18 Feb 2024 Search

Moderation is the hardest part of running any Internet service. Running a database at very large scale is not something that anyone can do, but people who can do it are around and available to hire. And you don’t have to write your own BigTable or Cassandra or whatever, like today’s Big Tech had to do—you can just call ScyllaDB or even click the right thing on Amazon AWS.

Moderation is harder than editing, and I say that as a former editor.

  • Editors know the language and audience in advance. Moderators might get a bunch of new users from nobody knows where, writing in a language they don’t know.

  • Editors know the schedule and quantity of content to be posted in advance. Moderators have to deal with content and complaints as they come in.

  • If an editor doesn’t understand something, they can just tell the writer that it won’t be clear to the reader, and make the writer rewrite or explain it. A moderator just has to figure it out.

  • An editor has more options: delay, ask for a rewrite, and yes, even edit. A moderator has fewer available actions.