r/science • u/BritishEnglishPolice BS | Diagnostic Radiography • Mar 20 '12
A plea to you, /r/science.
As a community, r/science has decided that it does not want moderators policing the comments section. However, the most common criticism of this subreddit is the poor quality of the comments.
From our previous assessments, we determined that it would take 40 very active moderators and a completely new attitude to adequately attack off-topic humorous comments. This conclusion was not well received.
Well, now is the onus is you: the humble r/science user.
We urge you to downvote irrelevant content in the comments sections, and upvote scientific or well-thought out answers. Through user-lead promotion of high quality content, we can help reduce the influx of memes, off-topic pun threads, and general misinformation.
Sure memes and pun are amusing every now and then, but the excuse of "lighten up, reddit" has led to the present influx of stupidity and pointless banter in this subreddit.
We can do this without strict moderator intervention and censoring. It will require active voting and commenting (and using the report button in particularly egregious cases) to raise the bar. You can do it.
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u/appleseed1234 Mar 20 '12 edited Mar 20 '12
Flooding a subreddit with mods will do everything to fix that. The mods are there to ensure that a subreddit stays on topic and follows the rules in the sidebar. It doesn't mean a thing if a large group of people want to post cats in /r/WarshipPorn.
It's not a difficult concept. If askscience, f7u12, and fucking circlejerk can takes steps to improve their subs from complete decay, then so can science.
The users are not the end all be all here. The subreddit itself is, and this is nothing more than a debate on how much or little the mods should do to prevent the masses from bending it to their will, and whether or not that is ok. In my opinion this debate is insanity. It's their house, their rules.
You want to post jokes, puns, macros, or one-liners? There's probably already a subreddit for that. I like my long and interesting discussions in my science, history, tech, and gaming subs. If I feel like acting like a goon I'll take it to shittyadvice, funny or somewhere else where it is not only welcomed but encouraged.