Why Do You Moderate

[lowendlinux]

Business or not, there is still the community aspect to it that keeps people interested. I don't think anybody was trying to equate moderating here to charity work like serving meals at the food kitchen, but I suppose I understand your point.

I post at a BMW auto forum called Bimmerfest. That forum was started years ago by a BMW salesperson from Santa Barbara CA and he was active in the forums. In the last couple years he retired and participated less and less in the forum, then recently sold the forum to a Canadian company called VerticalScope. They brought in their own people then moved the forums to Google Cloud with really poor results. They also recently closed their politics forum and handled that poorly IMO. From what I can see, forum traffic is way down and a lot of regulars have stopped posting since the feeling of belonging to a community of like minded hobbyists is diminished. To your point, if MacRumors took a similar "corporate" path like Bimmerfest did, I think I would see things like you do, and I would likely stop being a moderator. For now, I see the MR forums as a hobbyist community where the owner is making some money, not as some corporation raking in money that should be paying moderators.

It's funny vertical scope killed jeepforum, but it does just fine with wranglerforum and pirate4x4, most of the Jeep community is a member of all three.

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More to the point mods make or break a forum OCN was a great place for PC stuff until it was sold and the mod crew got changed it went from fun community oriented to walking on egg shells and corporate within a month. Online tech forums have in essence replaced the user groups of old and it's important that they be part of the community and enthusiasts themselves since there is no IRL replacement.

 

[ericgtr12]

Business or not, there is still the community aspect to it that keeps people interested. I don't think anybody was trying to equate moderating here to charity work like serving meals at the food kitchen, but I suppose I understand your point.

I post at a BMW auto forum called Bimmerfest. That forum was started years ago by a BMW salesperson from Santa Barbara CA and he was active in the forums. In the last couple years he retired and participated less and less in the forum, then recently sold the forum to a Canadian company called VerticalScope. They brought in their own people then moved the forums to Google Cloud with really poor results. They also recently closed their politics forum and handled that poorly IMO. From what I can see, forum traffic is way down and a lot of regulars have stopped posting since the feeling of belonging to a community of like minded hobbyists is diminished. To your point, if MacRumors took a similar "corporate" path like Bimmerfest did, I think I would see things like you do, and I would likely stop being a moderator. For now, I see the MR forums as a hobbyist community where the owner is making some money, not as some corporation raking in money that should be paying moderators.

I used to visit Bimmerfest quite a bit, great forum for sure! While I get your point, do you also think social media has played a role? Many forums seeming have far less traffic than they once did, FB, Twitter and others have really personalized the experiences/connections for users in a way that forums never really could.

 

[Weaselboy]

I used to visit Bimmerfest quite a bit, great forum for sure! While I get your point, do you also think social media has played a role? Many forums seeming have far less traffic than they once did, FB, Twitter and others have really personalized the experiences/connections for users in a way that forums never really could.

Could be that... maybe younger audiences just are not into the "forum" type format as much as the alternatives you mentioned.

 

[decafjava]

A thankless job but you all are doing pretty well! Thank you to all mods again and thanks for cleaning up some spam and trolling today!!

 

[jeremysteele]

Seriously it can be a thankless job, the amount of abuse that comes through private messages, and contact us can make your head spin at time

Amen to that. Friend of mine runs a car forum and has received 5 death threats from people who are ticked off that he likes Chevy and they like Ford. They accuse him of being a paid shill and spreading Chevy propaganda.

Some people are just nuts.

Thank you, to all the mods, for your continued dedication to this site.

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

I searched for the title which was something like "this site makes a million dollars a day" but only found this:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/this-site-is-worth-3-27-million-usd.1082202/


As for the other comments, thanks but.....I get wanting to be part of a community but this is a business. You are giving your time to make someone else a lot of money not helping a "real" community by donating time to a charity. Don't you feel used? If they make money, they should pay the people who help them make the money, right?

Owler.com estimates MR revenue to be 2.7M$ a year, but also estimates Appleinsiders to be 5.7M$. The latter has only a fraction of the users, but also 10x the ads (Which is one of the main reason I don't visit them anymore), so it may be close to the correct number.

I suggest we vote for Arn to become president, and have him release his tax papers!

 

[Apple fanboy]

Interesting thread.

I’d like to say a big thank you to all the mods for the work you do to make this a great place to hang out.

I cringe sometimes when I read about threads complaining about or being victimised by mods.

I’m not sure people realise you volunteer your time.

Anyway thanks again.

 

[hugodrax]

I searched for the title which was something like "this site makes a million dollars a day" but only found this:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/this-site-is-worth-3-27-million-usd.1082202/


As for the other comments, thanks but.....I get wanting to be part of a community but this is a business. You are giving your time to make someone else a lot of money not helping a "real" community by donating time to a charity. Don't you feel used? If they make money, they should pay the people who help them make the money, right?

I would pay a stipend. If I made a million a day I would feel like a heel not throwing a bone to the people working for me. Would not sit well with me.

 

[roland.g]

I have been a part of this “community” for a long time, paid for many years for the ad free access, etc. MR Forums was great. The growth of the Mac and the Apple community due to the iPhone in large part brought in a huge growth in members and unfortunately that had some negative effects. I for one loved the community aspect and help you can get from people.

However, I have also noted over the past few years that the forums seem to have lost some of their luster. The site also gain some features and lost others when the platform it is run on changes.

I can say that for the most part the moderators on here are fair and do what they can to help. I know that 99% of my forum interaction over the years has been positive, but that on a few minor occasions I have had unfortunately escalated interactions that required moderation, both due to my behavior and the other party. In those instances the moderators have been helpful in handling an issue or in giving a warning to calm down. None of us are saints and we can all succumb to an irrational or misintentioned post.

However, I will say that in reading the Political forums over the past few years, that a new level (as seen in the world outside too) of impoliteness has worked its way into forum dialogue. People are posting a lot of lies, stirring up hate, and creating greater levels of division. Misinformation is more rampant than ever. This is not limited to a single ideology or end of the political spectrum.

However, given that the Political forums are an add on for discussing other current events and not the main purpose of Mac Rumors forums, I felt this was largely unmoderated as it really came down to a difference of opinion and that as long as the discussion was neither egregiously inflammatory or derogatory, it was left to be. Surely this had to be the case due to the outrageousness of many statements I had read and the combativeness and baseless discussions.

However, today I experienced an episode of moderation that honestly felt like the moderator was ignoring all of that and exercising and injecting personal beliefs as the moderation appeared to single out a post for no reason when countless others have not been.

I had never expected Mac Rumors to sink to censorship like this. And it honestly put a big dent in the feeling I had for a community that I had been part of and respected.

 

[annk]

...However, today I experienced an episode of moderation that honestly felt like the moderator was ignoring all of that and exercising and injecting personal beliefs as the moderation appeared to single out a post for no reason when countless others have not been.

I had never expected Mac Rumors to sink to censorship like this. And it honestly put a big dent in the feeling I had for a community that I had been part of and respected.

It's perfectly legitimate to be dissatisfied, but I feel your comment here, in this particular thread, is off topic. This thread is about why moderators choose to do the gig.

I'm not trying to suppress your complaint, but it needs to be concrete and sent via the right channel. Maybe you've already done so.

Carry on - on topic.