We're looking to put together some more detailed rules on what should and should not be submitted to the instance. Things such as, but not exclusively:
- What types of message you would always like to see removed on sight
- Whether there are any types of message which should be left up (borderline, with strong corrections from the community)
- Where the line is drawn on political views (and how gray areas should be treated)
I'll make no bones: Moderating uk/ukpol has been a learning experience for me.
I've learned that there often isn't much difference between "leaving a comment up because the community has done an excellent job highlighting flaws" and "I should have removed this hours ago, the community shouldn't have to do this".
As there isn't a way to mod-tag a post, inaction on negative posts can reflect badly on the instance as a whole.
Having some clear guidelines/rules will hopefully simplify things.
And more admins should mean that if a report isn't looked at, someone can review it as an escalation.
I've also enabled the slur filters. And we'll be listening to see if anything needs adding/removing (the template had swearing blocked :| )
So...Answers on a postcard, I guess!
Hard to be black and white about it but I think you have to be transparent about whatever you do, i.e. offer a proper reason for every ban or run the risk of becoming the cliché power-tripping Reddit mod.
Also I'm always hesitant about any auto-word-filtering, it tends to treat users a bit like children. Trolls who really want to use slurs will find a way around them, and sometimes you want to refer to a particular word without having to asterisk it out like you're afraid of the internet police. You can refer to a bad word without invoking its meaning, we're all grown-ups here. That said I have no idea how easy that is to enforce, might be a lot less effort all round to just auto-remove the slurs!
Honestly, people here are pretty good at not using the worst slurs, it's mostly a word that refers to mental disability that gets used, with people sometimes not understanding that it's not really acceptable for use an insult nowadays.
I think if filters are used, it would be words where there are generally good alternatives in technical uses (there are very few situations where "slow" or "delay" are not valid alternatives, for example).
I'd throw another one in for being against word filters. I think it's condescending, and ultimately words are really only bad in context. What if I want to quote someone who used the word? Or what about if a bread making community takes off, where the word is pretty appropriate.
Certainly it's acceptable to remove posts, etc, when some words are used in certain ways, but I think this should be left to the discretion of the moderators.
Ultimately, anyone here who wants to ignore the rules and use those words will get around the filters anyway.