Dear PVers,

I want to discuss a few things with you regarding Voat; get some input and also try to set an agenda. It's going to be a little long, please bear with me.

Moderation of AskVoat

I was, as you know, appointed Level 2-moderator of AskVoat following Reow's take-over of Level 1-mod. He's been a true class act, sticking to the principles of letting AskVoat moderate itself and letting the team of moderators of vote on decisions, even if we're not always in agreement.

My stated goal when joining the AskVoat team was to make sure the sub didn't once again fall into censorship and to get the sub transferred to System. Also, I wanted to give PV and our ideals a small voice in a core sub that had been the grounds for too much drama.

Reow has been following through and the sub is in the process of being transferred to the admins' Level 1 control. This still leaves a Level 2 mod team, though. I personally believe it's important that mod team is there only to weed out obvious spam and trolling.

Obviously, the people who are hellbent on ruining Voat will use the transfer to test the waters. After all, SJWs can only control us if they control the power structure. Here on Voat they don't. They almost did, but a vigilant and relentless effort from PVers and others who saw what was happening has largely kept them at bay. Well done.

I will stay on the Level 2 moderation team of AskVoat as long as needed. If I go, it's because we've gotten fireproof guarantees that @System will keep it in the hands of the community, not the mods or because things have gotten so out of hand that I can't defend it. I urge everyone to give the AV team a chance, but also to stay vigilant - not everyone shares our ideal of a community that runs itself without powermods.

ProtectVoat

I want to address our role. I created ProtectVoat to make sure we had a place to from which to call out abuse on Voat. Abuse that censors genuine conversation, hinders speech and forces self-censorship on people. I've had a lot of help from the co-mods and from all of you; there are some people here who genuinely understand what free speech is about. That's great.

I want to remind everyone, however, that the goal of PV isn't to seek out the next thing to get worked up over. The less we have to talk about here, the better Voat as a whole is doing. When the alarm bell sounds here, it should be because someone, somewhere is abusing their moderator privileges.

Voat itself

I believe Voat needs new/more life. More users. More content. We only get that if we can keep conversations open, free and interesting. While we're always ready to defend free speech in here, remember that the best way to actually protect Voat is to go out there and contribute content, opinions and insightful comments. I don't have a lot of spare time myself at the moment, so I should be better at practicing what I preach. I know.

However, show the way, PVers. Protect Voat by making Voat interesting, nuanced, weird or exciting. That's how we really protect Voat.

Any reflections on AskVoat, PV's role going forward and on Voat in general would be great. Thanks, PVers!