Significant amounts of content posted on Reddit are deleted as inappropriate by either a volunteer human moderator or a configurable, automated program called 'Automoderator' ('Automod'). How was this sociotech- nical system created, how does it work, and what lessons can we learn from it? We participated as Reddit moderators for over a year, and conducted interviews with 16 Reddit moderators to understand Autmod in the context of the sociotechnical system of Reddit. Our findings suggest a need for audit tools to help tune the performance of automated systems, a repository for sharing tools, and doing a better job of division of labor between human and machine decision making. Finally, we suggest that a more 'seamful' design can better balance users' desire for transparency and moderators' need to operate efficiently in an often adversarial environment.
The concept that people learn best when they are making something personally meaningful - also known as constructionism - is the lab's guiding philosophy. Computer networks have the potential to facilitate community-supported constructionist learning. The Electronic Learning Communities Lab examines ways communities of learners can motivate and support one another's learning experiences.
