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As of June 5th 2023 a general moderation strike is in place across the entire Stack Exchange Network. There are two key documents that should be read to understand the background and reasoning for this strike:

  1. Moderation strike: Stack Overflow, Inc. cannot consistently ignore, mistreat, and malign its volunteers This letter, published on Meta SE gives great details on the background of the strike as well as the demands of those who are striking.
  2. An open letter to Stack Overflow, Inc. An open letter addressed to Stack Overflow, Inc. that has been signed by the many who support the strike effort. (You may also sign this to demonstrate your support...)

But how will this affect the day to day running of Ask Ubuntu?

Firstly there is a guarantee that there will always be elected Moderator coverage for any emergency situation. This sort of emergency would include a threat or risk in such situations as people being perceived as suicide risk, or the publishing of CSAM (Child Sexual Abuse Material).

The open letter covers specific areas that will however not be addressed during the strike by those participating:

  • Raising and handling flags.
  • Running SmokeDetector, the anti-spam bot.
  • Closing or voting to close posts.
  • Deleting or voting to delete posts.
  • Reviewing tasks in the various review queues.
  • Running various other bots designed to assist in moderation, such as detecting plagiarism, low-quality answers, and rude comments.

Difficult times ahead and there at the least be some turbulence in our normally tightly run part of Ask Ubuntu. I believe this short term difficulty is a sound investment in the future of Ask Ubuntu and I ask for your patience and of course your support in these difficult time...

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  • 13
    I will handle rude/abusive flags used for hate speech, abusive material etc. (Please don't use red flags for merely gruff and grumpy comments!)
    – Zanna Mod
    Commented Jun 5, 2023 at 8:19
  • 5
    Does this strike explain the recent uptick in ridiculously low-quality spam?
    – matigo
    Commented Jun 7, 2023 at 8:57
  • 8
    @matigo Yes. The Charcoal spam detector has been shutdown as part of the strike and Moderators are not attending spam flags. I believe that SE staff have been sorting some spam...
    – andrew.46 Mod
    Commented Jun 7, 2023 at 8:59
  • 4
    Bah. I detest spam when it's well done. It's much, much less tolerable when the quality of spam is so disgustingly low that you have to question: 1. the intelligence of the people who fall for it (if any) 2. the intelligence of the fool that thought it was a good idea to begin with.
    – matigo
    Commented Jun 7, 2023 at 9:00
  • 2
    I don’t want to undermine a strike - but I hate the crap spam that’s flooding the site at the moment. Best to downvote or flag as spam or both? Normally I just flag but I’m assuming there may be delays due to this strike so downvotes may be more effective?
    – Will
    Commented Jun 10, 2023 at 17:14
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    @Will flag as usual if you want to. Not all mods are on strike + some of the staff have been assigned to deal with flags too (on SO at least, not sure about AU). It's important for us (those users who are striking) to show the company that they can't mistreat us and get away with this scathe-free, not to drown the sites in spam. Just downvotes are usually not effective in battling spam (+you get a free auto downvote when you cast a spam flag).
    – 0Valt
    Commented Jun 10, 2023 at 19:00
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    @Will How about both? Some of the crap spam also has crap spam comments and I flag those too.
    – CPlus
    Commented Jun 19, 2023 at 23:35
  • @user16217248 - yes, completely agree -I’ve started doing that too. The upsurge in spam offends me - though I’m heartened by how quickly it is taken down in most cases!
    – Will
    Commented Jun 20, 2023 at 5:17
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    @Will please never downvote spam. That only makes it move off of the front page faster, so people don't see it and don't flag it, and so it ends up staying on the site for longer. Always flag as spam since enough such flags can delete it automatically.
    – terdon on strike
    Commented Jun 20, 2023 at 10:32

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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I support the volunteers wholeheartedly.

-9

Not as much considering prior to "strike" there is at least one inactive moderator (like averaging less than one action per month, has not answered anything in more than 10 yrs etc)

Good time to drain the swamp I suppose

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    Drain the swamp? You haven't got the slightest idea about the inner workings of this site and the mods, do you?
    – Artur Meinild
    Commented Jul 4, 2023 at 7:59
  • @ArturMeinild maybe spend that effort on identifying and flagging deadweight moderators, normal users can't do that for you
    – prusswan
    Commented Jul 5, 2023 at 0:24
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    I just checked out of curiosity when was the last time each of the AU mods posted an answer. I found that all mods have posted at least one answer since 2019, so your claim about a mod that "has not answered anything in more than 10 yrs" is absolutely invalid. Furthermore, the "averaging less than one action per month" claim is unjustifiable, as we cannot know if and when a mod has taken an "invisible" (by non-mods) action, such as handling flags, deleting users, etc.
    – BeastOfCaerbannog
    Commented Jul 6, 2023 at 10:55
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    I don't know why you felt the need to complain about a presumably inactive mod here, under the moderation strike informing question, but this not the right place for it, and IMO not the right time. If you want to ask a mod to step down, you should post a new meta question where you can justify your claims and where we can talk about.
    – BeastOfCaerbannog
    Commented Jul 6, 2023 at 10:58
  • @BeastOFCaerbannog-Onstrike don't really want to dox that bugger but just pointing out that the strike drew attention towards all moderators (including inactive ones and those who only wanted the diamonds for whatever reasons). If normal users like me can see it, so would SE. If there is a swamp, it ought to be drained. As the old saying goes, be careful what you ask for, it might not appear in the way you expected it
    – prusswan
    Commented Jul 7, 2023 at 20:44

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