I'm sorry but a blanket ban on the word "Tesla" followed by the banning of any user who questioned it, with no response from the mods = you fucked up big time. All the backtracking in the world won't change that.
This is just a poor attempt at damage control. If the wider community hadn't found out about this censorship you would have let it continue.
I'm joining the many other users in unsubscribing from /r/technology.
This was the biggest mistake you made. I don't think anyone cares about whatever the moderator said, I hadn't even heard about it until now, but placing a blanket ban on a popular topic is just asking for trouble.
I understand why you're understaffed, I just hope you actively try to fix that. All of the default subs desperately need more moderators, especially since a lot of them share the same mods (some of which are inactive). Unfortunately most of them seem to want to keep their small little circlejerk to themselves.
When a mod try's to claim they use automod because they're "understaffed";
I don't think you're understaffed at all. I help mod /r/Dota2, which gets 2-4 times your daily traffic. Our moderation team of about half your size very rarely has a problem getting to anything promptly. For example, the recent hack to multiple large subreddits was dealt with in under 2 minutes, and four of us discussed the issue on Skype and resolved it in under 5 minutes.
The problem is that you just have a collection of no doubt mostly useless figureheads who are responsible for the moderation of between 25-150 subreddits each. When you're a moderator so that you can feel self important, not because you have any real passion for the content, it's long past time to step aside.
With regards /u/agentlame's claims that he was being "witch hunted"
Witch-hunted in what way? I hope "witch-hunted" here doesn't mean, "mocked, ridiculed, and criticised", because that's just one of the consequences of making bad decisions.
Reddit moderators have thankless unpaid jobs. I get that. But it's a responsibility, and when they screw up that responsibility and then the communities they moderate object vocally to that, mods shouldn't publicly sob about it.
I'm a bit sad about this term, "witch hunt." Can you shed some light on what you mean when you say it? Here is a dictionary definition to help us out:
the act of unfairly looking for and punishing people who are accused of having opinions that are believed to be dangerous or evil
And here are two potential things that could be construed as witch hunts:
One is, I said that posts with the word "Tesla" in them were banned, I said that I was banned, and I quoted the explanation of the moderator who did the banning. I refrained from comparisons to fascists and New Jersey governors, and the tossing around of terms like "censorship" and "power trips," because I thought they were inflammatory, and I wanted to be somewhat even-handed about what happened, even though I was obviously a participant in the story.
You, /u/qgyh2[4] , and /u/agentlame[5] [-24] have all called this a witch hunt.
On the other hand, users were banned for submitting posts about, or asking moderators about, Tesla. This really is the totality of the conversation that led to me being banned.[6] . /u/agentlame[7] [-24] said that I was also banned for submitting two posts about Tesla that didn't have the word "Tesla" in them, something I did to test the hypothesis that posts with the word "Tesla" in them were banned. I didn't want to make an unsubstantiated claim to that effect.
So is publishing what happened a witch hunt, or is the banning of critics a witch hunt?
Personally, I don't think the term "witch hunt" should be thrown around by anyone here. It's unnecessarily inflammatory.
I'm really not upset about what happened anymore, and I'm happy that I was unbanned, but the reason I'm concerned about the term "witch hunt" is because I'd like to talk about other aspects of /r/technology[8] in the future without being accused of engaging in a witch hunt. I understand not wanting to be in the spotlight, and that moderators are only volunteers, but you did volunteer for this role, and you do have a lot of power as moderators of a default subreddit. We should be able to talk about what happens here. This isn't Fight Club.
I'm glad we're working this out.
"When a hot topic is in the news for a long period of time, people tend to submit anything related to it, no matter if it's a repost or not even new information. In these cases, we will often be more harsh in moderating."
How is that even your decision to make? If a lot of people are interested in it of course their is going to be a lot of posts about it. If people stop being interested in it they will stop being upvoted. Simple.
I'd like the Mod(s) who caused the stir to be dropped as a moderator(s). They did not use good judgement.
8 comments
21 AssuredlyAThrowAway 2014-03-30
I wrote this up because this type of topic is not allowed in any of the metasubs due to mod cabals having more power than they should.
11 AMexicanAbroad 2014-03-30
Just change the words. Instead of NSA use NaSaA or something. And change Tesla for TiESLAnovich or something. Redditors will understand.
5 getityetquestionmark 2014-03-30
Came here to say something similar. omit the names or use an alias.
2 Magzy 2014-03-30
just use "National Security Agency"
6 metapunditedgy 2014-03-30
Interesting about the "witch hunt." Just a few days ago, when the Facebook shill was being (presumably) exposed, one of the mods responded that he was deleting the trail because it was a "witch hunt."
It's a big problem if reddit power-mods and admins think that stopping shills is a "witch hunt."
Can we get some clarification from admins about what users should expect regarding the exposure of shills, and protecting subreddits from shill activity?
4 americangoyisback 2014-03-30
It's as if those in authority REALLY dislike real, actual, bona fide democacy.
Imagine that!
Mods disliking actual democracy.
This is a very good lesson on how "democracy" works in the real world out there also.
2 Ambiguously_Ironic 2014-03-30
Great write-up, thanks for taking the time with this. It's good to see that people are starting to notice some of the fuckery afoot in the larger subs.
1 oblivioustoobvious 2014-03-30
I just want to scream "/r/conspiracy" to everybody there who is just waking up.....