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Comment by nappy-doo | Hacker News Reader

I used to work for Facebook (I regret it). I didn't work at Menlo, but I would travel there often.

One time, leaving main campus by Uber, my driver, a young 20-something girl was talking about how she wanted to get a job moderating at Facebook. She thought it would be a great place to work. I told, "please don't. There is so much toxic stuff that gets past automated moderation, that I can't imagine anyone having to live with that."

I don't know if she ever got that job, and I left years ago, but I think about her every now and again, hoping she didn't take the job.

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> toxic stuff

I reckon let it all in, everything, all the toxic stuff. Then provide good filtering and tools for users to control the toxicity level to their liking.

"Toxic" is also the what almost everywhere in earth considers illegal, immoral and criminal. It's the worst things in the planet.

Even the "uncensored" sites don't allow this evil.

What about a Facebook group who wanted to talk about "toxic content", and needed to post examples? Or a group of surgeons discussing traumatic injuries needing to share reference material to others in the group with their consent?

Toxicity exists in the world, in nature, in society. How we deal with it when confronted by it, is what matters. Further more, one person's "evil toxic" is another's "slightly unpleasant content". Assigning moderators to pick and choose what stays or goes, is not sustainable.

I've never watched a beheading video in my life, but I've certainly had the option to. I chose not to click play when one did the rounds years ago - the high profile US soldier one. That was my decision because I'm a big boy, all grown up and don't need a moderator to protect me from content.

but every successful social network has proven that the moderation is the product

maybe you’re ok doing a bunch of manual filtering, but a huge percentage of users will churn the instant they see gore/porn/etc

Gotta virtue signal the regret!

It's not virtue signaling – it's true regret. I consider my 2 years at FB a mistake. I knew it from the moment I started that I had made an error, and that I needed to do the 2 years and then leave.

What do I really care what strangers on the internet think of me? I'm just being honest.

editing to add I did it for the money. FB was offering more than I was making, and I got tempted. I'll never make a decision driven solely by money again. So, maybe some good came out of it.

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