There are two approaches to moderation control we can take:
Quick win: make it easy to contact us asap about any content/users you have concerns about.
Big win: Build a moderation experience that completely outstrips every other community platform. We all care deeply about privacy and safety, so this could be a key place to prove that to users AND make mods really happy by catering to them.
I think we should do version 2 unless something happens that calls for version 1. It'll take more time, but it'll be worth it to the communities we support.
- [ ] Bulk message deletion: enable moderators to delete spam or harassment quickly.
- [ ] Flagging: surface problematic instances to moderators or the Spectrum team. Needs to enable quick tagging for reasons that are covered in our Code of Conduct and also enable freeform editing. The key goal is to make people feel safe ASAP. This should be fast and easy. It should also be obvious when it's being done to troll others.
- [ ] Threads
- [ ] reports issue to community moderators
- [ ] UI supplies user rep + controls for messaging user, message deletion, thread locking, and blocking user from community
- [ ] Messages
- [ ] reports issue to community moderators
- [ ] UI supplies user rep + controls for messaging user, message deletion and blocking user from community
- [ ] Direct Messages
- [ ] reports issue to Spectrum team
- [ ] UI supplies user rep + controls for messaging user, blocking user from platform
- [ ] Communities
- [ ] reports issue to Spectrum team
- [ ] UI supplies admin/mod rep + controls for messaging admin/moderators, deleting community, blocking creator from platform
- [ ] Users
- [ ] reports issue to Spectrum team
- [ ] UI supplies user rep + controls for messaging user, blocking user from platform
- [ ] Threads
- [ ] Automated mod support
- [ ] Surfaces auto-flagged content from our toxicity monitoring to moderators for them to confirm/deny appropriateness
- [ ] Assists in taking action via scripted advice based on context OR by messaging users for the moderator
- Should be treated as a character.
- [ ] Needs a name. Maybe something friendly and non-gendered like “Sam”/”Sammy” (short for "Spectrum Automated Moderator")?
- [ ] Needs some basic emotive illustrations/icons for different types of messages
- happy SAM 😁
- sad SAM 😕
- thinking SAM🤔
- these should be small, easy to update, modular
- [ ] Thread approval: enable communities to restrict thread submissions
- [ ] Member approval: enable communities to be selective about who can join
- [ ] Reputation improvements: make the effects of your behavior obvious to people AND know that others can see it too.
- [ ] Add rep increase/decrease to daily/weekly digest
- [ ] Add total rep + explanation dropdown on click to navbar
- [ ] Email on significant rep reached ("Congrats on 1000/10000/100000 rep in x community/total!")
- [ ] Show rep explanation on user page (inspired by StackOverflow)
mxstbr
All 18 comments
Thank you for this awesome product!
Please let moderators edit the thread title. Users don't choose an accurate one generally. It can lead other users to post some unrelated content.
Example: https://spectrum.chat/?t=f4a68d1b-a987-4909-9fa5-0bd376fdaf5d
chabou
on 11 Apr 2018
Hey @chabou - I definitely hear where you're coming from; at this point we're probably going to stay away from letting moderators edit any part of the thread content. This is a tough decision because there are lots of cases like yours where it would be a super quick win to just clarify the title for others. But in some cases it could be more damaging to allow people to edit other's content; perhaps in the meantime a solution here is to message the user with the proposed title and then lock the thread?
brianlovin
on 11 Apr 2018
I was just thinking about this actually - what if you could "unpublish" a user's thread temporarily and work with them to fix it?
superbryntendo
on 11 Apr 2018
That could be like a more advanced "lock"
superbryntendo
on 11 Apr 2018
Might fall in the category of "Require approval before threads are published in my community"
And the UI for approving a thread could have quick access to message a user. So user's would need post-submission edit abilities.
brianlovin
on 11 Apr 2018
I think this is really important to not let moderators edit users/thread content.
But I think that title is not a part of this content, this is an entire part of "How to organize information" (like labeling). Right title notion can change with time. Imagine that you want to later add to the title some DEPRECATED or anything else.
And another important point: with your solution, users should cooperate. This is better to not required a right title before helping users (not enough friendly) and the right title could sometimes be found only after some public discussion to understand user's issue/question. But if users don't change it after our help, we are stuck. And we don't want to unpublish some valuable content because of a wrong title.
Please consider title as a special case 🙏 😁
chabou
on 11 Apr 2018
this is an entire part of "How to organize information" (like labeling).
Could 'labeling' be a separate element of thread organization within communities? Or do you envision titles being a primary mechanism here? Just want to make sure I understand the problem here completely
But if users don't change it after our help, we are stuck. And we don't want to unpublish some valuable content because of a wrong title.
I see - does this fall into the same problem category as "labeling" of threads for better organization?
brianlovin
on 11 Apr 2018
I definitely see your point, @chabou. I hadn't considered the title as separate from the post in the same way. I could see this being slightly confusing for users, but it's definitely something to consider.
superbryntendo
on 11 Apr 2018
Labeling was totally a separate element in my mind. It was only to emphasize/illustrate that the notion of a title is quite the same as a label: Can change with time, can be difficult to be rightly determined by users, does not betray them if changed behind their backs etc...
chabou
on 11 Apr 2018
Sure - if we go down that path we'd definitely notify users as well as retain all edit history. We'll have a think on this, appreciate the feedback :)
brianlovin
on 11 Apr 2018
This is a good read about this by reddit ex product lead http://nymag.com/selectall/2018/04/dan-mccomas-reddit-product-svp-and-imzy-founder-interview.html
haikyuu
on 20 Apr 2018
We read and discussed that yesterday @haikyuu! Thanks for sharing - we're definitely trying to be as proactive as possible here :)
brianlovin
on 20 Apr 2018
Some relevant research:
mxstbr
on 9 May 2018
In the thread and messages, you have written that reports issue to community moderators. I think you should also allow users to send a report to a spectrum team too.
Why
- Maybe all the community moderators are not available
- Sometimes a moderator might not have good relation with the users and might block or unpublish the user's threads. _(NOTE: No hate for any community moderator or admin just taking general prospective.)_
mittalyashu
on 12 Jun 2018
Template based thread is very helpful for feature requests and bugs.
mittalyashu
on 12 Jun 2018
Let's put thread templates in a different issue please, @mittalyashu
superbryntendo
on 12 Jun 2018
mittalyashu
on 12 Jun 2018
Have you considered adding bot support? This will allow developers to create their own moderation bots to fit their community's own needs.
A bunch of powerful moderation bots will most likely emerge within weeks.
atlx
on 30 Nov 2018
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Most helpful comment
Have you considered adding bot support? This will allow developers to create their own moderation bots to fit their community's own needs.
A bunch of powerful moderation bots will most likely emerge within weeks.