Submitted by [deleted] in lobby (edited )

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celebratedrecluse moderator wrote (edited )

Reply to comment by nar in by !deleted20335

In response to item #2:

administrators are taking the risk of hosting the service, so they need to be able to disassociate (banning, moderating content) from people who abuse the service (break ToS) to ensure the website remains available & functional for us and doesn't result in legal problems for themselves.

Moderators are volunteers to help them with that altruistically, pretty much anyone who is a trusted user over time can become one, but it's at the admin discretion because again, admins are the only ones taking a risk. For example, it took a year or so, for me to become a moderator; i was invited, i did not badger them, and it's basically just taking on extra duties rather than extra power per se. This do not conflict with anarchist values imo, because it is just an extension of freedom of association. If anarchist values are to be defended, admins still need to be able to freely associate, and thus to dis-associate, from those who reject or subvert their values within the specific space the admins create & maintain.

If you wanted to make your own website, the code is entirely free for anyone to use, so there is no problem with anarchist ideas being contradicted; the labor that went into, and continues to go into, this site is made as much as possible to benefit even those who are not sharing the same value. They could always simply take the freely available Postmill code and pay for their own server.

Another way to look at this, through a more materialist/communist/dialectical lens: so long as the means of production (code) is freely available, they don't have to share the fruits of production (server, website) to not be hypocritical or whatever.

Furthermore, the admin don't owe anyone anything, and even the assumption of a shared value of anticapitalism/anti-Intellectual property, doesn't imply some duty to help literally anyone fuck up your own project that you disproportionately take the risk on. The website is an invitation-only party, not a public park.

Just my two cents, hopefully this is helpful. Thank you for responding! You are valued here.

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nar wrote (edited )

I see, yes this is helpful. Thanks for answering! You are valued here as well.

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