I’ve set the community open, so users can now begin to post!
Would you like to moderate this space? I’ve created a small list of questions for applicants, which I will try to review regularly.
I just saw this post show up and I noticed it’s eight months old. I’ll go ahead and submit an application.
###What is your Lemmy.World username?
###Do you have a Discord username?
r3d_f0x
###How long have you been active in Worldbuilding communities?
I started on the subreddit in 2018.
###What hours, in UTC, are you active?
12:00 - 5:00 AM, though it could be earlier or later and there are times I could be on around 12-2 PM to quickly check on things.
###Do you have any experience moderating, or any other experience you think is relevant to moderating?
I’ve been moderating a site my sister started years ago, though I’ve delegated most of the day to day stuff to other moderators. I run a Lemmy instance and I moderated a Mastodon instance that I used to run. I have to manage childish disputes at work, including with a former employee who had a serious case of main character syndrome.
I created a worldbuilding community on Lemmy before finding this one, and this is a list of rules I made for it. I’m aware that there are differences with this community and I wouldn’t have any trouble enforcing those differences here.
###Please review the first draft of rules. Do you feel you understand them? Are there any you feel you need explanation of?
I’ll enforce the rules however the leaders of this community want, regardless of whatever my personal opinion on certain things is.
With regard to rule 3 and 4, I’m aware this is not a memebuilding subreddit for explaining lore through memes. I would be open to users including memes related to the post within the content of a long post as a way of breaking up a massive wall of text since it would likely increase readership since long text posts will appear boring. I wouldn’t expect the memes to adhere to rule 4 since memes usually recycle content created by other people and it would probably be obvious that the user is borrowing from other works.
Again, I would not allow “memebuilding” where the primary method of storytelling is the memes.
With regard to the third point of rule 1, I think that some amount of real world messaging is acceptable, which I touched on in the rules that I mention above. Almost every story will have some sort of moral or message that the author wants to convey, and not including any time of real world message would probably make for an extremely boring story. That said, I absolutely agree that there should be some sort of limit. I don’t consider blatant soapboxing appropriate and the message shouldn’t break immersion from the story. I shouldn’t feel like the world was built entirely around trying to push an agenda, and wouldbuilding shouldn’t take a backseat to attempts to insert contemporary politics. I’ve seen a lot of second civil war worldbuilding on the subreddit, and I’m ok with that as long as it’s within the realm of fiction and doesn’t get into content that’s likely to cause political contention within the community. Personally, I try to avoid getting that close to real world politics, but I wouldn’t be that strict for everyone else.
As a personal example, I have a character who was created as the result of the turmoil of the current time, but I show the current time through the layer of mythology that’s fictional or at least ambiguously accurate within the context of the world itself so that way I can touch on some of the same ideas without getting bogged down by mentioning Trump or other contentious subjects.
I think it’s good to try to tackle pressing issues in stories, but it should be done appropriately.
Regardless of anything else, if a post were likely to incite a political debate I’d remove it.
Also with regard to rule 3, I care more about low effort more then low quality. If someone submits a badly drawn picture, but it looks like it’s just the user’s skill level, I wouldn’t remove it.
###Are there any of the rules that stand out to you? Any that you disagree with or would see changed? If so, how?
Aside from what I put previously, I’d change the AI rule. Using AI to modify a picture that OP has the rights to use should be acceptable. As for entirely AI generated content, it should be acceptable unless it copies directly. Cis human intelligence works in the exact same way and we don’t require cis people to cite every single work they have ever seen because it has influenced them.
###Do you feel you would be able to interact with the community outside of punishments, such as warnings or bans? Why or why not?
Yes. I tend to work with people and explain the reasons for decisions and try to help them work within the rules.
I would be more likely to simply delete a post and give an explanation without a formal warning because issuing a warning, especially to someone who might be well intentioned, could be taken as inflammatory.
###Do you feel you would be able to remain calm and polite while mediating disagreements between users, especially over sensitive topics such as politics, representation, or personal disagreements?
I think that I would be able to detach from sensitive issues.
###Describe, briefly, the tone and approach you feel a moderator should take when dealing with users.
They should try to work with users and offer suggestions for things they could do to work within the rules.
I mentioned above how I use in-context fictional mythology to describe the 21st century so that I’m able to touch on the main problems with our society without getting into the baggage and I don’t need to mention Trump or any other real world controversies.
It’s also important for moderators to remember that wouldbuilders who post inflammatory content might have good intentions and not realize how people would likely take something the wrong way.
###Is there anything else you’d like to add?