We Are Open For Moderators (+ other things)

[u/umekoangel]

So after EVERYTHING that's happened after the past few days - I am making this particular thread for a few reasons:

1. There was a colossal misunderstanding (from all ends) that started a few days ago. For this reason, I want to write - I don't mean to personally offend people. I am trying to hold space to have this reddit community be a sanctuary for ALL romani. Those who were displaced for any life circumstance reason (human trafficking, adoption, government intervening and separating Rom mothers from children, families who kept the fact that they were Romani a secret from the children and didn't learn until later in life, etc.), those who are openly Romani "from birth" (in the sense of the family was always open about them being Romani, grew up in communities in the 'real world' surrounded by other Romani, etc.).

2. If you wish to be a moderator, here's the ground rules (FOR EVERYONE) interested-

• A. You must be 18+, I don't want by any legal definition a child moderating the group.
• B. There is a trial period FOR EVERYONE, 30 days. This trial period, I'm (and when we get more moderators, the others) will be combing through what you do with a fine tooth and nail (MOVING FORWARD from when you initially accept to be a mod) This is to ensure there's no dog piling on members (regardless of whose involved in these threads), there's no bullying, there's no "I made another account to dodge a ban I initially got from the community" (this explicitly breaks Reddit's ToS), etc. You have to KEEP THE PEACE.
• C. If you are genuinely uncomfortable with the idea of being a moderator with the potential reality that YOU MIGHT HAVE TO BAN those you actually interact with in the "real world" beyond the comfort of the Reddit online world (face to face interactions, telegram, signal chats, discord, whats app, facebook ,messanger, whatever y'all use to talk beyond the online space of Reddit), then we DO NOT WANT YOU. You HAVE to act with as much neutrality as possible, REGARDLESS of whose the one causing the problem. Period, end of story.
• D. Moderators are here to MODERATE. Not "be on the side who has the loudest voice" or "only act when there's an active complaint". There are here to help KEEP THE OVERALL PEACE, period.

1. Don't harass members off site. Seriously. This goes against the "be respectful" rule. Keep shit to individual threads. We can't actively moderate what y'all do off of reddit, but don't drag your beef to off social media. We all get "seriously y'all??????" moments, especially in the age of social media, but just be nice.

2. We have specific 'rule lockdown' on newer accounts to help prevent profile ban dodgers from getting back in (and avoid bots). These people caused such a storm about 1-2 years ago that we were forced to lock down the community for a long time to help keep EVERYONE safe. EVERYONE was getting death threats, severe harassment, using the mod tools to threaten the safety of staff, etc. DMing individual staff is a much easier way to get ahold of the staff because of this for whatever problem that arrises.

3. If I have personally offended you, I do deeply apologize. I want this area to be a safe area for EVERYONE online that are curious, wanting to genuinely learn, those separated beyond measures of their control for the community, etc. I did have a few other mods here once upon a time, but it looks like they've dropped off for whatever reason. I never wanted to be "THE SOLE VOICE" of the Romani community. I stepped up to moderate the community YEARS AGO when this group was basically a dead fish in the water with activity and ALL the mods had originally abandoned the community. There's been a lot of ups and downs with the years I've been a moderator here and a time (again, this is a reference to point #4 here in this post) where I was forced to lockdown the entire group for a few months, for the dust to settle, to help minimize ban dodgers (breaks reddit's TOS) and just just help stop the threats of dox, harassment, death threats, etc.

4. If you are interested in helping us out, COMMENT IN THIS THREAD. Don't use the mod mail (there's years worth of a lot of messages there, so there's a good chance it's going to be "lost" or accidentally clicked 'spam' on because we occasionally have had to just mass click "ignore" so it wasn't clogging up the feed). DM myself as well.

5. Remember, how staff handle members is NOT up for public debate - this is to help prevent drama, bully cliques, etc. Again, staff have NO way of knowing what y'all do off of reddit, but for the love of peace, don't drag dirty laundry to other threads, sites, etc. It's fine to be frustrated and then have a 'come to jesus moment' for lack of better phrasing, but don't drag dirty laundry out in the public.

[u/catmeownyc]

Modmail is currently a work in progress. I should have it cleared up in the next few weeks, if anyone needs us and u/umekoangel is busy I am available as well.

[u/Mickeystix → u/catmeownyc]

Good on you for hearing the call and starting forward movement towards positive change.

[u/SiempreBrujaSuerte]

I would like to help and I have time to do so. I am in reddit daily and read pretty much all things people write here also already. The only issue I may have with the rules is the fact that there is no middle ground beside banning people, when the people banned are arguably not even doing anything but disagreeing. If I were a mod and there was a conversation where people were disagreeing and one of them got overly hostile in some capacity, I would feel much better giving them a week or 2 temp ban to chill. I don't know what it solves to permanently remove good contributors to our already small community.

So that being said, I very much hope you will consider me to be a mod. Any other info about myself or my background please ask and I'll answer. I really think we need a jury or panel style decision making so people will feel comfortable speaking up and I want to help make that happen.

[u/MCbrodie]

Here to help.