Moderating Communities

The article by Cory Doctorow on trolls, flamewars, and how to moderate the comments of a community, was a great read, though much of what was discussed was not a complete shock. Being part of the generation that is immersed into social media on a daily basis, it is very common to see flamewars in comment sections and trolls infecting shared discussions. What shocked me was the way to deal with the the conflict text. I knew that many sites monitor the discussion boards, and try to eliminate toxic user, but I never really knew the full extent that many sites go to monitor and prevent such conflicts. I thought it was enlightening and clever of Tressa Nielsen Hayden to take out the vowels, which takes away from the fire of the message. This was further developed by Bryant Darrel who created a brilliant design that preformed the labor of the task.

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The community I am apart of is a book club. It's called Goodreads (http://www.goodreads.com) and the site has many book forums, and reading groups to join and authors to follow. I am apart of a few groups and regularly follow several authors. Goodreads is a great online community. The staff monitor the forums and groups, ensuring that users are following the rules. I have been apart of Goodreads for over three years, and though there are the many individual that may not appreciate a book the same way that you have, the comments are never callus or vengeful in anyway. I have seen a few negative comments that seem toxic, but many trolls are immediately flagged by other users and kicked off the site. Goodreads is enjoyable because you can easily withdraw yourself from harmful conversations only allowing certain individuals be apart of your feed and comment on your stuff. I particularly love Goodreads because its multi dimensional. You can be apart of a large community, with many discussions going on, or a smaller community with little to no discussion.