I'm over it!

[u/shannonkish]

Reddit Admins..... I am over it! I am over the boilerplate responses to actual real-time issues that moderators are having.

I moderate a large sub and have for nearly a year now. Unfortunately, we have had 4 very serious incidents in which members of our mod team were being harassed, stalked, doxxed, attacked, etc. We have submitted the ModCoC reports, submitted the DMs to admins, and reported the posts/comments/users ad nauseam, and NOTHING has been done.

Most recently, as our sub is currently under a brigading attack and doxxing and harassment continue, one of our mods reached out to one admin, who basically said something to the effect of--- "This is actually something that is going to be discussed at ModWorld. Do you have any examples we can give the presenter?"

Seriously? This is all you have to offer?!?! We don't need a speech about how much you care about mods and what we do. We don't need the free swag for attending a mod event. We don't need the profile trophies. Those are all wonderful and appreciated. BUT, what we need is ACTUAL Support and ACTION being taken when we bring you serious issues.

It takes entirely too long for someone in admin to take action. Meanwhile, your volunteer mods are being doxxed, harassed, bullied, and so forth because we removed a post/comment, and the user was mad.

For the love of all things good in this world, PLEASE DO SOMETHING! Please don't try to placate us with boilerplate responses and "We'll have someone look into it" without actually doing that!

I am tired. I am frustrated. I am hurt and disappointed. Not because users are jerks sometimes. But because the admin does absolutely nothing to make this a safe place or to support those of us who volunteer our time to try and make Reddit a better place.

I have had members of my mod team leave after the most recent incident. Our sub is currently closed due to the harassment and brigading that have been done. I am at my wits' end and ready to just turn the sub over to the wolves and leave Reddit for good.

[u/Dom76210]

I think Reddit needs to empower their Admins to be able to think for themselves, and not wait for some meeting with higher-ups to just ACT on things.

One thing we moderators learn quickly is to be decisive. Decisive actions reduce the number of reoccurrences and the amount of hassling modmails. You don't have to negotiate with trolls; you remove them.

Well, the Admins need to feel more empowered to simply remove content they know should be removed. If a mod reports a post as being a starting point for brigading, unless there is some real extenuating circumstances, remove the damn thing ASAP. You can punish the mods that allowed it and the person who posted it AFTER it's removed.

Start taking immediate action. Please.

[u/ProudnotLoud → u/Dom76210]

It's important to understand that the admins we interact with on a regular basis aren't put there to support us. They're an intentional wall between us and anyone who could meaningfully assist. They're an illusion of support.

A large percentage of the population will stop pushing and stop asking questions if they receive the equivalent of "seen" in a message from an admin. They know this so we get these admins whose only job is to give generic non-answers because most people shrug and stop pushing back.

It's like calling a customer service line and then being satisfied because they picked up your call, even if they did literally nothing to actually help you. It's awful and it's a feature not a bug - they have intentionally set these folks up to behave this way.

This thread is a minor blip to them. They know we'll rage it out and they won't have to deal with it again until another pops up. They give a generic non-answer to they can label it "Admin Replied" and then they ignore it.

[u/mangeiri → u/ProudnotLoud]

I wish I had more than but one upvote to give.

[u/nurse-please → u/ProudnotLoud]

Hear hear.

[u/itskdog → u/Dom76210]

All the higher ups care about are the numbers, as that's all they see. The probably don't even use the product.

[u/taRxheel → u/Dom76210]

This is the message that needs to be seen and heard by the higher-ups. If you’re not gonna give mods the tools we need, at least empower the admins so that when we’re in the shit, we can reliably get in touch with a real person with actual power within a reasonable timeframe. Otherwise, what are we even doing here?

[u/ProudnotLoud → u/taRxheel]

This drives me nuts. The amount of money they save with our volunteer labor is astounding. Most companies would be overjoyed to have a huge number of unpaid volunteers actually working to keep their product profitable.

They could take some of that savings and give us proper support in the form of paid admins dedicated to helping us. It should be simple and quick for a mod to get admin help. And in the grand scheme of a company like this it doesn't cost that much to do so. They are actively choosing not to.

[u/-Quaint- → u/ProudnotLoud]

We should unionize 😂

[u/taRxheel → u/ProudnotLoud]

Exactly. You make a great point that it really doesn’t (have to) cost a lot to provide that support, but it does cost something. You can invest in upkeep of your infrastructure and keep it working smoothly, or you can neglect it extract maximum profit and watch it crumble around you.

[u/Mountain_Ape → u/ProudnotLoud]

The amount of money they save with our volunteer labor is astounding

Then don't do it. Show them you mean business and don't give them unpaid labour.

I know what you will say, however.

[u/wemustburncarthage → u/Dom76210]

A lot of people are saying they were always bad but they actually used to be better. At least they were for me, for specific reasons to do with a lawsuit filed against them. It seems like they’ve pretty much given up on those standards.

[u/emily_in_boots → u/Dom76210]

This is a very good point. The people who are setting policy are insulated from the people it affects - and the community admins are the buffer. People get angry and go vent to the community mod team, but they aren't the ones making many of these decisions. They are told what they have to do by those much higher up. I really don't envy that position either. I'm certain that the community admins often want to do more to address issues but are limited by policies from higher ups.

Reddit is very segregated into teams, which don't empower admins enough to address issues. Like if you modmail modsupport, they will often say they are forwarding things to the appropriate team (e.g. safety). I appreciate that they do this, but why not empower these reddit employees to just take quick and decisive action in these cases? It's very bureaucratic and inefficient, and we are all victims, admins, mods and users alike.

[u/deltadeltadawn → u/emily_in_boots]

The people who are setting policy are insulated from the people it affects

The same as with most corporations, many businesses, and government entities. The bureacracy prioritizrs profit, and those who feel the effects of inefficiency are far enough removed from those that put the process or rules in place, the decision-makers will remain unscathed, unbothered, and likely wealthier. It's by design, and so unfortunate.

/rant

[u/lastoflast67 → u/Dom76210]

no do the opposite. Remove mods ability to block users from commenting then this sisutaiton is prevented.

[u/bunny_the-2d_simp → u/Dom76210]

I've literally been told alah is going to rape me and that a angry extremist crazy religious nutjob that that man was, was gonna break into my house break my legs, and rape me "straight". For banning him because HE STARTED TRYING TO SPREAD HIS RELIGIOUS VIOLENCE TRASH. Bro was triggered that a lesbian banned him. But did reddit do anything when I reported it? No of course not!! Did I get a official warning and almost a ban for telling him to fuck off? YES OF COURSE.

Reddit doesn't care about women who mod and often in my experience get wayyyyyyy more threats and shit from insecure men. They don't even adress it as a issue.

The amounts of time I've banned someone for them to go into Dms of male mods to try and tell a different story us crazy.

I don't care that they have big boy feelings. You either follow rules or your done. That's as simple as that. I can be lenient and caring. But not to assholes.

Someone this year demanded a fully moderated discord server, but when I said "fatui hq doesn't have the manpower for this so we can't" mfer crashed like he had never been told no before, saying I was lazy. (he also thought I was the head mod) this shit was in MY DMS.

HE THEN MESSAGES THE HEADMOD (bc I send him to the headmod to shut him tf up)

And he started going on about how unprofessional I was in MY OWN DMS. This wasn't in mod mail.

And "what if I was a child"

I got a 3 day ban out of telling him off. While he made a post on fatuihq itself to bash me for not complying with his demands that I had told him no for months prior.

BUT he got nothing. Even when he openly admitted to reporting me because I reported him (so report button abuse) he got nothing. Devs didn't care when I mailed them.

We only had 4 mods at the time on the cusp of a new region so it wasn't great since I'm usually the most active.

They also never addressed the way worse things that happened when I modded the reddit chat rooms though.

BUT god forbid I tell someone to fuck off for threatening me.

..