Nothing seems to stir more debate (well, ok, everything stirs up debate on ybm) than the question of whether to moderate users on the site or not. It’s no secret that a big part of the appeal of ybm is the ability to have honest and unfiltered exchanges with others.
It’s also no secret that while 95% of the ybm community seems perfectly capable of self-moderation and good judgment, there are always a handful of users who run amok like kids in a candy store when mommy’s not watching.
We would absolutely love to keep ybm moderation-free (hey it’s less work for us!), but with some people seemingly hell bent on destroying a good thing, we don’t know if it will be possible. In the meantime, we’re considering several different measures, including:
- hiring volunteer moderators
- creating a 100% unmoderated board, while keeping all other boards moderated
- a keyword filtering option for the PG crowd
- some sort of delete by committee feature, where each user gets one vote to delete an offensive post, and if enough votes are collected, the post is automatically removed.
We’ve been fortunate to have tremendous support and feedback from our users, and your input into how ybm should evolve has been a key component to this site’s success. As always, we would love to hear your thoughts.
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this is the internet… PLEASE don’t censor us!
I don’t like the idea of a moderator. People can collapse a post if they find it offensive.
no deleter…..everyone gets annoyed by different things. If people are really offended by something, they can go to another site at anytime.
Like the delete by committee option, but I’m not sure what you mean by limiting it to one vote. Is that per post? This seems reasonable — when I first read it, I thought it might be for some other period of time (per day, for example) — don’t see how that could work.
I need a part time job so if you want a moderator, I would have no problem doing this function. Otherwise, I do not think we need one.
@Pamlet yes that would be one vote per post. - YBM
Instead of moderation, can you have an ignore feature?
I think there needs to be someone in place to get rid of the posters who post the same thing for 3 pages.
this is not censorship, just classroom management.
I just vote for delete by committee, but I’m torn. I tend more toward no deleter at all - it’s such a slippery slope. But then we are subject to things like multiple spammy posts (chockieface, etc), which would be hard to delete by committee anyway - they come so fast. My guess is that whatever system is needed will evolve over time - every internet group faces something like this.
@nyc8675309 and Holy Grail, you're definitely right about handling repeat posters which we plan to address in the near future, independent of where we end up with moderators. - YBM
please let us be..live and let live
I hate to think of people being deleted b/c they swore, but not for people cutting and pasting repeatedly. That’s just housekeeping. If you must delete controversial posts, can they be moved to a separate board?
I like Tired_mom’s IGNORE feature idea!
How about a filter for repeat posts? I vote no to censorship, but would really love for there to be some way to stop people posting the same thing over and over and over again!
I like the ignore option as well - lets people “delete” to their own tastes without affecting others or requiring potentially censoring standards to be set. In keeping with the other personalizable features.
Unfortunately having moderated boards before there is always something that needs to be deleted; private stuff, home addresses etc. Some people post carelessly usually late at night when sleep deprivation, fatigue & alcohol impair good judgment.
By committee might work but invariably that can turn into a popularity contest (think High School) so on balance I think having a few volunteer moderators might work best.
I am all for no deleter EXCEPT for the crazy repeat posters or the insane cut and paste posters. They ruin the site, you pretty much have to log off the minute they show up because it’s pointless to stay, and they aren’t contributing a single useful thing to the discussion. Imo, that’s the only thing that calls for deleting.
Is there a way to ignore or delete by committee everything coming from a particular poster? The poster would stay ignored/banned for 24 hrs? That would solve the problem of repeat spammers.
I think the expression, I may not agree with what you say but I will defend your right to say it should be the overriding goal of any moderation policy. My issue with the one on UB was its arbitrariness and the seeming randomness of the punishment (I was barred from posting for 42 seconds once, no idea what I said). I think a simple thing would be to add “ignore this poster” to the posts, so if someone says something that really don’t want to see, then you control what you see. I think anyone who does those multiple posts just to be annoying, like the person who says, “So and so might be the best looking newsbabe on TV,” I think people like that should absolutely be barred from posting but barring usually means the person has to spend 5 minutes getting a new e-mail address. If i just ignore that particular poster, I’ll never be annoyed by her (or him) again. And if you find a particular person’s viewpoint so upsetting, ignoring them permanently could be a helpful option. As for voting, I think mobs are not often the best way to rule, they tend to get out of hand.
Two more thoughts on the issue:
*can we ignore parts of a thread w/in the thread itself (I know I’m asking a lot considering that ignore was never an official option). Often there’s an interesting thread but there will be an poster or two who try to take it in a different direction. e.g., the “Typical selfish” reply setting of ANOTHER wohm/sahm debate (http://www.youbemom.com/forum/view/120188)
*Perhaps a counter of how many people are ignoring a post. Maybe to drive the point home to the OP or OR that they aren’t as interesting as they believe they are.
I’m with the above posters - an “ignore” feature would be ideal (not technical enough to understand how this would work). couldn’t care less if people curse or whatever - the only thing that needs to be “banned” is the repeat postings.
I agree with Lilla: I’d really love the ability to collapse parts of threads. Sometimes a perfectly innocent thread gets ruined. I’d like to be able to collapse a post and all its daughter posts, and I think that way a lot of the rot will get cut out. If the instigator isn’t getting the jollies she wants by riling people up (and it does often happen that if enough people collapse a post then it goes away), then I think that will go a long way towards civility. But in the meantime, I agree, no censorship. Just deleting the posts of people who are trying to kill the board with repeats, etc.
LOVE your site and everything you’ve done for this community!
Sarah, the function to collapse posts already exists. Next to the number of the post you’ll see [-]. Click on this and it will collapse the entire post for you.
Hi Lilla, absolutely and I use this function all the time. What I would like to see is the ability to collapse PARTS of posts. Not the whole thing.
Sarah, I completely agree with you. If there is a way to collapse threads within the post that would be ideal.
The only time a deleter is necessary is when some crazy person posts the samething over and over. Frankly it is rare and we all know how to handle it- leave and come back later. This too shall pass.
Great job with YMB. Love it.
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I suggest doing some sort of moderating only because lately i’ve been seeing a ton of sexually charged posts regarding dc. I’m not a prude by any means either. Some recent posts have just been alarming.
I would hate to think that some people come on here to get off on what we say about our kids or get some sick ideas regarding kids in general.
Also, the posting of childrens’ pictures isn’t the best idea either.
I have worked with molested and exploited children and some of these posts rasie a red flag. They don’t seem very legit. Again, this is something that I’ve noticed recently.