Comment by yupyupyups
2 years ago
Reddit was a source of frustration for me many years ago before I finally quit. It doesn't tell you in the ToS that you may not freely discuss certain topics, so it comes as a chock when your post gets deleted and that there are no alternative subreddits in sight to discuss the same topic unhindered.
So it's a very similar experience to OP. There are hidden rules decided by the whims and desires of the mods and possibly even the administration.
This is not, imo, a successful way of moderating a website. You need to be more clear about what the rules really are, and if the rules are not clear, be forgiving. We are human beings and should treat each other with some level of leniancy and forgiveness. Otherwise, we may as well let a computer moderate instead, and relieve all the unpaid heroes from their duties. No offense.
The brilliance of reddit was "anyone can create a reddit that they run for any topic" so the "community" was handed to the people and the site managed infrastructure.
In the time-honored tradition of virtualization, I would propose simply to have "moderator" subscriptions similar to subreddit subscriptions. At face value the site is unmoderated (modulo necessary legal requirements), a user may moderate as they please, have AI moderator filters, and share these publicly at their choice, and subscribe to moderations others have shared.
The whole free speech issue began when sites decided that they ought to know what people should and should not be listening to and reading. Easily fixed though, keep the speech free, it's free to the person who speaks, and let the listener and reader choose on their own what they shall and shall not listen to.