eModeration have released new whitepaer - 'Six Techniques for Safer User Generated Content Campaigns'
1. Craft your guidelines - create 'community guidelines' rather than 'terms and conditions'; these are much less intimidating to users. Use accessible language so that users will understand the rules of the site - the clearer the guidelines, the more likely users will abide by them.2. Build automated filters - the first line of defence against offensive, litigious, illegal or hijack-marketing content should be a smart filter. Filters should not replace human intervention - they will never understand slang trends or cultural sensitivities, for example - but they will get rid of the more obviously 'bad' content.3. Embrace your technology - use some basic mathematics and logic-informed algorithms to build tools that human moderators can use to review content. For example, keep an eye out for a single user that is making numerous submissions within a given time frame. Look at a user's site history - how many times have they been in agreement or dispute with the moderator? Is there a particular piece of content that is driving significant volumes of traffic - and is it for the right reason? Is it because of undesirable content?4. Enlist your users - most site users want a positive experience. Given the opportunity, many of them will help to protect the safety and quality of a project. Enlisting users can not only help moderators, but can engage users in the site itself.5. Make moderation actions visible - contrary to traditional thinking, human moderation does not work best when hidden from view. In fact, hiding moderation techniques can give an implicit invitation to a user to try to abuse or get round the system. If these controls are visible and clearly laid out, it can discourage people to post bad content. Moderators have a job not just to remove content, but also to work with the community to educate users as to what is and isn't acceptable. Some users make honest mistakes, so should be allowed to make amends and resubmit content.6. Moderation tools need love too - test the usability of the moderation tools, alongside site testing. You don't want to find that you've created a site that's difficult to moderate once the site has gone live. Smart interface design can significantly reduce moderation time (and cost). Consider moderation within the design of the site.
1. Craft your guidelines - create 'community guidelines' rather than 'terms and conditions'; these are much less intimidating to users. Use accessible language so that users will understand the rules of the site - the clearer the guidelines, the more likely users will abide by them.
2. Build automated filters - the first line of defence against offensive, litigious, illegal or hijack-marketing content should be a smart filter. Filters should not replace human intervention - they will never understand slang trends or cultural sensitivities, for example - but they will get rid of the more obviously 'bad' content.
3. Embrace your technology - use some basic mathematics and logic-informed algorithms to build tools that human moderators can use to review content. For example, keep an eye out for a single user that is making numerous submissions within a given time frame. Look at a user's site history - how many times have they been in agreement or dispute with the moderator? Is there a particular piece of content that is driving significant volumes of traffic - and is it for the right reason? Is it because of undesirable content?
4. Enlist your users - most site users want a positive experience. Given the opportunity, many of them will help to protect the safety and quality of a project. Enlisting users can not only help moderators, but can engage users in the site itself.
5. Make moderation actions visible - contrary to traditional thinking, human moderation does not work best when hidden from view. In fact, hiding moderation techniques can give an implicit invitation to a user to try to abuse or get round the system. If these controls are visible and clearly laid out, it can discourage people to post bad content. Moderators have a job not just to remove content, but also to work with the community to educate users as to what is and isn't acceptable. Some users make honest mistakes, so should be allowed to make amends and resubmit content.
6. Moderation tools need love too - test the usability of the moderation tools, alongside site testing. You don't want to find that you've created a site that's difficult to moderate once the site has gone live. Smart interface design can significantly reduce moderation time (and cost). Consider moderation within the design of the site.
Robin Grant
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Member since: 03 Jun 2008
Last login: 02 Jun 2009
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