4 ms·

Absolutely not. There are 2 mods running HN. Responding to people is TAXING - as in its hugely costly. And it has some terrible edge cases which destroy the pr

Absolutely not. There are 2 mods running HN. Responding to people is TAXING - as in its hugely costly. And it has some terrible edge cases which destroy the process: The costly occasions are when you meet people who are either a) Angry b) Rule lawyers c) malignantly motivated AT this point their goal is to get attention or apply coercive force on the moderation process. These guys are an existential threat to the conversational process and one of the win conditions is to get people to turn against the moderators. Social media is a topic that HN gets wrong so regularly, and without recourse to research or analysis so frequently that I would avoid discussing moderation in general here. The fact is that if people are arguing in good faith, we can have some amount of peace, and even deal with inadvertent faux pas and ignorance, provided you never reach an eternal september scenario. But bad faith actors make even this scenario impossible.

dang 6y ago
If you know of research or analysis that is essential on this topic, please tell us what it is. I'd like to be sure I'm aware of it, and other readers would surely be interested also.
- intended 6y ago
  Hmm. Given the broad range of topics "social Media" covers, there are vast numbers of papers on it. For people who have NEVER thought of social networks and conversations online I find this site to discuss some of the blander but more game theoretic elements of networks/trust and therefore online conversations: https://ncase.me/crowds/ https://ncase.me/crowds/ https://ncase.me/trust/ https://ncase.me/trust/ ----------------- For you guys (HN Mods) I'd bet that you in particular are abreast of stuff. - I'd ask if you have heard/seen Civil Servant, by Nathan Matias - its a system to do experiments on forums and test the results (see if there is a measurable change on user behavior) https://natematias.com/ https://natematias.com/ - Civil Servant, Professor Cornell. He probably has an account here https://civilservant.io/moderation_experiment_r_science_rule_posting.html https://civilservant.io/moderation_experiment_r_science_rule... - Books: Custodians of the internet. ------ Going through some of the papers I have stocked away, sadly in no sane order. I can't say if they are classic papers, you may have better. - Policy/law Paper: Georgetown law, Regulating Online Content Moderation. https://www.law.georgetown.edu/georgetown-law-journal/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2018/07/Regulating-Online-Content-Moderation.pdf https://www.law.georgetown.edu/georgetown-law-journal/wp-con... - NBER paper on polarization - https://www.nber.org/papers/w23258 https://www.nber.org/papers/w23258, I disagreed/was surprised by the conclusion. America centric. - Homophily and minority-group size explain perception biases in social networks, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-019-0677-4 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-019-0677-4 - The spreading of misinformation online: https://www.pnas.org/content/113/3/554.full https://www.pnas.org/content/113/3/554.full - The Uni of Alabama has a reddit research group, - https://arrg.ua.edu/research.html https://arrg.ua.edu/research.html, they have 2 papers. One of which explores the effect of a sudden influx of new users on r/2xchromosomes. https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/10143/8113 https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/10143/... -policy: OFCOM (UK) has a policy paper on using AI for moderation https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0028/157249/cambridge-consultants-ai-content-moderation.pdf https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0028/157249/... - Algorithmic content moderation: Technical and political challenges in the automation of platform governance - https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2053951719897945 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2053951719897945 - The Web Centipede: Understanding How Web Communities Influence Each Other Through the Lens of Mainstream and Alternative News Sources - Community Interaction and Conflict on the Web, - You Can’t Stay Here: The Efficacy of Reddit’s 2015 Ban Examined Through Hate Speech Papers I have to read myself, - Does Transparency in Moderation Really Matter?: User Behavior After Content Removal Explanations on Reddit. https://shagunjhaver.com/files/research/jhaver-2019-transparency.pdf https://shagunjhaver.com/files/research/jhaver-2019-transpar... - Censored, suspended, shadowbanned: User interpretations of content moderation on social media platforms: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1461444818773059 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/146144481877305... (I need to read that paper, but I expect it to be a good foundation of knowledge and examples) Other stuff: - The turing institute talked about Moderators being key workers during COVID - https://www.turing.ac.uk/blog/why-content-moderators-should-be-key-workers https://www.turing.ac.uk/blog/why-content-moderators-should-...
  - holler 6y ago
    Hey really big thank you for posting this! I'm working on a new discussion site and so much of this is pertinent. I may return with some follow-up commentary once I've read through some of it, thank you.
    - intended 6y ago
      NP. If you find any interesting papers, do share.
- intended 6y ago
  What papers/articles/sources do you guys read?

dang 6y ago

If you know of research or analysis that is essential on this topic, please tell us what it is. I'd like to be sure I'm aware of it, and other readers would surely be interested also.

intended 6y ago
Hmm. Given the broad range of topics "social Media" covers, there are vast numbers of papers on it. For people who have NEVER thought of social networks and conversations online I find this site to discuss some of the blander but more game theoretic elements of networks/trust and therefore online conversations: https://ncase.me/crowds/ https://ncase.me/crowds/ https://ncase.me/trust/ https://ncase.me/trust/ ----------------- For you guys (HN Mods) I'd bet that you in particular are abreast of stuff. - I'd ask if you have heard/seen Civil Servant, by Nathan Matias - its a system to do experiments on forums and test the results (see if there is a measurable change on user behavior) https://natematias.com/ https://natematias.com/ - Civil Servant, Professor Cornell. He probably has an account here https://civilservant.io/moderation_experiment_r_science_rule_posting.html https://civilservant.io/moderation_experiment_r_science_rule... - Books: Custodians of the internet. ------ Going through some of the papers I have stocked away, sadly in no sane order. I can't say if they are classic papers, you may have better. - Policy/law Paper: Georgetown law, Regulating Online Content Moderation. https://www.law.georgetown.edu/georgetown-law-journal/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2018/07/Regulating-Online-Content-Moderation.pdf https://www.law.georgetown.edu/georgetown-law-journal/wp-con... - NBER paper on polarization - https://www.nber.org/papers/w23258 https://www.nber.org/papers/w23258, I disagreed/was surprised by the conclusion. America centric. - Homophily and minority-group size explain perception biases in social networks, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-019-0677-4 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-019-0677-4 - The spreading of misinformation online: https://www.pnas.org/content/113/3/554.full https://www.pnas.org/content/113/3/554.full - The Uni of Alabama has a reddit research group, - https://arrg.ua.edu/research.html https://arrg.ua.edu/research.html, they have 2 papers. One of which explores the effect of a sudden influx of new users on r/2xchromosomes. https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/10143/8113 https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/10143/... -policy: OFCOM (UK) has a policy paper on using AI for moderation https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0028/157249/cambridge-consultants-ai-content-moderation.pdf https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0028/157249/... - Algorithmic content moderation: Technical and political challenges in the automation of platform governance - https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2053951719897945 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2053951719897945 - The Web Centipede: Understanding How Web Communities Influence Each Other Through the Lens of Mainstream and Alternative News Sources - Community Interaction and Conflict on the Web, - You Can’t Stay Here: The Efficacy of Reddit’s 2015 Ban Examined Through Hate Speech Papers I have to read myself, - Does Transparency in Moderation Really Matter?: User Behavior After Content Removal Explanations on Reddit. https://shagunjhaver.com/files/research/jhaver-2019-transparency.pdf https://shagunjhaver.com/files/research/jhaver-2019-transpar... - Censored, suspended, shadowbanned: User interpretations of content moderation on social media platforms: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1461444818773059 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/146144481877305... (I need to read that paper, but I expect it to be a good foundation of knowledge and examples) Other stuff: - The turing institute talked about Moderators being key workers during COVID - https://www.turing.ac.uk/blog/why-content-moderators-should-be-key-workers https://www.turing.ac.uk/blog/why-content-moderators-should-...
- holler 6y ago
  Hey really big thank you for posting this! I'm working on a new discussion site and so much of this is pertinent. I may return with some follow-up commentary once I've read through some of it, thank you.
  - intended 6y ago
    NP. If you find any interesting papers, do share.
intended 6y ago
What papers/articles/sources do you guys read?