Here are the 4 rules that apply to saidit sub moderators:
1) All site-wide rules always apply to your sub. Mods cannot break saidit site rules or encourage others in their sub to do so.
2) One person cannot moderate more than 40 subs. Creating multiple accounts to bypass this is not allowed.
3) Subs cannot be designed to trick people, or to obviously undermine the quality of the website. This includes fake legal warning pages, honeytraps, or subs designed solely to cause problems for saidit.
4a) Mods cannot remove user comments that are both in good faith and on-topic.
- 4b) Mods CAN remove opposing opinions that are high on the pyramid of debate, and ban those users on that sub, if and only if the 2 following conditions are met: 1: The fact the sub removes opposing opinions is announced in the sub's sidebar. 2: The mods uncheck the sub setting "allow this sub to appear on /all"
Rule 4a example: If a thread is "What's your favorite sports team" in a sub you moderate, and then someone comments "The Bengals" you are not allowed to ban them, even as a joke. It's on topic, and not dragging discussion down the pyramid of debate and so is in good faith. If someone comments something like "kys dummy Bengals are best idiot" then you have the option to ban them because it's not in good faith as per the pyramid of debate, despite being on topic. As a final example, if someone comments in that thread "Gouda cheese melts well" you have the option to ban them, as they're not on topic, despite not dragging discussion downward on the pyramid of debate. But if someone posts something both on topic, and in good faith, you CANNOT delete this type of post repeatedly or else you will lose all moderator privileges on saidit after a couple warnings.
Be aware all your mod activities are public record in a mod log on that sub. Any mod caught breaking any of these rules will be notified with a chance to correct their behavior. If the rule-breaking behavior persists, then the moderator will permanently lose all moderator privileges on saidit.
Any normal saidit user who sees blatant infractions of mod rules by a mod, and can show them in the modlog, please message /u/magnora7 and the saidit admins will address the issue because this is something we take seriously for the longevity of saidit.
We hope these new mod rules can avoid the mod fiefdom situation that messed up reddit, avoid echo chambers caused by biased mods, and ensure every person on saidit has a fair chance to speak their truth.
Some backstory... Here's what went wrong with reddit mods and why these mod rules exist:
First, mods on reddit could act in secret, without anyone knowing who they have banned or censored. We have fixed this by making modlogs public. Mod actions are visible in a link under the mod names on the sub sidebar, or by going directly to /s/worldnews/modlog, using /s/worldnews as an example.
The second problem with reddit's mod situation is powermods. A powermod is when one person becomes mod of many, many subs at once. On reddit there are famous powermods that oversee 600+ subs at once, each sub having over a million users! These powermods have far too much control over the website as a whole, and use that to push agendas and create bias. They effectively made themselves site-wide administrators by owning all the main subs, and the real administrators on reddit turn a blind eye to this. This means one powermod on reddit has the ability to censor what tens of millions of people see. This is one reason we created the limit of only making one sub every 2 weeks. And the maximum number of subs one person can have is 40.
A third problem is that reddit mods were completely unchecked. On reddit there are no site-wide rules or limits that apply to the mods. So each sub in practice becomes a little fiefdom, mods doing as they please, often removing information with a bias matching exactly that of the mods. Given enough time, this creates an echo-chamber situation that has spun out of control and appears to be the primary thing that is culturally destroying reddit. This is why we created the rule where mods cannot remove posts that are both in good faith and on-topic.
So to address these issues that caused reddit (and other sites) so many problems, we now have a set of 4 mod rules. Being mod is a big responsibility if the sub gets large enough. So this responsibility must come with limitations to that give the users of saidit a fair chance to speak their truth. This is how we can avoid the echo-chamber effect that has befallen so many anonymous social media websites.
However we realize mods should also obviously have the ability to ban people from their subs who are genuinely harassing or destroying that sub, or else the moderator function would be useless. So mods still have power, but not unlimited power. We hope saidit's new moderator rules can balance mod power in a way that's useful to the community.
