I was thinking about a rule for this community biasing any flags from anyone that posts. It would create an outlet for the frustration felt by many types of people.
Still, the delay between the flag and moderator intervention, mixed with the apprehension about involving a third party mod does little to address the issues. So why not delegate the actual role of content removal to the OP?
The authoritarian potential of moderation attracts terrible people on both sides of the spectrum of inept handling of flags, and sadistic narcissists. Enabling the OP allows all users to decide who to interact with based upon actions of individuals posting instead of being victims of anonymous and random third party mods. If you don’t like someone’s comment, just remove it. If some OP is being silly, flag it for the mod to review. I care about getting real people to post niche content and engage openly far more than anyone else present, especially the toxic pedantism and reasons people get discouraged.
What are your thoughts?
Responding to your points are not an attack. In fact, its a sign of respect that I’m reading your words, considering your position, and interacting with you to further understand your ideas. If someone doesn’t understand a system you’re proposing, how do you expect them to learn and understand if questioning how your system works is considered an unwelcome attack?
You…want to erase any comment that someone makes that you subjectively makes you feeling negative? And merely questioning your premise is negative? I can’t imagine holding a position or an opinion that I’m not willing to explain or defend when challenged on it. What kind of person would I be if I form an opinion at a single point in time with the information I have, and never consider any ideas which may challenge my positions or assumptions? Why would I want to remain ignorant if someone may have more information or experience with a particular topic than I do? Why did you even bother asking for the opinions of others if the only opinion you’ll accept are ones that completely agree with you?
In your original post you ended it with the sentence “What are your thoughts?”. In the future perhaps you’d be better served writing it as “What are your thoughts? Nothing I deem negative is welcome.”
This is what I needed to see to understand your position. You don’t need to answer or respond to any of my questions from above. I’ll leave you to your thread. I hope you have a good day, neighbor.
Now I see the disparity clearly. This was intended as an abstract concept. It occurred randomly a few minutes before initially posting it. It was not well mapped or thought out at all. I was simply jotting down a very rough draft of ideas. I think they are sound overall, but this was breakfast napkin fodder. That is why it kinda makes me uncomfortable when someone breaks things down in detail.
I’m just addressing several instances of frustration I have had between Reddit and here over the last 5 or so years. When I say you were making me uncomfortable, yeah it does feel negative, because I’m just wanting to pull out the guitars and improvise without anyone paying too much attention. I don’t expect anyone to take me seriously, and stating that you are doing so is indeed a complement. Thank you. For me, an idea like this would need to be something I mull over for a month or more in the background before I would feel confident discussing it on that level. It does not matter to me for that kind of attention.
The more I think bout it, this is the kind of change that could potentially reshape how platforms like this operate. If this were well implemented, it would alter the whole landscape in ways that force others to adapt. It creates real peer pressure and accountability in ways that exist in the real world but not online. It is not a 1:1 comparison, but it is a step in a new direction that increases social complexity through accountability. Everyone knows that needs to be addressed and to do so without the identification schemes of surveillance states and in a democratic way would be a big deal.
Anyways, I was trying to create the contrast of how I really felt to how a mod should act. Sorry if that point missed the mark. In reality, I like the perspective of being a selfless janitor mod because it motivates me to be more mindful and less reactionary; to be my true self. That self would not remove any such reply as a user or as a mod. Having the option to remove comments everywhere would take the edge off of the sharpness. Still, if removing some well intentioned comments at times encourages others to participate, yes I still think it is the best solution for them to have the option. Plus when someone is being abused, they should have the option to take action immediately. In other words, I often argue abstract points that are not necessarily my own personal perspective or view. Like half of me gets discouraged by people’s negativity, but the other half is because this place lacks the depth to engage on more niche interests in line with where I am at in those subjects.
Hopefully that helps ground my intentions better.
It does, and I very much appreciate you taking the time to explain your goal and help us both communicate better with each other.
I wasn’t trying to be needlessly hypercritical of your idea, especially because I didn’t know it was in the early “napkin” phase before you had a chance to sort through the particulars. What would have helped me understand would be some language in your original post describing it was still in an early stage, and if you were to disclose if you were willing to have your ideal challenged yet or not. When you last line actually called for thoughts, I took that as an invitation to dig in and learn where you were going with it. I had assumed you had a fully realized system and I just wasn’t understanding your methods for controlling for what I saw initially as shortcomings, so I was asking probing questions to see how your system addressed that.
I’m all about spitballing on an unformed idea or an early version of something fully knowing it isn’t complete or may have a fatal flaw in its early form. Sometimes finding a nugget of an idea or a concept is the starting point, and then the real work is building the system around it to overcome an unintended side effect. All ideas are welcome in that kind of collaborative space and some really interesting things can come from it.
After you’ve had more time to think about your idea, I’d be happy to discuss it with you again in the future.