This is what your frivolous reports wind up preventing

Chilling to hear the horrors they have to deal with.

Frustrating to see the pettiness that gets in the way.

But good to know they're on the job, trying to help...

It's unbelievably sad that a little girl has to turn to FB for help. That really makes me want to cry.

Chilling to hear the horrors they have to deal with.

Frustrating to see the pettiness that gets in the way.

But good to know they're on the job, trying to help...

Yep, this.

Also, I guess I didn't realize Facebook was even moderated. Shows how much time I spend there.

While I agree that the situation with the little girl was horrific, and yes mods have a difficult and taxing job, I think this particular mod might need to find a different career. Sounds like a bit of burnout going on.
Perhaps they could try being a 911 operator? But I don't think they make $30 an hour.

Not everyone is cut out for every job.

I really don't believe a Facebook mod wrote this.

In the time it took him to write this butthurt rant, 5 acts of violence that were flagged on Facebook went unnoticed and no one 'saved them'.

HEYOOOOOOO

...No but seriously. Whining about how he can't help people by being a mod? He's in the wrong career, plain and simple. Blaming society as a whole for humanity's crimes is not only pointless, it's just as irritating as people abusing the "report as inappropriate" function. OMG PEOPLE ARE USING A WEBSITE THE WAY THEY WANT TO. Because clearly, anyone who doesn't spend their time looking at horrors online and "trying to stop" them is a terrible person, right?

I have never reported something on Facebook in my life. Then again I have never seen pornography or violence. I suppose if I did that would be reason to report, but if I saw something truly horrifying my first thought would be "How do I contact the local authorities" and not "herpaderr, I'm gonna save this person by referring this pic to some mod who writes whiny rants."

That being said, if that line about people being paid $1 an hour is true that's fvcked up. And if that anecdote about the seven year old girl is true, then kudos to her for figuring out how to send a cry for help that would get heard at all. If this was thirty years prior, she would have absolutely no way to contact anyone outside of her immediate home area. The world has always been a terrible place-- technology just reveals more and more instances of it. We think there is more violence because we are AWARE of more violence.

Anyway, TL;DR this guy should take his own advice and get off the internet, since it seems to offend him more than anyone.

In the time it took him to write this butthurt rant, 5 acts of violence that were flagged on Facebook went unnoticed and no one 'saved them'.

So you are assuming they wrote it at work instead of when they are off the clock and at home. I'd hate for people to say I failed my work by not being on the clock 24/7. Heaven forbid that person get personal time, there are children being raped and only they can stop it.

In the time it took him to write this butthurt rant, 5 acts of violence that were flagged on Facebook went unnoticed and no one 'saved them'.

HEYOOOOOOO

...No but seriously. Whining about how he can't help people by being a mod? He's in the wrong career, plain and simple. Blaming society as a whole for humanity's crimes is not only pointless, it's just as irritating as people abusing the "report as inappropriate" function. OMG PEOPLE ARE USING A WEBSITE THE WAY THEY WANT TO. Because clearly, anyone who doesn't spend their time looking at horrors online and "trying to stop" them is a terrible person, right?

I have never reported something on Facebook in my life. Then again I have never seen pornography or violence. I suppose if I did that would be reason to report, but if I saw something truly horrifying my first thought would be "How do I contact the local authorities" and not "herpaderr, I'm gonna save this person by referring this pic to some mod who writes whiny rants."

That being said, if that line about people being paid $1 an hour is true that's fvcked up. And if that anecdote about the seven year old girl is true, then kudos to her for figuring out how to send a cry for help that would get heard at all. If this was thirty years prior, she would have absolutely no way to contact anyone outside of her immediate home area. The world has always been a terrible place-- technology just reveals more and more instances of it. We think there is more violence because we are AWARE of more violence.

Anyway, TL;DR this guy should take his own advice and get off the internet, since it seems to offend him more than anyone.

You missed the point of the article. It was written to bring awareness to the *kitten* that report anti-religious or racist pictures because their parents didn't teach them how to suck it up and ignore.

You missed the point of the article. It was written to bring awareness to the *kitten* that report anti-religious or racist pictures because their parents didn't teach them how to suck it up and ignore.

If this article truly wanted to spread awareness about the atrocities that happen daily on Facebook, it would have tips for tracking IP addresses or something, some way where you could actually help the victims of violence and exploitation. It would give contact info for those people who entrap pedophiles and stuff. It would, I don't know, maybe spend less time trying to make you feel sh!tty for something you're not actually responsible for, and spend a bit more time presenting worthwhile information on how to make this crappy situation better.

You missed the point of the article. It was written to bring awareness to the *kitten* that report anti-religious or racist pictures because their parents didn't teach them how to suck it up and ignore.

If this article truly wanted to spread awareness about the atrocities that happen daily on Facebook, it would have tips for tracking IP addresses or something, some way where you could actually help the victims of violence and exploitation. It would give contact info for those people who entrap pedophiles and stuff. It would, I don't know, maybe spend less time trying to make you feel sh!tty for something you're not actually responsible for, and spend a bit more time presenting worthwhile information on how to make this crappy situation better.

Interesting. It didn't make me feel ****ty. Do you know how to track an IP address? If not would you bother reading an article on it? Would you know what to do if you came across child pornography? Don't you think that what ever law enforcement agency that investigates it has access to better tools to determine where the image came from? Don't you think even if you had an IP address the agency is going to go into the investigation with an open mind and determine the IP address for themselves before considering what the reported one says?

I will answer your questions in order.

No, but my brother does.
I would, if I felt like I could actually accomplish something with that information.
I would try to figure out what account it was posted from, get as much info from that account as possible (hopefully a location or area code at the very least) and go to the police. If it was a photo posted on a Group or other fan page I would message the owner of that group and also call the police and ask what information I would need to be useful for an investigation.
Yes, but usually police or other organizations won't actually make an inquiry unless you have something to bring to the table. Finding child porn on Google with no way of identifying it on your own means that a) it may be removed by the time you report it and b) it could just as easily be your picture.
Yes, and that's what I would expect them to do. However, as I said in the previous sentence, you have to have some information to actually garner an "interest" in beginning the investigation at all. You can't convince someone on a hunch, they'll want some form of proof that the case is legitimate.

I would like to clarify that I am not in any way suggesting that I, as a civilian, could do a 'better' job than a moderator at assisting victims on the internet. But if I were a moderator, my goal would be to INFORM civilians on what they CAN do, instead of berating them for what they "shouldn't" do.

It's been a while, but after much delay, here's my unsolicited and largely irrelevant two cents:

The author of the article has a valid point about frivolous reporting that is no less true for Facebook than it is for 911 Emergency Response System (although I'm not clear whether the author's views of the purpose for the reporting system and Facebook's stated reasons are completely in sync).

All the other viewpoints are also completely valid.

People are free to report whatever they feel like, copyright infringement is not a minor concern, and the author should take his own advice and keep it to himself. The opposite is also true: people cannot make false or frivolous reports, copyright infringement is a matter for the courts not for moderators, and the author is free to whine as much as the next guy.

Finding the proper balance (if one exists) is key. But I'd hate to see the day when this kind of discourse (whether through an angry moderator's blog or a discussion of an angry moderator's blog in a health and fitness form) would be limited, prohibited, or abridged.

Disclaimer: I am procrastinating, so please (do not hold me to) and refrain from responding to anything I say lest it encourage me to continue procrastinating.

You missed the point of the article. It was written to bring awareness to the *kitten* that report anti-religious or racist pictures because their parents didn't teach them how to suck it up and ignore.

If this article truly wanted to spread awareness about the atrocities that happen daily on Facebook, it would have tips for tracking IP addresses or something, some way where you could actually help the victims of violence and exploitation. It would give contact info for those people who entrap pedophiles and stuff. It would, I don't know, maybe spend less time trying to make you feel sh!tty for something you're not actually responsible for, and spend a bit more time presenting worthwhile information on how to make this crappy situation better.

Or they would provide a much easier solution, such as "don't report frivolous crap." Oh wait . . . .

And of course, someone else would have to find a problem with that and write a tl;dr about it and continue to beat it into the ground ad nauseum.

But I don't report frivolous crap on Facebook. This article is literally about a problem that I have no part in other than being a fellow Facebook user. And I think that most people who use Facebook are like me -- they don't see atrocities being posted and don't feel the need to report things that aren't necessary. But what are we supposed to tell our friends? "Think twice next time you report, I read that any reports that aren't about horrific violence are considered to be impeding justice"?!

I would like to clarify that I am not in any way suggesting that I, as a civilian, could do a 'better' job than a moderator at assisting victims on the internet. But if I were a moderator, my goal would be to INFORM civilians on what they CAN do, instead of berating them for what they "shouldn't" do.

I'm sure there are articles out there for people. I know that when I worked on the public safety board we published lots of information on what average people can do to assist the police in specific situations. Often those pieces of advice are ignored. The person who wrote that article was going for a different approach. If you would rather see posts about what people can do about malicious activity then post your own links on here instead of criticizing someone who was trying a different way of reaching people. Multifaceted approaches work better than one dimensional. We eat cheese burgers by working different angles instead of plowing through the middle.

I wouldn't say that advice is "ignored" so much as "not needed" by the general public. If I DID see child pornography or evidence of violence somewhere on the internet, I would search for and read those articles and take action immediately. But until that day, no, I do not really feel like I have to educate myself on a problem that I have not encountered in my daily life and don't go out of my way to encounter.

If you really want me to dig up some links-- because apparently criticism can't exist unless a better solution is brought to the table by the one criticizing-- I will do so tomorrow and post a new thread about internet activism. And no I'm not bullsh!tting. I appreciate the article's revealing of this thing happening, but my issue is the "get over yourself" context that it is wrapped up in. You don't have to berate people to get them to agree with you on something as simple as preventing children from getting assaulted!