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Maybe you can tell us how you would like content moderation to work?
Here's what I would suggest for content moderation of SN 'territories'.
Territories are just namespaces. I personally don't think anyone should own a namespace (this was the big problem on reddit with the equivalent subreddits). Instead, I would suggest that different teams (or even just an individual) can act as moderation filters on a territory. They would set out their moderation philosophy somewhere. Then stackers could subscribe to the moderation team of their choosing and pay a subscription fee to that moderation team. That would ensure competition between moderation teams as to who provides 'the best' moderation. Of course, what 'the best' moderation is is subjective to different stackers. Some would prefer tight moderation and removal (from visibility, not complete removal) of lots of low effort posts. Some would prefer more permissive moderation. Some would prefer moderation that hews more closely to their ideological positions, etc. etc. (And a certain percentage of subscriptions from stackers to moderation teams would flow to Stacker News itself.)
I would envision starting out there would be just a single moderation team per territory. But I would expect that one or two alternative teams would soon come into place. However the original moderation team (who may have also created the territory), would have first mover advantage and would probably keep the majority of stackers unless they start making moderation decisions that stackers don't like.
Importantly stackers would still have the option of viewing a territory completely unmoderated / unfiltered. And of viewing the territory through the filter of an alternative moderation team for a short period of time, to see the territory through that different filter (to help them decide whether they want to switch).
Not sure I've explained this well so here's an attempt at a dot point tl;dr :
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no-one owns a territory namespace (although there may still be a price paid to create one)
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instead there can be different moderation teams for any territory, that filter what stackers who are subscribed to their moderation see when they view the territory
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subscription fees flow to moderation teams but with a certain percentage going to SN itself
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stackers still have the option of viewing a territory completely unfiltered (unmoderated) by any moderation team, and not having to pay a subscription cost
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I do agree, it should be not just one territory owner, it's a lot of work to curate a territory and SN yet does not offer enough tools to support this solo mission. Anyhow, I decided to sign up for the challenge and support this great corner of the internet to flourish. I really look forward to more collaboration tools and especially the ability to have more than one owner per territory: a territory team!
I do not see moderation competition as a constructive way to moderate here, especially if there are economical rewards behind. I like the idea to have mod teams, that will help a lot ad for this specific reason I'd use collaboration instead of competitiveness.
Something like this is already happening, on ~meta. You'll see some time there, territory owner sharing their experiences in a fully transparent way, including tips and tricks other terrowners can adopt
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