Embed Notice

@aral define “the nature of a thing”.

Suppose that I create an open community, where the usual common sense rules for social interactions apply.

According to “my” definition, the “nature” of that thing is “an open community for interaction between mutually respecting adult people who abide to common sense”.

Now suppose that one day a bunch of Nazis, incels, flatearthers and homophobes joins the community. According to them, the “nature” of my thing is an open community, and to them their ideas are perfectly compatible with common sense and mutual respect, so they don’t see any problems with being a part of it.

How do you prevent your “thing” from turning into the Nazi bar without moderation?

If you moderate, then, according to your definition, you expose your “thing” as being unequal and unjust. But if you don’t, then your “thing” will just gradually become more unequal and unjust because nobody wants to hang at the Nazi bar.

So what’s the definition of the “thing” that applies in this case? The one that you have in your mind, or what some of your users think it’s the most fit definition? And how do you handle conflict between those definitions?