Help NamePros Decide on Community-Driven Moderation

[Eric Lyon]

You may have noticed that NamePros is becoming largely dependent on you, the community, to Report posts that require our attention.

The reason for this is because we've outgrown the "manual moderation" method: it is no longer practical or scalable for us to have staff members read every post on NamePros to decide if a rule violation has occurred, content is posted in the correct section, etc. While we still do this when we can, there is much that we miss and that trend will continue to increase as NamePros grows.

Our plan to handle this in the most efficient and scalable way possible is to turn over the keys to you! But don't worry, we aren't taking this idea lightly, and we are going to make sure that we do it in the best way possible.

That's why we need your help!

Please share with us how you think we should do it.

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

1. After a post receives __ dislikes, it is automatically hidden and requires that a member click an "unhide" button to view it.
   • Once hidden, it would not appear in New Posts or other places on the site.
   • If the post is the first post of a thread, the entire thread is hidden in this manner.
2. Same as #1, but using the Report feature.
3. Similar to #1, except dislikes will be weighted based on your NamePros account level. For instance, a dislike from a VIP member would be worth as many as 5 dislikes from a new member.
4. Similar to #1, except dislikes will be weighted based on your NamePros account age. For instance, a dislike from a member who signed up in 2003 would be worth as many as 12 dislikes from someone who signed up today.
5. There are many other ways this can be done, and we want to hear the way you think is best.

The ability to "vote" could also be restricted to members who have been on the site for at least 1 year, received X number of Likes on at least Y number of posts.

In the meantime, please Report any posts that need our attention. We greatly appreciate it!


Note: We're still quite a ways away from creating this, but we'd love to get as much feedback on it as we can before that time comes.

 

[JB Lions]

A rule violation is a rule violation, it shouldn't be likes, dislikes, hidden, click to unhide etc.

The Report button works just fine, I think a lot of people still just don't know about it. Somebody reports something, you decide on it. It works already. You can just get more mods.

 

[S-B]

I don't think the like/dislike system would work unless there are repercussions for indiscriminately disliking posts.

 

[Paul]

I'm a fan of #1, but I think likes/thanks should counter dislikes. Posts would essentially be upvoted/downvoted, and when a post receives a negative score, it would be hidden.

We'll definitely still need staff to help catch sneakier troublemakers. I think the idea here is for them to focus on cracking down on fraud and such, rather than spending most of their time dealing with casual spam.

 

[mis_chiff]

Shouldn't monitoring the forum be the first requirement of the Moderators?
or has that changed?
I understand not ALL the mods are paid, but if you volunteer to do a job,
shouldn't you do it?

The advancement of their own sites/clubs/blogs etc should NOT take a back seat to the forum
as they are in the moderator position to moderate the forum,
not to regulate or propel their own dealings

The report system has always worked fine. When it's payed attention to!
Most that I report are removed or dealt with in a fairly reasonable amount of time.

- the occasional "Well, we'll watch and see how it goes" comment is sometimes a response I get
and this is AFTER duplicate spam posts. Not sure what they are holding out for when I get
that message, we both know where it's headed.

Doesn't matter if the member is a Paid member or not, if they SPAM, toss them out
[you can see the warnings do not help] and having a Business account should not come
with the ability to post the same dribble everywhere. In every thread...and it be "ok'd" by staff
it's pathetic that this happens by paid members, NP isin't that hard up for money
so why not clean out the "Paying to troll" shit?

and really not sure why the reported spam is not always removed, even after
the accounts are closed - the spam crap is still here.
I understand it affects your "organic" traffic, or whatever that whole speech was
but come on it's spam and it's ALL OVER!!
If a member acct is closed, his spam should be removed, if duplicate threads are made
then they should also be removed.not just closed..

And Mods don't have to read every post and shouldn't be expected to, bad posts and spam are obvious...
most of the forum members pick up on them right away and a report goes in.
but after the members 5th or 6th post in a row [for example], come on and get to it - shouldn't take
5 reports and 10 more posts to be seen.
Whomever is on at the time ANY report goes in should take a look, and help out.
Should have stayed that way, instead it's all about "not my section" stuff.

But the comment about moderators reading every post, is just simply silly,
it's clear there ain't NO ONE reading ANY post, never mind every post.

 

[JB Lions]

issue:
"there is much that we miss and that trend will continue to increase as NamePros grows."

solution already being used, just more people need to be aware of it and use it:
"the community, to Report posts that require our attention."

Use the Report button, Admin/mods handle it. Simple. That's how most forums operate.

If you have people that don't want to handle it, make those decisions, then get rid of them and get people who do.

 

[DU]

Shouldn't be based on likes/dislikes - we've all seen dislikes on a post as retaliatory because we are children. Using reports doesn't change much except it's a category that makes sense for mods to review anyway (as they do now) rather than dislikes that are given all the time (well not often) and are opinion. It's hard to warn members for spurious/targeted dislikes (as it's an opinion) whereas spurious reports are less easy to defend and warnings can be given for over use of reporting.

Maybe a report option with a "severity" - that leaves it flexible for your staff to intervene etc. and automate rules.
1 high sev - hides
2 medium sev - hides
5 low sev -hides

You could still manually review all High sev reports but relax on the rest accordingly.

 

[DU]

I'm a fan of #1, but I think likes/thanks should counter dislikes. Posts would essentially be upvoted/downvoted, and when a post receives a negative score, it would be hidden.

We'll definitely still need staff to help catch sneakier troublemakers. I think the idea here is for them to focus on cracking down on fraud and such, rather than spending most of their time dealing with casual spam.

If it's just spam... why not have it markable as spam?

 

[-EM-]

The dislike option mention in the #1 post may work to reduce the arrogance here, expecially from bored members who post too much (more or less those with 10-15k posts). The problem with dislike is about its meaning. I may dislike a post which may not be against the rules, in other words is a personal preference. My personal preference doesn't have to apply to other members (maybe if a post receives 20-30 dislikes is more likely it will not be liked by other members too, but that is a very rare case)
The report button works just fine. Just add more moderators if needed, there are members that would do it for free I guess.

 

[Constantin S]

I go with #1, and to support people to report posts I would change the color of "Report" button to red, also would be nice to see a small decription when someone hovers to the button, so they would know if the post is reportable or not, something like: "Please report this post only if is spam, off-topic, harrasment or immoral."

 

[Nazz]

It's fine the way it is. If it ain't broken, don't fix it. (Like/dislike)

Although, NamePros can encourage people to get familiar with the report function and specify why it's there and what it does... I'm all for the community pitching in and doing their share.

Possibly empowering more reputable members ?

 

[Perceptron]

Q) StatusQuo.Sucks?

A)

The Report button works just fine, I think a lot of people still just don't know about it. Somebody reports something, you decide on it. It works already. You can just get more mods.

I concur, the Report button has been effective, with a response time of less than 24 hours (Actually its less than 6 hours) its good enough.

Option #2

#IfItAintBrokeDontFixIt
~

 

[Jawed]

People like and dislike for various reasons. I don’t think it would work.

Add one more button titled SPAM beside Report. In case Spam button is hit, the post is hidden and goes for moderation automatically.

Report button should work as it does now.

New members should not be able to see Spam button.

 

[Tia Wood]

I don't like the idea of a "Dislike" feature to control this because it opens to interpretation why a person would dislike a post.

For example: a post that doesn't break the rules but the context was unpopular. IMO, a post shouldn't be hidden in that case.

Report button is good. Maybe a report button that only appears for members who have been here a certain amount of time and maybe the report button is "locked" if the post has already been reported with a mod note about the decision or pending notification.

 

[NameOmnia]

Not sure about this decision honestly as it would take for granted that all members are professional, reliable, honest, mature, trustworthy...which I seriously doubt.

If I had to choose I would go with 2

 

[Paul]

Not sure about this decision honestly as it would take for granted that all members are professional, reliable, honest, mature, trustworthy...which I seriously doubt.

If I had to choose I would go with 2

Not necessarily. Only the majority would have to be.

If it's just spam... why not have it markable as spam?

That's what the Report button does, more or less.

A rule violation is a rule violation, it shouldn't be likes, dislikes, hidden, click to unhide etc.

The Report button works just fine, I think a lot of people still just don't know about it. Somebody reports something, you decide on it. It works already. You can just get more mods.

There's conflict often enough about whether certain content is within the rules. No matter what we do, it's never going to be completely black-and-white.

 

[DU]

It's fine the way it is. If it ain't broken, don't fix it.

I think it's clear the problem is not the user experience but the admin experience

 

[iowadawg]

Report button period!
My gripe has always been that so much is posted and never taken care of by mods.
Then a day or two later, it is reported and fixed.

And remember, crappy domains are only crappy to those that think they are crappy.

 

[ramkumaritrvs]

i liked #1 idea.

After a post receives 5 dislikes, it is automatically hidden and requires that a member click an "unhide" button to view it.

I don't see anyother options are good. As a community member, we should treat as a equal. don't give power just because someone have vip / old age / premium account etc., you can award more space / badge / privilege etc.,

Also merge likes & thanks together. so we can count likes & dislikes easily.

some people may dislike just because they hate the domain & at the same time few people may love it & liked it. so calculate the total by [likes - dislikes].

JMO.

 

[DU]

After a post receives 5 dislikes, it is automatically hidden and requires that a member click an "unhide" button to view it.

If we can put a Beta mode into place using dislikes... me and 4 of my friends will hide the posts we don't agree with

Maybe employing more staff or increase the number of moderators are the best option

That's a decent question. Has there been an issue with un-salaried mods? Or a change in policy on moderation in general?

Use the Report button, Admin/mods handle it. Simple. That's how most forums operate.
If you have people that don't want to handle it, make those decisions, then get rid of them and get people who do.

Corporate America misses JBL But again, it's a decent question. If you have a report function why does your staff feel the need to read all posts?
How many reports are there in a day? I've probably reported about 10-20 posts (guessing) in the last 5 years if you don't include the period where I reported every post of Jeff in the .TV subforum because he was troll and no-one wanted to do anything about it

 

[ramkumaritrvs]

If we can put a Beta mode into place using dislikes... me and 4 of my friends will hide the posts we don't agree with

Not exactly, My 3 friends may liked it, so the count will go up to (5 dislikes - 3 likes = 2 dislikes), and we need 5 dislikes to hide it !!!

people can see the dislike number 4 and if they think it's worth then they can support by click likes to keep the thread live

 

[Paul]

Part of the idea here is that the community would have more of a say in shaping its own standards. My understanding is that there would still be a report button to deal with content that is particularly sensitive--post that shouldn't be visible even if users wish to see it, typically for legal reasons (blatant copyright infringement, etc.). Rather than us telling you how you should treat each other, you'll be able to decide that for yourselves, within reason.

Keep in mind that your content wouldn't be hidden simply because someone is out to get you. A significant majority would have to agree that your content is unsuitable for it to be removed (with the exception of #2, which offers no counter for a report). We'd have to decide later exactly how to calculate that, but it'd probably look something like this:

If post has at least 2x more dislikes than likes
    and there are at least 5 dislikes,
    then hide the post

 

[Peter]

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

1. After a post receives __ dislikes, it is automatically hidden and requires that a member click an "unhide" button to view it.
   • Once hidden, it would not appear in New Posts or other places on the site.
   • If the post is the first post of a thread, the entire thread is hidden in this manner.
2. Same as #1, but using the Report feature.
3. Similar to #1, except dislikes will be weighted based on your NamePros account level. For instance, a dislike from a VIP member would be worth as many as 5 dislikes from a new member.
4. Similar to #1, except dislikes will be weighted based on your NamePros account age. For instance, a dislike from a member who signed up in 2003 would be worth as many as 12 dislikes from someone who signed up today.
5. There are many other ways this can be done, and we want to hear the way you think is best.

.

Here are my thoughts on these options:

1. If it is set to a hard figure this will be open to abuse. There are many occasions when a lot of people dislike a post. This does not mean the post is not valid. I personally would avoid this as a sole method.
2. Not sure I understand fully. Would you have a button that would increase a tally of how many dislikes a post had and these show in the mod section? If so it would be beneficial to be able to mark a post as OK otherwise older threads can naturally bubble to the top of the list and will distort the list. You could always reset the flag that specifies the post is OK if it is edited.
3. As a singular idea I think this is the better from the list. People who pay for the upper account levels (or who have been trusted with them) will be quite protective over them. But again not ideal as a sole solution.
   
4. Account age is not something that should be solely used. I modded here some time ago and there were accounts that were hacked/sold. By using age it would open a potential market in Namepros accounts that have a level of immunity to spamming.

Personally I would go with a mixture of 3 and 4 however. I would also take it 1 step further and consider the level of the people that are reporting/disliking the post. The higher the level and longer the users account has been active the higher the weight.

This would still require a level of moderation to ensure that the features are not being abused to pick on people. For example it would be beneficial to monitor if someone starts to have a high level of disliked posts and if they are from the same members. A mod could then check the validity of those reports. If they are obviously false then infractions could go towards the reporters depending on the seriousness. It would also require a bit of tweaking to ensure that the weighting was set correctly.

 

[Eric Lyon]

Thanks for all the great feedback everyone. We're still carefully thinking it all through.

2. Not sure I understand fully.

The idea behind #2 is that instead of counting Dislikes, it would count the number of Reports that a particular post/thread receives and base its action on how many Reports were received.

---

Update on 4/8/2016: Similar thread and suggestion.

 

[Eric Lyon]

I would change the color of "Report" button to red, also would be nice to see a small decription when someone hovers to the button

Thanks for this idea! We've made it bold and added an explanation when someone hovers over the link.