| From ~14 to 23, I volunteer moderated some gaming forums (~300k+ user size). By and large, it wasn't terrible. Most people are nice and some have bad days. What it did convince me of was the immense value of (a) down-featuring new users & (b) temp-banning. Most of the trouble stemmed from either new users (by definition, uncultured) or a small subset of toxic users. Because ultimately, communities are like biological systems, with far too many processes and independent entities going on to be controlled. In environments like that, toxic behavior can be cancerous by convincing others it's acceptable. And by the time you've found the source, multiple people are already acting like that too. Hate breeds hate. Burn out is real though, mostly because it's a never ending job, and you tend to see a stream of people at their worst. So thanks, dang et al. I appreciate you on the job, and I appreciate you more staying on the job. |
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