Moderation Flag changes, and TL4 promotions

[orenwolf]

Happy Holidays!

Thanks to some recent additions to the moderation system by the fine Discourse folks, we’re going to make a couple of changes to how moderators are notified of issues.

Currently, any flagged post is elevated into a queue for moderator action. The issue with this approach is that a single user of the community can cause a post to be put up for review, which isn’t very indicative of the opinions of the community as a whole.

However, Discourse also has a great system that allows the community, by itself, to hide posts while waiting for review. This process usually (but not always) requires multiple flags from the community, which tends to give a strong indication that a post has issues, even before a moderator reviews it. The system allows the community to take a more active role in moderation while still allowing moderators to assess their recommendations and unhide posts if necessary.

We have a wonderful, active community here. Going forward, to further the role you all play in moderation, in most cases a single flag on a post will no longer notify the mod team that a post requires review. Instead, multiple members of the community will need to take issue with a post before it is reviewed (or possibly, acted on automatically pending review).

Discourse uses a pretty awesome system for weighing flags, so sometimes a single flag will still affect a post - it depends on both the flagger’s and poster’s Trust Level within Discourse.

That being said, another excellent tool the Discourse folks have given the mod team recently are statistics outlining users who flag often and are also often agreed with by moderators. These tend to be respected members of the community who are invaluable in assisting us with moderation, by frequently flagging posts in violation of our community guidelines.

Because of this, I’ve identified several users who are going to be elevated to “Leader” status. Flags thrown by these users will be given extra weight, and often will allow posts to be acted upon immediately. (Of course, as with all flags, these users are still subject to moderator review - nothing changes there).

The list of users with “Leader” status will change over time as we continue to gather statistics on those users who are most helpful in assisting the moderation team here, and includes removing users from that status if necessary. The first group is: @Brainspore, @GulliverFoyle, @LDoBe, @MalevolentPixy, @Nightflyer, and @anon73430903.

Also: these users do not gain any ”private” discussion areas, or any other privileges of that type. We are not creating a second class of user here - all users flag ”weights” were adjusted by how they participate in the BBS even before this change.

To the rest of the community: As a result of this change, you now have more control over what posts are moderated. If you see a post that, in your opinion, needs moderation, flag it. Thanks!

[anon61221983]

@orenwolf

The first group is: @Brainspore, @GulliverFoyle, @LDoBe, @MalevolentPixy, @Nightflyer, and @the_borderer.

An excellent first group… I for one welcome our new leader overlords!

And as always, thanks for your hard work and utter transparency. You really are an asset to our community of happy mutants!

[FGD135]

I, for one, welcome our new bunting tossers.

[FGD135]

Ah, screw it - if I don’t post this I won’t be able to go to sleep:

[anon59592690]

@FGD135

bunting tossers

That was, cleaner ,than I expected…

[FGD135]

Although a dirty mind is like a never ending party (as my old friend Stefan B. used to say), I was really just snorkelling the web for a technical term describing persons who are tasked with raising flags.
But I must admit I was quite pleased with what I found.

[anon59592690]

@FGD135

Stefan B.

I know a Stefan B. Did yours like Spider Jerusalem too?

[FGD135]

@anon59592690

Spider Jerusalem

Wouldn’t put it past him, but I think by the time Transmetropolitan came out his comic book days were more or less a thing of the past.
Anyway, mine could be described as a (formerly sandy-haired) bald version of Rob Beschizza.

[orenwolf]

Congratulations to our two newest Leaders: @anon75430791 and @ficuswhisperer!

@orenwolf

Discourse uses a pretty awesome system for weighing flags, so sometimes a single flag will still affect a post - it depends on both the flagger’s and poster’s Trust Level within Discourse.

That being said, another excellent tool the Discourse folks have given the mod team recently are statistics outlining users who flag often and are also often agreed with by moderators. These tend to be respected members of the community who are invaluable in assisting us with moderation, by frequently flagging posts in violation of our community guidelines.

Because of this, I’ve identified several users who are going to be elevated to “Leader” status. Flags thrown by these users will be given extra weight, and often will allow posts to be acted upon immediately. (Of course, as with all flags, these users are still subject to moderator review - nothing changes there).

The list of users with “Leader” status will change over time as we continue to gather statistics on those users who are most helpful in assisting the moderation team here, and includes removing users from that status if necessary.

[anon61221983]

Great choices! Congrats!

[codinghorror]

I know I have been … erratic … in the recent past and I apologize for that but I wanted to say that @orenwolf’s assistance in coming up with sane flagging strategies on a mature community – remember that BBS is the oldest and most established Discourse instance out there in the whole world – has been invaluable.

If you can’t trust me, I don’t blame you, but please trust @orenwolf who is not only Canadian and thus genetically required to be super nice, eh, but also represents an essential (critical even!) midpoint between “site owners” and “community”.

as a disclaimer, I have not, and do NOT exercise any moderator abilities here other than handling obvious spam flags and being a software tech support janitor. All actual moderation decisions are handled by @orenwolf and his team.

[orenwolf]

Congratulations to our newest batch of Leaders: @alahmnat, @FGD135, @anon15383236, and @gracchus!

@orenwolf

Discourse uses a pretty awesome system for weighing flags, so sometimes a single flag will still affect a post - it depends on both the flagger’s and poster’s Trust Level within Discourse.

That being said, another excellent tool the Discourse folks have given the mod team recently are statistics outlining users who flag often and are also often agreed with by moderators. These tend to be respected members of the community who are invaluable in assisting us with moderation, by frequently flagging posts in violation of our community guidelines.

Because of this, I’ve identified several users who are going to be elevated to “Leader” status. Flags thrown by these users will be given extra weight, and often will allow posts to be acted upon immediately. (Of course, as with all flags, these users are still subject to moderator review - nothing changes there).

The list of users with “Leader” status will change over time as we continue to gather statistics on those users who are most helpful in assisting the moderation team here, and includes removing users from that status if necessary.

[anon61221983]

[gracchus]

Thank you very much for granting me new opportunities to contribute to this community and help you out. I will follow the examples of you and the other Leaders and use my new privileges with great care.

[codinghorror]

Love to see communities that become (to the extent permissible) self governing! Congratulations all!

As you gain experience with the shiny new tools, please do keep the feedback coming. Let us know if there is anything we can do to make communities more hospitable and sustainable over time, and especially to make your life easier as community moderators.

[orenwolf]

As this is sort of becoming an annual tradition, I’ve taken some time to crunch the numbers to find our next set of TL4 leaders. These are individuals who flag often (and helpfully, that their flags result in actions being taken), are rarely legitimately flagged themselves, and have been a part of the BBS long enough to show a commitment to upholding our community standards.

As a recap, our existing leaders can be found here:

https://bbs.boingboing.net/g/trust_level_4

This round, I’m excited to add @IronEdithKidd, @navarro, @PsiPhiGrrrl and @teknocholer to our group of leaders!

To all the Leaders (and indeed, to everyone who tries to contribute in a positive way to the BBS), thank you. Moderating a forum this size would be immensely more difficult without your support, and visiting the BBS would be much less enjoyable without your contributions. Thank you!

[navarro]

i am both humbled and pleased to have been granted this level of responsibility. this is one of my favorite places on the internet primarily because of the high level of civility and intelligence of the conversations here. i haven’t been on as much over the past six months or so because of my cancer diagnosis and treatment but i’ve recently started to participate more as my health and energy have returned. i will do my best to uphold the high standards which make this such a great place. thank you.