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1. Sarah Gilbert (sarahgilbert@hci.social)'s status on Monday, 19-Jun-2023 02:41:35 JST Sarah Gilbert

   Moderation often kind of sucks—there’s either too much, and marginalized folks are silenced, or there’s not enough, and things like hate, harassment, and disinfo spread.

   But what if moderation could be empowering? There are lots of proposed alternative models to improve moderation. In my new paper, coming out in CSCW soon, I argue that moderation needs to account for power to help us understand where it works, where it breaks down, and why.

   Pre-print available here: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2305.11250.pdf

   • Ardainian Hebrew Israelite (ardainianright@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Monday, 19-Jun-2023 02:41:34 JST Ardainian Hebrew Israelite

     in reply to
     @sarahgilbert Reddit jannies are the absolute lowest scum of society, congenitally incapable of doing any useful work, so they freely give tech megacorps hours upon hours of their time merely for the illusion of importance and significance. The obese skirt goblin Redditor is too disgusting for any real person to stomach the sight of, so it must slave away behind a screen policing its tiny little virtual shithole as if it were some meaningful "online community."
   • Sarah Gilbert (sarahgilbert@hci.social)'s status on Monday, 19-Jun-2023 02:41:35 JST Sarah Gilbert

     in reply to

     Navigating power structures is something that volunteer mods do everyday—learning from them can provide important insights into how to improve moderation and reduce the harm it can cause.

     In the paper, I use collaborative ethnography with mods of r/AskHistorians and share three stories where mods navigated power: one about a contentious decision; one about fighting racism on Reddit through civil action and education; and the last about an intense period of turmoil and how it impacted policy.