If this takes off I will give mod access to the r/calgary mods I just intended to park the name so it wasn’t stolen by someone who didn’t intend to moderate it.
If this takes off I will give mod access to the r/calgary mods I just intended to park the name so it wasn’t stolen by someone who didn’t intend to moderate it.
Can you agree to keep this sub bullshit free, please? I have no issues with you, but r/Calgary disolved into an absolute fucking mess. No active Calgary mods either, let them be incel fucking losers on Reddit.
I’m not sure what you mean by bullshit free, that’s pretty ambiguous. What you consider bullshit might not be for someone else etc. That said I think I’m pretty good with moderation, in general. I helped mod r/Calgary for I think 7 years? before it became too much. So much toxicity and drama, it was making me miserable and wasting my time over the most trivial of things. I still use reddit but haven’t used that sub since I left so I’m not even sure what it’s like now. I still see it sometimes when people drop links to posts in my Discord server but that’s about it.
For this place… I would personally roll with the same basic rules lemmy.ca has:
Don’t give a shit to babysit people, they can just block someone if they don’t want to communicate with them. It’s cool when people agree to disagree. Not everyone will agree with everything else but as long as you can share your feelings in a civil way, good stuff.
This place seems small and new enough where deeper conversations could be possible. There will probably be one-offs where someone will refuse to stop being a huge toxic asshole to everyone else, but I imagine that would infrequent, especially with the lemmy.ca mini-application to even create an account.
The thing is, the line between freedom of speech and censorship/polarizing something is razor thin. I know you know this. I’m an old school (former) r/Calgary member, like 10+ years, just under a different name. But this is the fediverse, not Reddit 2.0. At least I hope it isn’t.
I don’t envy anyone that wants to volunteer to moderate in this heavily polarized and post-pre-fucking-whatever-era-of-covid-we-are-in, let’s get that straight up front. I mean good on ya. If someone posts like racist transphobic shit or whatever, fucking quietly whack it and no one will oppose that I don’t think. Or if someone posts like super XXX shit or ads for t-shirts or whatever, like fuck right off with that shit. But let’s not list a whole bunch of rules straight off the hop, if ever here. Let’s make something new, because Reddit and especially r/Calgary are not healthy places, and they certainly aren’t places of freedom of speech or robust discussion, any longer. Not like the old days.
If I could give you Coles notes of what r/Calgary disolved into, I mean reading the rules is like reading an encyclopedia, the power mods then contradict those rules or make new ones up on the fly to shape the agenda. It turned into a bad echo chamber, like hyper polarized left wing bullshit. And that’s coming from a dude thats pretty left wing. If you wrote Nenshi isn’t the best mayor we ever had, you’ll get hundreds of downvotes, people DMing you calling you everything but an honest boy, everyone is so insulted, and the mods amp it up, because they let things disolve into echo chambers. But if anyone posts something contradictory, it’s immediately locked down or censored. I remember someone posting a COVID parade and saying like I don’t disagree with this guy’s sign and BOOM locked down. That’s actually how I got perma banned, because I dared to question why they locked the thread down, like it didn’t violate any rules. I mean everyone’s a critic, but fuck…
Its hard to explain, like it’s not their fault that a bunch of people don’t agree with me, or that whack jobs are DMing me, don’t worry about that, I can dish er out, and I love to chirp. But it’s like that because they are incubating that sort of environment over there with their terrible moderation. Like all the old regulars are now banned. I’m not talking ol’ Texy or anyone like that, I’m talking rational characters that were a part of the sub a decade ago. Everyone’s gotta have like 40 alt accounts if you want to participate, and trust me, you don’t. Your mental health and sanity is all the better for it. But when you pulled out of there, it just quickly turned into a vortex of bullshit.
Some of us have been on here for weeks. It’s been just fine without any moderation. I’m sure with the collapse of third party Reddit, the hoardes will come. Eventually so will the bots and whatever. But quiet moderation rules the day here, not loud attention whoring moderation that locks every second thread and shuts people down from discussing. I agree, it’s new and it’s been WAY better than Reddit so far. It’s actual passionate, pioneers (if you will) for right now. That won’t last though. Thanks for joining us!
That sounds so… complicated. Like, almost a coin toss to see if your post or comment will actually end up being allowed lol. I’ve always tried to mod reddit with a very laid back but fair approach.
I don’t miss that place at all. It’s cool to connect with other locals but reddit is such a hive of villainy and egos that it’s really hard to find common ground simply because you live in the same area. So many other subs at least have something in common between users, a video game, a celebrity, a topic… but a location? It’s rough. That being said, being a mod in that place is not easy. For whatever reason it has a huge handful of super toxic users that will willingly do whatever they can to cause havoc, get themselves suspended, make a new account… rinse and repeat forever. It’s super pathetic but a big part of life there. A lot of dudes in their 30s/40s/50s behaving like edgy teens.
I’m still a mod in r/Alberta but don’t actively do very much these days to be honest. I don’t look at modmail or take part in any direction or decision making, though I do occasionally handle some reports. It’s also a sub that is very complicated and filled with political drama, which isn’t really my thing. Lots of screeching.
I actually liked Texasnorth too lol though not for what he said (I disagree with pretty much all of his opinions) but with him you at least knew what you were getting. Always pretty straight forward. Not really hateful comments but just very passionate in his political beliefs. I did spot a new account of his in the wild and messaged him to confirm and say hi, after TN was suspended, but no idea where he might be today. I’d assume still on reddit somewhere. He once told me his name so I can confirm that if I do ever come across him again.
I’ve been on Lemmy for about 4 years now though pretty sporadically, and just on the OG Lemmy.ml (but I’ve heard not great things about the founders that run it). Always prefer a locally grown option if there is one. Lemmy.ca is super fast! Quite digging it so far.
While on the topic of subs and moderation, I have r/YYC on reddit, though I’ve kept it private. I recently had an idea for it but I’m not sure how it would play out in reality. With the latest reddit admin bullshit I don’t expect to do much with it anymore. The app I use (reddit is fun) is going away and fuck that :( https://i.imgur.com/VTq97Zh.png - just was thinking of a different approach to a community.
I like the sound of that different approach. It’s something different but still related to YYC(or even ish). I think even this community could naturally evolve into something like this. Just hope it becomes something new and fresh and not garbage.
I also use a third party app for Reddit (Boost), so I already just deleted it. Just went right to cutting the cord. Don’t even miss it honestly. You are right, it just devolved into what it is today, mostly villany and egos.
I miss texasnorth honestly too. I didn’t share their views (did anyone really?), but they were still a member of whatever it was we had back then. I got a good chuckle out of some of their shenanigans over the years too.
Hopefully this community goes in a much better direction. I hate that my social media is just an echo chamber of all the beliefs I already hold. I want my thoughts and beliefs to be challenged, I want to be able to discuss opposing viewpoints with people, and I want to hear everyone’s sides. The best part about this being the anonymous internet is that if I don’t like something, or I don’t feel like engaging with something anymore, I can just stop. No one knows who I am. No one cares if I reply to a comment or not. I can block whoever or whatever I want.
I’m excited that Lemmy feels so fresh and that we can hopefully cultivate a community of civil discussion, even if we have opposing viewpoints.