Posts by Barry Parr from March 28, 2008

Barry Parr | March 28, 2008, 02:27 PM
A commonsense approach to moderation

Our research shows that the people who post in online appreciate good moderation. I also know from personal experience that writing and enforcing a moderation policy is a thankless job. But it's one that your users will appreciate, even if they don't know why.

Boing Boing's new Q&A-style moderation policy is a fascinating document. It ranges from straightforward to cranky and idiosyncratic.

Q. All the vowels have disappeared from a paragraph I wrote! What's going on?

A. We did it. Someone (a moderator, one of the Boingers) was expressing displeasure at your remarks. The technique is called disemvowelling. It deprecates but does not delete the remark. With work, the disemvowelled text should still be readable.

But it's also plainspoken and utterly appropriate to the tone of the site. At some point, we'll come to appreciate moderation as any other editorial function, and one that is essential to the site's editorial voice.