Moderator Mangeiri told Bored Panda that many mods on r/SelfAwarewolves are "almost entirely inactive," and they were kind enough to answer some of my questions about the community.
According to Mangeiri, the subreddit was created on a whim and its founder actually considered pulling the plug several times. "The top moderator, iSluff, created the subreddit some 5 years ago but has said publicly that they did it as a goof, 'hate meme subreddits,' and 'thought about deleting it multiple times.' Near as I've been able to tell, most of the moderators they brought on immediately after were members of an online Minecraft playgroup, I've only actually communicated with a couple of them," Mangeiri explained to Bored Panda.
The subreddit became more active since iSluff invited Mangeiri and a redditor named Drutt to help moderate it. Unfortunately, the community itself isn't as happy-go-lucky as you might think, watching from the outside. Being a mod is tough, there are no two ways about it. "The subreddit is incredibly challenging to moderate, as recent socio-political events in the US along with Reddit's lax account creation policy make it a battleground for trolls and toxic people to come in and harass sensical commenters," Mangeiri said.
Finding quality moderators to help out in a fairly toxic and troll-filled environment is one of the biggest challenges. "Some of the aggressive individuals we've dealt with have derogatorily called us 'unpaid digital janitors,' and sometimes it feels all of that. We've lost fellow moderators who had to step down due to the toxicity of the experience and try our best to inform potential moderator candidates as to what they're walking into and make sure it's the way they want to shape their Reddit experience going forward. Unsurprisingly, we've had some quality folks tell us, 'no thanks.'"
Mangeiri was candid that they don't know the inspiration behind the name of the subreddit. Meanwhile, the subreddit's 'No Gnomes' rule was already in place when they and Drutt joined r/SelfAwarewolves. "We left it as a nod to our inactive predecessors. Another mod indicated it was a term to describe a specific type of bigotry which slips my mind at the moment, and perhaps it was meant in that context, but none of the earlier mods have ever chimed in to tell us."
If you’re planning on being an active member of r/SelfAwarewolves, then you have to know the community’s rules by heart. Obviously, the content that you post has to fit the spirit of the subreddit: if there’s no self-awareness involved, odds are, the screenshot might fit a different part of Reddit better.
Like many other subreddits, r/SelfAwarewolves asks its members to refrain from reposting images too often. The pics might be great, but looking at the same ones over and over all the time can be exhausting.
In tune with the spirit of the subreddit, the moderators also ask its members not to be bigotted, to avoid being ‘edgelords,’ and not to troll anyone. What’s more, you should refrain from any “name-calling and abuse.” Personal attacks won’t be tolerated.
Funnily enough, the ‘Self Awarewolves’ community moderators also have a separate rule that simply states: “No Gnomes.” No additional context. No explanations about why gnomes might be excluded. Simply, “No Gnomes.”
A while back, I reached out to Vanessa Bohns from Cornell University to talk about all the embarrassing knowledge blind spots that we have.
"We spend a lot of time and effort presenting an ideal version of ourselves to other people. When something happens that contrasts with the image we’ve been projecting—when we say or do something that shows we actually aren’t as graceful or as smart as we’d like people to believe—we feel embarrassed," she told Bored Panda.
#12 I Cannot Believe She Got So Close While Still Completely Missing The Point
"Discovering you were wrong about something most everyone else around you has long known to be true is one of those moments. In that moment we learn, 'Wait a minute, maybe I haven’t been presenting the image of being smart or worldly that I thought I was presenting all this time,' which is embarrassing,” Vanessa explained that we feel mighty embarrassed when our imagined perceptions of ourselves and reality don’t line up as we think they should.
Meanwhile, psychotherapist Silva Neves from the United Kingdom told Bored Panda that some people who feel insecure about themselves can lash out at others because they feel like they’re ‘not enough.’ However, self-compassion can help them become more secure, confident, and empathetic toward others.
"Insecurity carries the message: 'I'm not enough', 'I'm not good enough,' or even 'I'm worthless.' These are painful beliefs to have about ourselves but many do have those underlying beliefs," the psychotherapist explained to Bored Panda what lies at the core of insecurity.
