It's not quite what you asked, but Teresa Nielsen Hayden has written an excellent essay, "Some things I know about moderating conversations in virtual space", a

It's not quite what you asked, but Teresa Nielsen Hayden has written an excellent essay, "Some things I know about moderating conversations in virtual space", at http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/006036.html#006036 http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/006036.html#00... Some of the ideas in that essay may be useful to you. Her point 11 is particularly worth pondering: "11. You can't automate intelligence. In theory, systems like Slashdot's ought to work better than they do. Maintaining a conversation is a task for human beings." Interestingly enough, Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, has made essentially the same comment. He went so far as to describe himself as "battling programmers" who want to automate various aspects of Wikipedia's community.