I'm sure many people on HN have tried to understand the business issues behind running a web community. YCombinator has a number of reasons for the existence of Hacker News, but two things are clear to me: it is beautifully moderated and it has been a powerful, positive force over the years.
I sometimes disagree with dang's individual actions. He has scolded me and threatened my membership a couple of times. This is either because he has no sense of humor (my version) or because my comments did not meet community standards (the actual reason; I was kidding before and happily defer to his wisdom). By the way I have submitted this using a throwaway account so dang doesn't know my real identity. I don't want him to feel bad if he has to moderate me in the future.
I have clear evidence that dang is doing just what he should be doing. I am apparently much further to the right than the average HN reader. Since people just as left as I am right complain about his moderation from time to time, we know he's doing his job just fine because both sides are equally unhappy with his meddling ;)
HN as a whole is an incredible resource. I literally could not ask for a better moderator than dang. I would love if someone could answer some basic questions so I could do some back-of-the-napkin calculations for hiring a moderator for a site.
How many active participants does HN have? Say, people who have posted in the last year?
How many people have read but not posted in the last year?
How many comments are posted per day?
Is dang the only moderator or are there others?
Is moderating a full time job for dang? (Surely it must be!)
Does dang have to read every submission? Every comment?
Isn't moderating a site like this a job just ripe for burnout? Is there any way to keep an experienced mod while avoiding burnout?
Knowing this will help me know if I'd have to hire 1 moderator per 1,000 members, 100,000 members, or what.
I sometimes disagree with dang's individual actions. He has scolded me and threatened my membership a couple of times. This is either because he has no sense of humor (my version) or because my comments did not meet community standards (the actual reason; I was kidding before and happily defer to his wisdom). By the way I have submitted this using a throwaway account so dang doesn't know my real identity. I don't want him to feel bad if he has to moderate me in the future.
I have clear evidence that dang is doing just what he should be doing. I am apparently much further to the right than the average HN reader. Since people just as left as I am right complain about his moderation from time to time, we know he's doing his job just fine because both sides are equally unhappy with his meddling ;)
HN as a whole is an incredible resource. I literally could not ask for a better moderator than dang. I would love if someone could answer some basic questions so I could do some back-of-the-napkin calculations for hiring a moderator for a site.
How many active participants does HN have? Say, people who have posted in the last year?
How many people have read but not posted in the last year?
How many comments are posted per day?
Is dang the only moderator or are there others?
Is moderating a full time job for dang? (Surely it must be!)
Does dang have to read every submission? Every comment?
Isn't moderating a site like this a job just ripe for burnout? Is there any way to keep an experienced mod while avoiding burnout?
Knowing this will help me know if I'd have to hire 1 moderator per 1,000 members, 100,000 members, or what.