Forum moderator here

Hi everyone, I'm your friendly, anonymous neighbourhood moderator. This is a bit of an experiment. GS Confessions currently doesn't have a publicly posted code of conduct. It's a holdover from an earlier internet era. That has both good and bad parts. It does make it very difficult to moderate in any effective way. Comments like "Get rid of the hate," are unhelpful -- how are we defining hate vs disagreement? What is a healthy level of conflict and disagreement to have? With that in mind, what would you like to see in a Confessions code of conduct for posters / code of moderation for the online team? What ideas do you have for this section? How can I do my job better? Let's have a healthy discussion.

37 Comments

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Hi Moderater

Mar 28, 2023 at 1:27pm

Thx for asking input about the Forum's 'code of conduct.' My suggestions: Everyone is entitled to their opinion. There's something like 8 billion people on this planet and not surprisingly there will be 8 billion different opinions; But: 1) Keep civil. Cursing not allowed. 2) Racist, Sexist, politrickal bigotry and religionist intollerance not allowed. 3) "Its not about who is right. Its about what is right." - Thomas Huxly

9 14Rating: -5

Anonymous

Mar 28, 2023 at 3:02pm

Love it, don't change a thing.

20 8Rating: +12

My Confession

Mar 28, 2023 at 5:17pm

I've been experimenting on you all.
Have used a VPN,and confessed numerous posts (with different IP numbers) along the lines of how men are so horrible, all the usual complaints and EVERY single one got posted.

Have also posted confessions, on how women are stuck up,how she did me wrong, etc and- drum roll please- not a single one got posted.

Have also replied with rebuttals to hateful messages against men- again using different IPs- and they very rarely get posted.

This was all before you disappeared for a few months- and I was happy about that.

Oh,and by the way- I'm a woman with sons, who's tired of the constant, encouraged and celebrated slagging of men in every form of media.

Irony

Mar 28, 2023 at 5:21pm

Comments and suggestion to improve the moderator- still need to be moderated?
"Oh I don't like this suggestion, let's not post it"

Seems like an extremely wide license for abuse

7 3Rating: +4

Glad you're here

Mar 28, 2023 at 5:22pm

As long as there is no hate speech, like plain venomous hate-filled bigotry... no open slander (let's not target people openly like that)...pretty much everything else is okay.

12 2Rating: +10

Thanks for gathering input

Mar 28, 2023 at 5:50pm

I think any threats should be filtered out, as should any blatant cruelty toward OPs whose posts suggest they are in distress.

I think we could all do our part to limit baiting, trolling, and comment fights that resort to personal insults.

I implore commenters to get more creative and self-reflective when they are tempted to accuse people of projection. It’s boring and circular and doesn’t add to the discussion.

Hope we can work together to make this a better online community.

8 2Rating: +6

My 2 cents

Mar 28, 2023 at 5:52pm

No obvious hate speech, no bigotry and discrimination, and the specific political ranting that is merely empty, vague badmouthing rather than any thoughtful informed comments, although bringing politics into confessions seems weird, we just shouldn't see that here.
Unrelated, I'm not blocked, so can you unblock my ability to "like" a post? That seems to be still going on for some while for some strange reason. Thanks :)

7 5Rating: +2

Hate vs. disagreement

Mar 28, 2023 at 5:59pm

Hate wuld be openly vicious insults "you're a stupid c*nt" or calling someone racist, homophobic slurs, bigotry, that sort.
Disagreement is to bring reasonable points of view. When one has to start calling names, then it crosses a line. I could say "you are stupid" or "you are being stupid" if I explained why I thought so with a reasonable rebuttal on their point, but if I say "you're a stupid *sshole", then it crosses the line from observation to insult and that should not be allowed.
How's that?

6 2Rating: +4

Oh yay!

Mar 28, 2023 at 6:08pm

Hello there!
What a lovely surprise! I think having all opinions on here is fine… I’m not sure about sexist or homophobic- I’m a queer woman and I think that for now those things could be allowed? I feel like if they weren’t it could alter confessions. For me, what has made me want to stop reading are ones that are so clearly to other people on the forum. It’s very weird, you can’t make sense of them, and they feel like endless rants. I think maybe if they aren’t clearly a confession, leave it out. That should be the focus so that anyone could read them anonymously as they are.

6 4Rating: +2

Actually…

Mar 28, 2023 at 6:10pm

Now that I think of it maybe things like sexist or homophobic wouldn’t be such a bad thing to get rid of?? I feel like times are changing and as you say this forum comes from a different time. I guess I’d like to see things be put out in a more thoughtful way, as you say, to have discussions. When they’re rants and using really fucked up language it feels like there’s no chance for a discussion there. Hard to say!

6 3Rating: +3

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