Life, Death, And Automatic Forum Moderation

Life, Death, And Automatic Forum Moderation

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I am a Judgment Broker who writes a lot. This article is my opinion on why automated forum administration systems and software are not always a good idea.

Online Forums are supposed to be places for the free exchange of ideas and experiences, with an exchange of information and mutual assistance. On many forums, some occasional humor and fun are a welcome bonus.

Forum moderation is not simple. Besides the headaches of spammers and hackers, there can be misinformation and quarrels. Sometimes the smartest people are not everyone's friend, however they're very good for a forum.

It is difficult sometimes to perform the moderation work required, and to keep everyone happy, while continuously staying altruistic, positive, fair, generous, objective, and vigilant.

On large forums, having more than one moderator to split the workload, there can also be the problem with too many "cooks in the kitchen", each with unique agendas and policies.

Recently, auto-moderation forum programs, usually available as an extension for forum hosting systems for software, are becoming more popular. It is promoted as the new solution, to save time for forum moderators, and eliminate a need for more than one moderator.

Some basic features of auto-moderation forum software often include:

1) Sometimes allowing the starter of the thread (the person that began the conversation) to remove the entire thread at any time.

2) Allowing the thread owner to remove any individual replies to their message thread that they thick is inappropriate.

3) Allowing all members to report any post they think is inappropriate. The remaining administrator, decides if that post was inappropriate. If it is, the post is removed and the poster gets a warning. If the report is found inappropriate, the reporter of the post gets a warning.

4) Keeping count of inappropriate posts and the handling of warnings and restrictions.

5) Moving some of the moderation power to every member.

Auto-moderation forum software still needs at least one person to handle all complaints, and to decide which member is right.

In my opinion, auto-forum moderation systems might not a good idea for these reasons:

1) It may remove some intelligence from important decisions. Some people are better suited to be moderators everyone is.

2) It sometimes permits the starter of a message thread, who might know next to nothing, decide to delete a thread that has grown into an intelligent conversation with a lot of information. Often, the first poster of a thread is the grain of sand which causes the pearl of wisdom to form over time.

3) Not every forum member are equal, and every member has different levels of experience and intelligence. Auto-moderation software treats gurus and newbies the same.

4) It reduces the friendliness of forums, as members are reminded of the penalties and rules much more often.

5) It could make experienced users a bit scared to post, reducing the usefulness of forums. Imagine forums where a crazy rabbit or a newbie has enough power and influence, that they can unjustly complain about you and delete your post, with the push of a button?

In my opinion auto-moderation forum systems might be best for light-topic, informal or social forums.

However, with serious topic-based forums, it can make it somewhat hard to promote the free exchange of information, without the chance of some kind of misuse by some member, which could unjustly cause the original poster to lose valuable points.

Auto-moderation systems might have its place, however until it can pass a Turing test, it shouldn't replace human moderators having significant involvement.

About the Author:
http://www.JudgmentBuy.com - where Debts and judgments quickly get enforced by the best - matched for free to your judgment debtor.

Mark D. Shapiro, with the best no obligation free leads for enforcers, collection agencies, and contingency collection attorneys.



Article Originally Published On: http://www.articlesnatch.com


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