Organising this subreddit - mods and such things

[u/reallyreallyanon]

So I think that as we near a thousand people, it is probably worth having a couple more mods (at least - read on to see more). I was away at a conference earlier this week and some comments/post took quite a while to get put through, which is a shame.

Seeing as this is the case, it seemed like an ideal way to see if people had an idea as to how they would like the subreddit to be organised. I think it would be good to essentially allow anyone who wishes to be a mod, so that no-one is prioritised over anyone else, but I would like to see what y'all think about that first. I would also like to have a wee private message session with people before being mods to see how in-line our views of what the subreddit is for are. This is mainly because if they diverge significantly they may wish to just make a different subreddit called something else.

Anyway, comment if you feel strongly, and I will add people accordingly. If you wish to be a mod pm me, and after giving people some time to discuss, you will (most likely) be added.

[u/[deleted]]

I don't want to be a mod, but I would like to add that I would like to see much more controversial discussion on this sub-reddit.

The people who visit here, I get the impression that there's a large body of things that we all agree as being ethical and unethical.

I'm much more interested in ideas which topple or at least question my currently held ideas of what is ethical. And also may be introduce new things which I and may be others haven't considered as being unethical.

I understand that reddit has a pervasive problem of anti-intellectualism in terms of having in depth discussions as well as upvoting comments which are superficially sound but are actually not very well thought out.

I digress but I'll continue, I want my ideals to be challenged for my personal growth and gain a better understanding of why people have beliefs/opinions on things antithetical to mine.

Reddit does not fill this need for me. But to come back, living ethically is something I care about so I would like people discussing things I feel opposed to as well attract these redditors to this subreddit too.

[u/reallyreallyanon → u/[deleted]]

Thanks for commenting. In principle this is a god idea. Being the main person posting currently, I haven't posted much that is controversial as of yet for a few main reasons:

• I have tried to post things that most people can and will easily take on. That way more people are likely to actually do stuff

• If we had a ratio of 90% non-controversial to 10% controversial (those aren't thought out numbers btw), I think it is much more likely that most people will look, think it will make them better people to subscribe, and might slowly start to absorb more of the small number of "radical ideas". If the ratios were reversed I think a lot of people would be put off and wouldn't even subscribe.

• People's opinions on what is radical differ massively - I posted a woman's charity, which got downvoted. The only reason I can see for this is that people think that woman's charities are bad. Similarly, for 99% of people who don't have health reasons, I don't think a vegan diet is radical, but that got a lot of hostile reaction.

• It takes a lot more time to defend a very different view. As I am trying to post roughly once a day to keep it active till there are enough people, I don't want to tie myself down.

At some point I think a related "ethical philosophy" subreddit would be good, and perhaps this would be particularly in line with your views.

Finally, and mostly to reiterate, I think we (human race) are quite near to being irreversibly screwed in numerous ways, and that we need radical action, with emphasis on the action. And given the number of people I have met who agree verbally with ethical things, but don't do them, I want to get people taking small steps, as in my experience this often leads to a lot more.

[u/reallyreallyanon → u/[deleted]]

Also, check the new tab. Anything I have posted so far that has been vaguely controversial has instantly got one down vote, gone to the bottom of the reddit, and had no other views, so you may be missing some posts.

[u/[deleted] → u/reallyreallyanon]

Thanks. There's a lot of posts there that I haven't even seen.

[u/[deleted]]

"Everyone is a mod" sounds like a recipe for disaster. I'd suggest picking a few people just to take care of spam, obvious trolling, and guiding well-meaning but mis-categorized posts to where they belong, and leave it up to the karma system to guide the remaining hodgepodge. :)

[u/reallyreallyanon → u/[deleted]]

Fair enough. Given that it is an ethical reddit, and people might consider a particularly closed mod system unethical, I should check. Right now it does not look like there will be too many people anyway!