Purpose for 2018

-Rev Melissa Fain-

I looked at his words. He wanted to know the purpose of what was happening. What was my end goal?

Perhaps I should take a step back. Hello, my name is Pastor Melissa, I'm the minister of FIg Tree Christian Church. I was also a moderator of a medium sized subreddit, /r/Christianity. I'm now an outsider, kicked out of the promised land because I've also been demodded and banned.

Now, I'm not here to get into the details of this, and even linking them could be a form of brigading. I am here to discuss a troubling truth that came out of the experience, and what I plan to do about it. 

There are no rules regarding cyber-bullying on Reddit. 

In and of itself, there is a self-correction built into the site. Reddit is made up of thousands of subs all led by a volunteer squad of moderators. Each sub has its own rules, and many of those subs have rules that quash bullying fast. The ones that don't, usually get bullies down-voted to oblivion or the whole sub dies out. This is how users are kept in line online. When there are 12-22 year olds seeing how the internet works, it's good to know there are people out there that will show them that kind of behavior is wrong, and take action against it.

Unless you are a mod.

While there is moderation of users, there is no moderation of moderators. Top moderators can be as abusive as they want, and it isn't even called abuse. In small subs, the solution is usually the sub dying a miserable death. In medium to large subs, it's like giving a bully a free pass to Switzerland. In those circumstances, moderators can be as verbally and emotionally abusive as they want, and the admins on Reddit will do absolutely nothing to stop it unless those moderators take that abuse outside of the site.

Well, now it's time for it to stop. We need a Moderation of Moderators (MoM). I'm standing up to the abuse, and to the people being abused. If you have been verbally and emotionally abused by a moderator, please send me your stories to [email protected] or PM your story to /u/RevMelissa. I want to share your story. Is the abuse ongoing still? Request to keep your username out of it, and I will respect that wish. Also, use the hashtag, #ModeratorAbuse. I will follow it on @FigTreeTweet and share the stories on twitter. Together, we can open Reddit's eyes, and help them realize they need to take action against cyber-bullying on the internet.