What do you mean by democratic? Are you thinking of some kind of election system to replace mods, and if so have you seen such a mechanism work anywhere else on forums?
Give people votes proportional to the karma in that sub.
Also, make it hard to perma-ban someone with over 100K karma points, especially in regional subs (like /r/india, etc.); you can change your interests, but you can't really change where you are from. If nothing else, force the mods to actually justify bans; and one subjective offense should not be enough to ban someone.
StackOverflow is HEAVILY moderated. And still has lots of garbage. I have questions constantly taken down for being too vague, offtopic, not the right stackexchange, or not technical enough. I've even responded to takdowns with links to questions with hundreds of points that were almost the same, and ... nope. At least mark it redundant.
Slashdot also had a great moderation system. Way ahead of its time.
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Edit: I was going to respond to [1], but I'm rate limited. Below is my comment:
> Anonymity really hurts profits.
That's what killed YikYak and continues to beleaguer anonymous message board monetization (well, maybe it's the content).
Reddit at least has an interest graph going for it. If they can figure out how to boost subreddit discovery and encourage users pick the things they'll spend money on, then they'll be golden.
1024core|4 years ago
Also, make it hard to perma-ban someone with over 100K karma points, especially in regional subs (like /r/india, etc.); you can change your interests, but you can't really change where you are from. If nothing else, force the mods to actually justify bans; and one subjective offense should not be enough to ban someone.
josephcsible|4 years ago
SavantIdiot|4 years ago
echelon|4 years ago
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Edit: I was going to respond to [1], but I'm rate limited. Below is my comment:
> Anonymity really hurts profits.
That's what killed YikYak and continues to beleaguer anonymous message board monetization (well, maybe it's the content).
Reddit at least has an interest graph going for it. If they can figure out how to boost subreddit discovery and encourage users pick the things they'll spend money on, then they'll be golden.
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28157448