[VancouverMan]

Some people seem to get immense satisfaction and pleasure out of censoring other people online.

It's something I've seen time and time again, in a wide variety of discussions forums, for decades now.

Such people will happily do it for free, and they're willing to dedicate many hours per day to it, too.

I don't understand their motivation(s), but perhaps it simply gives them a sense of power, control, or influence that they otherwise don't have in their lives outside of the Internet.

[kiba]

Moderation. It's a thankless job. I supposed blocking spam counts as censorship.

[wmf]

Those people should never be allowed to moderate anything for obvious reasons.

[cactusplant7374]

You have described Reddit moderators.

[darkerside]

Praying he doesn't take this the wrong way, but perhaps /u/dang would be so kind as to weigh in? I don't equate what he does on a daily basis to censoring, but I'm certain it constitutes a part of the job (after all, this is the Internet, and I'm sure there's all manner of trash making an appearance on occasion). Furthermore, I would posit that there's a bit of overlap between censorship and moderation -- even excellent moderation -- although I welcome any nuance I'm missing on this topic.

Moreover, while I hope he is compensated well enough, I imagine this was initially, if not any longer, a job that demanded effort disproportionate to the monetary reward. What would keep someone interested in such a job and naturally driven to perform it well?

Coming from a place of curiosity, meaning no offense, and happy to let this comment slip quietly away to a back room to sit alone if that's what it merits.

[astrange]

> Furthermore, I would posit that there's a bit of overlap between censorship and moderation -- even excellent moderation -- although I welcome any nuance I'm missing on this topic.

You aren't missing anything. Many people have oppositional defiance disorder and have never used an unmoderated forum; they are completely unusable because they're full of spam.