@Ernest has pushed an update which allows users to request ownership/moderation of abandoned magazines. Ghost/abandoned magazines were fairly prevalent after the initial wave of hype due to users either squatting magazine names or becoming inactive for other reasons. Now is your chance to get involved, if you were waiting to do so.
To request ownership/moderator privileges, scroll down to where it says “MODERATORS” in the sidebar. There will be an icon of a hand pointing upwards that you can click on, then make the request. Cheers, and thank you for your hard work Ernest, as well as future mods.
Yep, another way is to choose abandoned from the list of magazines, soon it will be more sensibly sorted ;)
@daredevil hey how did you get rid of it altogether?
I just noticed we had a “frenworld” (copy of a subreddit that was notoriously racist, antisemitic etc) and requested ownership thinking I could delete it but now it’s listed as a magazine I mod and I can’t seem to either delete it or detatch myself from it. I don’t want it listed under mags I mod! Help!
This is great. I dont want to request moderation on too many so I just picked a few that I think I could handle and communities I’d like to see developed. (Specifically the manga and bitwig magazine.)
Another option I would like to see is the outright deletion of some of the very specific and abandoned mags.
Looking at abandoned list link supplied by @ernest (cheers for that and for all the work you have put in) there are ~4,000 abandoned mags.
While many are in need of new mods, there are a lot that just need to be deleted. They can be recreated in the future if they need is there but I doubt a lot will be claimed.
Maybe in a couple of months that could be looked into.
If you find an abandoned magazine that you feel needs to be deleted, you have an option to request ownership and subsequently delete it. I requested ownership of one such magazine and I’m considering deleting it, myself. I may also consider doing this for some other magazines eventually as well to contribute how I can.
It may be worthwhile auto-deleting any with zero historical activity (no threads or microblogs) after a few months, too.
Ahhh, I’m so disappointed, I’ve been working on @conservative for months, and really hoping to take it on,
and it looks like I missed out.
Back when I started they actually held a poll about whether my kind of nature content would be OK and it was voted yes, so I hope the new owner is pro-conserving things and doesn’t purge it and turn it into just another US politics sub!
Perhaps it’s worth a shot to reach out to Ernest about that. It’s very apparent that you’re one of, if not the most consistent contributors to that magazine. Based off of a cursory glance, the person who took the ownership hasn’t made any contributions. Best of luck.
He replied earlier in this thread–you could try a DM to start. Alternatively, pinging him here may also be an option. I’m not sure which would be best. Apologies.
Any tips & tricks for a fresh new mod/magazine owner that has never done this stuff before?
(I’m scared!)
I think it’s great that you’re interested in this! It may be scary, but it can also be pretty exciting. I would say to start small. There might be a lot of things to consider: establishing rules, the overall vibe of the #magazine, your audience, the type of content you want to see, etc. Pick on one, focus on that for a day or so. If you plan on making new magazine, you’ll be free to take your time with this. Growing niche magazines tends to be on the slow side. IMO, that’s better for those who are new to this, so they can have time to acclimate to the tools and considerations you’ll be presented with. It may also allow you to really reflect on the direction you’d like to take your magazine.
As #niche #communities tend to start slow, people will be hesitant to post content. Unfortunately, when content is rare, people are less inclined to post. This is a problem that reinforces itself, as others are unlikely to post when there is no content. You’ll probably need to be “the first on the dance floor”, so to speak, if your goal is to grow your magazine. This will likely test your patience, as you will probably be one of, if not the only active posters in your magazine. Picking a magazine name that might see usage in the #fediverse and #mastodon might prove useful for #federating content via the #microblog section. However, if you wish to pick a more unique name, more power to you. Something to consider, is that you may wish to create a sibling magazine that can accept a tag that would federate posts with regularity.
For example, I run @learnjapanese. However, most people will be unlikely to write #learnjapanese on Mastodon. However, I also run @japanese, which federates the #japanese tag from Mastodon instances. You can add additional tags in the magazine settings menu, which allows the federation of posts that contain other hashtags. I’ve pinned a microblog in both magazines’ #microblogging sections to point to each other to increase #discoverability and awareness of related resources. Speaking of discoverability, Ernest recently implemented a #crossposting feature to /kbin that further increases discoverability and accessibility. Posting the same link/image to related magazines will allow users to see other magazines this content is posted to. This appears in the comments section of the thread, directly below the content of the post itself. Ideally, this would generate additional traffic and increase visibility for the smaller, but related magazines. This has been an extremely welcome addition, as someone who is moderating smaller magazines and trying to bring awareness without spamming advertisements.
If you have any further questions, please let me know. I have also subscribed to your magazine. Good luck. :)
I created a new magazine today 🙂
Yeah I am aware of slow growth.
My magazine takes lots of its material from a YouTube channel so at least for now their activity would go more or less hand in hand with mine/ours.
I’d be happy to receive even readers! Posting there isn’t a necessity for me, for now at least.
The name of the magazine is the same than the YouTube channel’s.
I added some tags to the magazine’s description and into its settings.
Looking at/testing crossposting at some point.
Thanks for the help!
How does it work when you ask to moderate a federated magazine?
If you didn’t get an answer elsewhere yet: You click the button and it sits pending until approved (whether its Ernest approving manually or an automated batchjob I don’t know). Seems to be once a day or so, so could be either but that’s just anecdotal. That’s it tho. Click the button and wait, no other steps lol.
Either way, once approved the magazine will just appear in your moderated list on your profile (no notification or anything from what I’ve seen) and from there it’s yours to do with as you want. I’ve claimed a dozen or so over the last day or so to delete (unused ones people sat on).
Sorry, I couldn’t tell you. I’m just trying to spread some awareness. Your best shot is asking Ernest.