On Friday Kos diaried that he believes our current community moderation system to be "obsolete", & in fact plans on overhauling it & replacing it with a system that is based on that used by Huffington Post.
I wish to continue the discussion that that diary started.
In my observation as a user, the current system essentially works — though I agree with comments I've seen about our need for a sterner autoban, & I applaud kos' increased use of his administrative privileges in recent days — & if anything we need to keep the current Trusted User system effective instead of dumping it.
Before anyone asks — no, I personally haven't moderated on the kind of posting board that "hoards" the moderating role (I've reported abusive posts in a few such communities, but that's another story). That's part of what's good about Daily Kos. The Trusted User system means not only the ability to Recommend diaries & posts that make good contributions to DKos, but also that any of us who stays & participates long enough without disrupting the community can vote to Hide disruptive posts (troll-posts, flames, spam, regrettable behavior by good Kossacks, or whatever) — that is, to deprive such posts of attention, & thus of the ability to derail discussions.
In other words, Trusted Users get a hands-on form of moderation that they can use the minute they see something that's bad for Daily Kos. Here we have no "wait for a few hours & maybe somebody will get around to reprimanding a user, & (if the situation calls for it) let's hope he's in the mood to delete a really ugly post so nobody can see it". At Daily Kos, after a few Trusted Users see a threat on that level, they can hide it from general public view with just a few button-clicks — meaning not only that we have less need to wait on the "chain of command", but also our administrators have less work to do (since deleting already-hidden posts rarely needs to be done).
Many more diaries have been published on the subject of DKos trolling than I can ever hope to count, much less meticulously discuss in detail — these ranging in quality from insightful points to pointless meta-rants & every possible shade of gray between. Certainly after the much-mourned departure of Meteor Blades from his site role as "Master Of The Banhammer", many Kossacks have wondered what the future holds for our ability to keep our community on the rails — with some even predicting (or even claiming to see) DKos sliding into irrelevance as a Trollhouse or Spamopolis. More to the point, more than a few diaries & comments have suggested that at least some aspect of the local "mojo" system needs changing — whether it be the number of daily Hide Rates entrusted to Trusted Users, the number of Hide Rates needed to trigger the site software to "autoban" users (both worthy of consideration, in my own humble observation). Now Kos seems to be officially considering changing the site's system entirely.
I am not a member at Huffington Post, partly because I see it as not nearly the forum for progressive activism that Daily Kos is. So, no, I can't claim personal experience with the "badge" system — essentially a "gold star" system for determining who gets to be the go-getters on that site. However, I think we can see the results of their gold star system by what we see on the site itself. Sure, we Kossacks may well shake our heads at our local "troll problem"; over there, the trolls & spammers have the run of the place, with Huffpo basically functioning as a billboard for any interest group who acts as a big enough "joiner" — corporate shills & conservative heel-clickers included — to set up shop. I do not want that for Daily Kos.
To summarize:
1. The Daily Kos Trusted User system is sound, needing, if anything, greater power rather than a complete overhaul;
2. The Trusted User system is a key asset in keeping Daily Kos useful in fulfilling our site's activist mission;
3. The Huffington Post's own second-tier status among the progressive blogosphere demonstrates the failure of, among other things, its "badge" system for site privileges.
I'll be happy to discuss any additional thoughts in the comments.