Hire a Dedicated Forum Moderator

Proposals
#1

Summary
Create and fill a paid 20 hr/week forum moderator position to relieve Omakase from moderation duties.

Abstract
Moderation on the Sushi forum is, quite frankly, a mess and users are complaining left and right that their posts are being withheld for days. Hiring a professional moderator can significantly improve user experience, speed up the governance process, reduce conflicts of interest, and improve Sushi’s utilization of talent.

Motivation
To my knowledge, Omakase is the only moderator right now, which is not ideal for multiple reasons:

  1. Conflict of Interest
    Omakase has received a lot of criticism lately, also revolving around censoring critics. While I’m not accusing him of intentionally silencing users, the temptation to game the forum is certainly there.

  2. Moderation is lagging behind
    There’s also posts not related to Omakase in any way that are not being approved for several days, likely for a lack of time on behalf of Omakase. This slows down governance, which can be avoided by hiring a dedicated moderator.

  3. Omakase’s skills can be better utilized
    Moderating the forum is nothing that a highly decorated core dev should be tasked with. His skills could be better utilized if allowed to focus on development, rather than being on moderation duty. This becomes especially apparent with the new position he is set to take under the Arca/Frog Nation proposal. Forum moderation does most certainly not belong to the responsibilities of the Head of Operations.

Specification
Sushi should hire someone whose main responsibility is forum moderation. I estimate that it will require roughly 20 man-hours per week to moderate the forum properly, so this should be a part-time paid position.

For
Give the Sushi Forum the professional moderation it deserves.

Against
Keep things as messy as they are now.

Poll

  • Yes, hire a dedicated forum moderator
  • No, let Omakase stay on moderation duties

0 voters

1 Like
#2

Thanks for the proposal @t_w_kaiser. Strongly in favour of having moderation done with the attention it deserves, by an independent party. I think points (2) & (3) are easy to address by hiring somebody. Point (1) seems a bit trickier to me - if the hired person reports into core, how do we guarantee impartiality? Could they be voted in and report into the community instead?

#3

Is there a community?This is a game for one person, Omakase coin!

#4

I can’t really see any downside in this proposal.

#5

Omakase is not the only moderator, other core team members have admin rights.
Samurais have mod rights but it’s quite limited, we can’t unflag post or ban/unban users.

Another problem is that it’s hard to differentiate moderation and censorship in the current situation.

For example this above, is this constructive ? No
Is this some kind of harassment ? Yes
Is this false ? Maybe yes maybe no, I don’t think I can answer this question as it will be my personal opinion.

There has been a ton of post like this unfortunately.
Since the beginning of the drama I chose to not flag/ban on discord or forum unless very toxic behaviour, not sure if it was the best decision.

2 Likes
#6

Do you think Omakase caused things to develop into this situation alone? He now intends to sell SUSHI. Isn’t it? Just for his own right!

#7

I think this could be a more sensible approach. It is inappropriate for any team member to be in a position to moderate posts referring to themselves or their performance, regardless of the comments or forum posts being valid or invalid.

It has now become clear that we can’t just expect that team members will be noble enough to recuse themselves in these types of situations. The current system is open to manipulation and abuse.

At very least a set of rules should be established for the current custodians.

2 Likes
#8

Agree with these 2 points.

2 Likes
#9

very true!
especially about moderating posts

#10

Moderation is lagging but not by just days, but weeks in my case.
I clearly support it.

1 Like
#11

Do you have the possibility to approve posts?

#12

OK, as I see it, the vast majority of poll respondents are in favor and I haven’t seen any objections in the comments either, so it’s time to move ahead, and since I haven’t seen any other suggestions, I’ll just nominate myself for the job.

Some details about my background
I have an academic background that combines computer science, cognitive science, and economics. I’ve been a full time worker in crypto since the start of 2018, mostly working in content production. With InstaLiq DAO, I am now building a token launchpad on top of Sushi.

What are my upsides?
First of all, I am impartial. I’m neither strongly for or against the leadership changes that Sushi will likely undergo in the upcoming weeks, but personlly, I am leaning in favor of Arca/Frog Nation. For that to work out however, we must have a functional forum, which also can be used to respectfully raise concerns by the Sushi community.

I also have some prior experience in forum moderation from Pokerstrategy.com’s infamous BBV forum (think 4chan for poker degens lol).

What are my downsides?
I can’t volunteer. With InstaLiq, I already have my hands full of volunteer work and if I’m supposed to shave another 20 hours off my workweeks, I’d have to quit my job in content production, which is my only source of income right now. As compensation, I request 3,000 SUSHI for a 6 months term, which can either be streamed through Sablier or paid in monthly grants.

What are my plans for the forum?
I am aware that mods walk a fine line between keeping discussions civilized and censorship and I am confident that I can bring in the tact required to find a good balance in this regard.

Since folks have been complaining about this, I guess that there is a rather large backlog of posts that still await approval, which would be the first thing I’d need to tackle. I’d start with the newest posts first to get discussions going again, so if you have a post pending that you really want to have published fast, just repost it and I’ll give it priority.

The next task will be to unflag users when I notice that they are making constructive posts. Unless you are actually being rude, or disrupt the discussion, I don’t see a reason why you should have to ask for permission every time you make a post.

Finally, I want to be accountable to the community. If voted in, I’d compile and publish a monthly report, justifying all my moderation decisions.

Please move this proposal to Snapshot
I consider this an urgent matter. At the moment, many community members have an issue with their posts being withheld for no good reason, which is not much better than having no forum at all tbh. Especially with the upcoming leadership changes, it’s in the core dev’s best interest to hear what the community has to say.

1 Like
#13

no unfortunately :///

1 Like
#14

I don’t know you too well but from what I’ve seen here on the forum so far you’ve acted with reason and integrity, therefore you have my support.

#15

I suggest we make rules first, moderated by core team, samurai and active community members . Two good examples are reddit and 4chan.

Since the drama we had before boil down to incentive problems, perhaps those stakeholders can introduce a set of delicate forum rules that we can come to the consensus upon.

https://www.4chan.org/rules

#16

@t_w_kaiser thanks for bringing this idea up and for imagining an improved forum.

While I acknowledge there is some chaos and madness in the forum, I think this is part of the many growing pains. Madness is better than overall lack of activity and too rigid rules.

Is there a way to create a moderator which is automated? It eliminates the subjectivity of a human moderator and limits the potential of censorship and nefarious actors.

I agree with @mgoesdistance’s point above:

To reduce this impartiality, why not have them elected by the community?

They could then still report into the core team or to the Samurais - while also providing constant transparency to the community.

#17

I am unable to join Sushiswap Discord !!
If any forum mod can henp !!!

1 Like
#18

Nor you can see pending posts waiting approval?

#19

No, I can see post awaiting approval but can’t approve.

#20

So you can see what I wrote? Can you edit it?

Is there a level at which posting doesn t need approval?