Hey everyone, new mod here. I’d like to hear you on a few things, in order to make this community grow:

1. Who should be the primary target audience of this community?

We could tailor it primarily for layperson or for people with deeper Linguistics knowledge. Or we could simply let it roll.

2. Which type of moderation do you guys like? Stricter or laxer?

A stricter moderation would include rules like “quote your sources”, “no crack theories” (proto- or pseudo-scientific hypotheses lacking methodological rigour), stuff like this; it would also mean that I’d discourage off-topic a bit further.

3. “Almost no crown or cross” rule: yes, no, indifferent?

By “almost no cross or cross” I mean that posters would only be able to talk about politics and religion as much as necessary for the subject of Linguistics. For example you’d be still fine posting something like this, but you wouldn’t be able to discuss here the Marxist side of the matter, only the Linguistic one. Just an example, mind you.

4. How much do you know about Linguistics?

Are you a grad, undergrad, informed layperson, or just curious? Are there areas that you feel confident on, like Sociolinguistics or Phonetics or something like this?

5. Which type of content do you want to see here?

Papers? Videos? Discussions? Historical Linguistics? Sociolinguistics? Phonetics and Phonology? Since mods are IMO responsible to nurture a community, I don’t mind looking for stuff to post here, but I’d like to know which one.

Thank you!

EDIT: I’m reading all your comments, even the ones that I didn’t reply to, OK?

  • agrammatic@feddit.de
    1·
    2 years ago
    1. Who should be the primary target audience of this community?

    I think it’s fine to let that play out

    1. Which type of moderation do you guys like? Stricter or laxer?

    Similar to above, but a baseline should be maintained to keep the initial contributors coming back. E.g. for one, I’m not looking to get angry by PIE-denialist drivel for example (this might be a location-specific concern).

    1. “Almost no crown or cross” rule: yes, no, indifferent?

    I find it better to moderate the quality of the discussion, rather than the content. So long as it is still relevant to Linguistics and it’s not a flamewar, it should be acceptable.

    1. How much do you know about Linguistics?

    Stopped short of pursuing a PhD in the field. Studies were focused on language disorders and non-typical morphosyntax.

    1. Which type of content do you want to see here?

    Definitely not papers. I would prefer discussions. Most of what I did on Reddit was to support language learners by giving them linguistically informed explanations of grammatical phenomena in the languages they were studying, and discuss with other language enthusiasts about emerging linguistic change or non-mainstream usage.

    Eventually there might be a necessary split between a community of the science (this one, perhaps) and another one purely for language learning, but for now it might be most sensible to keep them at the same place.