Hi all, I wanted to let you know about an incident that happened a few days back. An individual requested to become a mod on c/Portland when they thought there was no moderators due to a federation issue. Then, an admin mistakenly made them a mod.

I reached out to the admins to let them know I was upset by such a mistake happening on their part. I also de-modded the individual, but tried to encourage them to make a post getting input from all of you about becoming a mod. I’m honestly not against them becoming a mod.

I think having more mods would actually help this place grow. If you’ve posted here at least a few times, and are interested in volunteering, nominate yourself below.

I doubt anyone will have any red flags to call out, but if you do contact me about it or post.

Thanks all. I hope you were able to stay cool these past few days.

  • Jordan Lund@lemmy.one
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    1 year ago

    I take the stance that the less moderation the better. Keep out spam, keep out obvious abuse, but there should never be the sort of moderation that turned the subreddit into a joke. No policing of language. No punishing for posts that occur in other parts of the fediverse but not directly in the Portland group.

    Definitely no locking or removing threads because “too many complaints, too hard to moderate.” Oh, your volunteer job is too hard? Time to find a new job.

    • LemmyFeed@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      The old Portland subreddit became overly moderated imo. Idk if they were on power trips or what but they removed a lot of interesting stuff and it became watered down. Too many sunset and puppies in cherry blossom pics and not enough local happenings.

      • Altima NEO@lemmy.zip
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        1 year ago

        That shit drove me insane. I couldnt make a post asking about ongoings around town. Couldnt make a comment if it upset the mods, like when I suggested someone take a long nap, and they threatened to ban me for “perpetuating violence”.

        • pdxfed@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I found it weird geographic considerations came into play as much as they did and were moderated with complete subjectivity. I submitted a few threads on state or national issues that clearly would have an impact in portland as a way to have a discussion with r/portland and hear thoughts and opinions, had them removed because “not about Portland”. Also, it was obviously the biggest thread in the state so often nearby areas it made sense to post in r/portland as part of the metro area, yet mods would remove them. just insane for a “community”. Basically you could blind repost awful fucking Oregonian articles, KATU or pictures of douchebags driving on the waterfront but god forbid you stray from that.

          • garrett@infosec.pub
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            1 year ago

            Unfortunately, that sub hasn’t been useful for news for awhile. It’s somewhere between a shitty police blotter and just pandering photos. I kinda wish there was more engagement about events and things unique to the city over here but we’re building the world we want to have.

            • ohlaph@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Yeah, they started cracking down on a lot of random shit. I asked a question and the post got removed because asking questions was no longer allowed, you have to ask in askportland. Like, I get some of it, but it’s not exactly a super busy sub, so it’s probably going to be okay. Smh.

          • ohlaph@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Exactly. I’m in Tigard, which is about 10 minutes from SW Portland, and the Tigard sub had like maybe a post a month. So naturally I just followed the Portland sub.

      • const_void@lemmy.mlM
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        1 year ago

        Absolutely. The way that sub is run is suspicious. Almost like they’re trying to “keep up appearances” about the city.

        • ohlaph@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I got that feeling too. It was odd. And not the good Portland odd, just the weird neighbor odd.

  • Altima NEO@lemmy.zip
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    1 year ago

    Did they ever fix that issue? Looking at this community from lemmy.zip, it still shows no mods.

    What did that other guy decide to do? Did the decide to see if were cool with him, or did he just leave because he was hoping he was gonna be in charge of this community?

    • polymerwitch@lemmy.mlOPM
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      1 year ago

      The admins finally responded after a few days, but by then I had already removed the other user as a mod (the method to do so is a bit hidden).

      Currently there are two mods, myself and @[email protected] who created this community, but has since deleted all their posts and hasn’t posted again in years. In order to remove a mod though you need to click into a post they made. With no posts, I can’t remove absolutebeginner even if I wanted to.