this post was submitted on 05 Apr 2025
761 points (98.6% liked)
196
2911 readers
1425 users here now
Community Rules
You must post before you leave
Be nice. Assume others have good intent (within reason).
Block or ignore posts, comments, and users that irritate you in some way rather than engaging. Report if they are actually breaking community rules.
Use content warnings and/or mark as NSFW when appropriate. Most posts with content warnings likely need to be marked NSFW.
Most 196 posts are memes, shitposts, cute images, or even just recent things that happened, etc. There is no real theme, but try to avoid posts that are very inflammatory, offensive, very low quality, or very "off topic".
Bigotry is not allowed, this includes (but is not limited to): Homophobia, Transphobia, Racism, Sexism, Abelism, Classism, or discrimination based on things like Ethnicity, Nationality, Language, or Religion.
Avoid shilling for corporations, posting advertisements, or promoting exploitation of workers.
Proselytization, support, or defense of authoritarianism is not welcome. This includes but is not limited to: imperialism, nationalism, genocide denial, ethnic or racial supremacy, fascism, Nazism, Marxism-Leninism, Maoism, etc.
Avoid AI generated content.
Avoid misinformation.
Avoid incomprehensible posts.
No threats or personal attacks.
No spam.
Moderator Guidelines
Moderator Guidelines
- Don’t be mean to users. Be gentle or neutral.
- Most moderator actions which have a modlog message should include your username.
- When in doubt about whether or not a user is problematic, send them a DM.
- Don’t waste time debating/arguing with problematic users.
- Assume the best, but don’t tolerate sealioning/just asking questions/concern trolling.
- Ask another mod to take over cases you struggle with, if you get tired, or when things get personal.
- Ask the other mods for advice when things get complicated.
- Share everything you do in the mod matrix, both so several mods aren't unknowingly handling the same issues, but also so you can receive feedback on what you intend to do.
- Don't rush mod actions. If a case doesn't need to be handled right away, consider taking a short break before getting to it. This is to say, cool down and make room for feedback.
- Don’t perform too much moderation in the comments, except if you want a verdict to be public or to ask people to dial a convo down/stop. Single comment warnings are okay.
- Send users concise DMs about verdicts about them, such as bans etc, except in cases where it is clear we don’t want them at all, such as obvious transphobes. No need to notify someone they haven’t been banned of course.
- Explain to a user why their behavior is problematic and how it is distressing others rather than engage with whatever they are saying. Ask them to avoid this in the future and send them packing if they do not comply.
- First warn users, then temp ban them, then finally perma ban them when they break the rules or act inappropriately. Skip steps if necessary.
- Use neutral statements like “this statement can be considered transphobic” rather than “you are being transphobic”.
- No large decisions or actions without community input (polls or meta posts f.ex.).
- Large internal decisions (such as ousting a mod) might require a vote, needing more than 50% of the votes to pass. Also consider asking the community for feedback.
- Remember you are a voluntary moderator. You don’t get paid. Take a break when you need one. Perhaps ask another moderator to step in if necessary.
founded 2 months ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Controversial take: advancing science is better than spending weeks optimising how to play video games for children.
Controversal take: humans don't have maximize productivity in every moment of their lives. It's perfectly acceptable for someone to spend their spare time making in depth videos if that is something they enjoy doing.
Every moment of every day does not need to be spent maximizing productivity, otherwise what are doing on Lemmy instead of cataloging beetles?
There's so much black and white thinking here, and maybe my previous comment is partly to blame too...
"Documenting beetles" can be exactly what you do in your spare time because you enjoy it, without productivity being your goal. You can do it just so. It's nothing unusual.
The point of the OP is that some people have a lot of focus and curiosity that makes them fixate on solving stuff even if it seems mind-numbing to outsiders, and that a lot of that mind-numbing stuff-solving can actually be incredibly valuable for others, expanding our understanding of the world, etc. It does feel wasteful that such energy ends up spent on something that has way smaller or entirely nonexistent benefit for others.
I should have said this in my comments sooner, while the thread was still active, but here it goes anyway: we still absolutely need this sort of meticulous, "mind-numbing" work. Wikipedia is probably the best and most prominent example of such an effort that is run basically just on people's free time and curiosity and willpower.
This also isn't meant to say that playing video games should be avoided completely. I joked about my "utilitarianism calculator" in an another comment, but hopefully it's obvious it's an exaggeration. OP specifically talks of people who spend exorbitant amounts of time and effort optimising how to play a game, they're not just enjoying it and relaxing with it as is otherwise normal for games and sports and similar activities. So it's basically just the same sort of work as documenting beetles, but without the eventual benefits...
If we absolutely need this work we should pay somebody to do it. Also set up some quality requirements and guarantees of the task being completed.
I get your point but I question the value of a hobbyists research vs that of a scientists. Documenting beetles as a hobby may mean jotting down their shape and color while a scientist would dissect the thing and index their internal organs. Not saying a hobbyist wont do that, but it will be restrictive to do so. It may require education or special equipment and in the end, will still be less credible work unless published in the same scientific fashion scientists are accustomed to. Fact is, we don't mind coloring outside the lines in a hobby. I may be wrong here but the areas hobbyists can usefully contribute to are few, so we opt to studying digital worlds instead.
NOOOOO MY HOBBY OF STARING AT A SCREEN FOR 4 HOURS IN A ROW IS GOOD
Science has already done as much beetle documentation as one can do without a bunch of resources, though. You wouldn't be advancing it, just redoing it for fun. There's nothing wrong with that, but there's also nothing wrong with playing video games for fun.
Beetle documentation was just one example
Replicating science is actually pretty important, and there's no way a "civilized" area has the same beetles in 2025 as in 1820.
Spend time becoming a scientist instead of optimising how to play Sonic, get the resources for further beetle documentation, bam!
Why?
Because my utilitarian calculator says so.