Too long, no need to overcomplicate things. Moderation isn't rocket science. All you need to do is delete spam and mod the occasional obviously spammy person and you're 99% of the way there.
IME the best moderation is the lightest moderation. Additional good guidelines
1a Simplicity: Simple Rules: If you have to have a set of rules have as simple and clearcut a set of rules as possible prominently posted.
1b Simplicity: Avoid CoCs: CoCs are the opposite of simple rules. They have a tendency to grow and are designed to be used in a proactive rather than reactive fashion that encourages abuse.
2. Transparency: If you mod someone let them know why they're modded and the exact consequences of this (ie precise times etc) as a bonus have a partially anonymized bulletin board showing the public modding actions and even takedown and external requests from outside groups to moderate your content.
3. Politics: Don't mod based on your personal ideology. Seems simple but generally ignored by most places.
4. No protected classes, no divisiveness, neutrality: Rules like "no antiLBGT" or "no sexist remarks" are wrongheaded as much as you might believe in them. Setting aside specific protected classes is inherently a divisive act. Instead have rules like "no personal insults" which apply and are enforced on everybody equally. Moderation in a place which supposedly is about free expression is about removing disruption not enforcing morality.
5. No scummy things: Theres almost never any justification for measures like shadowbanning.
If you notice, these guidelines are the opposite of how most of Big Tech does things which is why soapboxes of the internet are becoming crappier and crappier. Most places moderate with a heavier hand than necessary. In most places including here, a big chunk of the moderation is political in nature.
This again? All this over adjusting the font on your logo? How many people in SV are getting six figures to blather novels over using the Bezier tool in Illustrator on a few graphics? Are there really people paid for this? Wow, guess everyone else can feel better about how much they pretend to work.
Uber is the bomb. Want to work? Press a button. Don't want to work? Press a button. Take a break whenever you want for as long as you want. Come back to work as long as you want whenever you want. No timesheets no cubicle no office politics no douchebag supervisor. What other job can you do this?
Sure you're probably not going to pull down enough off Uber alone to live in an upper middle class suburb with 5 kids a wife,two cars,a picket fence a health care plan and a pension. Its for extra pocket money, they never portrayed it as anything more.
Now we're going to flush this new paradigm down the drain for everybody because of pols in the pockets of taxi companies and their entitled pawns who think they should be earning a full middle class salary with benefits at anything they choose to do regardless of reality. This is why we can't have good things.
I honestly think the admin of that site is living on another planet. SO is an pretty hostile place relative to other help sites. But to beginners. I have no idea where all this drama and handwringing over gender and sexual orientation is coming from. How/why would you even know somebody's sex or sexual orientation on a site mostly concerned with tech support and science questions?
Men have always been much worse off than women in their own ways. Dying in wars/violence, outcast from society and social networks at far higher rates, less sympathized with, expected to carve out their own niche and resources independently.
Safety vs independence has been the Grand Bargain since the beginning of humanity. Women got the former regardless of what they want, men got the latter regardless of what the want (overall and relatively speaking of course).
Men and women both have had it rough. The idea that women ever were/and especially are currently the overall disadvantaged sex is a patronizing myth.
Whenever a society adapts a state religion it tends to set up a parallel judicial system alongside it. Christian Europe; the Inquisition. Muslim society; Sharia Law. 21st century Western states; Wrongsex/Wrongthink Tribunals.
"1) Reasons why you are getting down voted. A comment talking about being down voted (which is amusing considering your username)."
nah dude you can downvote me a million times. I'm just asking politely why I'm and other people I see just stating unpopular opinions are being flagged, which is a more serious measure I hoped would be reserved for things a bit less subjective than 'immaturity'. But if it isn't nbd, I just hope to clarify things so everybody knows from now on. I mean its not like theres clear completely nonvague objective rules and spelled out consequences carved in stone in the easiest to find places.
"This is enough to get a down vote in my book. 2) An immature post. There are numerous signs, including the LOL at the end, that it's immature. 3) Fairly insulting to people who come here. 4)"
I've never personally insulted anyone here....as far as I remember. If you mean indirectly than well thats so subjective everybody here indirectly insults someone all the time.
"Your original comment is constantly begging the question. The reality is, you aren't interested in a discussion."
Not true, I am happy to engage anyone who wants to debate me. Like now, my history is open book for you to freely browse, show me something in it clearly refutes this, it actually stands as a clear testament to the opposite. If I am wrong on the hard facts I will acquiese. If you think its pointless well isn't all/most discussion on threads like these pointless?
" 5) "I'm just stating an unpopular opinion without any trolling, spam, or personal attacks" No, you aren't "just stating an unpopular opinion" if this keeps happening to you. If this happens to you constantly, it's because you are wrong. Your opinion of your comments is wrong for the community."
okay I understand people downvoting me because they don't like what I say but I wish I'd at least get an explanation why I'm constantly being flagged if I'm just stating an unpopular opinion without any trolling, spam, or personal attacks (against other commentators. People here regularly attack article subjects so I assume thats okay).
More evidence, as if we needed any more, that past a certain point being 'woke' is an exercise in futility. The most 'woke' megacorp in the world can't do it. The most 'woke' countries in the world can't do it. (theres more whining and complaining about socjus in Scandanavia per capita than just about anywhere else in the world). No matter how far you go in tearing down the patriarchy or intersecting the insectionality, the complaints and neuroticism will simply expand to match your 'enlightenment'.
“I identify as a LatinX female"
Seriously, if I went back in time before the 10-20 years ago where the brainwashing kicked in, would I be able to find any normal person anywhere in the world who would honestly tell me this sounds like a well adjusted sane individual who wouldn't in all probability be a human headache for everyone around them? Lol.
Oh they definitely downvote you simply for closed questions.Which you'd know if you regularly used the site or didn't assume that I was unfamiliar with it. Also the bans might be temporary but the demerits last for years at least. I know because I have ones from 2016. Of course most of what you and I are might say about actual policy isn't certain since its all hidden. The mark of bad moderation policy is hidden/vague policy but the overwhelming practice in most places including here.
Yes you do. Among other things. Its one of the things that counts toward your 'demerit' score. Or at least it certainly appears to. Theres people who haven't done anything but ask a couple 'stupid questions' that were answered before that were modded. Of course their moderation policy is so opaque only the admin could tell you exactly what happened.Or maybe not since they seen keen to adapt the 'Google approach' of having their bots take over sight unseen.
Maybe stop banhammering newbies simply because you think their question about obscure arcane algorithm #44462 is too similar to an even more arcane question 10 years ago about algorithm #783429 and its immediately obvious to a regular with a pH.D in quantum statistics.
The only major support site I'm aware of with a 'stupid questions' punishment policy. Which isn't a bad thing in and of itself except its implemented in such a draconian and nontransparent way. Demerits never seem to expire, even after years of no 'stupid' posts and theres no explanation where they come from.
The bizarre thing is even with this and newbies banned left and right it seems the admin is on another planet running some other website as all they want to talk about is social justice and how evil heteronormative SO users somehow can psychically tell who is a woman or minority and supposedly harassing them to epidemic proportions but nobody somehow ever sees this.
Maybe get a handle on a few real basic problems before you start crowing about your geewhiz new bot.
Nobody, (in most cases) forced the woman to get pregnant and not use birth control, and wait until you were a full developed baby who could feel pain.
Pregnancy is the equivalent of pressing a magical button and teleporting another person against their will into your body.
If this magical button existed in its literal form it would obviously wouldn't be legal for the person who chose to teleport you into their body to then kill you at a whim.
8 murders in 42 years for something as hotbutton as abortion? Wow...given how the msm constantly carries on about this stuff you'd think prolifers were flying planes into abortion clinics every other day. Every so often I see stories of people murdered because they didn't want an abortion, why not keep a running tally of that? How does that stack up against the 60 million deaths since 73 for the other side? How many of those have been for babies that had fully developed nervous systems are are biologically indistinguishable from babies that are already born? Wanna bet its higher than 8?