I think this is inaccurately charitable. It’s never the case that a moderator has “no way” to know whether it checks out or not. If “Hey, this sounds like it could be dangerous misinfo, how can I know it’s not so that I can approve your post?” is too much work and they can’t tell the good from bad within the amount of work they’re willing to put in, then they are a bad moderator—at least, with respect to this kind of post. Even if you can’t solve all or even most cases, leaving a “I could be wrong, and I’m open to being surprised” line on all decisions is trivial and can catch the most egregious moderation failures.
Maybe that’s acceptable from a neoliberal moderator since it’s not the core topic, but the test is “When confronted with evidence that they can correctly evaluate as showing them to have been wrong, do they say ‘oops!’ and update accordingly, or do they double down and make excuses for doing the wrong thing and not update”. I don’t know the mod in question, but the former answer is the exception and the latter is the rule. If the rejection note was “Medical stuff isn’t allowed because I’m not qualified to sort the good from the bad”, then I’d say “fair enough”. But actively claiming “Spreading dangerous misinfo!” is rarely done with epistemic humility out of necessity and almost always done out of the kind of epistemic hubris that has gotten us into this mess by denying that there’s an upcoming pandemic, denying that masks work and are important, and now denying that we can and should dare to vaccinate in ways that deviate from the phase 3 clinical trials. This kind of behavior is hugely destructive and is largely the result of enabled laziness, so it’s really not something we ought to be making excuses for.
I agree i was being charitable. and yes, i was talking specifically about my expectations from a neoliberal forum moderator (if this was a biology or medicine forum i would have higher standards). my point wasn’t necessarily that the mod did that out of good epistemics, just that the decision is justifiable, whatever method he actually used to take it. (i don’t know the moderator in question either). actually I’d bet the moderator didn’t do it with good epistemics, since he overreacted and outright banned him rather than just deleting it.
Being as charitable as the facts allow is great. Starting to shy away from some of the facts so that one can be more charitable than they allow isn’t.
The whole point is that this moderators actions aren’t justifiable. If they have a ”/r/neoliberal isn’t the place for medicine, period” stance, that would be justifiable. If the mod deleted the post and said “I don’t know how to judge these well so I’m deleting it to be safe, but it’s important if true so please let me know why I should approve it”, then that would be justifiable as well, even if he ultimately made the wrong call there too.
What that mod actually did, if I’m reading correctly, is to make an active claim that the link is “misinformation” and then ban the person who posted it without giving any avenue to be proven wrong. Playing doctor by asserting truths about medical statements, when one is not competent or qualified to do so, getting it wrong when getting it wrong is harmful, and then shutting down avenues where your mistakes can be shown, is not justifiable behavior. It’s shameful behavior, and that mod ought to feel very bad about his or herself until they correct their mistakes and stop harming people out of their own hubris. The charity that there is room for is along the lines of “Maybe the line about misinformation was an uncharitable paraphrase rather than a direct quote” and “Hey, everyone makes mistakes, and even mistakes of hubris can be atoned for”—not justifying the [if the story is what it seems to be] clearly and very bad behavior itself.
>The charity that there is room for is along the lines of “Maybe the line about misinformation was an uncharitable paraphrase rather than a direct quote”
For what it’s worth, it was a direct quote, and the entirety of the ban message, other than a link to the comment.
I think this is inaccurately charitable. It’s never the case that a moderator has “no way” to know whether it checks out or not. If “Hey, this sounds like it could be dangerous misinfo, how can I know it’s not so that I can approve your post?” is too much work and they can’t tell the good from bad within the amount of work they’re willing to put in, then they are a bad moderator—at least, with respect to this kind of post. Even if you can’t solve all or even most cases, leaving a “I could be wrong, and I’m open to being surprised” line on all decisions is trivial and can catch the most egregious moderation failures.
Maybe that’s acceptable from a neoliberal moderator since it’s not the core topic, but the test is “When confronted with evidence that they can correctly evaluate as showing them to have been wrong, do they say ‘oops!’ and update accordingly, or do they double down and make excuses for doing the wrong thing and not update”. I don’t know the mod in question, but the former answer is the exception and the latter is the rule. If the rejection note was “Medical stuff isn’t allowed because I’m not qualified to sort the good from the bad”, then I’d say “fair enough”. But actively claiming “Spreading dangerous misinfo!” is rarely done with epistemic humility out of necessity and almost always done out of the kind of epistemic hubris that has gotten us into this mess by denying that there’s an upcoming pandemic, denying that masks work and are important, and now denying that we can and should dare to vaccinate in ways that deviate from the phase 3 clinical trials. This kind of behavior is hugely destructive and is largely the result of enabled laziness, so it’s really not something we ought to be making excuses for.
I agree i was being charitable. and yes, i was talking specifically about my expectations from a neoliberal forum moderator (if this was a biology or medicine forum i would have higher standards). my point wasn’t necessarily that the mod did that out of good epistemics, just that the decision is justifiable, whatever method he actually used to take it. (i don’t know the moderator in question either). actually I’d bet the moderator didn’t do it with good epistemics, since he overreacted and outright banned him rather than just deleting it.
Being as charitable as the facts allow is great. Starting to shy away from some of the facts so that one can be more charitable than they allow isn’t.
The whole point is that this moderators actions aren’t justifiable. If they have a ”/r/neoliberal isn’t the place for medicine, period” stance, that would be justifiable. If the mod deleted the post and said “I don’t know how to judge these well so I’m deleting it to be safe, but it’s important if true so please let me know why I should approve it”, then that would be justifiable as well, even if he ultimately made the wrong call there too.
What that mod actually did, if I’m reading correctly, is to make an active claim that the link is “misinformation” and then ban the person who posted it without giving any avenue to be proven wrong. Playing doctor by asserting truths about medical statements, when one is not competent or qualified to do so, getting it wrong when getting it wrong is harmful, and then shutting down avenues where your mistakes can be shown, is not justifiable behavior. It’s shameful behavior, and that mod ought to feel very bad about his or herself until they correct their mistakes and stop harming people out of their own hubris. The charity that there is room for is along the lines of “Maybe the line about misinformation was an uncharitable paraphrase rather than a direct quote” and “Hey, everyone makes mistakes, and even mistakes of hubris can be atoned for”—not justifying the [if the story is what it seems to be] clearly and very bad behavior itself.
>The charity that there is room for is along the lines of “Maybe the line about misinformation was an uncharitable paraphrase rather than a direct quote”
For what it’s worth, it was a direct quote, and the entirety of the ban message, other than a link to the comment.