Boards›Boards Feedback

The "New" Filter and Community Moderation

EMOFRATPARTY·10/16/2014, 3:38:59 AM·4 votes·1,033 views

http://i.imgur.com/aMRqkzK.png?1

THE ISSUE

Ever since the Forum migration, there has been a noticeable increase in the amount of content posted to the Boards.

Conceptually, this is great!

Even more people getting to share their thoughts, feelings, and ideas all within the same community for one of the largest games on the planet. Seriously, that is incredibly exciting!

However, with that new content and all of those new users comes the unfortunate downside -- spam and negativity.

The latter issue is more complicated to address, but the former is not; spam posts are never acceptable in an age where visibility is vital to letting a host of content balance itself. Given the real estate that is afforded the "New" filter (which looks to be 43 posts at default) and posts lasting in that main area around 30 minutes to an hour, spam takes away a lot of time and vantage from other posts.

Riot is obviously unable to monitor the Boards at all times, so...

#THE SOLUTION

...why not community moderation? Even in a limited state -- let's say specifically policing spam -- it benefits both parties; Riot is able to continue moderation while also ensuring that content not befitting of the community (i.e. spam) is removed in an efficient manner.

Now, the idea isn't perfect. Riot would have to assign community members, who would then need to monitor the Boards with a demanding level of frequency. And even then, picking those community members would be a difficult task...but wouldn't it be great to know that there were more eyes -- more personalities that the community cares about -- looking after everyone else?

I'm truly curious to hear what other people think about spam or even moderation in general.

16 Comments

Gavran10/16/2014, 5:48:50 AM2 votes

I think you would be very hard pressed to find community members that:

  • Have the same views as Riot
  • Would be accepted by the community
  • Can handle the responsibility
  • Would even want to do it
  • Would continue wanting to do it after seeing how the community treats them

I can think of two people that might fit 3/5.

I think the first two might be mutually exclusive.

Hyrum Graff10/16/2014, 6:30:47 AM2 votes

I think a single mod who's watching ONLY the report queue could keep spam off the forums, if all they did was confirm spam, then hit delete. So I don't think it's unreasonable to have 24/7 spam prevention. That said, that's a boring job that nobody wants to do.

Also it relies on the community reporting spam QUICKLY.

Daen10/16/2014, 4:14:17 PM2 votes

This has been discussed quite a bit:

I'm happy to keep talking about it, this is an issue I think is really important.

Riot would have to assign community members

Indeed. They have discussed leaving it up to a vote from the community, but I can't help being extremely skeptical of such a situation. In theory, letting the community vote on moderators could turn it into a popularity contest. What if the person that doesn't post often but consistently reports the right threads and occasionally chimes in on important issues is a better choice than the community favorite?

Who would then need to monitor the Boards with a demanding level of frequency

Not necessarily. With enough player moderators, there wouldn't need to be a "quota" or whatnot. PMods could just moderate when they are around and feel like doing it and it would, theoretically, work out fine.

Picking those community members would be a difficult task

Not necessarily. List the top five people you feel might make good moderators in your head. Now design a system to wean them into moderation. How does that situation look?

For me (assuming I'm Riot in this example), I would likely have 2+ tiers of moderators:

  • MIT (Moderator in Training)
  • JM or PM (Junior Moderator or Provisional Moderator) [Optional]
  • M or FM (Moderator or Full Moderator)
  • SM (Senior Moderator) [Optional]

The people I feel might make good mods go in the MIT category; if/when I feel comfortable with them becoming part of the actual player moderation team, I move them to JM/PM. After x amount of time being a good JM/PM, I move them to M/FM. Once someone moves to SM, they can assist me in finding & training new moderators.

TL;DR, there's very little risk there. Say MITs are only able to flag things they would moderate; this shows that they are aware of what needs to be done and how to do it. Maybe JM/PMs have a forum title and comment when they report (with heigher weight than the average player) something. Maybe M/FMs are able to lock threads and delete comments, and maybe SMs are able to delete posts.

In a system like this, there is clear progression and very little risk of accidentally choosing someone not fit for the role since they can be booted at any time and don't quickly gain power.

More personalities that the community cares about

I think this might be the single most overlooked thing on the Boards, not just with moderation but the entire platform. It's really important to keep personality alive on the Boards, and I'm a bit concerned that we lost some in the transition. I agree with you here.

nerak2310/16/2014, 7:06:31 PM2 votes

My concern with poster/ mod would be how to find the right person, I have doubts that any kind of public vote would be fair.

How would you find poster who wants to do this ? Say, someone want to be a player/mod so they make a new account and "say and do the right things". And do you ask "who wants to be..." see, the problem here.. I can see this part being worked out though.

The said person would have to be trained like said above. Must also realize that no matter what they do ..some one else is going to get upset at you. And at that point, if they want to stop being mod they wouldn't be able to go back ( without some hard feelings ) afterwards..This is kind of tough, again if trained right and warned beforehand....possible.

I won't go on, but let me ask Why would Riot do this ? I know people have asked but I don't know what would be gained with it ?

P.S. Not against the ideal I am honestly asking the benefit of it :))

nerak2310/16/2014, 9:01:59 PM1 votes

Daen

Wow thank you for the quick and well thought out response, I see you have thought a lot about it :)) I'd really like to know about this and will keep my eyes on it. I am a bit pressed for time right now though. I'll take a min. to answer you question.

I'm not sure what you're going for.

You got my point even though I didn't quite say it right. I think I will address this after some thought on it. I think I just don't exactly understand what the player/mod would be doing, and therefore was leery to see a player put into a position where their peers could criticize them. I got the feeling here you have a good ideal how this would work. I do hope Riot is paying attention to this thread. I think they are trying hard to do the best thing here.

I am a little bit older then most people on here ....Don't tell no one ;) lol So, just take whatever is useful from my posts and forgive me if sometimes I might be to quick to jump to the worse case scenario.

Anywho, already I liking the ideal more. K -- and Hey thanks for spending the time :))

nerak2310/17/2014, 2:03:32 PM1 votes

To any: Lets say I am sold on the pmod ideal, I am getting there some very enlightening posts here. I may bring up issues that have already discussed for clarification. I will assume certain issue that seem to be agreed by others, please tell me if I am wrong ( I won't take offence )

Okay you have your pmod and Riot has trained them, Using this because I think it is a good start

MIT (Moderator in Training) JM or PM (Junior Moderator or Provisional Moderator) [Optional] M or FM (Moderator or Full Moderator) SM (Senior Moderator) [Optional]

I don't see much of a problem with pmod having to do more then they are comfortable with, my reason is a bit different, If Pmod is MIT and wants to be SM then they can do more or make sure they make the correct calls.

Would their status ( MIT or JM ) be on for public view right on there posts, or even in a different section ? Would people continue bad habits once they see pmod on a thread, and is it even a bad thing if others would "behave" because they know they are being watched.. maybe that is part of the point..?

I believe pmod would need to have access to someone in authority (sp) and able to ask for help on certain content issues...and it seems as if this is something Riot will do..It may be obvious to me, But I think it should be made clear to all posters.

the policy might be something along the lines of "if you take x action, you must comment explaining why"

To whom would they explain to ? I can see where this is useful to Riot mods, and can see how it would fill a desire of posters who want an explanation for why their post was removed etc. I still have concerns about the need to explain oneself if the pmods are in fact, harassed by fellow posters..I also understand that for this to work there may be a need to explain, as it may be a part of why this ideal is being discussed. Here I want to say, not knowing what Riots policy of this is..I personally have to go with the position that Riot has been doing a good job so far and must see a way to deal with this contingency.

Once program is installed I would like to caution that Mod should make it well known that they are still present and ultimately making the policy's and major decisions. This would be one big concern to me as a member here.

I want to go on to some other issue's but I would like to look up some things on the forum first . I also would like to add to Future readers...This is IMHO and as such doesn't represents previous posters or Riot opinions. It seems to me they want constructive feedback even if it doesn't agree with what has been said already.