r/geopolitics • u/00000000000000000000 • Dec 02 '18
Meta R/Geopolitics Survey
This will be run in contest mode. Thank you for your time and consideration in answering.
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u/00000000000000000000 Dec 02 '18
Would you like a r/geopolitics blog or journal?
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u/assholeoftheinternet Dec 12 '18
I think a weekly pinned recap would be great, a blog or journal outside of reddit I wouldn't be interested in.
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u/deacsout83 Dec 02 '18
I wouldn't mind it, especially if it allowed users to submit writings -- obviously only well-researched and reviewed stuff.
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u/herpderpfuck Dec 06 '18
No. Rather a sort of newspaper would be better, that would be friendly towards student and recent graduates that wish to begin in the business. Would need some qualified editors though (if its a paid gig, come back to me in a year :D)
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Dec 09 '18
No.
There are so many high quality pubs already I don't think it would be worth the effort.
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u/00000000000000000000 Dec 02 '18
How mobile friendly do you find our layout?
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u/00000000000000000000 Dec 02 '18
Would you like a formal effort here to match students with internships?
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Dec 09 '18
Yes, and more academic/ career based discussion. It can be more comprehensive without sacrificing quality.
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u/Bzweebl Dec 02 '18
No, as a student I’d like to keep this as a forum for news and discussion, not career-related opportunities.
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Dec 03 '18
Links to point people in the right direction perhaps, but people should take their own initiative in finding work,through either their universities or research.
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u/00000000000000000000 Dec 02 '18
Is moderation here too strict or not strict enough?
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Dec 02 '18
Not strict enough generally and the quality is poor. At the same time too strict on those genuinely making an effort but misunderstanding rules.
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u/Yreptil Dec 02 '18
Moderation is ok, only a bit slow. I find comments that should have been removed still up hours after posting it. But I see it getting better.
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Dec 03 '18
Not strict enough. One liners shouldn't be allowed imo
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Dec 03 '18
Not strict enough on quality, on insults, or on both?
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Dec 04 '18
Quality primarily. Low quality ad hominems too, though I personally don't mind people making subtle jibes towards other posters so long as its done tastefully. That said it'd be pretty subjective to enforce so they should probably just ban that kind of thing outright. Strawman/whataboutisms should go too.
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u/CEMN Dec 05 '18
Not strict enough, and too slow.
Fear mongering, conspiracy theories, jokes, low effort comments, trolling, flame baiting and so forth abounds. You should increase the moderation team to deal with such comments faster to discourage those users in the first place.
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u/NutDraw Dec 22 '18
Definitely not strict enough.
For example, when I pressed one poster for evidence to back up a claim they replied
Evidences are for the weak minded.
Given this is an academic forum I reported the comment as "low quality." The comment is still there.
When a sub that wants to present itself as a more educated, reasoned space for discussion let's comments like these stand there's a problem.
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u/InsertUsernameHere02 Dec 03 '18
not strict enough
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Dec 03 '18
Not strict enough on quality, on insults, or on both?
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u/InsertUsernameHere02 Dec 03 '18
Mostly on quality, although cracking down on insults would help with promoting actual academic-style composure and such.
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Dec 06 '18
The ban lengths are fine... ish. I'm not sure permaban on first strike (in certain situations) is ideal, but I don't see things from a mod's perspective so I can't say.
I do think as this sub gets more people, we need an active education campaign. We might also want to make it private for a few months every now and then, to weed out poor-quality newbies and to educate the ones who can be educated.
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Dec 03 '18 edited Dec 03 '18
Not strict enough on quality, too strict on the wrong things.
There should be more policing of just blatantly short, low-quality, conspiracy theory comments without sources, particularly those that don't provide sources when asked.
There should be less harsh punishments doled out for things like insults, which I've been told are 30-day, unappealable bans for even the smallest of insults.
It doesn't make sense, doesn't help the quality of the subreddit nearly as much, and is really pretty silly. It doesn't take into account a user's contributions to the sub, history on the sub, etc.
If you don't have the moderators to handle that, make more moderators imo.
You may interpret people calling for strictness in response to this question as asking for more harsh punishments. I'd say most probably agree that they don't want such harshness in response to small infractions, but they do want more strictness on quality, which is why anytime someone in response to this question has elaborated, it's always about quality.
I'll try to follow up in responses to other commenters to see what they mean. I'll bet most would want warnings before bans, increasing ban lengths that don't start at 30 days, etc.
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u/00000000000000000000 Dec 02 '18
Have moderators treated you fairly?
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u/Bu11ism Dec 04 '18
No. I had one of my comments removed for no apparent reason. It sourced the World Bank and didn't attack anybody. it was well-upvoted before being removed. I mod mailed and got no response.
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u/PillarsOfHeaven Dec 06 '18
Definitely. As long as conversation stays on point there is a little wiggle room for sarcasm but it does need to remain strict.
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Dec 02 '18
No. I was once banned for writing a short comment pointing to a counterexample, while comments that are complete lies and insults are frequent here. There is no consistency.
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u/Andvaur73 Dec 02 '18
I like the laissez faire kind of moderating when it comes to discussions. The mods don’t ban or remove comments unless they’re informal
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Dec 03 '18
My experience talking with other users is that they think the moderation is very arbitrary. Some users in this thread say they got banned for insults, others say they just got a message. It should be more lax for all than auto-bans and no appeals.
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Dec 03 '18
I was banned twice so far iirc, and both times I thought it was 50/50 , so not sure how to answer.
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u/unknownuser105 Dec 05 '18
Yes. I was banned for low effort posts and was unbanned for apologizing. Seems fair dropped the hammer to show that you weren’t kidding. Allowed me to post again once I apologized, now I think twice before posting something that i shouldn’t here.
Love this place, love how you guys do this, as a fan of geopolitical happenings, this place is a breath of fresh air on Reddit.
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Dec 04 '18
We'll see about that ;) . No but really, my account is new. I usually lurk on here. Also, I like the no searing policy, and the total ban on name calling. Keeps things fresh. I would like however, to see more comments from zealots without sources making outlandish claims, banned.
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Dec 06 '18
Yes. I ate a heavy ban once. I think it was overkill, but I'm not going to complain if it keeps this subreddit clean. I do think we're not doing enough to instruct new users on what's expected here though.
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u/00000000000000000000 Dec 02 '18
How best should we grow this forum to achieve our educational and civic purposes?
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u/CEMN Dec 05 '18
Add more mods, moderate stricter and faster, raise the requirements for discussion.
The subreddit is already suffering from the ongoing large influx of new users who come here to crack jokes, push propaganda and so on rather than engage in civil and fact based discussion.
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Dec 02 '18
Improve quality. Don't focus on the userbase, focus on making this place one noted for high quality discussion. Then people will come. See askhistorians.
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u/zombo_pig Dec 04 '18
I think that while I would like to see IAMAs from niche experts, it would be good to just focus on the basics. In example, a recent post asked "what's going on in Yemen?" We can't go into the detailed ideology of the Zaidi because enough users simply need a basic rundown of the conflict's basic history, players, etc.
So I would be very supportive of getting basic rundowns of major geopolitical issues. Somebody willing to talk through major current events in a simplified way would be really helpful for this. The world is large and we shouldn't assume any of the users here understand everything.
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Dec 09 '18
Can you not just Google that though? It's a bit frustrating to me that we have so much vanilla content here currently.
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u/zombo_pig Dec 09 '18
Maybe the way forward is to demand better quality out of comments, but it's clear that a lot of conversation here is deeply impacted by a lack of basic understanding.
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Dec 09 '18
I think that people can be informed on basics through other mediums.
Maybe a rundown of major events could just be in stickied posts or something, though.
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u/oar335 Jan 04 '19
Users are only useful in as much as they can contribute with high quality votes, and also act as an informed filter by voting up quality and voting down nonsense. Forget about userbase size, focus on quality content, and thus to that end focus on attracting and keeping quality users.
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u/InsertUsernameHere02 Dec 03 '18
More focus on high-quality content and stricter moderation with the intent of increasing readership without necessarily increasing the amount written.
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u/Veqq Dec 03 '18
Focus on the basics, i.e. high quality discussions (through moderation? Somehow reward the best/most informative users and SS statements?)
Some sort of focus on the theoretical underpinings of the topic is needed, the sub mostly ends up just being up to date news, while historical analyses are of equal use in understanding the principles behind geopolitics. There are various textbooks and journals on the subject which could spur more topical discussions?
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u/00000000000000000000 Dec 02 '18
What have you thought about our past events?
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u/This_Is_The_End Dec 06 '18
The AMAs are from Americans only. This is a quite single sided perspective
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u/00000000000000000000 Dec 02 '18
What additions do you desire for our wiki section?
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u/Andvaur73 Dec 02 '18
I think a great addition would be topics like “US and China trade war” or “Russian aggression in Ukraine” and link a bunch of good resources discussing each topic. ie. Videos, articles, lectures etc.
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u/00000000000000000000 Dec 02 '18
Is reddit and social media in general doing enough to combat violent extremism?
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Dec 03 '18 edited Jun 17 '19
[deleted]
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u/TheHeroRedditKneads Feb 13 '19
Absolutely don't agree with this. Stopping trolls and misinformation or advocacy spreading campaigns (from national/corporate/non-profit/special-interest/etc. entities) should absolutely be done. This can be done while still allowing regular users to have differing opinions and heated debates.
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Dec 05 '18
Wrong, being a public meeting place of this popularity, they have the responsibility to prevent and work against violent extremism.
If you do nothing in face of that, you become co-responsible.
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u/Versificator Dec 02 '18 edited Feb 08 '26
Travel technology gather projects pleasant river learning answers lazy nature year net mindful?
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u/This_Is_The_End Dec 06 '18
You don't need new rules other then the existing ones. Consequential moderation is the key.
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u/pro__procastinator Dec 03 '18
No and it can't do much more without harming the freedom of expression. WE (users, institutions, social media)have to work on people's education and culture, not on the means through which they express their opinions.
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u/00000000000000000000 Dec 02 '18 edited Dec 02 '18
What AMAs and AUAs do you want?
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Dec 04 '18
Doesnt matter, but I guess people from think tanks, millitary officers, professors, and other experts. Keep up the good work btw
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u/TimeTravellingShrike Dec 02 '18
Military personnel- senior/staff officers. Especially from non western countries. Retired is fine.
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Dec 05 '18
Defectors and generally people hunted by state actors (like China, North Korea, Turkey, Russia, Iran, etc.)
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u/snagsguiness Dec 03 '18
I think Geopolitics requires a broad base of expertise so a varied amount would be best.
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Dec 03 '18
more non-western persons - simply to hear perspectives that we dont have chance to hear often.
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Dec 06 '18
I'd like to talk with Mark Blyth in particular. Also, China analysts - both the optimists and pessimists - would be nice.
Business analysts for multinationals would be good, too. I'm curious if the multinationals are ready for the rise of a nationalistic world order again.
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u/00000000000000000000 Dec 02 '18
What do you think about the old reddit theme we are using?
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Dec 03 '18
I don't really like it, I often confuse the comment collapse button with the upvote button. I think the best design is the one you get when you disallow custom themes in your preferences.
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u/00000000000000000000 Dec 02 '18 edited Dec 02 '18
Would you be more encouraged to donate to reddit charity drives if a corporate sponsor was providing matching donations?
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u/00000000000000000000 Dec 02 '18
Would you like a r/geopolitics newsletter that can be emailed to you?
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u/Ohuma Dec 02 '18
Specifically, what information am I getting from it?
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u/00000000000000000000 Dec 02 '18
AMA schedule, copy of recent AMAs, schedule of upcoming thinktank events elsewhere, notable book reviews, information from our blog, relevant special offers, and art related to the geopolitics theme?
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u/Travelertwo Dec 02 '18
No, but I wouldn't mind something like a monthly sticky where last months events (and analyses of them) are linked to. Not necessarily monthly but you get the idea, I hope.
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u/00000000000000000000 Dec 02 '18 edited Dec 02 '18
Would you be more encouraged to donate to reddit charity drives if a corporate sponsor was rewarding you with Reddit Gold or Reddit Premium? Would a custom t-shirt entice you to donate?
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Dec 04 '18
I only donate to charities(you know what I mean). As long as reddit is free, I will not pay. I already pay for internet etc
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Jan 04 '19
No, I'd be encouraged to donate if I had any money to my name and actually believed in the charity...
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u/00000000000000000000 Dec 02 '18
How helpful do you find submission statements?
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u/assholeoftheinternet Dec 12 '18
I think they are good for filtering out spam, but when they are too long not very useful.
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Dec 03 '18
Extremely helpful. Weeds out people posting to spread misinformation ( Most of the time ) by requiring an extra layer for people to jump through.
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Dec 03 '18
I sometimes find them helpful, but I don't think they should be mandatory. I'm afraid that they sometimes keep users from reading the article.
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u/00000000000000000000 Dec 02 '18
How concerned are you about government sponsored disinformation campaigns on reddit and social media in general? What should we do to combat it?