And, if you are comfortable with sharing, what are some of the worst things that you’ve seen?
I don’t see disturbing stuff that often, usually few times a year, but it’s usually some very disgusting csam.
Most of the time it’s just spam and trolls, but from time to time these degenerates show up.
It doesn’t really have any lasting effect on me, I kinda manage to not think about it at all. I guess my aphantasia helps here as well, I think it’s much harder for folks who can visualise things in their mind.
The fact that you aren’t aware is a good sign that mods/admins are doing their jobs.
Here’s a handy flowchart for checking if a website has had CSAM uploaded to it:
Has the site ever allowed file uploads by users?
-> No: Users have not uploaded any CSAM.
-> Yes: The site has had CSAM uploaded to it.
Can you report it? My vague understanding is that the laws of the country where the server is hosted apply, so hopefully the police would have resources to investigate.
The worst has probably been the CSAM and the detailed instructions on how to kill yourself or suicidal ideation.
In the end, to me, it’s just more content to remove, just like spam.
I moderate a few smaller but active ones. I don’t see a whole lot of bad stuff apart from the occasional garbage opinion such as [insert least favorite ideology here].
This might be because the places I mod are pretty chill in nature. I’m sure of the topic was something more volatile and spicy, such as politics, it could be a different story.
There was a while after the Reddit exodus where apparently lots of CSAM was being posted. I never saw it personally, but apparently it was a big issue.
Most things are ads, spam or people reporting comments they politically disagree with.
There was a troll spamming cp some time ago, but that was before my time as a mod / admin.
people reporting comments they politically disagree with.
Wouldn’t this be mod abuse?
You might have misinterpreted it. It referes to users falsely reporting users they disagree with. This often happens in the context of political discussions.
What I didn’t mean is removing comments I personally disagree with. This would indeed be mod abuse.
Sorry I meant that idiots flooding mods with false reports is abuse of mods ie creating extra work for the mod and taking hsi time away from the actual job.
I can see threat actors using this tactic to wear down the mod team.
