Moderating Online Chat Rooms
Michael T. Pagano
Michael T. Pagano
The use of online message boards has surged over the past decade and an obvious need for moderation has certainly arisen. Instead of attempting to hierarchically control message boards through the use of moderation or auto-filtering software, Webmasters have a much simpler alternative. They can use the power of a well-networked and guided system to moderate their content.
The system works from the bottom up allowing complete coverage of all threads and all users. Complex systems require little or no external moderation, which keeps long run cost down. Further, the technology already exists to make all of this possible. Many forums are already building databases full of karma scores. These forums could be creating much more useful databases just as easily. Those databases full of thousands of opinions from thousands of users could act as the sole form of moderation if applied correctly.
The result would be a community of people who learn quickly what it takes to acculturate to message board norms. They will quickly adapt their writing styles to fit into the community standards or they will be ejected from the system. Finally, the Webmaster sets up the community rules and allows the masses to enforce them. Thus, the message boards will be able to run themselves.
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