A Facebook Moderator Explains the Difficulty of Moderating Effectively

Have you ever wondered what happens when you report or complain about a Facebook post? I certainly have and now thanks to an anonymous post on a website called The Internet Offends Me we now have an inside look.

There is a legitimate reason to file a complaint on Facebook, however as you can imagine the most popular website in the internet comes with plenty of whiny, non-savvy users who feel they should complain about all sorts of things, rather than walk away, my preferred choice. Naturally, the moderators have an all-day barrage of legitimate complaints and that is what they are there for and the poster spends a couple of paragraphs early on explaining that he is there to take care of these sort of posts and improve your experience. This would be easier, if every crybaby, offended by almost anything would shut up so these guys can do their job. I get it.

This person estimates that 80%, that’s right let’s repeat that, 80% of the 250,000 complaints that come in per hour are complaints or requests for help that a guy at a desk can’t do anything about, even if he wanted to.

Let’s take a look at some of the stupidity that he quotes. Oh, of course the grammar and spelling had to be corrected:

- “I don’t believe in this coin. It goes against what I believe in.”
- “This fish doesn’t look like a fish, it looks like a man’s private parts, and I have small children around me during the day.”
- “I saw this on my feed and I do not approve please take it off.”
- “This page shared my picture without credit or permission.”
- “Can you remove this picture I don’t like it.”
- This is not true, my God would never let this happen.

I now leave you with two things to consider. We have a fairly large platform on Majorgeeks and I hope we can make a small difference.

First, here is a story that hit home for me and I hope it does for you as well. This moderator had a report from a 7 year old girl whose Uncle posted a suggestive photo and said he was coming over at 2. The Uncle had been raping the girl. She was too scared to go to the authorities, she’s 7, but she did find the report a picture option and filed a complaint under a lesser offense. By the time this moderator got to her posts, thanks to jerks complaining about crap as seen above it was too late and this moderator went home and cried him, or herself to sleep.

Second, the article continues with some frequently asked questions which I hope many of you will take the time to read, share and apply. So, once again the article is located at https://theinternetoffendsme.wordpress.com/2013/04/09/the-real-story-behind-facebook-moderation-and-your-petty-reports/#comment-410. <-- That’s a pretty long link, you can’t miss it.

Bottom line, it’s not all about you. There are so many blatant scams and obviously offensive posts that if you must report something then realize that if it simply offends you that just might be too bad. Sometimes it is easier to walk away.

Got a question about Facebook? They have all already been answered. Perhaps you have heard of search engines? Google is pretty cool. I simply Googled “Can people see my private messages on my timeline” as mentioned above and there is it on Facebook and other websites. You could have had your answer immediately.

Sidebar: If you actually think people learned anything from this, you should try reading the comments. After reading all of this, you have 310+ comments and while many people are supportive, there are plenty of people who want to argue what is right or wrong in the comments.

I want to report them.