The Student Room Group

Moderation statistics :)

In the interest in moderator transparency, can you release statistics to do with moderation on a monthly basis such as, but not limited to, amount of cards issued, bans issued, and cards overturned.

A healthy community is one where the moderation is transparent and accountable, and it would help everyone to know of pitfalls that can be avoided, and trend in the moderation :smile:

Cost

Next to nothing. Done quickly, an operator could write a quick SQL statement to pull back the information. Done with more polish, a PHP dev could make a page that dynamically creates the results in an hour. We are talking in the region of £10 - £50.

Advantages

Gives moderation transparency and accountability to the community. With the statistics, moderators can see areas that need improvement, trends and the like. Users can be aware of alt accounts that are appearing, spammers (even details such as spam posts), troll trends and so on. With the statistics done on a weekly basis behind the scenes, moderators can use it to anticipate trolls and spam.

Disadvantages

Would highlight the shortcomings of the moderation e.g. the unrealistically high 'conviction rate' of the moderation team. However without such a system in place, this will never be able to be improved if the moderation team remain ignorant of the statistics.

Why does it need to change?

One of the main problems with the moderation of the forum is the end goal. The goal is to make sure no one is offended. It shouldn't be. The main goal surely should be to make sure it's a healthy environment for interesting discussion.


The issue with offense based moderation is that something will always offend someone. It's a flawed idea from the start that will only stifle discussion and debate. Considering the forum is filled with academics, this isn't going to be a good rule to have in place. The system would be a lot better if it was done more akin to a presidential debate. Keep it on topic, and as long as what is said is relevant, then if someone is offended, well the truth can be tough at times. This would allow for a much more mature forum with healthier more engaging topics, and arguably would increase user retention. At the moment chat is the prominent forum and nobody is really going to stick around to talk about the weather. However if you let people argue the many points of something like feminism without fear of hurting someone's delicate sensibilities, one thread alone would keep users more engaged than a weeks worth of chat posts. A more transparent system would allow for a better style of moderation.
(edited 9 years ago)

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Original post by geoking
In the interest in moderator transparency, can you release statistics to do with moderation on a monthly basis such as amount of cards issued, bans issued, and cards overturned.

A healthy community is one where the moderation is transparent and accountable, and it would help everyone to know of pitfalls that can be avoided, and trend in the moderation :smile:


Why would this be important? Is there a ballpark number that would be too high?

Bans will be skewed due to dupes & requested bans anyway.
Reply 2
Original post by TornadoGR4
Why would this be important? Is there a ballpark number that would be too high?

Bans will be skewed due to dupes & requested bans anyway.


It's good to know the health of the community - other forums do it, and explain if an account is a dupe or not, helps other users stay away from interacting with such accounts, plus it would be good for everyone to see how many cards are overturned.
What exactly would this prove? I mean, I, for example, help moderate money and finance and student finance support, which is typically quieter than, say Chat.

If you want to know of any pitfalls that can be avoided, read the rules.
Reply 4
Original post by OU Student
What exactly would this prove? I mean, I, for example, help moderate money and finance and student finance support, which is typically quieter than, say Chat.

If you want to know of any pitfalls that can be avoided, read the rules.

To repeat myself:

"It's good to know the health of the community - other forums do it, and explain if an account is a dupe or not, helps other users stay away from interacting with such accounts, plus it would be good for everyone to see how many cards are overturned."

Also it's probably minimal work - make a database query and most likely all the relevant information will be able to be spat out at the same time. It's not like it'll take the mods anytime at all.
(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by geoking
Also it's probably minimal work - make a database query and most likely all the relevant information will be able to be spat out at the same time. It's not like it'll take the mods anytime at all.

The mods don't have access to query the database.
Reply 6
Original post by PQ
The mods don't have access to query the database.


Get someone on the actual site to then do it - they spend enough money changing the layout that I'm sure they can throw a tenner at an operator to write a quick script together that runs every month...
Original post by geoking
Get someone on the actual site to then do it - they spend enough money changing the layout that I'm sure they can throw a tenner at an operator to write a quick script together that runs every month...


You're asking them to throw resource at something without quantifying clearly how it would benefit the site.

Why spend money on something that is just "good to know"?
Which other forums do you know of that do this?
Why would it be good for other users to know how many cards are overturned?

Just because you'd find something interesting doesn't mean it's worthwhile devoting development time to sourcing that information.
Reply 8
Original post by PQ
You're asking them to throw resource at something without quantifying clearly how it would benefit the site.

Why spend money on something that is just "good to know"?
Which other forums do you know of that do this?
Why would it be good for other users to know how many cards are overturned?

Just because you'd find something interesting doesn't mean it's worthwhile devoting development time to sourcing that information.


Resources as in a quick 5 minute job. Literally. To say it would be more complex than that is an utter lie. So about £20 worth of work, and that's if they have someone employed who is on a good salary (which I doubt considering the nature of the work involved).

Which is more beneficial - the mindless reputation system, or reporting of the moderation? It at the very least gives accountability to the moderation team, something which is entirely lacking, and transparency. I hope you don't argue that accountability and transparency for the sum price of a domino's pizza isn't a good move to make...
Original post by geoking
Resources as in a quick 5 minute job. Literally. To say it would be more complex than that is an utter lie. So about £20 worth of work, and that's if they have someone employed who is on a good salary (which I doubt considering the nature of the work involved).

Which is more beneficial - the mindless reputation system, or reporting of the moderation? It at the very least gives accountability to the moderation team, something which is entirely lacking, and transparency. I hope you don't argue that accountability and transparency for the sum price of a domino's pizza isn't a good move to make...

I'm not arguing the costs or the benefits - I'm just trying to explain to you that you haven't really explained any benefit to what you've suggested here other than your curiosity being satisfied.
Reply 10
Original post by PQ
I'm not arguing the costs or the benefits - I'm just trying to explain to you that you haven't really explained any benefit to what you've suggested here other than your curiosity being satisfied.


Which parts of "accountability" and "transparency" don't you understand..? Those qualities are inherently good for any company to have...
Original post by geoking
Which parts of "accountability" and "transparency" don't you understand..? Those qualities are inherently good for any company to have...


They're not really accountable to you though.
Reply 12
Original post by Potally_Tissed
They're not really accountable to you though.


Yes they are :curious: They are accountable to all and every user of this forum, as they are the customer...
Reply 13
Dear Mods:

If there is a worse possible way to deal with this, I cannot think what it might be.
Original post by geoking
Yes they are :curious: They are accountable to all and every user of this forum, as they are the customer...


The customers are the companies and unis etc who pay to advertise on the site. Users are the product.
What would it tell us? Some months there may be more trolling/spamming/nastiness than others. Therefore, some months more people may have to be carded or banned than others. And some months a few more people might have warnings overturned than others - depends on how serious stuff is, if there might have been misunderstandings or what not. So, what good would it do us to know that? We'd just see stats, not the individual cases.

I reckon, let the mods do what they do. They're members like us, helping out without even getting paid for it. I'm not brown-nosing here. I've had my disagreements with a mod or two, especially when the neg rep was removed. The site's a whole lot better for the mods being there, though. And there's already a shortage of mods, from what I understand, so they don't need anymore pressure.

Original post by Potally_Tissed
The customers are the companies and unis etc who pay to advertise on the site. Users are the product.


Yep.
Reply 16
Original post by Potally_Tissed
The customers are the companies and unis etc who pay to advertise on the site. Users are the product.

Without the users you wouldn't have the site :facepalm:

Unis and advertisers are the revenue stream, users are the customer... It's quite clear that a lot of people don't understand business models here :tongue:
Reply 17
Original post by Kittiara
What would it tell us? Some months there may be more trolling/spamming/nastiness than others. Therefore, some months more people may have to be carded or banned than others. And some months a few more people might have warnings overturned than others - depends on how serious stuff is, if there might have been misunderstandings or what not. So, what good would it do us to know that? We'd just see stats, not the individual cases.

I reckon, let the mods do what they do. They're members like us, helping out without even getting paid for it. I'm not brown-nosing here. I've had my disagreements with a mod or two, especially when the neg rep was removed. The site's a whole lot better for the mods being there, though. And there's already a shortage of mods, from what I understand, so they don't need anymore pressure.

Yep.


What good are moderators if there is no accountability or transparency? It's a sad day when people are arguing against these things :facepalm:
Original post by geoking
What good are moderators if there is no accountability or transparency? It's a sad day when people are arguing against these things :facepalm:


As I asked in my post, what would it show us? As each case the mods deal with is different, the figures are meaningless.

Let's say that one month (using random figures):

100 cards have been issued.
20 people have been banned.
5 cards have been overturned.

The next month:

150 cards have been issued.
40 people have been banned.
10 cards have been overturned.

What conclusions do we draw? Have the mods gone power mad? Are they messing up more? Or have they been dealing with a trolling spree, and had to ban a lot of those people spamming about kitchens and love remedies, as well as dealt with some heated debates about feminism or what not that got out of hand? And then a few more people explained why they posted what they posted and had their cards removed?

You won't know. I won't know. :dontknow: And I'm definitely not interested in scrutinising every decision made.
Original post by geoking
Without the users you wouldn't have the site :facepalm:

Unis and advertisers are the revenue stream, users are the customer... It's quite clear that a lot of people don't understand business models here :tongue:


No you wouldn't, but that doesn't make the users the customer. You're not paying anything to be here. Clearly it is in TSRs interests to keep users happy so that they keep coming back (and seeing adverts) but the business model does not involve you giving TSR any money, so you aren't their customer.

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