Hey everyone,

The Fedihosting Foundation is looking for a new site-admin for Lemmy.World, to help our busy team. This moderator will help with reviewing and acting on reports, weighing in on user content, and helping foster our local communities while acting as a friendly neighbor to other fediverse instances.

You also DO NOT need to have an account on one of our FHF services but WILL have to create an account after joining. Users from other sites WELCOME!

Benefits:

  • You’ll get to work with a great team of passionate kind, goofy individuals from all over the (lemmy) world!
  • We have weekly virtual hangouts where we brainstorm new ideas and catch up with each other. Community for us is not just a buzzword.
  • We can also provide work and personal references, as we are a registered legal non-profit.
  • While not a technical role, you will also gain exposure to best-in-class industry tooling and processes for large-scale hosted applications (aka modern DevOps).
  • We also run a small blog, that we’d love to have folks contribute to.
  • Join in on the editorial voice for our featured communities.
  • We also understand this is a hobby and that family and work come first
    • If you’re having a hard time finding time or are busy, we will always do our best to help and support you.

Applicants should have the following qualities:

  • Experience moderating a diverse group of individuals from many geographic, religious, and LGBTQ+ backgrounds.
  • Able to commit to at least 5-10 hours a week.
  • Excellent interpersonal skills and communication.
  • Solid background in conflict resolution.
  • Must be able to speak English.
  • Works well asynchronously with remote teams.
  • Grammar skills optional 😛

Bonus skills (which you will learn if you don’t already)

  • SQL / Business Intelligence software skills.
  • N8N workflow automation
  • Web Design (Hugo + GitHub Pages).
  • Python scripting

Application process:

  • It goes without saying that we will only be considering applicants with a significant positive history of online posts and/or comments, no trolls, please.
  • Applicants must be okay with sitting for a video interview and must pass a basic background check.
  • While not strictly required, a CV with relevant work and volunteer history will help during the application process.
  • We are an international team that works from both North America EST time (-4) and Europe CEST (+2), so we would ask that candidates be flexible with their availability.

Please apply HERE https://forms.gle/epTdTy9Xh9kNFKsQA

(Edit: Updated post, thanks Donuts!)

(Edit2: Thanks for all the feed back on this post, it’s much appreciated 💗💗💗)

(Edit3: If you feel like you’d fit in, apply, the req’s that we posted are more of a suggestion, then a hard yes or no)

28 points

My job didn’t even require a video interview, this unpaid role has more strict requirements than half the jobs in the US haha.

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16 points

My guess is it’s because it’s a similar role to a Reddit Admin, which is to say they’re basically a global moderator. Also, having access of any kind to the site’s SQL server requires an element of trust. That’s probably why they require the video interview.

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14 points
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Folks that would be brought in would be part of the admin staff and have access to quite a lot. You’re on target with that for sure!

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11 points

Yep I wish them well but it’s a bit much for a volunteer position

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6 points

Promoted to mod of /pyongyang

I’m glad there’s an effort to avoid weirdos who have our worst interests at heart. Hope some heroes apply and go through the process!

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3 points
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My job didn’t even require a video interview, this unpaid role has more strict requirements than half the jobs in the US haha.

It’s an IT job for a role with big responsibility. Unpaid or not, the role is the role. Filling up the shelves in a grocery store comes with a bit less responsibility.

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10 points
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My job is also an IT job with big responsibility. I wouldn’t have compared the 2 jobs otherwise. Not sure where you got filling grocery store shelves from.

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8 points

Thanks for understanding, we’re just trying to be careful 😟

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7 points

Thanks for understanding, we’re just trying to be careful 😟

People who complain aren’t the applicants you would have wanted anyway.

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3 points

Thank you for being careful.

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1 point

Yes, but for your job you’ve given to your employer your ID and your home address. If you mess something up they know ehere to get you. These guys can’t get these warranties and they need to know you better.

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-2 points

What stops you from lying during a video interview? It’s not like they have some crazy virtual lie detector.

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3 points

Nothing, it’s just an extra check.

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-1 points

Sour grapes

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24 points

Serious question, why would anybody do this? These are the requirements of an actual job but without any of the pay. If someone is putting in this much effort, they might as well just apply for a real job and get paid for it.

I understand that you guys want to screen people first, but lmao are you guys going overboard. The people who view this as hobby aren’t going to put themselves through such unnecessary and worthless hassle, and the people who want a job won’t apply because there’s no money involved. The only people who would qualify and want to do something like this are people who literally have no life. These are people who have no family, jobs, or a social life.

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12 points

I take offense to some of that, but I applied to be an admin back in Q3 of last year. After the video interview I got ghosted. Thought I would give this a shot, had another video interview, and yeah I’m not expecting much. So yeah, I’m not even sure the process actually does anything other than waste time.

I do have a very well paying job, family, but you may have called me out on the “no life” thing… Though I do have a car that’s become a bit of a project so I don’t waste as much time on “IT” shit.

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-1 points

Probably just grabbing your personal data for sale later.

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-9 points

Let me ask you this, as someone with a life, why did you even entertain the idea of wasting time on something this pointless in the first place? Do you find it fun? What’s the thought process? Personally, after I finish working I want to spend my free time hanging out with my friends, family, go on a vacation, etc. If I really do have extra spare time on a consistent basis, I would much rather practice guitar, play ball, or doing things like you’re doing now with your car. I see no benefit whatsoever from becoming a committed unpaid admin in general, let alone for an irrelevant site.

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16 points

Why are you taking the time to tell us about this? You should be off playing with your dog or whatever.

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2 points

I’m an unemployed Linux System Engineer and even though I spent most of my free time right now messing with my home server I wouldn’t wanna do it for free for something that actually “mattered” (aka something that people use).

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2 points

one trying to change careers into DevOps/SRE with no/little experience; using this volunteer work to throw into a resume?

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3 points
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I work in the industry actually, this wouldn’t really help you unless you completely lack any sort of experience. If you want to break into the field, you’ll need a few things: Bachelor’s in CS, a couple of coding projects that you do in your free time or during undergrad, and an internship related to the field. That’s how I got started, but I get your point

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2 points

I would do it!

I’ll have to learn all those skills and I might be a bad mod, but why not?

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1 point

Yep, I work in IT as a Linux System Engineer and I’m currently unemployed. I could do it, but there’s a lot involved for zero pay. You really have to love Lemmy or admin work to want to do this for free.

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2 points

Exactly, they’re trying to pass off the responsibilities of an actual job as a hobby. I don’t see how normal people can justify putting in that much time and effort for something that’s not paid. This type of commitment has to come from people who have a lot of spare time and are on Lemmy so much that it wouldn’t change much for them.

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23 points

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22 points

I’m not applying but I have a comment / suggestion:

A pattern I’m seeing here, in activism and open source is that you basically want the full package right now. While I understand that that is what you need, people like that don’t grow on trees.

It would be good if there was a “trainee” position for people to gain the kind of experience you are asking for. And guidance, by you to make sure they learn the right lessons. Possibly including a private-ish best practices handbook or whatever. I know that that means additional work in the short term.

Thanks for reading, all the best wishes!

(Compare to linux’ kernel team asking for kernel devs and the policy of “pick any topic you’d like to work on”. Do I expect a fully course on everything, bringing me from “high school knowledge” to “kernel dev professional”? No, of course not. But a few book recommendations would be great. In that case. Not sure if you can learn moderation from a book.)

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14 points

It’s not exactly uncommon for a listing to advertise the person they want, but to accept applicants with significantly less on the basis that they can get there. Nearly every job I’ve ever got I was not at the level advertised in something or other.

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13 points

…do you have any idea how many times I DIDN’T EVEN APPLY because they said “must have X skill”, and I was like “oh…then I better not waste everybodies time.”

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10 points

I’ll be honest, I’ve tried it both ways, turns out I’m just useless.

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9 points

I’d say if you have 80% of the requirements you might as well apply. I would frankly ignore years of experience more or less entirely.

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3 points

Worst case you just get told no. It NEVER hurts to apply. You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.

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-1 points

everybodies

everybody’s ?

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3 points

Yeah it’s pretty common in IT jobs where they’re like “we want 25 years experience in these ten different technologies” and then you talk to the hiring manager and they admit that those qualifications are ridiculous.

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4 points

A pattern I’m seeing here, in activism and open source is that you basically want the full package right now. While I understand that that is what you need, people like that don’t grow on trees

The post-y2k bust removed a lot of our higher-paid staffers, and those were our mentors. For 2-3 generations of new coders we’ve been without that crucial “this is WHY it’s best-practice” understanding from an experienced peer.

When you lament the loss of ready and experienced volunteers, what we lack are people who’ve learned at the side of truly talented people and are ready to take on some projects.

Now we have people with free time and a short history of … Well, it’s work.

What I’m saying is, there’s a clear cause for the current state, for breach after breach after massive breach, and the lack of stellar volunteers.

This will get better, but - as downvotes will show - the current state is one of massive potential but little realization.

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4 points

When you lament the loss of ready and experienced volunteers, what we lack are people who’ve learned at the side of truly talented people

What I’m actually lamenting isn’t the lack of experienced volunteers.

I’m lamenting the fact that the groups in need lack the awareness that nobody is teaching the stuff they need and that they should do it themselves.

E.g. https://kernelnewbies.org/ I wasn’t kidding when I mentioned them. Their idea of “outreach” is to open the door and wait for people to fall in. They have no teaching material, they have no recommendations. I’m recognizing that there is something happening that is in my interest and I personally would put in the time to learn whatever is necessary to get to the level that is required to seriously touch that code. I just literally don’t know where to start and have no point to connect. There is a https://kernelnewbies.org/KernelMentors mentors program. Not only is their only point of contact a mailing list, if you follow the link, you will find that the mailing list doesn’t actually exist.

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1 point

All job posting overstate the requirements somewhat. It makes sense to start with the ideal vision of what you want and then work backwards from the applicants you get. I know a big puffed up job description is daunting and we think they won’t talk to anyone who is not perfect. But they will talk to lots of people. They will let go of some requirements they thought they cared about, and find some new qualities in someone that they didn’t think to ask for. This is how it works 100% of the time.

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1 point

Agreed, I think it’s a lot to ask for in a volunteer position and kind of a dumb idea for the Lemmy Admins to hand over “the keys to the kingdom” to some random dude(tte) because they passed a video interview and submitted a (possibly forged) resume.

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14 points

Excellent interpersonal skills

Oh well.

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7 points

I mean, as long as you don’t put fish in the break room microwave, we’re cool…

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2 points
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Dont tell anyone but there is a possibility that i already did that /s

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