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Does anyone want to take over the new AskUSA@discuss.online community to allow for more serious discussions?

cross-posted from: https://discuss.online/post/14195662

This is in regards to the brand-new !AskUSA@discuss.online community.

And by more serious discussions I mean e.g. the legality of the recent jury nullification issue, which I don't want to allow if I were a moderator in it.

If you say yes you will be granted the community "ownership" as the sole moderator. I've only been a mod myself on Lemmy for less than a day but we'll figure out how to transfer it to you. You can ofc always add new mods and change it however you like after that. The advantage here is chiefly that you get the community "name" AskUSA, whereupon I could later create e.g. a CasualUSA but you would have the privileges of that specific name, to match the style of e.g. AskUK or AskLemmy (or AskScience or AskMen or AskElectronics or AskAndroid etc. - there are so many here using that style:-).

I don't want to be involved in something that is going to constantly be depressing to me, though I do recognize the need for such and am offering the community "name" if someone else wants to pick up that mantle.

While if nobody says yes then I suppose I'll just keep it going in the more CasualUSA light-hearted style, until such time as someone does. Either way I'll offer to help grow it by posting and commenting to it regularly - unless you want me to stop b/c I tend to be really bad at guessing what people want to see (e.g. personally I love John Oliver and also got involved in the Reddit protests, so why people are downvoting sexy pics of JO on Lemmy of all places... I seriously have no clue).

The community also needs moderators to help in general - so even if you don't want to take it over, would you like to help moderate it if it were to remain a more casual, light-hearted community?

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52 comments
  • Tesseract doesn't make you jump through these hoops to manage the mod team, just sayin' 😛

    But like I said in the other thread, I'd just want to be an "extra set of eyes" on the community rather than leading it. I've barely had time to grow the communities I wanted to, and spend most of my time here in TenForward or working on Tess.

    • I can help with the grow

    • Tesseract is so good 👌

    • Damn - every single thing I hear about it is so cool. And in fact I did think about whether you would want to host some kind of AskUSA/CasualUSA there (and then to offer my help modding it - like you, not wanting to be the head but to donate a bit of time if it would help), but figured (1) if you had wanted to then you would have initiated such by now, with all of the people talking about such, and (2) then I saw your statement that "While we're not quite ready to throw open the doors (we're still configured as a regional instance)...", and wanted to respect that.

      Speaking of regional there is also an !askmidwest@midwest.social, which despite seeming to be mostly dead (the last post was 4 months ago and the one before that was 8 months ago), is likewise not quite the same as a truly, fully national community. Not that any of this is bad ofc - there are communities across the Fediverse for specific regions, states, provinces, even cities, and likewise for specific show series (hehe Star Trek:-P), individual games, etc. as well as entire genres and sub-genres of such. Though there does seem a need for a truly, fully USA-wide community as well, if only to help attract good content creator-type people (e.g. comic artists) from Reddit or the failing X over to here, who may be part of a region that is not yet served.

      So Discuss.Online can help there - like dubvee.org it even lacks the name "Lemmy" that can conjure up thoughts of the tankie origins of the software (a saga that many Redditors are familiar with - I at first strongly hesitated to join it myself, though then went with Kbin back when that was a thing:-D), and is a fully general instance, not only for the USA but it is based here. And to help promote the instance it also helps to have such a community here:-).

      • Though there does seem a need for a truly, fully USA-wide community as well,

        Yeah. There was a thread earlier today about a new LOTR meme community and in the comments there, some concerning things were brought to light about midwest (where the main LOTR memes community lives), so I'm happy to see an alternative elsewhere.

        So Discuss.Online can help there - like dubvee.org it even lacks the name "Lemmy" that can conjure up thoughts of the tankie origins of the software (a saga that many Redditors are familiar with - I at first strongly hesitated to join it myself, though

        Yeah, plus it doesn't add extra load to LW; there's often significant federation delay to many instances. I do have a Discuss Online account, but I already switch back and forth to my LW account to mod other communities, so it makes more sense to use that one, though I can easily switch between all 3 if the DO one would be the preferred one to use.

        Heh, my home instance is closer to Beehaw than LW or DO since we're a lot heavier moderated and some of the more extreme takes / users are kept in check (like Beehaw, I'm going for a chill / safe vibe rather than being more general purpose, "as long as it's not illegal" free-for-all). Not throwing shade at either, just different goals is all. So, I don't really mod with my "home" account since there's just too many blind spots.

        • The admin of Midwest.Social has been known for a long while now to be that way - though unlike the big 3, it's not full-on tankie b/c it seems so far to merely be the admin but most of the users are not that way? Still, after the big 3, it's the #1 instance I am aware of that comes the closest to being tankie, as you can see from peeking at its content.

          I think using your LW account should be fine? Or perhaps we should add both your dubvee.org and LW accounts, for convenience? Mostly I'm waiting to see if a second mod would join, then I could add them, tell them to add you, and then you'd be good to go. Or if nobody does, then I could just add you directly and immediately - allthough if I do that, and subsequently someone joins the team, then you would become the new "head mod", needing for you to be removed, then go through the procedure above in order for you to be merely a mod but not at the top. Gaaah, hijinks needing to be jumped through here!?!:-P

          I wasn't really familiar with Beehaw for most of my time on the Fediverse, but now that I do I kinda like it - and yet don't (or at least am not entirely sure) at the same time, b/c I saw for instance people advocating for actual murder there, right after Donald Trump won the election, which seems not entirely within the spirit of what they are aiming for? Or perhaps it somehow is (blowing off steam maybe?) and I simply don't get their odd rules for what is or is not allowed? In any case, I've never had any issues conversing with anyone from there, or commenting in any of their communities, which is a rare thing to be able to say on the Fediverse, so they seem very non-toxic as a whole, and that I love!:-D

          And yes, I worried exactly about your blind spots - in fact I was going to ask about them - as well as those of my own. Although regarding the latter, Lemmy's instance-level blocks are so ineffectual that they shouldn't matter - e.g. I have such a block for lemmy.ml, yet am able to see those comments in the community and respond to them, and receive notifications from them too. But I don't know about your own true defederation with ML: I would love for DO to have defederated from ML as well, but as long as that has not happened yet... we don't want them to be able to post/comment but for mods to not be able to see that content. Which for a LW account definitely will not be an issue. But I don't know if you would be able to see those from dubvee.org? Anyway you definitely know a lot more about modding, in general and especially using Tesseract, than I!:-)

          • I think using your LW account should be fine?

            Remote accounts don't get the reports

            https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy/issues/4744

            • Damn. I've seen things like The_Picard_Maneuver moderating TenForward from both LW and STW, but that must be purely a "convenience" thing. You have enough alts and Fedi-knowledge that I believe that if there was a way to receive those, that you of all people would know:-).

              So I guess at least one top mod needs to have a DO account then, while other mods can help curate but they'd be doing it entirely without being able to view the reports?

              • Correct!

              • FYI: I just added my DO account to the team so I have a local account for seeing reports (which apparently don't federate). I'll just switch between all 3 to check in.

                Edit: I did that from LW, but it either hasn't yet federated to DO or it got lost in federation. I'll give it a while to catch up on its own, but may need to have you do it "locally"

                • Thanks !

                • You might/probably need to make a comment or post within this community first before that can happen. Your last/only comment from that account was from 17 days though. Make a comment reply from that account here, and then we can add it to the mod list as well (I'll make sure to do it - unless you tell me to wait to see if you are capable of doing so remotely, as a test?).

                  • Here ya go

                    • And within a minute, you are added as mod:-).

                      • Awesome. If you want (I tried, and can't since that one is a "higher mod" than this one), you can un-mod my LW account. Since there's sometimes significant federation delay from LW, prob better to not be tempted to issue mod actions from there.

                        Sorry for the back/forth on that. I was under the impression that the cross-instance moderation had improved in recent versions.

          • Yeah, Midwest doesn't seem too bad overall. I wasn't aware of the admin's stances on things until recently, though. I'm not considering defederating or blocking them or anything like that, though the stance on calling for violence and doxxing has caused me some policy problems.

            I think using your LW account should be fine? Or perhaps we should add both your dubvee.org and LW accounts

            Probably just the LW one would be fine. I already switch back and forth regularly to mod a couple communities on LW anyway.

            then go through the procedure above in order for you to be merely a mod but not at the top

            I made that a lot easier to handle in Tesseract through the mod team management panel, but the one thing I'm not clear on is if only admins can transfer the community or if the "top mod" can as well (I think both, but don't hold me to that). There's also a Lemmy bug where "top mod" can do things that admins even can't (which i need to submit an issue for, but I forget the exact circumstances to trigger it, and it's annoying to recover from lol).

            Beehaw for most of my time on the Fediverse, but now that I do I kinda like it - and yet don't (or at least am not entirely sure) at the same time, b/c I saw for instance people advocating for actual murder there

            Yeah, I'm not sure. I squash that kind of rhetoric pretty quickly locally (regardless of who it's directed at). I do know they mod heavily, but there definitely seems to be some lag (I don't think they have community mods; the admin team is also the mod team for all their communities). I don't think I ever checked back on some of the stuff I reported to see how it was handled.

            But I don't know if you would be able to see those from dubvee.org?

            No, I would have to federate with an instance to see content from there, even if it's relayed through a third instance (DO in this case).

            I don't block any users on my LW account, and Tesseract has some safeguards in place so that if you block an instance the content from that instance still shows up in communities you're a moderator of (e.g. I did block .ml on my LW account, and I typically don't see any content from its users except in the communities I moderate there).

            • Probably just the LW one would be fine. I already switch back and forth regularly to mod a couple communities on LW anyway.

              Remote accounts don't get the reports

              https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy/issues/4744

              • Ah, yeah, I think I knew that (or realized it anecdotally) though wasn't aware there was an actual bug for it . I just switch between my two accounts to check throughout the day which works around that, but those communities are all on LW.

                I guess I could just switch between all 3 and use my DO one for this (no big deal since I can have multiple profiles).

            • I’m not considering defederating or blocking them or anything like that

              Oh I had not thought that far ahead - well, wrt your instance anyway - so those were just my own thoughts along parallel lines:-).

              There’s also a Lemmy bug where “top mod” can do things that admins even can’t

              It would actually make sense if a top mod could transfer ownership whereas an admin could not, presuming there was also a way to revoke a top mod position. I have seen admins join a community as a mod then leave it (e.g. https://lemmy.world/modlog?page=1&actionType=ModAddCommunity&modId=5903942 like BuyItForLife), so presumably that could be what is happening there, where they become top mod themselves then transfer in that capacity rather than as mod.

              I do know they [Beehaw] mod heavily, but there definitely seems to be some lag

              Hrm that could explain it. I don't see the post anymore that I would have thought would have done it - https://beehaw.org/post/17149294, with title "Donald Trump Has Not Won a Majority of the Votes Cast for President" - so despite the many tens of upvotes in it that I saw... well, indeed these are tumultous times.

              No, I would have to federate with an instance to see content from there, even if it’s relayed through a third instance

              That is what I feared - so the defederation lists must match exactly, for this type of cross-instance modding, or else what you do not know can very much hurt the users in the gaps in-between them. Assuming that cross-instance modding works at all, which according to Blaze it might not.

              We may need to do still more hijinks but we can see how it shakes out?!:-)

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