Welcome, New Users, to The Daily Kos. This Diary is intended to help you orient yourself to the site and ask questions about how to use it.
In the Body you will find some links intended to get you participating more effectively. Also in the Body this week is a discussion of Community Moderation on The Daily Kos (dKos).
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Community Moderation II
This is the part of a series on Trusted Users, not all of which will be elements of the Welcome New Users series (who says set theory is useless?).
The first installment, Community Moderation I, covered-
How to Achieve Trusted User Status
- How do you tell you're a Trusted User?
- How to maintain Trusted User Status
The Powers of a Trusted User
- Tag Editing
- How Things Are Hidden
- The Ability to See Hidden Comments
This installment is going to cover-
Troll Rating
- What Troll Rating Does
- How to Troll Rate
- Why to Troll Rate
- Auto Banishment
Responsibilities of Community Moderation
- Seeing Who Troll Rated
- Seeing Who Troll Rates
The next installments are-
- The Ridiculousness and Danger of Troll Rating
- A Modest Proposal
Introduction
Of all my super powers, The Ability to Troll Rate is the one I use the least. I use my ek's ray vision all the time to look at you boys and girls to see if you're being naughty or nice. My super librarian powers are the despair of folks who take their folksonomy (rooted in taxonomy, not economy) seriously, because they think 'Not Jenna' is not a serious Tag whereas I think that it perfectly demonstrates the superiority of Tagged categorization over mere Searches.
I have doled the Troll more times than I can count now and I will do it again. I don't do it often for reasons that I will more thoroughly explain in The Ridiculousness and Danger of Troll Rating.
In this Diary though I will be talking about the basics, the things we can all agree on, so that when the time comes you will be able to be a responsible Community Moderator
What Troll Rating Does
It hides Comments AND administers a little Mojo slap on the wrist to the people you give it to.
Is that all ek?
Yup, that's it.
We talked about hiding last episode, but it's a neat little table so I'll publish it again-
2 Recs == (4 + 4) / 2 == 4.00, Not Hidden
2 TRs == (0 + 0) / 2 == 0.00, Hidden
1 Rec, 1 TR == (4 + 0) / 2 == 2.00, Not Hidden
1 Rec, 2 TRs == (4 + 0 + 0) / 3 == 1.33, Not Hidden
1 Rec, 3 TRs == (4 + 0 + 0 + 0) / 4 == 1.00, Not Hidden
1 Rec, 4 TRs == (4 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0) / 5 == 0.80, Hidden
Comments that are hidden are not visible to Regular Users or Visitors to the site. As you read a Diary it, and all it's Replys disappear before your eyes.
You'll also remember from our last discussion that Mojo is a predicted value for the number of Recommends for your next Comment based on your History.
If you have a Comment that's Average Rating is lower than 4.00 you are no longer a straight A student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy. Not only that, but your chances of graduating Magna Cum Laude are somewhat reduced. How much? All your Ratings disappear over time so if you wait long enough it will no longer be a factor in your current Mojo. Some Trolls use this feature to avoid Auto Banishment (about which more later).
How badly is my GPA effected ek? Coach says I gotta keep a 3.0 to stay on the Quidditch Team (Go Ravenclaw!)
Probably not so bad.
On Wednesday (4/25) I made 85 Comments. Totaling all my Recommends for Comments that had an Average Rating (meaning those that were rated by at least 2 Users and specifically NOT including any single Recommends) I had 461 Recommends. My Average Number of Recommends per Comment was 5.42 so ek's Mojo model predicts that my next Comment will get 5 Recommends.
Over the long term my Average Number of Recommends per Comment is about 4, so it was a good day. Very witty Mr. hornbeck, have a ♥.
Let's say one of my basilisk jokes was so offensive 2 Trusted Users agreed that it must be Hidden, am I a very bad boy?
We'll have to expand the math a bit, because the rating system is not really binary. Recommends have numeric value of 4 so my actual Mojo Total for those 85 Comments is 1844 and my Average Rating is 4.00 (/ 461 Ratings) and my Projected Mojo for my next Comment is (5 Ratings * 4.00 Average Rating) == 20.
Now let's factor in my basilisk joke. Add 2 to the Ratings Count so it's now 463. You don't change anything else because the value of a Troll rating is 0, but you do the math again.
The expected number of Ratings on my next Comment changes hardly at all (463/85) == 5.44 Ratings, good or bad. My Average Rating is now (1844 Total Mojo / 463 Ratings) == 3.98 and my new Projected Mojo for my next Comment is 19.9.
So it hardly changed at all.
Now older members might point out that this formula rewards piling on and we've been assured that piling on has no effect.
My response is twofold-
- These are not actual Mojo formulas, those are a closely guarded secret AND SHOULD BE! No one should be able to game the system.
- We were assured that it has no effect on getting expelled from Hogwarts (AutoBan), but playing on the Quidditch Team is a privilege.
How to Troll Rate
One of the most visible signs of Trusted Usership is the Troll button, your Comment Recommend box changes to a Radio button and another one appears next to it labeled 'Troll'.
Troll Rating a Comment is mechanically very simple, you push the Troll button. A dialog box pops up that says-
Daily Kos Diary Name
You have 5 ratings left today.
Are you sure you wish to Trollrate this comment?
OK
Hey ek. What happened to that Comment?
You wanted to Hide it, didn't you? Now it's Hidden. Why do you want to see it again?
Oh, you think the jokes people were making about my basilisk joke were funny, but I'm too offensive to be seen.
Whatever.
You can see all the horror shows you want by changing your Preferences. Go to your Page, My Profile, Comment Prefs. Change Show hidden comments: from 'Show until rated' to 'Always'.
Hope you're ready for it. We play full contact.
Now remember how we got reminded we have '5 Trollratings left today'. You get 5 Troll Ratings a day, but day is like 'is' is, a fairly flexible term.
Once you drop a doughnut the clock starts ticking. That Plasma Torpedo is going to take 24 hours to recharge.
But the clock starts ticking when you drop a basilisk joke too, Comments are only Ratable for 24 hours. The reason for this is that before I joined there were several instances where Ratings Abusers would go and Troll Rate every single Comment a User had ever made.
So if you want to be safe for a while- Shut Up and walk away from the computer. I'm serious.
Five is also a fairly flexible number, and experienced Troll Hunters know how to maximize every shot.
It only takes 2 Troll Ratings to Hide a Comment, why waste your ammo piling on? Oh, someone UpRated it. Have at then and make sure you call out the UpRaters because it's not like every other Trusted User can't see their handle anyway.
Experienced Troll Hunters will monitor the Comments they've Troll Rated and recover their Ratings if they're not needed.
Recover their Troll Ratings?
Oh yes indeed, it's even easier than Trolling in the first place because you don't have to confirm. Just click on that 'Troll' button again. See how your "You have 5 Trollratings left today." came back?
But Comments are only Ratable for 24 hours FROM THE TIME THE COMMENT WAS WRITTEN! Let's look for Trolls again.
When the Comment is closed for Rating, your Rating is fixed. Part of your Permanent Record at Hogwarts. Piling on old ones is a good way to make yourself less dangerous.
I'm gonna hat tip Warren Terrer for this next one. One day I lost track of how many rounds Clint had in the gun and I found myself unable to reload for more morale boosting. When that happens, your 'Troll' button turns grey and you can't UnTroll.
The way to correct this is to Recommend the Comment, then remove your Recommend (you wouldn't want to uprate it, would you?). This restores your super Troll Rating Ability.
Why to Troll Rate
Because this is THE seminal document about Mojo, Trusted User, and Troll Rating I'll reproduce it in it's entirety here-
Trusted User Guidelines
This site uses a system called "Mojo" to try to keep the comments as high-signal as possible. All users can rate all comments, except their own, between 1 and 5. When your comments are rated by others, those ratings are combined into a weighted average (newer comments count more than older ones) called your "Mojo". This, roughly, represents the rating we could expect your next comment to receive based on your past comments.
Users who have a mojo greater than a certain minimum, and who have posted a sufficient number of comments, such as yourself, for example, are considered "trusted" users, and have the added capability to rate comments below the normal minimum rating, and also to see comments rated below the minimum (they are hidden from normal users).
This is a great responsibility for you. It means you've earned the right to peer-review content from untrusted users, and determine if it is spam. We rely on you to rate as much as you can, and to keep the comments as high-signal as we've all come to expect.
Please use your "zero" rating with care! It is *only* for use on comments that are wholly content-free. If you think the poster is clueless, or an idiot, or you just don't agree with them, that is *not* grounds for a zero rating. Zero is for comments that are offensive, script-generated, or otherwise content-free and intended solely to annoy and/or abuse other readers.
Please do not rate duplicate comments 0! As virtually all duplicate comments are accidental, this unfairly impacts the poster's mojo. A "1" rating and an email to donotrespond@dailykos.com notifying us of the duplicate (please include direct link to the comment) is the appropriate response.
You also have a duty to read comments posted by untrusted users (you are the only ones who can!) and rate them up if they deserve to be viewable. We hate to see users become untrusted, and want them to rejoin the community, and rating them up when they post good comments is the only way for that to happen.
It is a cruel irony that those who are trusted, in any context, usually have more work with no particular reward for that work, and that is the case here as well. You still post with no initial rating, like a normal user, and your ratings do not carry any extra weight or power. The big reward for being trusted is that you get to see the bottom-of-the-barrel dreck. But basically, someone has to do this, and you have shown the rest of the Daily Kos readers that you have the responsibility and perception to be trusted with this task. Hopefully there are enough of you that no one person will have to expend any unreasonable efforts.
Thank you for contributing to Daily Kos, and for taking on the mantle of responsibility for keeping the site as high-quality as you've helped make it. I, and all the other readers, salute you.
Everything since is essentially commentary on this, yet very few people have seen it in the original.
- Please use your "zero" rating with care! It is only for use on comments that are wholly content-free. If you think the poster is clueless, or an idiot, or you just don't agree with them, that is not grounds for a zero rating. Zero is for comments that are offensive, script-generated, or otherwise content-free and intended solely to annoy and/or abuse other readers.
- You also have a duty to read comments posted by untrusted users (you are the only ones who can!) and rate them up if they deserve to be viewable. We hate to see users become untrusted, and want them to rejoin the community, and rating them up when they post good comments is the only way for that to happen.
These two arguments are the ones most frequently cited by Trolls. Just Sayin'.
If you want definitions of 'Trollishness' the best place to start looking is the FAQ, Dealing with trolls and, specifically in reference to 'Conspiracy Theories', Controversial Diary Topics.
Another site document that is considered definitive on the subject is Troll Rating. These dKosopedia documents are under constant peer review and updating.
Troll Rating is based on this diary-
- To Troll Rate something has exactly one meaning. When you Troll Rate something, as a trusted user, you are stating that the comment should be made invisible to all site users. You're saying that the comment is so bad -- so disruptive or damaging to the community -- that it isn't worth even a debate, but should be deleted from the discussion as being simply inflammatory, simply off-topic, or simply a lie.
- Remember that, because that is the only use of the troll rating. It is an editorial vote to delete a comment from the conversation.
These 2 paragraphs are also frequently cited by Trolls. Just Sayin'.
Still Hunter has it exactly right. If the offense is bannable collect your evidence and email a Front Pager. The primary effect of Troll Rating is to Hide content from the casual observer.
What kind of content do I think should be Hidden?
- Hate speech, fighting words, comments intended to incite and inflame, either the Community as a whole or an individual User.
- Visual obscenity, dirty pictures, pornographic images, racist iconography.
- Pointless disruption, filibustering, Diary hijacking.
In other words content that distracts from the main argument of the Diary.
But not all content like that. We're not a bunch of lightweights here at dKos. Profanity is explicitly allowed except in Diary Titles. If you're offended by-
- If you can't handle someone saying you are full of shit, or you are clueless, or you don't know what you're talking about, or whatever, then really, this isn't the sort of thing you should be doing.
Flirting is ok though. If you don't understand what someone is talking about, you probably don't.
Update: As CSI Bentonville points out in her Comment below, understanding context is very important. You should never Troll Rate without reading the whole Thread (hitting the Parent button) and preferably checking the History of the poster. It never hurts to ask questions if you're confused about something.
CSI also points out here the dKos tradition of Troll Rating any first Comment titled 'First' or 'Frist'. We do not wish to encourage a culture where people lurk at the top of the 'Recent Diaries' List waiting to pounce.
Auto Banishment
There is another reason to dole the Troll though, one that has equal validity, and that is the minor slap to the Mojo of the User Troll Rated.
- The Scoop auto-ban had been broken since the new comment boards had been brought online. Well, it's now fixed. And unlike the old auto-ban which had a grace period to see if someone troll rated into oblivion could raise his or her score, this new one shows no mercy. Instant ban. But, on the flip side, the bar is set a bit higher. Auto-ban won't kick in for someone who is otherwise a valued user but has a bad day or flips out on a single thread.
Because the Front Pagers don't need or want to be involved in every dispute on the board and yet obvious Trolls need to be identified and removed there is a mechanism called Auto Ban that closes the account of Users who's Community approval (Mojo) drops too low. As kos indicates, the threshold for this is set pretty high and it takes a great deal of effort on the part of a wide cross section of the Community of Trusted Users to trigger it. Interference is seldom welcome.
This is actually a two tiered punishment. While the the bar may be high for banishment, loss of Trusted Usership is much easier to experience and should be considered a warning.
Any behavior that is punishable by banishment is on it's face Troll Ratable. Such offenses certainly include Sock Puppetry, promoting Conspiracy Theories, Outing, and threats of violence and wishes of harm. "I hope you get cancer!" is Troll Ratable.
Ratings Abuse is a bannable offense (this includes UpRating justly Troll Rated Comments), as is Tag Graffitti (by MissLaura).
This should not be considered a comprehensive list by any means, simply some of the most universally agreed on examples.
Personally I'm more likely to chat with a Front Pager than participate in an AutoBan, but I'm not above punishing poor behavior.
Now there are people who would argue to the contrary and I'm going to pick on Nonpartisan because his Diary on the subject is fairly recent, well written, and is representative of it's type.
- ...the pattern of behavior I've seen here from some folks. The glorification of rules above ideas, of policing above debating, is just another version of the aggressive weeding out of incivility. But the new Rule Hunters forget, in their zeal to Stepfordize Daily Kos, that the political blogosphere was born as a tool of INcivility -- a way for the people to speak truth to power in all its forms. If they expect that we will refrain from using this tool to question the new authority figures who have arisen through this medium, they are sadly mistaken. And if they believe that every criticism of this blog, or of Markos, or of Congressional Democrats is the work of a "purity troll," then they have forgotten how the medium itself cut its teeth in opposition to a Democratic policy -- support of the war.
The back and forth in the Comments is again typical of such debates, but clonecone had a citation that I think is really the definitive word on the subject for now. Nonpartisan was good enough to include it as an Update: in his Diary-
Comment by clonecone
If people run afoul of the rules (9+ / 0-)
I EXPECT community members to set them straight.
I'm not sure why, Peeder, you insist on a "anything goes" attitude towards community submissions. But if that's what you'd like, I suggest you go and start your own site. Or hang out at Usenet.
Me, I appreciate the efforts to self-moderate by the likes of Elise and Miss Laura and others. They are doing good work. And I fully support their efforts to keep doing what they're doing.
by kos on Mon Nov 27, 2006 at 12:26:37 AM PDT
Heh (8+ / 0-)
then you have a problem with me.
With community-moderated sites, no one "asks" people to take leadership roles. The community simply evolves that way.
And as I said, I appreciate what Elise and others are doing and fully hope they continue doping it.
by kos on Mon Nov 27, 2006 at 12:27:47 AM PDT
Responsibilities of Community Moderation
Before we get to the last super power, Seeing Troll Ratings, I'd like to talk briefly about your responsibilities as a Community Moderator.
To me, it's like Jury Duty or Voting. I sat on one Jury, been called and dismissed without voir dire several times. I've voted in every election but one, I had a car accident driving to the polls. You can choose not to accept your duty as a citizen, but it affects my opinion of you.
You have a positive responsibility to Hide content that is not acceptable for this site. You have a duty to identify and turn in rule breakers. You have an obligation to check the Hidden Comments and UpRate the ones unjustly trolled.
If you look at the type of Comments that are Hidden I think your inescapable conclusion must be that they really do represent content that is 'controversial' only because it is reprehensible and in most cases is not that controversial at all. 75% to 80% of Hidden Comments receive no UpRates, nor should they. Of the remaining 20%, 15% are UpRated by 1 or 2 holdouts who are either mistaken or committing Ratings Abuse, which is punishable by banishment.
The last 5% are the tough calls. The bad news is that everyone can see you making them.
Seeing Who Troll Rated
It's easy. Go to a Comment with a Troll Rating and pull down the Ratings. See the one that says Trollrated by:? That one.
Sometimes the Ajax engine has a misfire and doesn't see the full list, if you right mouse, Open in New Tab or Window, you get the full scoop Ratings.
As I've said, most Troll Ratings are given for very justifiable reasons. Just because you don't understand them, or they represent a distinctly minority viewpoint, doesn't make them Ratings Abuse which is a bannable offense. If you think it does then your only option is to contact a Front Pager anyway, since they are the only ones with the power to do that.
Still, you hear a lot of complaining. Don't buy into it. Most Rating Wars are still about who's a Trusted User and who's not.
Sometimes you'll hear complaints about censorship. This is hardly ever the case. With only 5 Troll ratings a day it takes a co-ordinated effort by a large number of Trusted Users to properly motivate people who are being disruptive. It's not just 1 or 2 people who 'have it in' for your paranoid self. Hundreds of us have looked at your mistake.
Seeing Who Troll Rates
But perhaps finally I do suspect that you are a Ratings Abuser, which is a bannable offense, how can I prove my case?
Well, there is the Ratings Tab on your Page.
It's a pain in the ass to slog through 30 at a clip, but if I care to do it I can see every Rating you've ever given (I seldom take it back more than a month though). If you're annoying a particular person without a good reason, that's stalking and it's also a bannable offense.
Most of the detective work is on the fly. If you observe what gets Troll Rated and who's doing it on a regular basis, and many people do, you'll get a sense of people's behavior and if you see a particularly egregious example, it's time to hit the Permanent Records here at Hogwarts.
Obnoxious Behavior
I've lost track of how many Trolls I've doled. At first I tracked it really closely, now not so much because I know the secret of their Ridiculousness and Danger.
This is not to say I don't carefully consider each and every one. I will look at your History with my finest ek's ray specs. ó-ò
Frequently I will invite other Trusted Users to inspect it with me. I'm often over ruled.
But I'm confident I have never given one that was not completely justified and I don't regret them any more than the Tags I've edited.
There are other things to talk about. Let's get started.