On 09/25/2013 09:58 PM, Steven Walling wrote:
Yeah how does all this compare to your experience with comments on StackOverflow Matt?
(For those who don't know Matt is a big time StackOverflow contributor.)
Stack Overflow is pretty good about this. I don't see a lot of blatantly bad posts (ad hominem, etc.). I think this is partly because of who ends up on the site to start with, partly because of the structure the technology imposes, and partly because of good moderation):
StackOverflow is *very* structured (I think enforcement has also gotten stricter over time) in terms of what you can post.
* If you post a question that is off-topic (you'll be sent to the appropriate other Stack Exchange site, if any), a duplicate (you'll be linked to what it's a duplicate of) or just unreadable/spammy/very bad, it will be closed. Questions can also be -1'ed. * If you post a bad answer, it will be -1'ed. If it's very bad/spammy, it can be deleted, though this is not as common for just badly informed posts. An interesting case is that "Thank you!" answers are also deleted, because they're not, well, answers. * Comments should be used when you're actually commenting on someone's question or answer. "Thank you!" comments can also be deleted.
There is a review tool (http://stackoverflow.com/review) specifically to ensure adequate moderation. Since it's StackOverflow, you can get badges for reviewing (http://stackoverflow.com/help/badges)
The review tool currently has (parentheticals are my own explanation):
* Close Votes (closing questions requires a quorum, so this lets you support a close, if appropriate) * Suggested Edits (Stack Overflow is a wiki, but if you have < 2000 reputation your edits have to be approved Flagged Revisions style). * First Posts (pretty self-explanatory; first posts are more likely to need moderation) * Late Answers (these can also require moderation; "Thank you!" posts are common here) * Low Quality Posts (moderate posts the Stack Exchange software flagged as potentially problematic) * Reopen Votes (similar to Close Votes, but voting to reopen).
Some moderation can be done simply by higher-repped users (http://stackoverflow.com/help/privileges), but there are also diamond moderators with extra powers (http://stackoverflow.com/help/site-moderators). These are elected, except for new sites that don't have an electorate yet.
Matt