Hey r/Apple!
aaronp613 here. I’ve been a moderator here for close to 5 years, but some of you might recognize my name from the Apple Event threads posted here over the past few years.
As of yesterday, I have joined MacRumors as a contributing researcher which leaves me in a bit of a pickle as to what I should do as far as my moderator status on this subreddit.
I’ll admit, ever since the API changes and strike, I have not really moderated this subreddit (or really any subreddit) that much, but as mentioned above, I still handle the Apple Event megathreads each time as I love experiencing the Apple Events with all of you.
So now the question is, what do I do?
Obviously, I should not be handling any day to day moderation going forward as I beleive that every news blog that follows our guidelines should have an equal and fair chance of being posted on our forum without the appearance of any potential bias from the moderation team.
When I brought this up to some of the other r/apple moderators, 2 possible solutions we thought of were these:
Option 1: Only continue posting Apple event threads and moderate the comments on those threads (leaving the news posting to another moderator).
Option 2: Option 1 but I also continue to post news links during the event for each topic. Accusations of bias can be avoided as we always post whichever news blog posts first, so the timestamps would speak for themselves.
So I want to hear your thoughts on the matter, because at the end of the day we are a community.
You must log in or register to comment.
Nobody cares. We don’t know you or care. Any mod who supported the protest despite the community not supporting it should lose their sub though.
First congratulations on your new job! Will you still be around and post to the apple community if you step down from moderating?
For sure
Who cares
Congratulations on the new job at MacRumors. 👏
If you go through with option 2, I think that would be fine. Like you said, timestamps would speak for themselves.
I’m going to defer expressing an opinion about your role as a mod, but I just wanted to say congratulations and you definitely earned it!
Personally, I don’t care if you’re a mod, special mod, or not a mod. And not in a negative way. I see why this is a potential conflict or interest, but it wouldn’t affect the community because macrumor articles get posted all the time.
The exception is if (1) you get paid to promote macrumor articles; (2) new policy where only macrumor articles are allowed; or (3) there is a strange upward trend of macrumor articles being posted (unlike before).
Macrumor articles are always posted here. I find out about macrumor articles from here versus the actual website. So it isn’t strange or a conflict.
I appreciate the transparency, but it’s a non issue. Keep being a mod if you want to be a mod, leave if you want to leave. As long as you continue to be a mod in good faith (assuming that’s what you want), I’m chill.
Congratulations on the new station. I hope you enjoy the change in scenery.
Option 2 seems fine and congrats on the job!!!
Option 3. Stop moderating altogether.
The conflict of interest is mostly hypothetical on Reddit.
It could become very real at MacRumors.
I am not a lawyer or even very educated, nor am I your lawyer or your barely educated internet stranger.
Following up with people who may not see the update:
https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/17xpa3n/addressing_a_conflict_of_interest_on_rapple/k9q045r/
Tbh Aaron, if you stay you might still end up being biased. It’s only human. I’d be okay with you passing the mantle onto a new guy who can carry the weight, while sticking around as one of us plebs.
All the best for your bright future, fellow nerd.
I feel like “leave ASAP” is an overreaction, like in r/Shortcuts the moderators still build Shortcuts themselves along with participating in the discussion thread but without the mod flair while also using the mod flair if they’ve to take a disciplinary action including stating a rule in the comments.
The decision should be based upon if it’s taking up your time between a paid job and voluntary work unless you’re or being forced to abuse your position or power.
Most people here or any subreddit don’t care who the moderators are. 99.9% won’t notice you ever left.