The Fedihosting Foundation is looking for a new site-admin for Lemmy.World, to help our busy team. This moderator will help with reviewing and acting on reports, weighing in on user content, and helping foster our local communities while acting as a friendly neighbor to other fediverse instances.
You also DO NOT need to have an account on one of our FHF services but WILL have to create an account after joining. Users from other sites WELCOME!
Benefits:
You'll get to work with a great team of passionate kind, goofy individuals from all over the (lemmy) world!
We have weekly virtual hangouts where we brainstorm new ideas and catch up with each other. Community for us is not just a buzzword.
We can also provide work and personal references, as we are a registered legal non-profit.
While not a technical role, you will also gain exposure to best-in-class industry tooling and processes for large-scale hosted applications (aka modern DevOps).
We also run a small blog, that we'd love to have folks contribute to.
Join in on the editorial voice for our featured communities.
We also understand this is a hobby and that family and work come first
If you're having a hard time finding time or are busy, we will always do our best to help and support you.
Applicants should have the following qualities:
Experience moderating a diverse group of individuals from many geographic, religious, and LGBTQ+ backgrounds.
Able to commit to at least 5-10 hours a week.
Excellent interpersonal skills and communication.
Solid background in conflict resolution.
Must be able to speak English.
Works well asynchronously with remote teams.
Grammar skills optional π
Bonus skills (which you will learn if you don't already)
SQL / Business Intelligence software skills.
N8N workflow automation
Web Design (Hugo + GitHub Pages).
Python scripting
Application process:
It goes without saying that we will only be considering applicants with a significant positive history of online posts and/or comments, no trolls, please.
Applicants must be okay with sitting for a video interview and must pass a basic background check.
While not strictly required, a CV with relevant work and volunteer history will help during the application process.
We are an international team that works from both North America EST time (-4) and Europe CEST (+2), so we would ask that candidates be flexible with their availability.
My guess is it's because it's a similar role to a Reddit Admin, which is to say they're basically a global moderator. Also, having access of any kind to the site's SQL server requires an element of trust. That's probably why they require the video interview.
My job didnβt even require a video interview, this unpaid role has more strict requirements than half the jobs in the US haha.
It's an IT job for a role with big responsibility. Unpaid or not, the role is the role. Filling up the shelves in a grocery store comes with a bit less responsibility.
My job is also an IT job with big responsibility. I wouldn't have compared the 2 jobs otherwise. Not sure where you got filling grocery store shelves from.
Yes, but for your job you've given to your employer your ID and your home address.
If you mess something up they know ehere to get you.
These guys can't get these warranties and they need to know you better.
I'm not applying but I have a comment / suggestion:
A pattern I'm seeing here, in activism and open source is that you basically want the full package right now. While I understand that that is what you need, people like that don't grow on trees.
It would be good if there was a "trainee" position for people to gain the kind of experience you are asking for. And guidance, by you to make sure they learn the right lessons. Possibly including a private-ish best practices handbook or whatever. I know that that means additional work in the short term.
Thanks for reading, all the best wishes!
(Compare to linux' kernel team asking for kernel devs and the policy of "pick any topic you'd like to work on". Do I expect a fully course on everything, bringing me from "high school knowledge" to "kernel dev professional"? No, of course not. But a few book recommendations would be great. In that case. Not sure if you can learn moderation from a book.)
It's not exactly uncommon for a listing to advertise the person they want, but to accept applicants with significantly less on the basis that they can get there. Nearly every job I've ever got I was not at the level advertised in something or other.
............do you have any idea how many times I DIDN'T EVEN APPLY because they said "must have X skill", and I was like "oh.....then I better not waste everybodies time."
Yeah it's pretty common in IT jobs where they're like "we want 25 years experience in these ten different technologies" and then you talk to the hiring manager and they admit that those qualifications are ridiculous.
A pattern I'm seeing here, in activism and open source is that you basically want the full package right now. While I understand that that is what you need, people like that don't grow on trees
The post-y2k bust removed a lot of our higher-paid staffers, and those were our mentors. For 2-3 generations of new coders we've been without that crucial "this is WHY it's best-practice" understanding from an experienced peer.
When you lament the loss of ready and experienced volunteers, what we lack are people who've learned at the side of truly talented people and are ready to take on some projects.
Now we have people with free time and a short history of ... Well, it's work.
What I'm saying is, there's a clear cause for the current state, for breach after breach after massive breach, and the lack of stellar volunteers.
This will get better, but - as downvotes will show - the current state is one of massive potential but little realization.
When you lament the loss of ready and experienced volunteers, what we lack are people whoβve learned at the side of truly talented people
What I'm actually lamenting isn't the lack of experienced volunteers.
I'm lamenting the fact that the groups in need lack the awareness that nobody is teaching the stuff they need and that they should do it themselves.
E.g. https://kernelnewbies.org/ I wasn't kidding when I mentioned them. Their idea of "outreach" is to open the door and wait for people to fall in. They have no teaching material, they have no recommendations. I'm recognizing that there is something happening that is in my interest and I personally would put in the time to learn whatever is necessary to get to the level that is required to seriously touch that code. I just literally don't know where to start and have no point to connect. There is a https://kernelnewbies.org/KernelMentors mentors program. Not only is their only point of contact a mailing list, if you follow the link, you will find that the mailing list doesn't actually exist.
All job posting overstate the requirements somewhat. It makes sense to start with the ideal vision of what you want and then work backwards from the applicants you get. I know a big puffed up job description is daunting and we think they wonβt talk to anyone who is not perfect. But they will talk to lots of people. They will let go of some requirements they thought they cared about, and find some new qualities in someone that they didnβt think to ask for. This is how it works 100% of the time.
Agreed, I think it's a lot to ask for in a volunteer position and kind of a dumb idea for the Lemmy Admins to hand over "the keys to the kingdom" to some random dude(tte) because they passed a video interview and submitted a (possibly forged) resume.
I'd be happy to apply, but requiring a CV and full background check in addition to a video call interview is a bit steep for me.
Just the video call I'd absolutely be applying, I genuinely believe in Lemmy and want to see it succeed, but not to the point that I'm willing to put this much information into non-employment hands.
After quite a long while working with someone to this capacity, it would be strange not to be on first name basis, but I haven't worked with you.
I've been on the internet for a very long time, and it takes quite a bit of rapport to build before I'm comfortable giving out my first name, let alone my full name.
I definitely understand where you're coming from, just a stretch at the start for me personally.
Not trying to tell you what do do (I bet there's heaps of people that would see it the same way as you)
But it seems kind of odd that people are happy to give a background check to a corporate employer who doesn't give shit about them (and who they don't care about or feel any responsibility towards), but wouldn't do the same for a community org position that necessarily involves more responsibility to the broader community.
Asking me this through straight employment is an agreement that protects both the worker and employer in some capacity.
Asking this through volunteer work makes me uneasy.
I'm completely happy to volunteer my time to an org that I believe in, Lemmy being a ptime example, but not willing to do so in the case of requiring this information up front.
I probably check all the boxes. Currently a cyber security engineer have worked in infrastructure for the last twenty years and currently head up the compliance team of the cyber division of the company I work for, I focused mainly on NIST, CMMC, and SOC II compliance. Iβve modded a few forums and discord servers over the last 20 or so years. There is no way in hell Iβm dropping private info on a random google doc thatβs open to the public. If there is a more secure way send my info send me a message.
The Google form results go only to the management team of our parent non-profit, no one else sees the responses.
If you feel that this is not secure enough, you can send a secure PGP email to our security disclosure address.
We DO provide it for folks that need more security.
Currently have CyberSecurity degree. I'm finding it difficult to get a job in the field without relevant experience of having a job in the field. How can I get experience to get the job that requires experience?
I 100% agree with your point about security and private information, but you are way over qualified for this "job". ;)
It's kind of weird to ask someone to have all that mod experience and then expect them to just post their private information publicly, though. Surely if they have enough experience they'll already know what a bad idea it is to publicly post people's information, and it'll be hard to get them to apply.
It reminds me of a past job recognizing that I have a lot of cashier experience, but then not being able to understand why I refuse to share a till with anyone else. Duh, because I've been through that pain before and any smart office will want to avoid it, too.
If a potential candidate doesn't understand why there's a strong vetting process then then don't understand the changing paradigm of human communication. Teaching that is an unacceptable liability. The OpSec is on point. Great work. And, thank you for everything, including tolerance of those that don't yet understand why.
There was a line on 3rd rock from the sun that was so relatable to me as a teenager in the 90s.
Tommy, the oldest alien, now trapped in the teenagers body, is trying to get a job at a fast food place. The manager turns him down. And when Tommy asks why, the manager says "I can't hire you, you have no experience!"
And when Tommy asks how you get experience, the manager says "First you get a job". Tommy asks how you get a job, and the manager says "You need experience!"
I'm adequate for the role, a temporary band-aid if the team is in need after their first round of vetting. If called upon I'll answer. It's not much of a safety net. But, it's here for your team.
Serious question, why would anybody do this? These are the requirements of an actual job but without any of the pay. If someone is putting in this much effort, they might as well just apply for a real job and get paid for it.
I understand that you guys want to screen people first, but lmao are you guys going overboard. The people who view this as hobby aren't going to put themselves through such unnecessary and worthless hassle, and the people who want a job won't apply because there's no money involved. The only people who would qualify and want to do something like this are people who literally have no life. These are people who have no family, jobs, or a social life.
I take offense to some of that, but I applied to be an admin back in Q3 of last year. After the video interview I got ghosted. Thought I would give this a shot, had another video interview, and yeah I'm not expecting much. So yeah, I'm not even sure the process actually does anything other than waste time.
I do have a very well paying job, family, but you may have called me out on the "no life" thing... Though I do have a car that's become a bit of a project so I don't waste as much time on "IT" shit.
Let me ask you this, as someone with a life, why did you even entertain the idea of wasting time on something this pointless in the first place? Do you find it fun? What's the thought process? Personally, after I finish working I want to spend my free time hanging out with my friends, family, go on a vacation, etc. If I really do have extra spare time on a consistent basis, I would much rather practice guitar, play ball, or doing things like you're doing now with your car. I see no benefit whatsoever from becoming a committed unpaid admin in general, let alone for an irrelevant site.
I work in the industry actually, this wouldn't really help you unless you completely lack any sort of experience. If you want to break into the field, you'll need a few things: Bachelor's in CS, a couple of coding projects that you do in your free time or during undergrad, and an internship related to the field. That's how I got started, but I get your point
Yep, I work in IT as a Linux System Engineer and I'm currently unemployed. I could do it, but there's a lot involved for zero pay. You really have to love Lemmy or admin work to want to do this for free.
Exactly, they're trying to pass off the responsibilities of an actual job as a hobby. I don't see how normal people can justify putting in that much time and effort for something that's not paid. This type of commitment has to come from people who have a lot of spare time and are on Lemmy so much that it wouldn't change much for them.
Honest question; why does this have to be a volunteer role? Is there any room in the Open Collective fund to pay towards renumerating someone for something like this?
Yeah I REALLY doubt they could truly not afford to pay someone at least a bit for something like this.
I am a former team member and I get the feeling someone or two are getting paid at least a bit.
I offered my informal CV. Lemmy and the Fediverse the largest group I've ever offered any service to. My largest group is just over 1,800, but it's a relatively homogeneous group needing little mod activity. The commuinity is free to comment on my history, stupidity (lol) and bias. I figure it's fair considering he job app. I'll offer that I respect and enjoy (even if it's verbal sparring) the prospect of opposing reasonable views on Lemmy vs the bots, tropes, reposts, and crabs-in-a-bucket karma-whores on Reddit.
Heya. I'm not interested in that position, but I'm open to moderating another community or two if you need to fill in any gaps for a less demanding role.
Thanks for your interest in moderation. If you want you can always ask either a popular community if you can help out or request a unmoderated community takeover and if anything isnt working for you, you can always create a new community!
I mean, Lemmy.World doesn't make enough money from their donations to cover much more than operating costs currently. Operating a site this size is not cheap. Would you prefer to see a ton of advertising and monetization like reddit?
The pay is the satisfaction of a job well done. It's like a family. We work hard and we play hard. Make sure to read the company policy on appropriate flair. Don't miss the meeting to decide how to form the committee for defining the best means of communication between committees for accounting, finance, and those troublemakers from the moderation committee.
Well, we cannot pay folks, but we can offer work references, some neat tech, and to be part of a team that's trying to make a difference online.
(Yes, I get the /s π)
That's what made me wonder. Do they just assume applicants use their real name on social media, and when they don't find anything online the person seems sus?
Do they ask for a police record like companies here would do sometimes?
I'm not familiar with that term unless you work with critical infrastructure and such, so I assumed they might just want to see some online behaviour from the past years with some proof that applicants have experience as admins.
Man this job posting is worse then all the garbage that companies put out. There will be very few people who tolerate KYC for non-paying volunteer internet janny job - and those who do should probably never be mods. Good luck tho, you'll need it.
I've been pushing positivity since the beginning before the first 1.5k joined this server. https://lemmy.world/post/36032
I would do it, and have the time, but I don't think you guys meet my requirements to make it manageable. I don't use proprietary software, and use a whitelist firewall with addresses I know and trust, like this server. While I can spin up a secondary network or even a Windows machine, I do not care to do so at all, and certainly not regularly. However, I'm basically at a computer all the time anyways.
What's up with the haters? Me, or something I said?
If .world wonβt pay someone impeccably qualified to perform this job, some other group will.
I bet a sufficiently motivated asset could juggle several different intelligence agencies, ngos/lobbying organizations and criminal syndicates and turn this into a ~100k a year gig.
I donβt know if itβs profitable, but if reddit users break away and start using something different, developed by communists and friendly to non-western and anticapitalist ideas it would be easy for a person or group opposed to that to see it as a threat to be observed, controlled and infiltrated for the purposes of sabotage.
I miss the piracy communities. The recent changes have pushed me back to reddit. Do with that what you will.
Edit: point taken, don't criticize instances or their moderators for anything they do unless you want to be crucified. They are above the law, their decisions to be made without criticism. Thanks for the lesson, assholes, you're really selling the return to reddit hard right now.
These are volunteers, that have day jobs, that have to spend their own time and money to deal with the legal ramifications of that. These arenβt people with legal teams and millions to blow on risk mitigation. These are hobbyists doing this after work, after helping the kids with homework, after cooking dinner for the family, etc.
Good news is that other instances exist. This is just what one group of volunteers is offering to the world.
Yeah, every time the mods get power hungry just migrate all your subscriptions. Super easy. Better hope the next instance isn't also blocking some of your communities.
People are down voting you when you are just expressing a feeling. I don't think that's right, but I hope you stay for the other great content on Lemmy and only go to Reddit for the missing stuff.
So far that's what I've been doing, but apparently that's the wrong move according to some people lol. I guess you can take the redditor out of reddit, but you can't take reddit out of the redditor XD
Ah, fuck, Iβm out. Itβs one of the only languages I havenβt learned. Were this a post seeking Sanskrit, Mayan, Akkadian, or High Valyrian language speakers, Iβd be just the right candidate.
Pop quiz: which of the above is not a historical language? If you guessed Klingon, your reading comprehension skills are for shit. The answer is English. Itβs completely made up and only appears in Fantasy genre stories β along with birds and flying spaghetti monsters and hobbits.
Wow, Iβm really bored at work, I guess. Glad itβs Friday. Hope you all have a nice weekend.