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Comment by paulpauper | Hacker News Reader

The notion of Reddit mods being selfless unpaid volunteers is misleading. They wield considerable power, and it's a desired position. Also, mods have been known to engage in payola and other deception for personal gain/profit. And too many arbitrary rules, too many shadow bans/deletions, etc.

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And Reddit is paying some moderators. It's called the Community Builders Program; they are mostly paying people to moderate UK- and India-specific subs. US $20/hour; most volunteer mods know nothing about this but it's in the open.

Article: https://reddit.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4418715794324-C...

Announcement for India mods: https://www.reddit.com/r/IndianMods/comments/w4k4y4/launchin...

Discussion about UK mods: https://www.reddit.com/r/RoyalsGossip/comments/xfn4t2/adminr...

This is an initiative of the new VP of Community: https://communityvalidated.co/community-lessons/reddit-a-gli...

Courts should be more concerned about whether a large U.S. private business such as Reddit is even allowed to use any unpaid labor:

https://webapps.dol.gov/elaws/whd/flsa/docs/volunteers.asp "Under the FLSA, employees may not volunteer services to for-profit private sector employers."

https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/how... "There are no general regulations that permit volunteering of services to an employer in the private sector. All hours worked must be paid. According to the FLSA, an employer must pay all employees not less than the minimum wage for all hours worked."

https://hrdailyadvisor.blr.com/2018/01/04/can-accept-volunte... "Most for-profit organizations cannot accept volunteer, unpaid labor without running afoul of the FLSA."

I believe reddit has been a part although its hard to say how big of ones it’s played in further diving people. It’s in my experience the worst social media at putting you inside a completely one sided bubble with twitter as a very close second.

Part of that being downvote is just used as i disagree with you even when you are adding a valid but different view to the conversation. I don’t use reddit anymore outside of trying to find recommendations for products but even that is being gamed now.

it's crazy to me that reddit doesn't have staff doing the moderation job for the bigger subreddits. most of the content on the front page is from 5-10 subreddits which are all moderated by the same super-moderators, who effectively set the policy for what content is allowed and not allowed. and they do it with complete autonomy and independence.

either that, or the few anonymous people who run reddit actually are reddit staff, and reddit prefers to keep the appearance of subreddits being "community-run" because unpopular mod actions can be swept away by retiring a moderator's profile.

They don’t have to pay anybody… there’s no shortage of people who are more than happy to wield the power of being a mod and share the political and corporate values of the Reddit staff.

Not to mention Reddit doesn’t have as many legal responsibilities over them if they don’t pay them I guess.

They generally prefer to retire whole subreddits

I don't think this changes the point, which is, "If I moderate a forum--even for free--what is my exposure to liability from things people post to that forum?"

Not to mention the obvious political bias in many subs that state they are neutral and objective.

That is one of my biggest issues with Reddit. One big gaslighting operation. Even if you agree with 9/10 opinions, If you disagree with one, you are made out to be an “other” and an adversary.

Just look at how dis-functional it can be, even when everyone is on board with the same basic principals (r/antiwork)

> Just look at how dis-functional it can be, even when everyone is on board with the same basic principals (r/antiwork)

That's kinda terrible example as just the name sparks divide; you get anyone from between "we just want good worker rights" to "we want communism back"

The name suggest they're against working, seems that draws a pretty good line in the sand, no?

Their FAQs state:

A subreddit for those who want to end work, are curious about ending work, want to get the most out of a work-free life, want more information on anti-work ideas and want personal help with their own jobs/work-related struggles.

https://old.reddit.com/r/antiwork/wiki/index

Can you cite some specifics and numbers on Reddit mods engaging in payola and deception for personal gain/profit?

Which topics and subreddits? Was it for political views, bias towards specific companies/ products/ advertisers? What is Reddit's legal obligation to monitor and oversee that, IYO? Should their mods have sponsorship or conflict-of-interest disclosures, like how financial commentators do?

here is a notable incident

https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/reddit-hire-spam-ian-miles-...

Ghislaine Maxwell was a power mod.

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