Delete

Dylan is unlikely to implement this, as he believes it would be abused sitewide, especially in politics. I do agree with him to an extent, but I do believe it would be a great tool to stop cyberbullying while giving Community and Global Mods time to focus on bigger picture stuff like community events or new site features. That’s partially why I implemented the new you’re free to police your comment sections how you see fit rule, to show it was a good idea.

I do fully agree with Dylan... As a matter of fact, on a website I was up to a few years a go moderator I've seen the wide-scale abuse, which led by the way only to put up the fire even more... I sometimes had to publicly claim credit for deleting a few comments in my role as a moderator in order to make the owner of that page get some rest, and when it goes that way that a moderator has to do that, you know you got yourself a bad feature...

And indeed especially on the political streams, either leftist or rightist or progressive or conservative or green or whatever (there are more political directions folks) I see the abuse coming up soon... But then again I've even seen channels on YouTube were a marble machine was the source of a political flame war, but on channels that were political from the start. Deleting comments just because you don't like somebody is a form of cyberbullying too. In the end moderators were tasked with their job for a reason.

Deleting is a very powerful tool. Power that only a few know to handle responsibly. And when moderators have to sort out abuse of a deletion tool, then you might well ask $10,000 per hour to moderate and tell your wife she won't see you anymore until the moment you collapse from a burn-out.... And yes, I've seen the proof of that with my own two eyes already.

I don't disagree with you fully, every tool a website provides will eventually get abused, it's inevitable. There are definitely people here already who do delete comments more than they should. My counter would be that cyberbullying is a growing threat in the online world, especially for younger people. It's not just the overt "kill yourself, loser" cyberbullying, there is also more subtle forms of cyberbullying like manipulation that I would argue are far more damaging to someone. These more subtle forms of cyberbullying are a lot harder for us mods to properly identify and take action on since they may not necessarily violate Imgflip TOS, but are still cyberbullying nonetheless. It is a tricky topic to combat, as you do want to preserve free speech rights on a platform like this, but you also want to make sure you have a place that is welcoming, otherwise you're not going to attract a broad userbase. Take for example, 4chan. 4chan has a wide variety of forums and users, but they have a bad reputation thanks to the users of the /pol/ forum, which keeps people away. They do have some moderation over there, as there are users who got banned from 4chan and moved on to create 8chan which is an utter cesspool. It's a tricky balancing act that's nearly impossible to get right. However, I do think allowing users to moderate their own comment sections would be a step in the right direction despite the inevitability of abuse. That was a big part in allowing EAM mods to moderate their own comment sections how they see fit without repercussions. I want to see how well it does in EAM before pitching it to Dylan so I can see if it truly is a good idea or not. So far, it does look like comment deletions are on the rise, but at a fairly small rate.

It is true, there ain't a feature or it will be abused. The question always is, what is the damage of the abuse. I'm a veteran when it comes to moderating a one thing I've learned is.. the moderator is by default always wrong... At least in the eyes of the users. Of course a moderator is prosecutor, judge, jury, lawyer and executioner all on once, and that a bit of a hard position.

Still when it comes to comment deletion. A comment full of abuse is easier for a moderator to track than a case of deletion abuse, even when the deleted comments are still visible for a moderator. And when deletion is abused or if there's even the suspicion of abuse, all hell can break loose. Like I said, as a former moderator I had to take credit for deletions a few times in the open, which I'm actually against doing, but people really thought users abused the delete feature. This already shows that the existence of such a feature alone, regardless of the fact if it's used or not is already contributing to cyberbullying even more.

Of course, this is a public forum, not a personal private chat. The whole world can read what we say to each other now. And in theory the whole world can notice if you delete this comment I wrote now. Also meaning that the whole world can scold you for that. When I personally do such a thing as a moderator I am prepared to be yelled at. That basically comes with the territory of being a moderator (unlike what most people think, it ain't a fun job), But when it comes just a regular user, who just deletes a nasty comment on a meme, and that user goes berserk... I've already been named and shamed for the GOOD THINGS I did as a moderator (deleting posts that were against the forum rules. The rules stated no advertising your work, that user did, so I deleted, easy, huh?) even to the point as "he thinks he owns the site" (do you ask a cop if he owns the road when he tickets you for ignoring a red light? Just a question). When a user gets targets of this, things can go out of hand, and the fight might really go out of hand...

When cyberbullying is a nasty fire, I think the ability to delete comments for non-moderators to put it out is like that stuff they had in Lebanon.... If you got what I mean.

Solution: There has to be an explamation of it

I’d like to get rid of the trolls that way

I totally agree i can't understand why they don't implement this!

It would be useful maybe

Look! Ship-Shap is talking about abusing power! XD

There also needs to be a way to pin comments!