[Soultrader]

After putting a lot of thought into the moderation policy of TL, I have decided to give moderation rights back to the community.

We are currently working on a new moderation system for members. This will feature:

1. Post reporting system: In addition to our current format, each reported post will be counted as 1 point. A total of x points will automatically delete a post in question.

2. If a member receives more than x amount of points an automatic infraction will be given. x number of infractions will lead to bans and suspension.

3. Only members with x amount of posts will be able to use this system in order to prevent abuse.

4. A new page will be created to list currently reported posts.

The purpose of this system will be to let the community determine what is appropriate and what is not. For any discussion related to TL's moderation, please post here. Thank you.

[brownsfan019]

Are you going to disclose what the 'x' values are?

[Soultrader]

Originally Posted by brownsfan019 »

Are you going to disclose what the 'x' values are?

Once the system is implemented and tested I will start adding values. I am thinking 3-5 reports = deletion, 3-5 reports = 1 infraction, 3 infraction = suspension, 6 infraction = ban... or something in that nature. Maybe limit the use of this system to those with over 50 posts in order to prevent abuse.

Please feel free to recommend any values you think appropriate. Thanks.

[sevensa]

Hi James

One potential issue I can see with that, is that will give the people not liking specific posts all the power and the ones who do, no power.

Let's take the recent Bluewave thread as an example. There are obviously a couple of people hell bend against indicators and perceive any commercial indicators mentioned as SPAM. This will only take 3 to 5 of them to get posts like that deleted and potentially the poster as well, but what about for example, the 50 others who found the posts useful?

Another example would the posts by Urmablume. I have zero respect for that guy and will flag his posts. That will only take a few more people who feels like that which would be enough to get his posts deleted, while there obviously are many other people who found his posts useful.

I can see big potential of abuse in a system like that. This is obvious that there are a couple of strong posters here, each with their "disciples" and this will be easy for one group to gang up against another to get those posts removed. This would be a real shame to see the VSA threads disappear because of 3 to 5 people...

[Soultrader]

Hi sevensa, thank you very much for your input. Makes perfect sense.... I can already see some other issues arising from this system.

What are your thoughts on limiting the number of reports a member can send per day? Lets say we increase the 3-5 to 10... would this not make much of a difference?

Ide like to make this work somehow... where members do not have to dispute with myself or the mods on the moderation policy. But instead it willl be more in a voting fashion.

[sevensa]

Hi James

I really don't know if increasing it to 10 will make a difference. I suspect there is a fine line there somewhere between making the number too little and too high. Too little, and it gets too easy to get post removed. Too high and you won't get enough people who care enough to report posts.

Limiting the number of posts one can flag in a day, certainly would have some kind of impact. If this will really prevent people determined to get a post/poster removed, I am not sure.

I don't really have an answer, but I am also not sure that there really is an issue to be fixed. Is moderation really a problem? At the end, you cannot always please everyone and just because a few people might not like the way moderation is done here, doesn't mean there really is a problem. Looking at the whole, I think this is due to moderation that TL did not evolve into another Elitetrader and is one of the premium forums . Let's face it, people who feel more comfortable in the free for all environment of Elitetrader, will not like it here. I guess it depends on the crowd you want to cater for here.

I am all for democracy, but in some cases I thinking giving power to the "masses" might not be the best thing to do and having moderators is needed.

One thing which might make help is to make moderators actions more visible and make them more accountable. For example, when they are deleting posts, this should be visible which moderator removed it and why.

[Soultrader]

Thanks again sevensa. Yes, that was my initial intention to keep TL clean from abusive language and behavior. However, this also comes with a price of not being able to keep everyone happy. I may have taken this too personally.

You are right regarding audience types. Those who prefer a free for all environment may not find TL appealing. While those who prefer a more respectful environment may enjoy TL.

Good points on the moderation being more visible. I had always disabled this because of the notices left behind when managing a post. It did not make a thread look pretty when it contained a ton of moderated post due to an argument.

I appreciate the input. I will discuss with my development as well covering the ideas you presented and see what we can come up with.

Feedbacks from all members are welcome before I plan this with my development team. Thank you.

[TradeRunner]

Originally Posted by sevensa »

I can see big potential of abuse in a system like that. This is obvious that there are a couple of strong posters here, each with their "disciples" and this will be easy for one group to gang up against another to get those posts removed. This would be a real shame to see the VSA threads disappear because of 3 to 5 people...

Voting manipulation like this has already occurred with POTM. In January I saw DBPheonix organising "block" voting via the chat room.

POTM is just a bit of fun so who cares about that. However voting to have posts deleted and people banned is putting too much power into peoples hands.