I was a moderator on a web forum many years ago. I also had my own forums for a while. Some of the stuff that people would post probably scarred me for life. It was a time when things like rotten.com and goatse were popular. I can only imagine what it's like now on a big web site like reddit where they probably have a lot more traffic.

Well, it's one of those things where you either learn to compartmentalize, or you quit fast.

I moderated forums back in the early days of the internet. It was rough some days, to the point I had someone show up at my house because I wouldn't let them abuse other users.

I moderated on reddit, and it was both easier and worse. People like to complain, but automod being able to filter out so much of the worst without having to see it at all made the job bearable. If I'd had to wade through the bigotry, the worst slurs, and similar stuff that a well crafted automod rule could magic away, I wouldn't have done it at all.

But the fact that you have to constantly adjust the automod to catch up with the most persistent assholes is draining.

And that's not getting into the stuff that isn't hate speech, misogyny, bigotry, and that kind of infection. People think they can say anything they want, any way they want, and you stopping them means you're the asshole, even after that went on a rant about fucking someone's wife and kids (seriously, that's a ban I had to make) because someone didn't agree with their opinion of a flashlight. Seriously, that fucking happened.

Point being that while there are mods that go too far, the internet, and places like reddit or lemmy, would be unbearable without it. There has to be someone making those calls, keeping things from turning into the non stop scroll of venom and porn that used to be way too common back in the day.

As a moderator and admin for countless Discord communities, yeah, I've seen some vile shit.

Pretending that it doesn't have an impact doesn't help in the long run. Secondary Trauma is a thing. Create a workflow to distance yourself from the content, plan breaks, and please talk to someone (qualified) about it.

https://cyberpsychology.eu/article/view/33166

I can imagine having to go through hours to days worth of post related to hatespeech alone. How many months has Lemmy been around now?

I tried to moderate in a large subreddit and all I did was protect people who I did not like, or who got into slap fights. Quit after a few months.

You'd think, as a terminally online person and a moderator (not just here but I was one on some Reddit communities, too), I'd run into the super awful shit like CP once in a while. I haven't accidentally stumbled onto shit like that since I was, like, 15 and the Internet was like the Wild West.

I don't really think that's all moderators doing. There's a ton of automation in a lot of shit now that can detect CP and other illegal content and prevent it from showing up. The humans doing the job tend to be the most literal-minded dipshits that can't grasp the concept of context, satire, or sarcasm.

On the other hand, I'm a mod for /r/GameCubeHacks and it's great because I have access to all the piracy links the other mods remove. 🤙

When making even the slightest expression online treat it like you were working in a sewer running through an insane asylum connected to a prison.