This weekly roundup thread is intended for all culture war posts. 'Culture war' is vaguely defined, but it basically means controversial issues that fall along set tribal lines. Arguments over culture war issues generate a lot of heat and little light, and few deeply entrenched people ever change their minds. This thread is for voicing opinions and analyzing the state of the discussion while trying to optimize for light over heat.
Optimistically, we think that engaging with people you disagree with is worth your time, and so is being nice! Pessimistically, there are many dynamics that can lead discussions on Culture War topics to become unproductive. There's a human tendency to divide along tribal lines, praising your ingroup and vilifying your outgroup - and if you think you find it easy to criticize your ingroup, then it may be that your outgroup is not who you think it is. Extremists with opposing positions can feed off each other, highlighting each other's worst points to justify their own angry rhetoric, which becomes in turn a new example of bad behavior for the other side to highlight.
We would like to avoid these negative dynamics. Accordingly, we ask that you do not use this thread for waging the Culture War. Examples of waging the Culture War:
-
Shaming.
-
Attempting to 'build consensus' or enforce ideological conformity.
-
Making sweeping generalizations to vilify a group you dislike.
-
Recruiting for a cause.
-
Posting links that could be summarized as 'Boo outgroup!' Basically, if your content is 'Can you believe what Those People did this week?' then you should either refrain from posting, or do some very patient work to contextualize and/or steel-man the relevant viewpoint.
In general, you should argue to understand, not to win. This thread is not territory to be claimed by one group or another; indeed, the aim is to have many different viewpoints represented here. Thus, we also ask that you follow some guidelines:
-
Speak plainly. Avoid sarcasm and mockery. When disagreeing with someone, state your objections explicitly.
-
Be as precise and charitable as you can. Don't paraphrase unflatteringly.
-
Don't imply that someone said something they did not say, even if you think it follows from what they said.
-
Write like everyone is reading and you want them to be included in the discussion.
On an ad hoc basis, the mods will try to compile a list of the best posts/comments from the previous week, posted in Quality Contribution threads and archived at /r/TheThread. You may nominate a comment for this list by clicking on 'report' at the bottom of the post and typing 'Actually a quality contribution' as the report reason.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
Wow, now I wish I could see what reports people (especially me) have had.
The hidden benefits of modship, I suppose.
I'll let you in on a secret, some rather important aspects of the moderation system are broken haha, at least on my platform of choice. Zorba is working on it when he doesn't have a family to feed.
I don't think I have any any way to see all the reports anyone has received, nor do I recall reports on my own comments showing up in the mod queue.
About 80% of the reports made are by a bunch of people who think that it's a perfectly cromulent substitute for downvoting, especially if it's someone they dislike. I can see why the initial volunteer Janny system was implemented now, before the current doubling of active mod count, the mod queue was a nightmare to handle. I still mildly wish there was a way to just ban people from making reports, some of them really don't get what it's for.
Being a mod is actually quote cool, almost enough to warrant the aneurysms and rules-lawyering. There's a lot of watching the sausage being made, and while I'm still an obligate carnivore, my empathy for the odd moderation decision I have disagreed with in the past has increased by about a hundred times.
Can't you just implement something that if someone's reports get shot down by volunteer report checking often and consistently enough, the guy gets either a timeout or his 'report' counts for less ?
Can we? My limited knowledge of programming says yes.
Is that likely to happen soon, with the existing backlog of feature requests, bugs and other issues? Probably not, though I wouldn't say no to such creature comforts!
It is only a mild annoyance as far as I'm concerned, so I'm just minging about it rather than drawing it up as an urgent problem to fix.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link