Notes on New Moderator Functionality
Moderators now have a support system to automate most of the manual work that has taken place behind the scenes. The new system will be largely transparent to members - especially if one is never suspended. Most of the new functionality will only be seen (and used) by the moderators.
The most visible change to members will be the flagging icons (and behavior), the new moderation area and the ticket status function.
Flagging
The flagging icons and behavior are as follows:
Note that a flag icon may not even appear on some items. For example, you will never see a flag on any of the articles ( i.e. the article itself, not its comments ) or comments you have authored. Also, items that have grown stale (from prior months) will no longer have a flag icon.
Moderation
In the past, moderation comments were accomplished by moderators editing the offending comment and inserting 'purple ink' along with the initials of the moderator. With the new system, moderators are still free to edit comments and insert notes as they see fit. However, there is a special area (where the flags reside) that holds the ruling of the moderator and the name of the moderator who has acted. Thus when a moderator acts on a comment, the ruling and moderator name will appear in purple on the lower right corner of the comment. Purple ink in the body of the comment will be on an exception basis.
There are two symbols indicating the nature of the ruling:
Ticket Function
Members now have a way to check to see if they have outstanding tickets and to investigate same. If a mod has issued a ticket (ruled in the favor of a flag) your comment will have something in the moderator area (lower right corner) with a violation (
This shows the date of the ticket, the offense (deemed by the mod), the moderator and the article or comment to which this ticket applies. You can click on the article and will go directly to the item. You can also click on the Comment button (on the far right) to see the comment. The comment button has the added advantage of showing you the original comment to compare with the moderated comment (if the comment was edited by a mod). That way if the mod removed content you can see the portion of your comment that was removed.
Note that if you have accumulated enough tickets to warrant a suspension, this panel will let you know. In the upper right corner, if you see the message: ( you are up for suspension ) then a mod at any time could authorize a suspension.
Suspension
Suspensions will work the same as always. That is, the decision to suspend will be made explicitly by a moderator. The key difference is that all record keeping and administrative tasks are now automated. Suspension email messages are automatically generated and will include a list of all outstanding tickets that contributed to the suspension. In addition, suspension (and expiration of same) are handled automatically including the email message informing the member that the suspension is now over.
A lot of new functionality is now in place behind the scenes. This is a good place to ask questions (if any) about flags and moderation notes.
This would be a technical discussion, not dealing with moderation methods or the CoC.
Note that some of these graphics will not immediately show up since the older versions may still be in your caches. This should clear on its own over time.
Great new functions, TiG. This will be a very helpful group of functions for the Moderators and save them time. Good work!!!
Happy to do it Raven. The amount of record keeping and general administration work the mods had to engage in behind the scenes was screaming for a technical solution.
Having to help Moderate my own Beta Testers site, I am aware of what all is involved in the behind the scenes work load, even for one report. That is why I was interested in how the system here would work, and I am truly impressed with the simplicity and efficiency of the functionality. It will also help the Members to know when a comment has been flagged, the processing (green flag) and prevent duplicate flagging.
It seems it would ease a lot of work. If I am reading it correctly once an item is flagged it will say flagged for everyone? If so that is a great idea and would stop duplicate flagging.
The only thing I would add is if one would get notification if one is deleted or sanctioned. I think a lot of times people don't even know unless they go back and look.
Close. Multiple people can (and will) flag a single item. So the mods will see plenty of feedback from the community. The difference now is that as soon as a mod acts, that item will no longer be flaggable site-wide. The reason, of course, is that a decision has been made and the re-flagging is a waste of time. So you are quite correct that this will stop (wasted) duplicate flagging.
Something for the mods to weigh in on.
That's a good idea. I know I caused some time wasting for the mods with my constant flagging.
Question:
Will I be notified by email when I get a suspension?
Oh....and I noticed that the comment down in the right hand corner is in blue (the comment that states what the CoC was for and the mod's initials.
Yes. The email will list all the tickets that led to the suspension (with links to the offending comments) as well as the duration and exact minute when the suspension will end. Optionally it will include a message from the mod who authorized the suspension.
When the suspension is over you will get an email informing you of this.
But you will never be suspended so this does not matter.
that earned a snort....
And I like the term "ticket". It's appropriate
I was hoping the term used would be "sin".
And I love how you preserve the comment that I got a violation for! This is brilliant! Now there shouldn't be any misunderstanding on what was deleted on a comment.
(And I got to see my favorite word again)
Well done, and thank you for the updates.
You really amaze me TIG..
Driven from years of frustration with our prior site.
Still you are amazing!
It's that super big brain of his.
I'll second that!
I totally agree with that. TIG has completely transformed the site to a much more efficient functioning site.
Well done and thank you TiG.
Tig, you are da bomb!
Thanks for all that you do to make NT a great place to be! (and also helping the mod's job be that much easier! Many thanks!)
Document has been updated to describe the new Ticket function available to all members.
Very nicely done - thanks!
Glad that this meets your needs. This addresses both your and Ender's suggestions (I believe). In all a good addition to the site IMO (and clearly Perrie was in favor of this).
Right on! Well done and thank you!
OMG! I just realized I'm on the very member's thread that I want to be on to pitch my "win/win solution".
Dear TiG,
I would like to request that you add a member's response or comment field when a violation is handed out. Although I understand that the RA and Moderators currently advise members to PM their feedback, I believe it will allow the member to feel they have an official mechanism in which to object the action. Since the cite now generates an area specifically designated to highlight the member's comment and the moderator's action, the member should also have a field within that area to respond. Making it all nicely efficient and standard.
Thoughts?
I will send your request to Perrie to discuss with the mods. Note that I do not make the rules, capabilities or procedures; just implement them.
I understand that you are not the decision maker BUT you are the tech and can provide feedback on whether my request is feasible along with the amount of time and effort it would take to make it happen.
That is not how we operate; not how any site operates. Sorry. Requests are made to the mods who set priorities based on several factors (time & effort being only part of the equation).
Communication only works if it's both ways. Let's not pretend that it's as easy as the member PM'ing the MOD. But I take your point about the cost. I didn't think about that.
I have a question....how many violations does it take to get a suspension? And how long does a ticket stay on your record?
Last Friday I had 3 tickets now I'm only down to one and that's a skirting. Should I take this to metafied?
Yes TG please ask Perrie since your question is all about moderation policy. She can even answer this via a chat.
no problem, thanks, TiG
TIG, I think you have done an excellent job in making it easier for the mods.
But I think BIG GOVERNMENT has finally taken over this site. So, I'll leave you with a song for the road.
One another note, evidently there is a flaw in the program, when you work all day and when you come home and make 2 comments on your own article and it stays 6th from the bottom in spite of many other articles that move up to the top when comments are made. I already understand you can't keep commenting on your own article and keep it on the front page by doing so, but with my example below with several screen shots making up the total within 3 minutes maybe you wonder as I have why 2 comments made one 21 minutes ago and another one made at 37 minutes ago at the time of the screen shot, why many articles move to the top and mine didn't move?
Just look at the time on the discussions and compare them to the time on the comments.
Author and seeder comments do not count for 'bumping' their own article. There was a hole in this that was addressed yesterday. So if an author / seeder can no longer bump their own article up by entering a comment then that would be correct operation per site policy.
Some of us have jobs and can't be on here all day and night, so you're telling me when I make one reply to just one of the comments that have been put on an article I put up and was away has no effect on the position of the article? The way I understood it from Perrie was a person couldn't keep posting comments, meaning more than one, to keep pushing his or her article back to the top of the Front Page and he or she couldn't have a friend doing the same thing. You're algorithm has some good points, but this is not one of them, in my opinion.
You've done an excellent job in taking care of the technical functionality of this site, far better than I ever imagined and Perrie and the rest of us appreciate what you've done with it, but every day there is another out of the blue rule or regulation. I can't see how answering one comment would be harmful if it pushed it back to the Front Page. If no one else replies to my comment, then it would fall off the Front Page anyway if the second or any additional comments by me were to be ignored unless someone else posted another comment, but at least some others like me who aren't on here constantly would get a chance to see an article they may have missed because they weren't on here when it was put up.
Oh yes they can go back to the 'tracks' and look through every one of the heading until they find an article they want to respond to, but most people respond to articles that are on the Front Page.
Personally it doesn't matter to me as I haven't been posting many articles anyway, but for all of us who don't spend as much time as several others do and monopolize the Front Page. A person post an article and isn't here to babysit it for a few hours, but comes back and those with the permission to post quite a few articles drive that person's article off the Front Page, then someone who is on here only at night or later comes on and makes a reply to their article, but all those others who can only be on here at night never even know there was an article they missed when only one comment could have put it on the Front Page for them to see there are more that 4 or 5 people posting articles. Most people don't have the time to go to 'tracks' and look under each heading at every article to see if there is one they missed and would like to comment on. I'm pretty sure the intention wasn't a flaw at all.
So tell me TIG, I put a comment on an article 30 minutes ago that 96 had up concerning Maxine Waters and it didn't go back to the Front Page. There are over 20 other articles on the Front Page with times longer that 30 minutes that are on the Front Page. I didn't just put that comment up 30 minutes ago, but about 45 minutes now and it still didn't go to the Front Page. I put two more comments on the same article and Bob Nelson put one comment as a reply to my first one and it didn't take 96's article back to the Front Page. I'll let you folks deal with this. You either have a flaw in your algorithm or it is for another reason.
I had a friend of mine who worked for a marketing firm during the refinancing boom. He was depressed because only a couple of people would get more than 10 or 12 leads a night, while the others were only able to get 2 or 3 leads. The supervisor or manager told him they were not able to control who got the best leads and led everyone to believe these big producers were just that exceptional.
I contacted the company for him who provided the program they used to get the leads and pretended to be interested in buying the program. I ask them if I could help someone who wasn't getting many leads and they said "Sure, you can give each person the leads you wanted them to have, change it around and had full control. If I wanted to boost this person's moral some, I could chose to give him better leads for awhile".
Well, I had them email the entire info on the program and had them include the information above. I printed it out and gave it to my friend who threw it on the manager's desk the next day. The manager then changed his story, but said they could, but they didn't. It was obvious he was lying. Nice to have that control, isn't it? Reminds me of Socialism.
Now it is 1 hour ago.
Between myself and Bob Nelson we have put 5 comments up on 96's article and it is still not on the Front Page. What's wrong, isn't he a preferred customer?
Correct. The author / seeder comments are not counted as 'audience activity'. The exception is for articles that have less than 5 comments. In that case the author / seeder comments can be used to 'prime the pump' (so to speak). So if you have an article that lingers with almost no comments, you can give it a boost. Once you hit 5 comments, it is on its own.
Thing is, software does not make policy ; it simply implements / enables it. At this point I have read all three of your comments and have verified that the algorithm is working properly. I will point Perrie to your comments and I think you need to take the lobbying directly to her. If you do not like how the site operates in terms of policy, talk to the mods. That is, talk to management, not engineering.
As I noted in one of my responses, seems like people label anything they dislike as 'socialism'. Point taken, eh?
You left out this.
That wasn't my article, it was 96's article. At the end of the article, I made a comment, then another on, the Bob made a comment, then I made another one and up to an hour it didn't go to the front page with all our comments combined. While I noticed comments made after ours on other articles moving to the top of the front. Reminds me of Snopes.
I know, you wrote that (multiple times) and I read it. Same advice. I am not in charge of policy. See the mods.
No problem. I get it. Some people's articles will be affected by comments while some others won't. Basically that is what happened. No offense to you TIG. I understand it's not your job to make policy, only to make policy work. That's a new one on me, but I wouldn't have brought it up if I hadn't seen it with my own two eyes. I guess it's kind of like Crony Capitalism without the money aspect of it.
Six,
There is nothing going on with the comments and in fact I actually find it offensive that you are implying otherwise. The articles that are commented on go to the top. This doesn't happen if the comment is made by the seeder. End of story.
Now please address any other inquires to me and not to Tig.
Sounds like Snopes to me. I saw it happen with my own eyes last night. I've explained it above. 5 comments made on 96's article by Bob and me. The article was never affected, nor did it ever go to the front page, much less the top as it should have. So I looked at other comments being made on other articles to see if the discussion or article had moved to the top of the front page and every one of them did. If I hadn't seen it happening, I would not have brought it up.
You know I don't make stuff up. But if it is the end of the story even though I saw it happen so be it.
Six,
I am not sure why, what you are describing happened. Obviously, yours and Bob's comments can be clearly seen on the comment section. If we were trying to be nefarious, your comments wouldn't show either.
And for the record, what you just did, was beyond rude. I'll leave it at that.
I feel it is important for me to apologize here for my rudeness and false assumption there may have been some unethical reason for what I experienced the other night on this site. I talked with Perrie and we went through the reason what I saw could have happened and I am fully aware I was mistaken in my conclusion that some would get special treatment while others would not.
Although I am confident what I saw happen did happen and Perrie assured me it could happen, the reason for it didn't have anything to do with favoritism, but was nothing of the sort. There was a legitimate reason for it.
I want to apologize to Perrie and TIG for my rudeness and lack of confidence in the integrity of those who are working as hard as they can to make this site fair for all and the best social site on the internet.
I especially want to thank TIG for all that he has done to improve every aspect of The Newstalkers. He has accomplished more than I could ever imagine in improving this site for the better and made so many things much more functionally efficient for everyone.