Subverse rules are a feature Voat is implementing to remove subjectivism from moderator actions such as comment and submission deletions as well as user bans. Currently a moderator simply has to provide a “reason” why they are performing such actions, and seeing that often times this reason is made up on the spot, we are not happy with this. Going forward when a moderator performs such actions they will be required to select a rule violation. This requirement will help to establish the validity of the action.
Rules can be created at a subverse level by a moderator and Voat has some basic global rules, both of which are available as a selection on these moderator action screens as well as all report dialogs (comment/submission reports).
Rules will also be used in all domain and user bans going forward.
This feature is now in beta on the preview site and any testing would be greatly appreciated.
What needs testing:
- Subverse Rule creation
- Reporting comment and submissions in a subverse (making sure they show up in the v/sub/about/reports page)
- Moderator user banning and unbanning (all this code has been changed)
- Moderator comment and submission deletions
Test site: https://preview.voat.co/
P.S. The Vote feature is nearly fully implemented on the preview site, meaning you can create them, vote on them, and then manually process them for full lifecycle testing. :)
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paxNoctis ago
I strongly do not like this idea.
The ability to curate one's own space however one wants is, in my opinion, the key to reddit-style boards. A normal, old-school forum is objectively superior to a reddit-style one at everything except things like this. Creating 'super-moderation', wherein the moderators of their own, 'private' spaces are held to a particular set of rules (beyond the obvious like no CP or illegal shit) by empowered super moderators seems like the worst of both worlds to me.
Furthermore, it will encourage and empower the element on Voat who spend their time witch-hunting people (who mostly keep to their own subs, or have the audacity to post something that goes against the hive mind here). While the Shit Voat Says group (as I like to call them) does occasionally serve a useful purpose (like trolling @HenryCorp or getting rid of @she), I don't think they need any more empowering, their signal-to-noise ratio is already not particularly good.
I cannot find a philosophical or practical/technical justification for this. If you want moderators to all behave in a certain way (which sounds particularly 'reddity' to me) then get rid of the ability to create your own subverse and make all moderators serve Voat as a whole. Telling people, "you can make your own space here," in one breath, and then telling them that the SVS brigade will be watching their every moderation action and if the SVS brigade finds something they don't like there they will have justification within the rules of the site to destroy you is stupid and short sighted, in my opinion.