Hi there. It's too bad I didn't see this post before (missed it, I think, because it's voted down past 0), or I would have responded more promptly to all this passive aggressive sniping you're doing about me.

It seems to me that you're implying that my "complaining" was uncalled for, petty, whiny, or—now that I've turned down the mod invite—insincere or not something to be taken seriously. Firstly, my post here was absolutely not insincere, or some kind of way to kill time by stirring up shit, as it seems you may suspect.

It's really kind of baffling how you are so childishly misrepresenting the whole thing—both my initial comments and your response to them. I first of all feel like I need to clarify my position.

This is your official comment in response to someone asking about what the mods are doing about racism in the sub. The two elements to your comments are 1) you remove objectionable comments that are reported and 2) you remove posts/comments that violate reddit's rules and ban the users that make those comments.

My comments here were addressing those two points, which I thought were an unacceptable, not to mention ineffective, response. My issue with your response is not your telling people to report comments so you can remove them—my issue is that that's the only thing you seemed willing to do. See the second part of my "what I'd like to see" statement there?

I would like to see you remove the frequent comments spouting racist, sexist, and generally hateful speech, and I would like to see you discourage the emerging culture/atmosphere/whatever you want to call it around here that breeds that shit.

It's not just about reported and removing the shit that pops up; it's about cultivating an environment that makes it clear that shit is not welcome. I'm talking about prevention, not just cleanup.

I also said that part of a proactive strategy would be a revised sidebar text and a new set of rules that explicitly disallow hate speech—not just speech that violates the sitewide rules. Aside from the issue of racism/sexism, I also said that I would like to see a subreddit rule disallowing content that features obviously mentally ill people, minors, and abuse.

And still you continue to say stuff like this:

They have no problem telling me to spend all of my time looking at every submission and comment every second of the day, because removing reported posts is 'not enough' I need to be proactive.

As if I've ever said that you need to personally look at every single comment?? Again with the childish misrepresentation.

Second, in response to this

I ended up cooling off and unbanning them, and then inviting them to clean up the 'problem' and become a mod.... But no.... they are too busy.

and this:

Just one of those people who complain about something, and when you offer to let them spend their time to fix it, its all "no no, thanks but no thanks, i'm super busy"

How petulant and childish you're being, and how condescending and flippant you're making me out to be. In case you've forgotten (in fact, it really seems that you have), this is what I actually send in response to the mod invite:

Hi there. I was pleased to see this message when I got onto reddit today.

I would love to help out at PublicFreakout but unfortunately life is just keeping me too busy to have the time required for that. There's already stuff I want to do for the other subs I mod, but I've been putting it off for real life work and school; it doesn't seem fair to take on another one.

Although if you're in the market for another mod, I think /u/Describe would be a good choice and they said they'd be up for it.

Best of luck to you.

I declined because I'm not able to commit the time this sub would require of me and I don't commit myself to responsibilities I'm not able to handle. That doesn't make my criticism any less valid and it is unbelievable that you're insinuating that it is so. I'm not the one who already made the commitment to be a mod here—you are. And you're acting like I'm somehow shirking my duties? You said yourself, via PM to me, that your life outside of /r/PublicFreakout has precluded you from some subreddit improvements; is it really so unfathomable to you that my own offline life precludes me from taking on this responsibility?

Third, (and you still haven't responded to this, even when I responded to the ban message and you PM'd me in response), many, if not all, the racist comments I reported at the time of writing that post were not removed. We both know very well that there's no way to "overlook" a report, as you claimed, because you have to click a button one way or the other, in order to resolve a report in the mod queue. Even more absurd is that some of those comments have still, even today, not been removed. And yes, I have reported them multiple times, as you requested. It seems that you're not even following through on your current, ineffectual approach to modding.

And lastly, this:

The funny thing is, whenever I remove a racist comment it has -30 karma. I'm not going to stress about this stuff anymore. I'll remove the reported comments, but no more trying to accommodate these people that want to complain about something they themselves don't want to take the time fix.

is really disappointing to see. Like I said, you apparently though that my viewpoint was "what this sub needs" and were willing for moderation to be more proactive. Are we now back to only removing reported comments?

I've said it at least three times now and I'll say it again: it is not enough to only remove reported comments, regardless of their votes; if you want to get rid of racist shit, you have to actively discourage it. (BTW, it is absolutely not true that racism is always downvoted. Here are two recent examples I reported 1 | 2 , being at +4 and +20, respectively, as I write this).

So revise the sidebar text, add a set of specific rules, make a mod post detailing those changes, and—in that stickied mod post where everyone can see—clearly express a distinct course of action for the mod team, recruit a few new mods—if needed—who can get on board with that philosophy, describe the kind of environment you want the users to help cultivate, and be ruthless about enforcing it: temporary bans for comments that are against the new rules, permanent ones for repeated infractions, and distinguished mod comments in the comment section when racism/sexism/other such shit is removed, to emphasize to other users that it's not welcome and is actively removed. It would also be a good move to go through the comment sections of the "top" posts on this sub and look at each comment, removing ones that violate the new rules—even removing posts that violate the new rules—in order to communicate to new subscribers and visitors the type of posts and comments that are/aren't welcome.

I sincerely hope that your personal reaction to me, what I say, or how I say it, doesn't affect your decision to implement the changes that, less than a week ago, you said you wanted in this sub, because it seems like right now you're throwing your hands up and saying that if rosegrim isn't going to do it then no one is. I gave you the name of one person who would do it; I'm sure you could find more if you were inclined to do so.