Re:The rule says, “No vehicles in the park”
by dang on Saturday June 24, 2023 @05:22PM
(#36462761)
I agree with most of that, especially about the quiz being fun and interesting. I must not have read the epilogue because I agree with what you say it says!
I'm definitely only talking about forum moderation, and only one forum at that. Precision is way more important in law and public safety and whatnot. Those domains are also vastly better funded to deal with the complexity that entails than entertainment websites are, and rightly so.
One factor that enters into forum moderation bigtime, in my experience, is the impact of the moderation on the moderators. That's an important feedback loop, because the number of people applying pressure of different kinds—at quantity and often very personally—is simply insane. When that pressure gets excessive, it has a disregulating effect on the mods, and that can only have a disregulating effect on the forum itself. Things can spiral out in bad ways, so part of the job is to get a handle on that feedback loop.
One thing that can be disregulating is when you have to do things over and over again that eat your soul. For me, having to deal with the litigious sort of angry user who is never satisfied with any explanation, but forever demands more and more precision, is one of the soul-eatiest parts of the job - especially because there are many such critics and each response is orders of magnitude more expensive (in both time and, let's say, health) than the complaints. That asymmetry is super bad for the mods and therefore (see previous paragraph) for the forum itself.
I'm definitely only talking about forum moderation, and only one forum at that. Precision is way more important in law and public safety and whatnot. Those domains are also vastly better funded to deal with the complexity that entails than entertainment websites are, and rightly so.
One factor that enters into forum moderation bigtime, in my experience, is the impact of the moderation on the moderators. That's an important feedback loop, because the number of people applying pressure of different kinds—at quantity and often very personally—is simply insane. When that pressure gets excessive, it has a disregulating effect on the mods, and that can only have a disregulating effect on the forum itself. Things can spiral out in bad ways, so part of the job is to get a handle on that feedback loop.
One thing that can be disregulating is when you have to do things over and over again that eat your soul. For me, having to deal with the litigious sort of angry user who is never satisfied with any explanation, but forever demands more and more precision, is one of the soul-eatiest parts of the job - especially because there are many such critics and each response is orders of magnitude more expensive (in both time and, let's say, health) than the complaints. That asymmetry is super bad for the mods and therefore (see previous paragraph) for the forum itself.
[editing...]