The moderator problem: How Reddit and related news sites decline | Hacker News Reader

The moderator problem: How Reddit and related news sites decline

jakeseliger.com

16 pointsexolymph6 comments

The same is happening to Hacker News, too, or it has already happened, though not as severely: Hacker News has an advantage in that its survival and the intelligent commentary on it is tied to a business that is in turn tied to ideas. Its moderators have a stronger incentive to get it right, since they’re not driven primarily by ego or overwhelming fear of “spam.”

I don't know much about the back end here, but the lead mod on Hacker News is a paid position. He takes his job seriously and he does good work.

I suggest you take this post with a grain of salt. I think the author is unaware of some things.

The moderator problem is real and the fact that most moderators are unpaid has issues and I've talked about that on and off over the years. The fact that HN has paid moderation is one of the reasons it's better than most other spaces.

The fact that the author imagines Hacker News has slid into the toilet makes me feel the author doesn't really know that much about HN.

Huh, from reading the article I came to the exact opposite conclusion, the author feels that Hacker News has not decayed as much as reddit and never will as the incentives are different.

I don't think it's decayed at all. It's certainly changed. Change and decay aren't actually synonyms.

It is shocking to me how much Reddit had declined since ~2016, at least from my perspective. Maybe I just am not remembering it correctly, but I don't think there was nearly as many blatantly false articles, echo chambers, posts praising hate groups, etc. on the front page back then. Even subreddits like /r/pics have been taken over with constant misleading political posts.

It really is shocking. All the default subs' content on the front page these days is political or very politically-related. I don't know when it shifted, but sometime between now and 2012 when I joined.

Some of the subreddits are fine, but man, the hate groups do their best to break into those.

For medical advice, Oddly facebook groups are often much bigger, and have very up to date advice. Yes tons of mom stereotypes, but a strong core of people who research stuff and give advice.

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