Dosono, Bryan, and Bryan Semaan. "Moderation practices as emotional labor in sustaining online communities: The case of AAPI identity work on Reddit." Proceedings of the 2019 CHI conference on human factors in computing systems. 2019.

This study explores the role of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) moderators on Reddit, focusing on how they shape the norms of their online communities through emotional labor. The research involved interviews with 21 moderators from AAPI subreddits, analyzing their moderation practices and the challenges they face, including burnout, hierarchical challenges, and unmet expectations. The moderators' strategies for managing emotional labor include distancing themselves from online drama, building solidarity through shared experiences, and utilizing various tools for effective moderation. The findings highlight the need for better support systems for moderators engaged in identity work and suggest that understanding emotional labor can inform the design of Reddit and similar platforms to improve moderation in online communities.