Life of a moderator
June 22, 2020
Moderating isn't as easy as it sounds.
It takes hours of reading, figuring out what exactly is told, commenting, and if the content is rejected telling why.
It doesn't make fun to reject but each community tries to stand for something. Something which will make our community look good, makes us feel proud and gives the outside world a good picture of what read.cash stands for.
As I just joined this platform I wrote in a comment to @read.cash "If you manage to make this a quality platform you are unique because you are the only one who did it." At that moment I knew nothing about the high amount of spam and plagiarism.
Spam.
It's what we deal with while moderating. Some people are able to publish every five minutes for over 12 hours. Next, I see the same post added to each community I host! You might say that isn't spam but to me, it feels like it. I have no intention to leave a comment more than once if six times the same content shows up with a request for six different communities.
One of the moderators suggested a while ago to not accept more than one article a day from a writer.
I didn't agree. Why? Because some people do not have internet access 24/7 and I am one of them. Yesterday for example I drove over 30 kilometers to find a better connection but didn't succeed. This means I can only post if I am so lucky to have a good connection which means I am out on the street, stay in front of the bank, library, or supermarket no matter the weather circumstances. I cannot wait for an hour until I am allowed to share my next post. It is impossible for me too to drive through the area, from town to town day-to-day.
We did change the rules though and we keep changing them.
The reason is once people find you they do things you weren't able to foresee. The community (short)Stories/Tales is a good example.
Suddenly people started writing stories in episodes. Since most do not add the link to the next episode the decision was easily made. We only accept complete stories.
I hit the wrong button.
Yes, at times this happens to me. I use a phone, scroll through my list of communities I join and a request is sent to the wrong community. I have no intention to join this group it just happened while scrolling, and I can not undo it. I cannot undo the request. If I receive a rejection with the message I posted in the wrong community it's good to know someone noticed it. What if not? I cannot remove the community and would really feel miserable about it.
We are busy moderating but also modifying the communities.
This means extra work. We need to tell those who request it is the wrong community, the rules changed and we move content elsewhere. At the same time, we share our thoughts, ideas with our colleagues, and try to find time to write ourselves. We invest way more time than most are aware of but this doesn't mean we have no personal life.
From today on we are moderating 17 communities.
Sixteen are in English, one is in Spanish. It will not take us more time as long as not each post shows up in every community. Please, read the community rules before you request. With such a high amount of communities, there's no need to click on Introduce Yourself for each post.
To those who do not speak English try to translate the name of the Community and its rules before you decide this is the right one to join.
The communities are based on what we like:
English
Psychology
Freewriting
Parenting
Diaries
(short) Stories / Tales
Introduce Yourself
Traveling
Politics - The voice of the people
English - Share Some Thoughts
Share Some Thoughts (SST) - Values
SST: Columnist
SST: Christianity
English - Share Your Talents
Share Your Talents (SYT) - Singing and original songs
SYT: Creative smartphone photography
SYT: Creativity
SYT: Recipes from your kitchen
SYT: Poems
Español
Valores