What I learned from Andrew Kirby
I just finished a chat with Andrew Kirby about our situation and what they saw on their side. My biggest misunderstanding was thinking Skoolers and βSkool the platformβ were the same thing. Theyβre not. Skoolers is a community like ours. Itβs run with its own standards, and they moderate it the way they want their community to feel. The border is pretty simple in practice.Inside a community is inside the border.Anything that spills into other communities is outside the border. Thatβs why the Purge became a real problem. In my group, people were using my face as their profile picture for jokes. When that spilled into Skoolers, it starts normalizing fake accounts and βwho caresβ profile identity. That snowballs fast, and it makes the whole platform feel less legit. Andrew also clarified what they mean by low-quality engagement. Itβs loosely defined, but the patterns are clear: - lots of posts with no real conversation - post and ghost - self-promotional posts - anything that looks like gaming the system to level up faster He told me the phrase βhelp me level upβ gets flagged by the system. He also said most people cooperate and do fine. Itβs usually a tiny handful of problem makers. His words were basically: out of huge numbers of users, they can count the real troublemakers on one hand. One more thing people should understand: Skoolers moderation is a community choice. Theyβre not βmoderating the platform.β Theyβre protecting their room. Also, they have 5 moderators. Theyβre part-time. If we waste their time with annoying stuff, we are effectively burning the bandwidth of a small team. So hereβs what Iβm asking from the Yard going forward: - Use a real profile photo. Treat your account like it represents you. - If you post, stick around and reply. Try to create conversation, not noise. - Do not post anything framed around farming points, leveling up, or βhelp me level up.β - Respect moderators and admins. They are protecting the experience for everyone.