Find a better way
Mind explaining what would possibly be better? Having zero moderation isn't it. And if you say AI, I'mma smack you upside the head.
this post was submitted on 02 Apr 2025
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Showerthoughts
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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
Rules
- All posts must be showerthoughts
- The entire showerthought must be in the title
- No politics
- If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
- A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
- Posts must be original/unique
- Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct and the TOS
If you made it this far, showerthoughts is accepting new mods. This community is generally tame so its not a lot of work, but having a few more mods would help reports get addressed a little sooner.
Whats it like to be a mod? Reports just show up as messages in your Lemmy inbox, and if a different mod has already addressed the report, the message goes away and you never worry about it.
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What would be better is a system where the sanctity of the conversation was respected. Where there was 100% assurance that everything you said got to me and everything I said got to you. No question at all. No man in the middle censoring and altering according to his whim.
Sounds like you want a private messenger, not a public forum...
People have been asking you for days with zero explanation: what the fuck happened to you here to make you go on this weird pseudo-crusade?
I literally just explained.
the thing youre missing about the fediverse.. if a community does not approve of a mod they can literally pick up and move their community to a new community or even a different instance altogether.
this has happened at least a few times.
moderation is a necessary management tool, and yes, it is certainly abused.. but the fediverse gives us the ability to tell mods to go fuck themselves.
Necessary? That is a large statement.
What leads you to say that it's necessary?
The fact that unmoderated places attract pedophiles sharing pictures, Spambots, and trolls.
Go take a look at a random board on 8kun if you don't believe me.
It's largely unmoderated, you'll love it!!!
There are other ways to control the conversation. Ones that do not require a moderator. For example, voting.
So not necessary.
I'm sure the police will agree when they find child abuse videos on the instance server's HDD.
"No don't arrest me, the child porn was DOWNVOTED!!"
Imagine a form of downvoting that led to removal from the server.
Decree of the masses vs decree of authority . Still gets the job done.
You do mean like this very comment, right now?
IDK... Careful what you wish for?
The irony of saying this, while also benefiting from humans' leeway is kinda rich, just saying.
What's the better way?
The better way is one where control resides solely with the user.
That's embarrassingly ignorant.
As a user, you can:
- Review instance and community rules prior to participating
- Review the moderator logs to confirm that moderation activities have been in line with the rules
- If you notice a discrepancy, e.g., over-moderation, you can hold the mods accountable and draw attention to it or simply choose not to engage in that instance or community
- Host your own instance
- Create communities in an existing instance or your own instance
If you host your own instance and communities within that instance, then at that point, you have full control, right? Other instances can de-federate from yours.
I am aware of that. But still, giving somebody the power to arbitrarily censor and modify our conversation is a fundamentally bad thing.
Then why are you doing that, and why aren’t you at least hosting your own instance?
It's a discussion of principle.
This is a foreign concept?
The instance admin is legally responsible for everything posted on their instance.
Giving all the control to the users would literally carry the risk of going to prison.
That doesn't make having a moderator any less bad
You don't have to participate at all, you realize that right?
It's a discussion of principle.
"We don't need moderators!" shouts the Troll*, in the wrong community.
* either a troll or just an idiot, doesn't matter imo
If you are saying nothing wrong then you have nothing to fear from moderation, right?
A mod MAKES the community and makes the rules of that community.
Kinda like how you wouldn't want me to go to your and take a shit on the carpet.
Surely the constituancy of users have some hand in making the community too.
Yes, and one single "user" with a script can destroy it if no one is moderating.
I don't see the connection with my reply
I run !news_summary@hilariouschaos.com I don't remove shit unless u are clearly violating the rules its all available via the modlog.
Why should we trust you?
its all available via the modlog
Mods who power trip get reported to !yepowertrippinbastards@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Not perfect, but that and public modlogs help
It's weird. The simple fact of being watched and told what you can say. And the possibility that what you're saying is being edited and what you're hearing is edited too.
This strikes me as abhorrent. But most of the people here call it necessary, preferable and even desirable.
Yes, I know, trolls etc. But such action turns any conversation into a bad joke. And anybody who trusts a moderator is a fool.
Not just trolls - there’s much worse content out there, some of which can get you sent to jail in most (all?) jurisdictions.
And even ignoring that, many users like their communities to remain focused on a given topic. Moderation allows this to happen without requiring a vetting process prior to posting. Maybe you don’t want that, but most users do.
Find a better way.
Here’s an option: you can code a fork or client that automatically parses the modlog, finds comments and posts that have been removed, and makes them visible in your feed. You could even implement the ability to reply by hosting replies on a different instance or community.
For you and anyone who uses your fork, it’ll be as though they were never removed.
Do you have issues with the above approach?
This is a discussion of principle. Save the details till later.