On tip jars and auto-ban was posted by Kos yesterday. If you missed it, please take the time to read the meat and potatoes as well as the comments. While you are there, please note the dominant “tone” expressed in comments.
OK, let’s start with a summary of Kos’ post. He is up to his ears in redesigning tip jars, auto ban, and TU; and he wants our input. He regrets MBs departure and the atmosphere here that crushed MBs spirit. He wants us to name names. He wants to know where in the hell all of these trolls are that just can't get HR'd out of here fast enough, and he wants to know why we can’t manage without a full-time mother or referee. There is some license in my summary, but I think the gist is correct.
The dominant tone in comments, at least to my ear, can best be summarized as group enthusiasm to mete out personal justice. If you read the comments, you might conclude that the problem isn't trolls, but abuse of power by so called trusted users. In short, daily kos has too many trusted users who can’t be trusted to responsibly exercise the power they were given.
TU is Broken
First, we have to accept the fact that this blog is a business; and it needs new customers as well as returning customers. Losing customers is absolutely not acceptable. While Daily Kos’ wild and wooly ways need to be honored and preserved, the HR abuse has to stop. Community moderation needs to be based on an impersonal business model and not on cult of personality. Tolerating HR abuse by TUs drives away the very people this blog should keep, and it fosters the behavior that drove MB to drink take a break. (Sorry, couldn’t resist.)
This brings me to point two. HR abusers and the abused have way too much access to our community moderator and the community moderating process. At most blogs, the moderator is anonymous, and the only action required or allowed to lodge a complaint against a comment(er) is to click the flag button. Now compare that to our process. We clamor for more ways to punish, and we demand to know “who” the moderator is. We send emails, singly and collectively, spinning the event and attempting to manipulate the outcome. We mired MBs in minutia, personality, and drama; and we made him choose sides. Eventually and unavoidably, he found himself tied up in knots and fed up with having to consistently define, defend, and referee what the meaning of is was. Knowing our moderator and having direct and unrestricted access to him, allowed us to suck his soul dry. Kos made it perfectly clear that he does not want this to happen again to anyone on his staff, so the community moderation and TU system will change. The only question is how.
So how do we do this? Simple. Let’s take a look at other blogs. No sense in recreating the wheel if we can steel or modify one. At HuffPo, for example, you can reply, ignore, tip or flag a comment. Everybody can flag every comment. An anonymous admin receives and evaluates each flag. If admin agrees with the flag based on criteria determined by admin, they take corrective action as also determined by admin. If admin doesn't agree with the flag, they ignore the flag. At HuffPo, the community moderating people, process, and outcomes are private. They don’t become fodder for gossip in comments of other posts. There is also one more difference, and it is huge. Getting TU status and becoming a community moderator is much harder to do. From HuffPos FAQs: .
What's a "Moderator"? How can I become one?
A: If you've flagged at least 20 comments that we ended up deleting and have a high ratio of good flags to mistaken flags, we'll award you with a Level 1 Moderator Badge and enhance your flags so that they have five times more influence. If you've flagged at least 100 comments that we deleted and have a very high ratio of good flags to mistaken flags, we make you a Level 2 Moderator, upgrade your Badge, and trust you to delete inappropriate comments on the site. We will continue to trust you to delete inappropriate comments from the site as long as you handle the task responsibly. If you're like many users, you'll want to step up your flagging game and become one of our most trusted users.
I really believe that TU status is too easy to get and therefore abuse. TU
should only be awarded to those who routinely demonstrate responsible community moderation.
What do you think? Do you know of other models that might contain at least some building blocks for a new community moderation process for DailyKos? If so, please share them and your thoughts in comments.
Update: Some say this system might encourage head hunters. My response is that we already have them. TU status being tougher to get would give us few of them, and they would have better aim.