Moderator Philosophy Statements

Okay, so. I basically hate moderation entirely. I think that all the forum software tools and functionality available to do this are basically inherently bad things. I recognize that there are reasons for which they may be less bad than doing nothing, but I'm not going to stop thinking the thing itself is sorta fucked up. I don't think people's words should be edited or deleted or hidden without their permission. I'm willing to do it anyway if I think leaving things alone is worse, but that doesn't make the thing not bad. It's basically in the same category as any other use of force, from my point of view; I recognize that self-defense or defense of other people is a thing, but I don't think it makes violent harm good, I just think it explains why we put up with it.

That said, I'm okay with moderation tools being used in cooperation with users, like post moderation for people who have impulse control problems. I think that's actually helpful. And I think that all the other stuff is more tolerable if it's at least open to discussion and feedback. The top-down authority approach is sorta fucked up and I hate it, and I want people to always feel safe saying they want things to be different, especially in terms of how they're treated.

You might wonder, then, why I go with the "benevolent dictator" title. Answer is, because much though I hate the use of power, I'm not necessarily happier to see people running around hurting other people without any limits on what they can do. And I would rather have a system that allows personal judgment than a system which gets bogged down in legalism.

 

Overall, I see my duty as a mod as being to try to keep this a workable environment for as many users as possible, with as little direct interference as practicable.

• I really love bullet points as a way to organize my thoughts.
• I'm part of the mod chat on Discord and so likely to run any substantive decisions past other people (putting someone on warn, etc.)
• I'm most likely to see a post if a user is already on post moderation or if a post is reported, because I don't tend to wander all that widely on my own.
• My benchmark for a post that will be held in queue or pear-wiggled is that it seems like something that will be actively and excessively damaging to other users. What exactly hits that mark will vary based on context, and I will try to discern that context before I do anything (like, I say incredibly rude things to my moirail as a sign of affection, I get it)
• My preference is to just ask people to edit their posts to be more prosocial when that's possible.
• In general my preference is for communication over assumption.
• I'm open to feedback on how I do mod stuff. I will always listen, even if I don't change what I'm doing.

Best ways to contact me are @ing me in a thread (here or the howling void if you want to talk policy), PM here, or Discord, where I am Chiomi#6406. I don't particularly like email.

I am also very committed to my own transparency in my mod actions and will try to be consistent with it.