Our new flagging system has changed our moderation from Community Moderation to admin moderation. That’s ok. We are guests here. But I’d like to thank and honor Community Moderation for some very good years!
Most of the people I saw involved in HR community moderation in the over 10 years I have been here viewed their role as moderator as a serious and trusted responsibility, helping both new users and longtime users. There's no question that some numerical minority of trolls or troublemakers engaged in "pack behavior." Maybe flagging has quieted the trolls. But it also removed the many benefits of community moderation.
Community Moderation was based on transparency because the community first needs to know if a comment has been HR’d, and this transparency contributed to preventing the harm of crap diaries being widely spread on social media. We want to grow and expand our reach, not just new users or traffic, but our movements, activism and campaigns.
I usually read a diary, if like, recommend, and then scrolled down to tip. If we missed some problem or issue with the diary, HRs on the tip jar signaled “look at comments to see why.” This was a useful tool, because I often don’t have time to read or participate in comment threads, but if the tip jar is HR’d, then i would scroll down to see why. Flagging removes that key tool to prevent troll or ism diaries from hitting the rec list, and spreading on social media as we click onto those handy tools at the top of diaries for FB and twitter.
Under the HR system, one HR on the tip jar can be seen by all. But, it can take some time under the flagging system for our community members to receive some kind of visual notice or clues that a tip jar was flagged, showing a red line, and it might take a few hours before the comment is hidden, showing visually that it was flagged. And that time gap can result in some harm to both community and DK because it leaves a gap where people can unknowingly recommend a diary that was flagged for good reason.
I think we saw this harm last February when a story posted (now removed) falsely stated that "Sanders supporters were not welcome at Reverend Barber’s 10th Annual Moral Mondays march in South Carolina today." This lying diary was on the rec list overnight, iirc, and also on the "most shared list." Indeed, Fantastic trolling causes rift between DKos and Rev Barber. Our community responded with new diaries to spread the word: Don't Believe the Lie: ALL are Welcome at Moral Mondays March:
Reverend Barber has called out that post from the stage, identifying it as the lie it is. People not regularly on Daily Kos don’t understand that the rec list is not managed by administration here, and so that post’s continuing presence here impugns all of Daily Kos as lying about the march.
In his speech before the march, "Barber was moved to publicly brand “a damn lie!” while calling out Daily Kos by name." The post was removed the next day by staff after Rev. Barber asked for the posts to be removed: “We have unpublished the two diaries by the diarist, since Reverend Barber has announced this morning that these two diaries are completely in error. Reverend Barber has asked for the two reports to be taken down. And the diarist has been banned.”
As Yasuragi noted: "What can’t be undone is the harm done via social media." It simply was not caught fast enough. But if the tip jar had been visually HR'd, I doubt it would have made our rec list, or stayed up overnight, or hit DK’s most shared list with over 1700 shares on FB, and be spread via our social media tools.
Some have noted this is not an isolated incident. We are seeing more and more click bait posts and stories posted by writers who did not even spend a few minutes with their friend google to confirm facts. As noted by Leslie Salzillo:
"We have our work cut out in order to correct this falsehood that has, and will continue to, spread throughout social media, via gossip. But because of your diary we are on our way to righting the wrong.
Perhaps this will also send a message and discourage others from posting misleading, have-truths and lies. It’s become rampant in our community these days and needs to be addressed. The diary forum is set up to give a platform and voice to those who might normally not have one. Today is an example of the kind of damage that can be down when the platform is used wrongfully."
Knowing who HR'd is part of the educational process and part of developing community standards and also part of making our community stronger. For example, if someone posts a diary/comment that is racist or sexist, but it is not obvious that the comment is racist or sexist because it is subtle sexism or racism or microaggressions that people might be uninformed about or not see, knowing who HR'd the comment and the reason for the HR provides that information, and lets both the upraters and the lurkers know that they might need to ask questions of the HR'ers or google to learn more about the specific ism issue.
Showing who HRs a comment/story also lets us know when donuts are posted by a cross section of DK community, telling the readers this is not a pissing war but substantive issue. Seeing that cross-section of community come together for moderation, this helps build community, a few building blocks that can be added to other blocks can make a difference.
Community Moderation, you enabled our community to be part of establishing the “common law” at DK. Management may state a rule is X, but like the law in real life, you might not realize that the rule is ambiguous or that a gray area exists until you try to apply the rule to a particular fact situation. It is the discussion threads for an HR'd comment that worked out the details, and also enabled us to know when existing rules should be tweaked by management because issues arose in practical application.
Community participation in the development of DK common law is now bye bye too. Yes, discussions can lead to raised voices, talking over each other, here as in all communities. But I will miss you, our town public square.
The HR system provided the benefit of deterrence in the comment threads discussing why the comment was HR'd. Explaining why a rule exists enables new and old users to understand the rules and thus less likely to violate the rules. This is just a reflection of life that once someone tells you that something is offensive, most people will show respect by not repeating the offensive behavior or words.
Part of the deterrence also stems from knowing who HR'd a comment because if you respect the people who HR'd you, then you might just listen to why your comment violated the rules and change your behavior in the future.
Community Moderation, some of us will miss you. You were not just about sanctioning rule violators. You were one of our tools for building community and interactions. You provided community with connections and a vested interest in protecting our community. You were about educating, motivating participation, protecting our community culture and resolving conflicts. You were one avenue for us to learn from each other and share information.
Now, there is nothing for community to do but raise the flag, literally. Our community cannot moderate because there is no transparency whether something is flagged, who flagged, or why it was flagged, and thus community can not moderate when so left in the dark. So now our role is to literally flag a mess in story X to provide notice to admins for them to moderate the issue/dispute kinda like the customer or supermarket clerk who announces to management: “Hey, we got a mess in aisle 9 that needs cleanup!”
x YouTube VideoIt was really nice having you around, Community Moderation. May you RIP.