Community Moderation means exactly that. If you’re a member of the community, or want to become one, you recognize that part of your job is to keep the commenting process from breaking down. The Rules of the Road may not be perfect for that, but they’re the mechanism this site uses, and thus something you should be cognizant of when you post comments, and when you read them. As a beginning, practicing civility, and eschewing insult, is generally a very useful thing.
or
Moderation is the process of sorting out the sheep from the wolves — um, this metaphor probably isn’t the best of all possible ideas. Lemme think about that.
or
We don’t know. Not really. However we define it, people are going to interpret it as they go along. We can however point to the ongoing results we’d like to see.
For me, that means ongoing, substantive, positive discussions, with the goals of
- broadening the knowledge shared by the people having the conversations, and
- improving the chances that useful, workable ideas will come out of those conversations.
And that means building mutual respect among the participants. I like that one.
What we’ve got to work with
- The premise of moderation on Daily Kos is that any user may attempt to moderate the diaries and conversations that they find themselves in, but no one is compelled to do so. There’s a real question, I think, of whether most new users believe it.
- The rules upon which that moderation is based are, generally, contained in the Rules of the Road. That is a more or less stable compilation of the rules of thumb, caveats, and fiats which have accumulated over the last 15 years or so, as finally organized into the short, mostly clear, and somewhat comprehensive guide linked here.
- Every new user is welcomed and given a short list of helpful links, generally on their first comment, and that list includes said guide. Theoretically, they will read it and be guided by it in their future comments and diaries.
- The reality can be very different. New users stepping into the quirks and quarrels of Daily Kos commentary for the first time are also, generally, stepping into moderate to severe culture shock. Whether most of them even remember that the link was in that first reply is questionable. I don’t even want to estimate what percentage look at it at all, much less the percent that actually read it and pay close enough attention to it to be guided by it in their comments.
- The help desk and its associated knowledge bases have a wealth of information to offer to users; everything from how to write and publish a diary to references that list the cultural trip wires and assumptions that a new user may, inadvertently, run into.
- There is enough material that even the best of students will be overwhelmed by the sheer amount that needs digesting.
- Not to mention that much of it is only useful in context, and that context can only be gained, for the most part, by interaction with the site.
- TrueBlueMajority is putting together DKtionary 2021 as a quick reference guide to the DK culture — which may help if we remember to reference it on a regular basis. By the way, that diary is still open for comments, if you were wondering how to add to the list.
Who we’ve got to work with
On the one hand, there are the tentative newcomers,
Who will dip a toe into commentary and take notes on the reactions they get, until they feel comfortable doing more. They may never notice the moderators, nor we, them.
On the other hand, there are the overconfident long term denizens of the internet political scene,
who are still going to run head on into cultural shock at Daily Kos, while being absolutely certain they are just fine, thank you, and they can take care of themselves.
On the Gripping Hand, (sorry, had to get it in)
There are the Trolls, and Shills, and Spammers, Oh My! on whom the community tends to vent all their frustrations in some incredibly interesting threads, from time to time.
and each of these needs a different approach.
Not to mention (yet) the dozen or so other types of user who need to be dealt with separately.
TOesocks are people who create new personas on TimeOuts due to an addiction to DK
Comments are open. Think about what other boilerplate an Open Thread should include, or even whether you want to see this as a regular feature.
I haven’t yet come down from the rush of starting this, so there’s very little that’s set in stone — or if there is, I haven’t noticed it yet.
Members List (In progress)
Confirmed: siab, bakeneko, Eyesbright, alyx9090, avatarabbiehoffman, bonniebluesky, Cmae, jsteve7, MargaretPOA, Raptavio, susans, The Octopus, trumpeter, twingrace, Wee Mama, denig, polecat, Gaelsdottir, churchylafemme, Mortifyd, ThePhlebob, Chicago Minx, ColoTim, Ellid, Jeffersonian Democrat, N in Seattle, Susan Grigsby,
Invited: ahianne, BMScott, elfling, Lost and Found, Meteor Blades, gramofsam1, Free Jazz at High Noon, FarWestGirl
Previous diaries in this series, and a compilation of historical diaries showing the growth of Community Moderation on Daily Kos, can be found at A Guide to Community Moderation.
A caveat:
I do not speak for the Help Desk. This group does not speak for the Help Desk. In the unlikely event that any member of the Help Desk joins the group it still will not speak for the Help Desk. Kos and the rest of the Daily Kos staff, usually speaking through the Help Desk, are the ultimate authority in any disputes. Moving on...
Decisions about what to moderate, what to say, and how to say it, have always been individual ones. At most, it’s my hope that this group will offer advice which will make at least some parts of moderation more comfortable for more users.
Comments are closed on this story.