Community Moderation

[Cosmic]

This is something which is used by Discourse (I believe) and the StackExchange websites. In addition to having moderators (or instead of), a community moderates itself. Posts which are downvoted enough are hidden to members with less than X posts, members can vote to lock threads, etc. This kind of thing is rarely supported in software, but is an interesting concept, I think. However, it only works for communities with a mature enough member base, I think. What are your thoughts?

 

[USHost247]

I really like the idea for the members to be able to vote on how a thread is treated rather than a single person deciding. More minds are better than one.

 

[Lorcan]

Its an interesting idea, but as you said it depends on your members and how mature they are, depends on the mood as well, and sometimes very simple things can make a mob mentality and this can lead to a topic being unfairly locked or removed.

I think its probably best to leave decisions to the staff, though it is a nice idea.

 

[Geoffrey]

Reminds me of yik yak.

I think it would be nice to see this supported more in software so we can actually see what happens as an experiment.

 

[Hissae2]

Its an interesting idea, but as you said it depends on your members and how mature they are, depends on the mood as well, and sometimes very simple things can make a mob mentality and this can lead to a topic being unfairly locked or removed.

I think its probably best to leave decisions to the staff, though it is a nice idea.

This

It's an interesting idea but it wouldn't work. The popular members would be able to do whatever they want and those that are less popular/less mature would have every post/thread downvoted.

 

[Seaspot]

I really like the idea for the members to be able to vote on how a thread is treated rather than a single person deciding. More minds are better than one.

Agreed, should be a multiple opinionated vote not a single.

 

[CyberFreak]

It could work well on some forums with a mature community but for forums with less mature members, debate forums or forums like FP that attract drama, it just wouldn't work out well,

 

[Deleted member 5665]

It could work well on some forums with a mature community but for forums with less mature members, debate forums or forums like FP that attract drama, it just wouldn't work out well,

I agree with this. It would work well on forums with a mature community, but not on communities with less mature members.

 

[USHost247]

FP is full of immature kids, and saying this in the most respectful way..They can't handle having the power to determine the fate of a lot of topics that get heated discussions.

 

[MajesticSquid]

I believe it would seriously depend on the forums maturity and the general way they behave. If a member is getting "bullied" the "bullies" may vote together to lock every topic or delete topic there victim makes and if the software does it automatically after X posts, it could lead to some very bad situations.

Obviously, if your user base is mature and generally well behaved, this wouldn't be an issue. I think that allowing Valued Contributors or Retired administrators (special usergroups) to have this feature, may be a better idea as they are generally a lot more trusted.

 

[Thomasss]

This would not work, I mean it's interesting however it's bound to cause more issues than the actual reports they are getting. 😛

It's like the press, they say something and suddenly you have a ton of people forming an opinion based on something that might not even be the case, and boom, you have a angry mob for something that should not need an angry mob. 😛

It's also the main reason why "mini mods" are not exactly allowed. I would rather have my moderation be handled by someone who was picked for the position, rather than a bunch community members who may or may not like me. 😛

 

[Esper]

Very interesting concept, but yeah if everyone just hops aboard the same wagon someone is going to get screwed somehow.

But, it would be a fun experiment.

 

[Sharon]

That is an interesting concept. I would be afraid of people abusing it though by simply voting down threads simply because they want their own threads bumped up.

 

[Deltachi2012]

Its an interesting idea, but as you said it depends on your members and how mature they are, depends on the mood as well, and sometimes very simple things can make a mob mentality and this can lead to a topic being unfairly locked or removed.

I think its probably best to leave decisions to the staff, though it is a nice idea.

I completely agree, if a group of members dislike another member, they can easily lock out all of his/her posts.