this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2023
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We have a chance to build a new community here. How do we avoid the mistakes of /r/newzealand? (lemmy.fmhy.ml)
submitted 1 year ago by FatalChessInjury@lemmy.fmhy.ml to c/newzealand
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Hi all, as with most of you, I'm an immigrant from Reddit. I never used to go on to the NZ or regional subreddits because frankly, I felt very unwelcome and those places were extremely negative.

How then do we build a new community that is based on being positive and accepting, even of those with different points of view, political leanings, religious beliefs or lifestyles? Everyone deserves a voice, no one deserves to be shouted down or made to feel unwelcome or belittled because they have differing thoughts.

Even festering cunts like Brian Tamaki and his ilk, deserve a seat at the table. We live in a free country and that means everyone should get a voice. Everyone gets to speak their piece, even if you don't like it.

How do we stop this community devolving into yet another online echo chamber?

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[–] BalpeenHammer 1 points 1 year ago (3 children)

In the end the moderators make or break the community. If you want to avoid the mistakes of /r/nz you have to make sure none of your moderators are one of their moderators.

Aside from that here are some ideas.

Moderation transparency: Publish every moderation action.

Meta Moderation: Allow people to somehow decide whether or not any moderation act was justified.

Hold people responsible for their words and actions. This of course would include moderators. This one is tricky as often the only real punishment you can dole out is a ban.

[–] justgettingalong 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The fact you're asking not just for user bans by moderators but also the community can ban moderators will lead to the situation where people are afraid to even moderate. Dave has the right idea here. You don't ban people for opinions even if you don't agree.

[–] BalpeenHammer 0 points 1 year ago

I just think there should be a mechanism to hold moderators responsible and democratic action seems to be the best way. Meta moderation doesn't have to result in a ban, maybe if enough people complain they can be stripped of moderator status.

[–] Dave 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

In the end the moderators make or break the community. If you want to avoid the mistakes of /r/nz you have to make sure none of your moderators are one of their moderators.

I'm keen to hear what people didn't like about them (and just as keen to know if you didn't mind them)

Moderation transparency: Publish every moderation action.

Moderator actions are published in the Modlog. Note that because servers are federated, the Modlog has lots of actions by mods on other servers.

Meta Moderation: Allow people to somehow decide whether or not any moderation act was justified.

I guess this is possible through creating a topic about it (if mods remove it then you'd know from the Modlog)

Hold people responsible for their words and actions. This of course would include moderators. This one is tricky as often the only real punishment you can dole out is a ban.

The first part of holding people responsible is calling them out. Then yes, temporary or permanent bans are about the only escalation option available.

[–] AlgeriaWorblebot@beehaw.org 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The mods at r/nz seemed pretty reasonable.

[–] BalpeenHammer -1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I’m keen to hear what people didn’t like about them (and just as keen to know if you didn’t mind them)

As I said the subreddit is shaped by them so if you don't like the subreddit the blame lies only with the moderators. As far as I can see there were several problems. One was that they were arbitrary in their decisions. There were rules but they didn't matter. If they liked you then you could violate any rule, if they didn't like you they banned you. Another problem was that they used alts to participate in the subreddit and again if you got into an argument with one of them you had no idea you were arguing with a moderator and consequences could be severe. Finally some of the moderators were downright bad people. They harassed people, threatened people, online stalked people, doxxed people etc.

Moderator actions are published in the Modlog. Note that because servers are federated, the Modlog has lots of actions by mods on other servers.

That reduces the utility of the such a log. You should be able to filter them for any server or even any topic.

I guess this is possible through creating a topic about it (if mods remove it then you’d know from the Modlog)

I guess this is a workaround. I would prefer a proper system like they had at slashdot (don't know if they still have it, I haven't been there in ages).

The first part of holding people responsible is calling them out. Then yes, temporary or permanent bans are about the only escalation option available.

Maybe some creativity needs to be applied to see if there are other actions that can be done. Maybe tagging? Maybe some sort of tally of reports on the user? Maybe posting their karma next the name etc. This is a good opportunity to engage the community.

[–] Dave 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

As I said the subreddit is shaped by them so if you don’t like the subreddit the blame lies only with the moderators... Finally some of the moderators were downright bad people

If you don't like any of our team, please feel free to DM me! If you don't like me, you can still DM me (or another of the team). We try not to be bad people.

That reduces the utility of the such a log. You should be able to filter them for any server or even any topic.

Ultimately Lemmy is new, and many things are not fleshed out. This should get better over time.

Maybe some creativity needs to be applied to see if there are other actions that can be done. Maybe tagging?

Lemmy doesn't yet support tagging people or posts.

Maybe some sort of tally of reports on the user?

This makes me think of the way people on reddit try to get as many downvotes as they can...

This is a good opportunity to engage the community

I feel it's too early. Once there are problems, then we can look at solutions.

[–] BalpeenHammer 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If you don’t like any of our team, please feel free to DM me! If you don’t like me, you can still DM me (or another of the team). We try not to be bad people.

I wasn't talking about you, I was talking about the moderators on /r/nz.

[–] Dave 1 points 1 year ago

I know! But if it gets like that here, I do want to know!