Moderators for EA/Longtermist FB/Groups or Discords
Effective Altruism
(Refinement of EA-relevant Substacks, Youtube, social media, etc. )
Given the huge amount of funding available to EA, we probably don’t want to skimp on moderators for major Facebook or Slack or Discord groups even though these have traditionally been run by volunteers. It’d be worthwhile at least experimenting to see if paid part-time moderators would be able to add extra value by writing up summaries/content for the groups, running online calls, setting up networking spreadsheets and spending more time thinking through strategy.
Risks: We might end up paying money for work that we would have gotten for free. Attempts to set up networking spreadsheets or run calls might have minimal participation and hence minimal impact.
Fyi paid part-time moderators would need buy-in from the online community – the EA Corner Discord seems against paid moderators, for example.
Of course. I guess I could see some negative effects from how it could encourage people to seek the mod roles as a way of being paid rather than because they could do a good job. I think that this issue could mostly be avoided by offering student level rates. Running a Facebook group seems like a nice entrypoint into EA movement building.
I really appreciate how many ideas you’re proposing, Chris!
Moderators for EA/Longtermist FB/Groups or Discords
Effective Altruism
(Refinement of EA-relevant Substacks, Youtube, social media, etc. )
Given the huge amount of funding available to EA, we probably don’t want to skimp on moderators for major Facebook or Slack or Discord groups even though these have traditionally been run by volunteers. It’d be worthwhile at least experimenting to see if paid part-time moderators would be able to add extra value by writing up summaries/content for the groups, running online calls, setting up networking spreadsheets and spending more time thinking through strategy.
Risks: We might end up paying money for work that we would have gotten for free. Attempts to set up networking spreadsheets or run calls might have minimal participation and hence minimal impact.
Fyi paid part-time moderators would need buy-in from the online community – the EA Corner Discord seems against paid moderators, for example.
I really appreciate how many ideas you’re proposing, Chris!
Of course. I guess I could see some negative effects from how it could encourage people to seek the mod roles as a way of being paid rather than because they could do a good job. I think that this issue could mostly be avoided by offering student level rates. Running a Facebook group seems like a nice entrypoint into EA movement building.
Thanks, you’re welcome!
Incentives could also be aligned by offering existing volunteer mods a salary to spend more time moderating.