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If you haven't seen it already, you should watch Matt Haughey's "Lessons from 11 years of community" (link below), in which he describes some of the moderation

by panic 12y ago

If you haven't seen it already, you should watch Matt Haughey's "Lessons from 11 years of community" (link below), in which he describes some of the moderation tools and techniques MetaFilter has developed over the years. "Lessons from 11 years of community": https://vimeo.com/21043675 https://vimeo.com/21043675

LeoPanthera 12y ago
The problem with MetaFilter's moderation is that it is both heavy-handed and entirely opaque. If they decide a comment is unacceptable, for whatever reason, it is simply erased from history. The poster is not informed this has happened, nor told why. There are two enormous disadvantages to this model - it doesn't encourage commenters to improve the quality of what they post, and it ultimately creates an atmosphere of mistrust, from those who have been silently black-holed. The Reddit model of public votes is better, even when layered with admin moderation, because at least users can see what is happening, and why.
- A_COMPUTER 12y ago
  In the past on Metafilter, if there were some unacceptable comments they were deleted but the moderator would add a comment that simply restated what was not allowed and asking people to stay civil. I think this can actually work really well, because it doesn't shame the people moderated and they can move forward without feeling personally slighted. This is in stark contrast to the person's name next to a big [DELETED] or Boingboing's mocking "disemvowelment".
  - wiml 12y ago
    I have to agree that one of the things that made Metafilter's moderation more successful was being able to moderate without alienating the users. Moderation often devolves into simply ejecting all but one "tribe" from a forum so that nobody's left to have a disagreement; MeFi avoided that trap far better than many places.
    - A_COMPUTER 12y ago
      Unfortunately I had to qualify with "in the past." I think it's an echo chamber today. I have heard more and more people talk about unfair moderation, which I never saw years ago. So invisible moderation does still have a downside. To be fair, I think most of the people still posting there are like old friends now.

by panic 12y ago

LeoPanthera 12y ago

The problem with MetaFilter's moderation is that it is both heavy-handed and entirely opaque. If they decide a comment is unacceptable, for whatever reason, it is simply erased from history. The poster is not informed this has happened, nor told why. There are two enormous disadvantages to this model - it doesn't encourage commenters to improve the quality of what they post, and it ultimately creates an atmosphere of mistrust, from those who have been silently black-holed. The Reddit model of public votes is better, even when layered with admin moderation, because at least users can see what is happening, and why.

A_COMPUTER 12y ago
In the past on Metafilter, if there were some unacceptable comments they were deleted but the moderator would add a comment that simply restated what was not allowed and asking people to stay civil. I think this can actually work really well, because it doesn't shame the people moderated and they can move forward without feeling personally slighted. This is in stark contrast to the person's name next to a big [DELETED] or Boingboing's mocking "disemvowelment".
- wiml 12y ago
  I have to agree that one of the things that made Metafilter's moderation more successful was being able to moderate without alienating the users. Moderation often devolves into simply ejecting all but one "tribe" from a forum so that nobody's left to have a disagreement; MeFi avoided that trap far better than many places.
  - A_COMPUTER 12y ago
    Unfortunately I had to qualify with "in the past." I think it's an echo chamber today. I have heard more and more people talk about unfair moderation, which I never saw years ago. So invisible moderation does still have a downside. To be fair, I think most of the people still posting there are like old friends now.