I have been on reddit for just about 12 years now. Something I’ve noticed over time is just how hateful the place has become. A complete outrage machine. Every single sub became filled with it. I’ve filtered so many subreddits over the last few years, it’s insane. I don’t know enough about this place to be sure, but I do hope it doesn’t become the same type of echo chamber of anger.
That’s why every sub I moderated had a hard no politics, no incivility rule in place.
You’d be amazed how much of the nastiness goes away when you just ban anyone breaking either rule. Things turn chill and friendly. The posts and comments start staying on topic, and (eventually) users start most reporting when the rules get broken instead of getting nasty themselves.
As much shit as I would get in modmail and DMs, it was worth it to be able to go into a niche sub and just have these relaxing, friendly conversations.
The outrage machine, as you brilliantly name it, is the default now. But we can change that, and we can definitely keep it out of the fediverse as it grows, as long as we’re vigilant and don’t fall prey to it oursleves
There were some political subs that were civil and conversely there were a lot of non-politics subs that posted ragebait all the time. I was 10 years in Reddit and through that I filtered hundreds and hundreds of subs to the point where my r/all was almost tailor-made for me, with a focus on my mental wellbeing and some of my politics allowed but even lots of political subs I agreed with filtered as to not doom my daily mood. And something curious I noticed was that in the last year or so there has been an uptick in ragebait videos specifically in video-focused subreddits that were pretty chill before. It almost felt like some people were coordinating from Discord or something to post these videos at the optimal hours and boost them with the initial upvotes and everything. One by one a lot of subs were colonized by these types of videos. Many times pushing race anxiety issues. I only noticed because every 2 o 3 weeks I had to filter another one: PublicFreakout, JusticeServed, fightporn, WinStupidPrizes, Whatcouldgowrong, dankvideos, DocumentedFights, CrazyFuckingVideos, Unexpected, NextFuckingLevel, etc.
I do understand the concept that getting angry about things doesn’t do anything to change them. There is little point in spending your life furious about the injustices of the world without taking action, but I do find what you just said quite strange.
If people can’t talk about these things without risking a ban, aren’t you just complicit in enabling those injustices? Like if we all bury our heads in the sand and never get animated about anything then nothing ever changes for the better? Am I making sense?
Take the reddit exodus for example. I find this all to be overwhelmingly positive, and a step in the right direction. It wouldn’t have happened without a core group of very pissed off people shouting from the rooftops in every available space.
I just fundamentally disagree with the approach to moderation that you described. I get it, you don’t want to know about politics - your landlord does, the police do, your boss does. Ya dig?
The point is that not every sub/community is the right place to discuss these kind of things. There will always be something major going on, should every sub/community be constantly discussing these things?
For example, there’s a lot going on in US politics right now the the SCOTUS decisions. It’s definitely worth discussing these major things, but in the right place. A niche gaming sub would not be the appropriate place for that.
The reddit API changes were different since this would likely affect every subreddit.