All,
Based on a conversation in another thread, I have put together some thoughts on the moderation of this site.
Before we get into an in-depth discussion about moderation on this site. Let me share with you some site statistics so that you guys can better understand the moderating task at hand. These aren’t shared to provide an excuse for poor moderation, but only to insure that we are discussing the task of moderating this site from the same foundation. Here we go:
Forum Participation in the Last Month:
Number of users that participated: 4938
Number of unique individuals that read the forums: approx. 23,000
Forum Content Generated in the Last Month:
Average post length in words: 32
Number of posts created: 240,000
Number of words posted: approx. 7,680,000
Length of average novel: 100,000 words
Number of “novels” posted last month: approx. 76.8
First, holy crap! That’s actually much more than I had anticipated!! Second, this should give us all a better idea what the moderators are up against.
Keep in mind that all the moderators are volunteers and they are successful, busy people in their offline lives (I am the only individual employed by TexAgs, started in Oct ’05, and my time is consumed running all other aspects of the site). Asking them to read through 77 novels each month and separate the acceptable from the unacceptable is a very tall order. Pile on top the demands of doing so judiciously, consistently, and in a timely fashion and you pass up the realm of possibility very quickly (at novel 20
).
So, armed with the above information to help us understand the scope of moderating this site, let’s talk a little about moderation:
The Basics
First, I believe moderation of this site is very necessary for its survival. I’m not sure that many would argue with that belief, but for the sake of completeness, I will start with that. I don’t know how many of you were around in the days of gobig12.com, but it was a completely unmoderated forum and it was a complete disaster. Many sites were born out of that disaster, the first, and most successful, being this one. Seven years later we are still going strong and growing daily.
Second, two principles guide the moderation of this site. The first of these is personal conviction – my personal conviction. Because I am charged with running this site, I view it is an extension of myself. Every now and again I tell someone in the real world that I own and run this thing called TexAgs – I want to be proud of that. That said, there are certain things that I feel are not acceptable under any circumstances (porn, inappropriate sexual humor, personal attacks, spamming, etc.) no matter what financial or other intangible gain could be had.
The second guiding principle is success (which includes financial). I want this site to be the best at what we do and one important component to this is maximizing participation. I want as many to enjoy reading, posting, and interacting on this site as possible. Why? Because the more that participate, the more entertaining, relevant, and valued the site becomes. It is a self-feeding cycle that has mushroomed this site into arguably one of the best sites of its kind.
The effort to maximize participation influences the moderation as we (the moderators) try to shape the content into something that our broad audience wants to read and participate in.
Micro versus Macro
The average poster thinks about moderation on a micro level: what I can or cannot post, why I was banned (and not another), etc. It is usually centered around them. This is understandable, as it directly affects the individual.
However, back away with me for a second and consider moderation at the macro level – where we as moderators operate. Our job as moderators is to provide an environment where fruitful discussion can exist among thousands of individuals – and be read by thousands upon thousands more.
As indicated already, we had nearly 5,000 posters participate last month (and there are months when we have higher participation) – that’s like filling up Rudder Auditorium twice and handing everyone a microphone. Because of this, our moderating policies (what is and is not acceptable) have to strike a balance between individual freedom and the communal good (what’s best for the forum as a whole). This place wouldn’t survive if we weren’t constantly working to achieve this balance.
I think it is important for all of us (as posters) to understand that we are participants of a much larger community – and post responsibly.
Being Consistent
As evident from feedback from you all, consistency is one of our biggest challenges. Of all the moderating criticisms I think this is the most valid. However, let’s first dispel the idea that perfect consistency is achievable - it’s not. There are too many factors working against us: we can’t be on the forums all the time, there is an enormous amount of content being posted, it’s not possible to follow every subplot in the daily soap-operas, moderation by different moderators can vary slightly, different policies for different boards, situational flexibility, moderator humanity, etc. So, let’s replace “consistency” with “more consistent” - that’s achievable.
So, in that light, I think the following items would help us be “more consistent”:
First, we need to publish a more thorough list of posting policies. A more thorough list of policies would detail more clearly what is and is not acceptable on the forums. There is too much ambiguity in the current user agreement that lends itself to inconsistency (or, at the very least, perceived inconsistency). We will work on this new policy list.
Second, we need to improve our communication with posters regarding moderation issues. Even if it is an automated “canned” response as to the reason for a ban would be helpful. I’m still not on board with the penalty box, but maybe there is something in the middle that can implemented.
And that’s moderation 101. Thoughts?
Brandon ‘95
[This message has been edited by WatchOle (edited 3/9/2006 2:35p).]
Based on a conversation in another thread, I have put together some thoughts on the moderation of this site.
Before we get into an in-depth discussion about moderation on this site. Let me share with you some site statistics so that you guys can better understand the moderating task at hand. These aren’t shared to provide an excuse for poor moderation, but only to insure that we are discussing the task of moderating this site from the same foundation. Here we go:
Forum Participation in the Last Month:
Number of users that participated: 4938
Number of unique individuals that read the forums: approx. 23,000
Forum Content Generated in the Last Month:
Average post length in words: 32
Number of posts created: 240,000
Number of words posted: approx. 7,680,000
Length of average novel: 100,000 words
Number of “novels” posted last month: approx. 76.8
First, holy crap! That’s actually much more than I had anticipated!! Second, this should give us all a better idea what the moderators are up against.
Keep in mind that all the moderators are volunteers and they are successful, busy people in their offline lives (I am the only individual employed by TexAgs, started in Oct ’05, and my time is consumed running all other aspects of the site). Asking them to read through 77 novels each month and separate the acceptable from the unacceptable is a very tall order. Pile on top the demands of doing so judiciously, consistently, and in a timely fashion and you pass up the realm of possibility very quickly (at novel 20
).So, armed with the above information to help us understand the scope of moderating this site, let’s talk a little about moderation:
The Basics
First, I believe moderation of this site is very necessary for its survival. I’m not sure that many would argue with that belief, but for the sake of completeness, I will start with that. I don’t know how many of you were around in the days of gobig12.com, but it was a completely unmoderated forum and it was a complete disaster. Many sites were born out of that disaster, the first, and most successful
, being this one. Seven years later we are still going strong and growing daily.Second, two principles guide the moderation of this site. The first of these is personal conviction – my personal conviction. Because I am charged with running this site, I view it is an extension of myself. Every now and again I tell someone in the real world that I own and run this thing called TexAgs – I want to be proud of that. That said, there are certain things that I feel are not acceptable under any circumstances (porn, inappropriate sexual humor, personal attacks, spamming, etc.) no matter what financial or other intangible gain could be had.
The second guiding principle is success (which includes financial). I want this site to be the best at what we do and one important component to this is maximizing participation. I want as many to enjoy reading, posting, and interacting on this site as possible. Why? Because the more that participate, the more entertaining, relevant, and valued the site becomes. It is a self-feeding cycle that has mushroomed this site into arguably one of the best sites of its kind.
The effort to maximize participation influences the moderation as we (the moderators) try to shape the content into something that our broad audience wants to read and participate in.
Micro versus Macro
The average poster thinks about moderation on a micro level: what I can or cannot post, why I was banned (and not another), etc. It is usually centered around them. This is understandable, as it directly affects the individual.
However, back away with me for a second and consider moderation at the macro level – where we as moderators operate. Our job as moderators is to provide an environment where fruitful discussion can exist among thousands of individuals – and be read by thousands upon thousands more.
As indicated already, we had nearly 5,000 posters participate last month (and there are months when we have higher participation) – that’s like filling up Rudder Auditorium twice and handing everyone a microphone. Because of this, our moderating policies (what is and is not acceptable) have to strike a balance between individual freedom and the communal good (what’s best for the forum as a whole). This place wouldn’t survive if we weren’t constantly working to achieve this balance.
I think it is important for all of us (as posters) to understand that we are participants of a much larger community – and post responsibly.
Being Consistent
As evident from feedback from you all, consistency is one of our biggest challenges. Of all the moderating criticisms I think this is the most valid. However, let’s first dispel the idea that perfect consistency is achievable - it’s not. There are too many factors working against us: we can’t be on the forums all the time, there is an enormous amount of content being posted, it’s not possible to follow every subplot in the daily soap-operas, moderation by different moderators can vary slightly, different policies for different boards, situational flexibility, moderator humanity, etc. So, let’s replace “consistency” with “more consistent” - that’s achievable.
So, in that light, I think the following items would help us be “more consistent”:
First, we need to publish a more thorough list of posting policies. A more thorough list of policies would detail more clearly what is and is not acceptable on the forums. There is too much ambiguity in the current user agreement that lends itself to inconsistency (or, at the very least, perceived inconsistency). We will work on this new policy list.
Second, we need to improve our communication with posters regarding moderation issues. Even if it is an automated “canned” response as to the reason for a ban would be helpful. I’m still not on board with the penalty box, but maybe there is something in the middle that can implemented.
And that’s moderation 101. Thoughts?
Brandon ‘95
[This message has been edited by WatchOle (edited 3/9/2006 2:35p).]
