In several months, Daily Kos will move to a new community moderation scheme, dubbed , Project CSMAS -- the community self-moderation adjudication system. The details have been spread out through several diaries and comments. The goal of this diary is to pull together several of those comments so that people are ready with ideas for the next time that kos posts a request for suggestions. The goal is also to try to clear up some of the uncertainty and confusion about what the future system might involve, something I have noticed in the recent spate of meta diaries.
UPDATE: Included information on who gets to vote in the adjudication chamber.
Why the change?
Because kos doesn't think previous schemes have worked. He has outright said that the [Meteor Blades] moderation experiment failed (by which he means the idea of admin moderation was a failure, not MB). "Site engagement metrics actually got WORSE with official moderation."
How will community moderation work?
Users will flag comments. Comments that have been flagged will go to an adjudication chamber where site users will vote.
How will flagging work?
Users will be able to flag comments they think should be hidden. kos hasn't determined the criteria for being able to flag. If you flag a comment, your name and reason for flagging will be visible. After a certain number of flags, a comment will be temporarily removed and go to the adjudication chamber.
What happens in the adjudication chamber?
People on whether or not the flag was justified. Flagged commenters should have an opportunity for rebuttal. After a certain window (maybe 1-3 hours, shorter if the voting is lopsided), the comment will be returned to thread or hidden, depending on the outcome.
What happens next?
"Now here's the thing -- if a comment gets flagged for adjudication, someone will get punished. If the community decides the comment was hide-worthy, then the commenter will lose privileges for X amount of time, where X increases exponentially for each violation. If the community decides the comment wasn't hide worthy, then those flagging the comment will lose privileges." But no one should get banned for having a bad day.
Who gets to vote?
NEW SECTION "the adjudication chamber will be open to all. There will be some form of notice in the Welcome Back box letting people know that there are X number of comments in adjudication, and inviting them to go and vote."
What happens to mojo, recs, and HRs?
Gone, gone, gone. Mojo is actually more complicated than CSMAS. There are plans for some sort of way to express thumbs up/down because "[w]e definitely understand the need for people to offer some sort of reaction without actually having to type stuff out."
What about cliques trying to game the system?
If cliques "figure out a way to game the system, they have to do it with big numbers, and that'll just expose them to me. The second I see that kind of behavior, a lot of people will get zapped." Ideally, voting cliques will be overwhelmed by the number of honest voters, plus kos will be watching to see if any groups are skewing results.
What makes kos think this will work?
Because the hidden comments page is wildly popular, consistently the third most popular on the site.