "e" in their username if they like.
If you think their behavior is rising to the level of harassment or a violation of the moderator guidelines, you could try reporting them to the Reddit admins. I've never heard of them doing something like forcing a subreddit to unban someone though, and I think they will only get involved if it's something extreme enough that the moderator would be completely banned from Reddit. Even then, it's a high bar before they'll take action, and this probably isn't to that point.
Realistically, about all you can do is move on. Continuing to contact the moderator (or other moderators in the same subreddit) is probably more likely to make them dig in their heels on it than start agreeing with you (and may even have them report you for harassment if you keep messaging them). I'm going to remove this post though, because there isn't anyone here that can help you, and it's drifting into territory that's a little too direct/personal for my taste.
Much shady happenings are afoot on reddit.
Focus on migrating off the platform, trying to reform it is futile.
I have to say, this really doesn't seem to be a "shady happenings on reddit" thing. Assholes (or, at least people you perceive as an asshole) exists everywhere.