What is the point of a moderator?

[Xcell]

but why do sites like this need moderators?
Can't you just have a function where you block people if they're making comments you don't like to hear or want to hear and only get notifications when the author makes an update? The only other thing I'd probably add would be a content rating And make it so that the creators are responsible for that legally and banning people from speaking on their threads at their discretion.

In other words I don't see the point and having moderators. Unless the point is to control what people are saying. It also seems like a giant waste of money to hire people to monitor your site. Also why would the creators of the site even care what people are saying?
as at the end of the day they're just words. And you know the old saying sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me. As I'm genuinely curious about this
[dice]23648[/dice]

 

[Biigoh]

I would almost think you're just trying to troll.

Because moderators aren't a thread thing. They're meant to enforce the rules of the site/forum and provide extra eyes and hands for the owner of the site. Also, we're not paid. It's literally a volunteer position.

That's like asking why do human bodies need anti-bodies, it's just a waste of proteins as the body cells can absorb everything, right?

 

[Xcell]

I would almost think you're just trying to troll.

Because moderators aren't a thread thing. They're meant to enforce the rules of the site/forum and provide extra eyes and hands for the owner of the site. Also, we're not paid. It's literally a volunteer position.

That's like asking why do human bodies need anti-bodies, it's just a waste of proteins as the body cells can absorb everything, right?

Click to shrink...

Wait your telling time you do this for free. spend numerous hours waiting through people's comments deciding whether they're relevant or not to the thread or appropriate or whatever else might be considered against the rules that the creators of the site have made. Because you and the creators of the site believe that you're acting like an immune system for the site. Huh that seems kind of weird to me because I've been to sites that don't seem to have moderators at least ones I've ever seen. Like fanfiction.com as I've never seen a moderator there. And they seem to be doing just fine without them. Other examples include YouTube & patreon.com.
I'm not trolling you by the way I'm being deadly serious here.
in my opinion the time you waste here spending reading other people's comments for free you could be making real money working from home online. So it blows my mind that you do this for free I at least assumed you made money from it. So the question that arises to me why would you volunteer to do this and what benefit is there to you? As I'm curious to learn how you benefit from this if you're not getting paid. As you must benefit in some other way. Does it look good on a resume or something.

 

[Biigoh]

Lol.... no, bro...

We don't trawl thru threads deliberately.

We react to reports or when we notice issues as normal users reading/posting in the forum like someone going full out retarded political or doxing someone else or actual illegal shit... in which case we enforce the rules which can range from warnings, thread bans (temporary or permanent), forum bans (temporary or permanent).

Moderators on every forum, not just Questionable Questing, are there to help the owners/admins of a site in terms of rule enforcement. And it's a free/volunteer thing unless it's a forum run by a company, in which case they'd have been hired and get paid for their services.

I have to wonder if you have actually been part of any other forum, given the way you're reacting here to moderation and moderators.

 

[LurkingInTheDeceit]

Wait your telling time you do this for free. spend numerous hours waiting through people's comments deciding whether they're relevant or not to the thread or appropriate or whatever else might be considered against the rules that the creators of the site have made. Because you and the creators of the site believe that you're acting like an immune system for the site. Huh that seems kind of weird to me because I've been to sites that don't seem to have moderators at least ones I've ever seen. Like fanfiction.com as I've never seen a moderator there. And they seem to be doing just fine without them. Other examples include YouTube & patreon.com.
I'm not trolling you by the way I'm being deadly serious here.
in my opinion the time you waste here spending reading other people's comments for free you could be making real money working from home online. So it blows my mind that you do this for free I at least assumed you made money from it. So the question that arises to me why would you volunteer to do this and what benefit is there to you? As I'm curious to learn how you benefit from this if you're not getting paid. As you must benefit in some other way. Does it look good on a resume or something.

Click to shrink...

They don't wade through posts/threads, people report rule breaking and then the mods see those reports. Basically the same system as YouTube, Fanfiction.net, Reddit, presumably Patreon and lots of other websites. It's not a paid position, think that legally having employees is a whole different beast in what is required of the site owner. I don't know if anyone would put it on a resume, being a moderator for a porn site might be something to keep disconnected from your IRL identity.

Why do they volunteer? Don't have any concrete reasons but here's some guesses: For the authority, to keep a website they enjoy running smoothly, for the experience even if they don't put it on a resume, to become more involved in a community they're invested in, as a hobby they enjoy...

You need moderators to shape your community and enforce rules, also need people to remove illegal content from the website.

 

[Xcell]

Lol.... no, bro...

We don't trawl thru threads deliberately.

We react to reports or when we notice issues as normal users reading/posting in the forum like someone going full out retarded political or doxing someone else or actual illegal shit... in which case we enforce the rules which can range from warnings, thread bans (temporary or permanent), forum bans (temporary or permanent).

Moderators on every forum, not just Questionable Questing, are there to help the owners/admins of a site in terms of rule enforcement. And it's a free/volunteer thing unless it's a forum run by a company, in which case they'd have been hired and get paid for their services.

I have to wonder if you have actually been part of any other forum, given the way you're reacting here to moderation and moderators.

Click to shrink...

How is fanfiction.com different from this site or patreon? As you call this website a forum. You both seem to post fanfiction and provide a platform for independent content creators.

 

[Xcell]

Thank you for answering my questions I didn't know this before and was going off on my own assumptions.

 

[MissileTeatime]

I've never seen a moderator there. And they seem to be doing just fine without them. Other examples include YouTube & patreon.com.

Click to shrink...

Pal, YouTube absolutely has moderators. They just spend their time looking at videos, rather than at comment threads.

Fanfiction.net has moderators too, but they aren't as visible proportionately and the userbase views them a bit more adversarially.

One of the key fundamental differences between a forum (like QQ or SB) and the likes of fanfiction.net is ff.net is ultimately fundamentally broadcast & distribution oriented, whereas the principle here is more about the discussions. While yes, a great many of those discussions end up being about fics, the critical point is the discussion.

 

[magic9mushroom]

Basically the same system as YouTube, Fanfiction.net, Reddit, presumably Patreon and lots of other websites.

Click to shrink...

A lot of corporate sites are modded... "differently".

They can't/don't want to get volunteers, so they use paid workers and/or bots. Either means very little human time allocated, and the moderation becomes essentially a heckler's veto. This is generally worse than even dickhead mods, because they essentially offer themselves up as an exploitable weapon for anyone willing to spam reports - i.e. any and all dickheads and nobody else.

Also Xcell while words are rarely injurious on their own a forum known to have no mods whatsoever (not even ModBot) attracts the very worst kind of scum. I mean spambots, I mean people who threaten other users, and I even mean actual doxxers. You leave those alone and a site becomes a ghost town as everyone flees in fear or gives up trying to sort through the spam.

Moderators are frequently mad with power, though, and "why do we need them" isn't a stupid question even if it does have a good answer.

 

[daniel_gudman]

Also Xcell while words are rarely injurious on their own a forum known to have no mods whatsoever (not even ModBot) attracts the very worst kind of scum. I mean spambots, I mean people who threaten other users, and I even mean actual doxxers. You leave those alone and a site becomes a ghost town as everyone flees in fear or gives up trying to sort through the spam.

Click to shrink...

Also literal Nazis and terrorists.

Completely unmoderated boards like the chans are where mass shooters post their Manifestos.

So like pretty much the worst case scenario here is somebody shooting like 30 people in a Wal-Mart and they posted a thread explaining why the blacks and the Jews deserved it or whatever.

Anyway before it gets that bad typically the place is flooded with bloodthirsty racists who drive everyone off with their crazy bigotry,

"Fuck those guys Mods don't want to deal with it" is basically the rational for why it's flatly illegal to talk politics on this whole board.

 

[magic9mushroom]

Anyway before it gets that bad typically the place is flooded with bloodthirsty racists who drive everyone off with their crazy bigotry,

"Fuck those guys Mods don't want to deal with it" is basically the rational for why it's flatly illegal to talk politics on this whole board.

Click to shrink...

I actually specifically didn't mention racists; they're just a political opinion that certain other political opinions don't want to share space with. There are plenty of people who can coexist amicably with (non-violent) racists, and while certainly a board that permits them will select for those that's not an immediate failure condition.

There are very few people who can coexist amicably with people doxxing other users/threatening to doxx them, because the safe solution to that is always "don't make yourself a target". And, well, it's literally impossible to coexist amicably with spambots, because, y'know, not people.



Banning people for posting a criminal manifesto isn't actually necessary, because they'll usually wind up in prison and won't be able to access the board anyway.