Eskating cyclist, gamer and enjoyer of anime. Probably an artist. Also I code sometimes, pretty much just to mod titanfall 2 tho.

Introverted, yet I enjoy discussion to a fault.

This is an alt: Main Account

  • 134 Posts
  • 254 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
Cake day: August 16th, 2023
  • MentalEdge@ani.socialtoANI.SOCIAL META@ani.social•Policy Updates and Feedback (+ a few other things)English
    4·
    23 days ago

    The way I like to do things, is make the rule very clearly good-natured.

    Something along the lines of “be nice” or “don’t be a dick”. Very broad, but really just a kinder way to say “use your common sense” and “don’t piss me off”.

    The particular rule should almost never be cited in favor of clearer rules when applicable, but it gives you an out when you need to take action to deal with someone who is being difficult.

    I also think it signals to people that your rules represent an ideal, rather than just their literal meaning. That people should read between the lines a little, in order to judge what will and won’t fly. Basically, making it a “don’t violate the overrall spirit of the rules” clause.

    As an example, “no cringe” is a rule on my northstar game servers. Once, I cited it when banning a trio of players who’d log onto one of my servers, and then hog it by votekicking anyone who joined afterwards. This prevented other players from joining, as they could never outnumber them by enough to no longer make 3 votes a majority.

    They didn’t break some explicit rule, but I host my servers for all to use. If they wanted to have a private game, they could do the same. My servers weren’t theirs to hog, and they stopped dozens of others who wanted to get a larger game going from doing so.

  • MentalEdge@ani.socialtoANI.SOCIAL META@ani.social•Policy Updates and Feedback (+ a few other things)English
    8·
    24 days ago

    I approve.

    What do you mean by not having an admin’s discretion clause to avoid abuse? Abuse by who?

    Things are always up to the discretion of admins and mods.

    That we enact rules doesn’t change the fact that if we want to we can do any one of the things the tools at our disposal enable us to do, at any given time.

    That we don’t, isn’t because there is no rule saying we are allowed to. I don’t trust you as an admin because you haven’t enacted a “I do what I want” rule. I trust you, because your actions so far show that what you want to do, is to do good.

    Therefore, I can trust you to want to run ani.social in a sane and competent manner. That doesn’t mean you aren’t or even shouldn’t be doing “whatever you want”.

    The reason good admins and mods don’t make decisions on a whim or abuse the tools available, is because those of us who do this for good reasons, don’t list a powertrip among those reasons. Instead, the goal is the same as that of any user. A good social media experience.

    But we do decide. And we do do what we want.

    The difference between abusive admins and good admins, isn’t whether this rule exists, because I think it always does. The difference, is what kind of person is behind it.

    We can’t set up rules in advance of every eventuality. And while we try to follow the ones we do enact, they might turn out to be insufficient. Like a piece of code that does something unexpected, they can have bugs and loopholes.

    The fix, in such cases, is a person with the ability to make decisions at their discretion. IMO, instance admins and community mods are and should be those people, whether there is a rule stating that explicitly or not.

    Moderation is a good thing. The innovation that the fediverse presents, is enabling users to much more easily leave moderators that do not act according to communal interests, because their personal interests overshadow them.

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