Re:Reddit and the Struggle to Detoxify the Internet
by prepend on Monday March 12, 2018 @03:44PM
(#16570843)
I’ve witnessed this in well-meaning subredddits. Lots of arcane rules for posting. No warn band and removals mean I don’t try again.
On the subreddits I manage, I allow broad participation with no barriers. But they aren’t popular enough to have enough trolling to break me down and add hoops.
Comparing the experience in a niche subreddit, vs. a default subreddit, it's clear that the real problem is allowing causals in. If people have to go out of their way to participate, you wind up with only the ones who care to do so. And they have, in their reputation, something they don't want to lose.
But if people are allowed to participate by default, you get the enormous masses of people who, collectively, by virtue of their shifting roster, are immune to moderation. And you get people who set out that morning to share as many opinions as possible, instead of the people who set out to participate in that community exclusively.