There is now an Actually Infuriating community on Lemmy! Post things that are beyond just mildly infuriating. It’s only mildly infuriating that someone didn’t make this sooner!
Some unsolicited advice from a very seasoned mod: the ban hammer exists for a reason. Don’t be too prescriptive with your rules and don’t be afraid to ban somebody just because they didn’t explicitly violate a rule. The community comes first. Don’t let a couple of people hold it hostage.
If people can get away with harming the community without breaking the rules, then just change the rules.
If you can’t think of any reasonable rules that would ban their behaviour, maybe they aren’t doing anything wrong and it’s just that you personally don’t like it.
Everyone tries to reinvent the wheel over and over again. They get excited about starting a new community, they have very lax rules such as “be nice” and then are worried about banning and/or changing the rules because they don’t want to be perceived as inconsistent, fickle, or otherwise unfair. Then it crumbles or they burn out.
Prescriptive rules work for communities with narrow missions (askhistorians for example) but then they need to ban and remove content constantly as well (hence their post removal rate and comment graveyards and very large, expert mod team).
No you need broad rule sets and a mentality of “no one gets to hold this community hostage.”
“be nice” is a broad rule set. You need rule sets with clear expectations. If your rules are clear, then you won’t feel guilty for banning someone, and they don’t have a good excuse when they appeal. If you choose vague rules, people will submit perfectly good appeals which you have to turn down, and you’ll waste everyone’s time.
A ruleset is a machine. Video games are machines made out of rules, and so are board games. Board games just run on brains instead of microchips. A legal code is exactly the same, just more important. Make a good machine and moderation won’t even require your conscious mind. You can breeze through it according to the process without expending any mental energy.
Spend mental energy judging every situation individually, and you’ll either burn out or become a tyrant. Break your rules, and you either break your community or break yourself.
“Be nice” is not a broad rule set it’s no rule set unless you plan on truly banning people and removing comments for hostility.
There’s a line between broad and aspirational.
I ran a 2mill person sub with 5 other moderators. We removed probably 30% of what was posted. We used auto moderator, a few specific rules (“no list posts”) and a few broader rules (“no rants”). It ran great because we were ruthless, frankly. We also did not burn out because we did not get bogged down in fights with people or constant discussion with each other about what was or wasn’t rule breaking the rules.
I appreciate it. I have some experience modding here, but not in a community like this, which has the potential to bring our the worst in people! I set rules that should be broad enough to do exactly that. I have high hopes, and it fills a need.
![[META] Actually Infuriating Community](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/c10a5de4-1d27-4398-ae65-45fb0230926f.webp){kind=link}
There is no way this doesn’t turn into an utterly toxic battleground for people to scream at each other about politics lol
That would be infuriating.
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Well, actually…
Mildly I might add
I hope not… but I really don’t know!
Sorry I’m being needlessly negative 😅
Some unsolicited advice from a very seasoned mod: the ban hammer exists for a reason. Don’t be too prescriptive with your rules and don’t be afraid to ban somebody just because they didn’t explicitly violate a rule. The community comes first. Don’t let a couple of people hold it hostage.
If people can get away with harming the community without breaking the rules, then just change the rules.
If you can’t think of any reasonable rules that would ban their behaviour, maybe they aren’t doing anything wrong and it’s just that you personally don’t like it.
This is why so many moderators fail.
Everyone tries to reinvent the wheel over and over again. They get excited about starting a new community, they have very lax rules such as “be nice” and then are worried about banning and/or changing the rules because they don’t want to be perceived as inconsistent, fickle, or otherwise unfair. Then it crumbles or they burn out.
Prescriptive rules work for communities with narrow missions (askhistorians for example) but then they need to ban and remove content constantly as well (hence their post removal rate and comment graveyards and very large, expert mod team).
No you need broad rule sets and a mentality of “no one gets to hold this community hostage.”
“be nice” is a broad rule set. You need rule sets with clear expectations. If your rules are clear, then you won’t feel guilty for banning someone, and they don’t have a good excuse when they appeal. If you choose vague rules, people will submit perfectly good appeals which you have to turn down, and you’ll waste everyone’s time.
A ruleset is a machine. Video games are machines made out of rules, and so are board games. Board games just run on brains instead of microchips. A legal code is exactly the same, just more important. Make a good machine and moderation won’t even require your conscious mind. You can breeze through it according to the process without expending any mental energy.
Spend mental energy judging every situation individually, and you’ll either burn out or become a tyrant. Break your rules, and you either break your community or break yourself.
“Be nice” is not a broad rule set it’s no rule set unless you plan on truly banning people and removing comments for hostility.
There’s a line between broad and aspirational.
I ran a 2mill person sub with 5 other moderators. We removed probably 30% of what was posted. We used auto moderator, a few specific rules (“no list posts”) and a few broader rules (“no rants”). It ran great because we were ruthless, frankly. We also did not burn out because we did not get bogged down in fights with people or constant discussion with each other about what was or wasn’t rule breaking the rules.
And responsible ruthlessness is only possible with robust rules.
Robust =/= prescriptive and you let everything fly that doesn’t meet those criteria. Specificity becomes a cage very quickly.
I appreciate it. I have some experience modding here, but not in a community like this, which has the potential to bring our the worst in people! I set rules that should be broad enough to do exactly that. I have high hopes, and it fills a need.
Good luck!