[Foundation-l] Use of moderation

[Robert Rohde]

On Tue, Sep 8, 2009 at 8:37 PM, Tim Starling<tstarling at wikimedia.org> wrote:
> Erik Moeller wrote:
>> 2009/9/8 Gregory Maxwell <gmaxwell at gmail.com>:
>>> As such, it's time to try something different.
>>
>> What do you suggest? Are there models from other mailing list
>> communities that we should experiment with to create a healthier, more
>> productive discussion culture? What, based on your own experience of
>> this list, would you like to see change?
>
> I think we should stop using this outdated technology altogether and
> instead switch to a web-based forum, where comments can be
> postmoderated (i.e. removed after posting), and unproductive threads
> can be moved or locked.
>
> Mailing lists, by their nature, have a large potential for abuse by
> trolls and spammers. It's trivial to impersonate another user, or to
> continue posting indefinitely despite being blocked. We're lucky that
> the behaviour we've seen here has been merely inconsiderate, rather
> than malicious.
>
> Discussion on the English Wikipedia continues to function despite
> hateful users who try every dirty trick they can think of to disrupt
> the community. We're lucky that foundation-l has only seen the merest
> hint of a reflection of that turmoil, because the tools we have to
> deal with abusive behaviour on mailing lists are far less capable than
> those that have been developed for Wikipedia.

Some modern forums have features that can interact very intelligently
with email, which to my mind might be the best of both worlds.  Such
things would still allow the features you mention such as thread
locking and removal of abuse from the archive, but would also allow
people to continue to receive email copies of posts if that is what
they prefer.

For example, have a forum where people can subscribe to receive email
copies of either all posts or just specific threads of interest.  Most
systems would require that you then visit the website to post replies
(which could be facilitated by including a reply url in any emailed
copy), though I do recall once seeing a forum email manager that
created a unique reply-to address for each thread/user, hence allowing
one to email replies directly onto the forum while still having those
replies be subjected to any thread and/or user specific rules that had
been put in place.

In any event, I think we could probably set up a system that provided
more flexible control over threads and users without necessarily
sacrificing the convenience of email for people that prefer that
approach.  And of course, people who don't want email interaction
could just use such a web forum as a web forum without enabling any
email features.

-Robert Rohde