dagblog - Comments for ""On my new moderation duties" (by Markos Moulitsas, founder and publisher of Daily Kos)"

I've only been to DKos a few

Donal — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 21:17:32 +0000

In reply to I'd never heard of DKos being

I've only been to DKos a few times.

I'd never heard of DKos being

tmccarthy0 — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 21:00:14 +0000

In reply to My belief is that even when

I'd never heard of DKos being exclusively a democratic site, until I read your link. I was a long time Salon reader, almost from its beginning. In fact when I joined Salon in 1997 you had to pay 25.00 a year to read the articles. And I've just been there for so long. It really was my favorite place, but after a while every place seems to deteriorate, I call it the UsenetWars Legacy Sickness, and it happens by neglect.

So I applaud him for trying to get whatever problems they were having under control. And from the couple of things I've read there lately, it seems to be not that bad, although it is one very large online community, it is kind of intimidating it is so large!

I think it's just as true of

Donal — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 19:46:33 +0000

In reply to Comes immediately to mind

I think it's just as true of private schools.

My belief is that even when

artappraiser — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 19:29:42 +0000

In reply to Until I saw this link I'd

My belief is that even when there is a community policing system, every now and then a dictator still has to step in and check out how things are working, and clean things up if they are getting out of control and "going all Tobacco road," like they used to say in the 50's. I dunno what that says for democracy....but I always liked Betty Boothroyd in the temporary dictator role in the House of Commons. Then there's that little example of the Supreme Court and the executive branch of the U.S.A. having to step in to integrate the schools in the south.....

P.S. I am surprised you never visited DKos. Despite what I said above about not thinking of it as an exclusively Democratic site, there has always been a ton of grass roots Democratic party organizing there, lots of posts on local races, with people trying to get help in local races from across the country by posting there.

Oh and something comes to

artappraiser — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 19:20:27 +0000

In reply to Actually, I wouldn't even

Oh and something comes to mind might interest you on the geek stuff. When TPMCafe dumped Scoop, they went to Drupal. Everyone complained in mass quantities, they liked Scoop a lot were happy with the system, few complaints. Andrew Golis' first job was to handle that, lots of meta threads. People wanting the ratings back and the mojo system. TPM ended up customizing Drupal anyways, to be more like Scoop, to get some of those features back. But it didn't have the hidden comments system, which I think is a really crucial part of the Scoop system, just ratings and mojo. Having mojo in the TPM-customized-Drupal entitled you to "zero" things but the comment just stayed there. It just caused more ratings wars activity in mho. The hidden comments system of Scoop allowed for the police to police each others' policing activities as well.

It's also interesting what Kos did with Scoop on ratings long ago, they took away the 5-point ratings and just let people put a "plus one" or "minus one" (with too many of the latter causing hiding from the public.) And the community came up with "tip jar" on their own, which also altered the system. Both of those things eventually became sort of part of blogosphere language everywhere, but they came from Kos.

Actually, I wouldn't even

artappraiser — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 18:56:32 +0000

In reply to Thanks for the links, AA.

Actually, I wouldn't even think of comparing dagblog because you have moderation by the owners here, which is possible when the community is small enough. (And just like with meatspace police, that doesn't require catching everything or always enforcing, all it requires is that people know you are there and do it sometimes.) You really don't need community moderation with that unless you're interested in trying it or you can't tolerate the amount (or type) of work involved anymore.

I have seen examples where moderation seems to really bum you out and you get into explaining yourself a lot. I admit that in posting the original I did think you in particular might be interested for that reason. (Especially because he's just doing the dictator thing here--something which owners are totally entitled to do, no need for splainin'.)

But the main reason I posted it is because its news in politics--DKos is a big influential site and I think changes there are important blogosphere news if you're into blogosphere meta. And on that front, as you yourself pointed out, the "no more third party talk" thing is kind of shocking. I never thought of it as a exclusively Democratic party site, if that was his intention all along, I think he sure didn't control the mission or get it across that well.

Thanks for the links, AA.

Michael Wolraich — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 17:20:15 +0000

In reply to He added two later posts

Thanks for the links, AA. From a moderation point of view, there are two important differences between Kos and dag (other than the fact that they have a lot more ding-a-lings). One, Kos has a much larger community. Two, Kos has a budget.

With relation to two, Kos built his site from scratch, so he can customize it however he likes. Dagblog is built on drupal, and I don't have time to do much customization work on it. That said, there is probably some comment flagging drupal module that I can plug in.

I'm concerned, however, that because the community is small, it could produce a lot of "Who flagged my comment?" fights and flag-wars between antagonists. Does that happen on Kos?

Nonetheless, it might be worth experimenting with if we have more problems in the future, though I feel good about how people have been engaging lately.

PS For the record, we don't dislike meta per se. Discussing how a blog should work is really interesting. It's the recriminations and finger-wagging meta that we can't stand.

Until I saw this link I'd

tmccarthy0 — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 17:05:26 +0000

In reply to "On my new moderation duties" (by Markos Moulitsas, founder and publisher of Daily Kos)

Until I saw this link I'd never read DKOS, never been to the site or anything. But I have to say at least they are doing something. My one time favorite place Salon.com has allowed offensive posters and trolls take over the place, I'd been reading and participating there since 1997, and it has literally gone to hell.

I don't know that this would make me read KOS, but I still think it is a good move.

Comes immediately to mind

artappraiser — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 16:49:00 +0000

In reply to My take is that a good system

Comes immediately to mind that that's a common argument about the public schools (vs. private schools, which can chose students and/or more easily fire teachers.)

Then there's the example of some parliaments having a long history of following the rules with few exceptions, and others that have a regular propensity of reaching the point of breaking out into physical brawls ...

My take is that a good system

Donal — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 16:05:53 +0000

In reply to He added two later posts

My take is that a good system helps, but bad people can overcome a good system and good people can overcome a bad system.