The next time I read somebody saying “moderation is broken”, I’m gonna… well, this.
It wouldn’t bother me so much except that it’s always accompanied by something like “because I’ve been getting flagged much more lately”, or “we need Meteor Blades back”, or “administration doesn’t care”, or “it just goes to show that kos doesn’t want comments, because they don’t help his bottom line”, or “they should get rid of flags”, or “I would never flag a comment — I’m for free speech”, or — oh, hell, everything but “how can I help?”.
Almost always by someone who actually doesn’t want there to be moderation of what they’re doing, but of all those other people who keep saying nasty things to them. Sometimes by people whose primary leverage is threatening moderation for disagreement. Very often by someone who’s had a comment legitimately flagged, or who’s been asked to tone it down. Very seldom, if ever, by the people who are actually working at trying to do moderation.
Right now, it’s true; moderation is probably as broken as it’s been in the last couple of years. We depend on the Help Desk being there to back up (or override) instances of community moderation on the site, and the Help Desk is swamped way above and beyond the call of duty, and has been for a couple of months now. Add in that flags have been made pseudo-anonymous since the changeover to DK5, and that all the people who never felt safe enough to use a Hide Rate are coming out in droves, to drop them behind the scenes. (Warning: there is no actual behind the scenes, if someone cares enough to hunt for you. And the penalties for misuse remain the same, though they may be delayed while DK5 is debugging.)
Look, if you want better moderation, start with your own comments. Get to the point where you can give a civil answer in the teeth of the trolls — or worse, in the face of somebody supporting a different candidate than you do — at least eighty percent of the time (nobody’s perfect) and then try your hand at seeing if you can get some of your friends to do the same thing. Petty insults are the lazy way out — think of it as an opportunity for the creative use of the English language and go for nuance and subtlety. Or learn to hit Cancel a lot.
Moderation doesn’t/can’t happen in the middle of an all out pie fight. By the time it gets to that point, nobody’s listening anyway. Take it to that point often enough, and the only possible recourse is administrative sanctions; TimeOuts (TO), loss of ability to rate comments (NR), and banning/BOJO.
For all of you who read kos’ decision to not show who’s throwing flags as meaning that community moderation doesn’t matter, and that flags really don’t count for anything, and hailed that decision as promoting greater freedom of speech and the ability to flag on a whim, please check your assumptions. At the door. Or, contrariwise, don’t let it hit you on the way out.
And to all the moderators who are suffering from the temporary inability to immediately rectify all possible instances of trolling, and sockpuppets, and zombies — please remember that even when the Help Desk is not swamped, it can take weeks, if not months, to verify that kind of accusation. It doesn’t matter how much proof you think you have, or how many people agree with you — once you go beyond moderation and attempt to be judge and jury, you’ve overstepped the bounds. Frustrating is a mild word to describe the condition, I know, but for the time being, live with it.
/End Rant
And no, I’m not perfect either (mutter, grumble...).