[extropy-chat] [udhay at pobox.com: [silk] moderating online conversations]

[Eugen Leitl]

----- Forwarded message from Udhay Shankar N <udhay at pobox.com> -----

From: Udhay Shankar N <udhay at pobox.com>
Date: Fri, 28 Jul 2006 09:50:40 +0530
To: silklist at lists.hserus.net
Subject: [silk] moderating online conversations
X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 7.0.1.0
Reply-To: silklist at lists.hserus.net

From Teresa Nielsen Hayden, "Some things I know about moderating 
conversations in virtual space"

http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/006036.html#006036

1. There can be no ongoing discourse without some degree of 
moderation, if only to kill off the hardcore trolls. It takes rather 
more moderation than that to create a complex, nuanced, civil 
discourse. If you want that to happen, you have to give of yourself. 
Providing the space but not tending the conversation is like 
expecting that your front yard will automatically turn itself into a garden.

2. Once you have a well-established online conversation space, with 
enough regulars to explain the local mores to newcomers, they'll do a 
lot of the policing themselves.

3. You own the space. You host the conversation. You don't own the 
community. Respect their needs. For instance, if you're going away 
for a while, don't shut down your comment area. Give them an open 
thread to play with, so they'll still be there when you get back.

4. Message persistence rewards people who write good comments.

5. Over-specific rules are an invitation to people who get off on 
gaming the system.

6. Civil speech and impassioned speech are not opposed and mutually 
exclusive sets. Being interesting trumps any amount of conventional 
politeness.

7. Things to cherish: Your regulars. A sense of community. Real 
expertise. Genuine engagement with the subject under discussion. 
Outstanding performances. Helping others. Cooperation in maintenance 
of a good conversation. Taking the time to teach newbies the ropes.

All these things should be rewarded with your attention and praise. 
And if you get a particularly good comment, consider adding it to the 
original post.

8. Grant more lenience to participants who are only part-time jerks, 
as long as they're valuable the rest of the time.

9. If you judge that a post is offensive, upsetting, or just plain 
unpleasant, it's important to get rid of it, or at least make it hard 
to read. Do it as quickly as possible. There's no more useless advice 
than to tell people to just ignore such things. We can't. We 
automatically read what falls under our eyes.

10. Another important rule: You can let one jeering, unpleasant jerk 
hang around for a while, but the minute you get two or more of them 
egging each other on, they both have to go, and all their recent 
messages with them. There are others like them prowling the net, 
looking for just that kind of situation. More of them will turn up, 
and they'll encourage each other to behave more and more 
outrageously. Kill them quickly and have no regrets.

11. You can't automate intelligence. In theory, systems like 
Slashdot's ought to work better than they do. Maintaining a 
conversation is a task for human beings.

12. Disemvowelling works. Consider it.

13. If someone you've disemvowelled comes back and behaves, forgive 
and forget their earlier gaffes. You're acting in the service of 
civility, not abstract justice.

-- 
((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))


----- End forwarded message -----
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Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org
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