Joined on 02-16-2006
TechSoup Member
Inevitably, with blogging you are going to have to deal with moderation of the blogs. How do you deal with that? Working at a religious nonprofit, the comments are potential hot spots, in a million different ways. I would imagine at some of the environment based organizations and technology ones as well. How do you manage the day to day moderation?
Interesting question...
Discussion forums are usually moderated because a discussion is inherently a method of social interaction. Participants are expected to conform to social norms of behaviour. We moderate discussions to protect participants from anti-social types, in the same way we would evict someone from our home if they were being abusive to friends or family.
A Blog is a "web-log"; a personal journal of thoughts and ideas. A Blog as defined contains no social interaction - it is simply a soap-box where one person speaks their mind to the void (whether or not someone else choses to listen is a different question entirely!). A Blog contains no expectation of participation by anyone else. There is no community, hence IMO there are no communal standards to sustain. People should be able to say whatever they like on a Blog.
Don
Joined on 02-16-2006
TechSoup Member
That is an interesting perspective. I saw the idea of a blog as a way to bring community together, where people from around the world with similar interests could read or listen to the person on the proverbial soap-box, and then comment back on it, sharing their thoughts and opinions. Two sides of the same coins, I guess.
The fact that they care enough about the specific subject to put their thoughts down makes them a part of a community, no?
What would you recommend then for something like this then? The manpower to constantly moderate these blogs watching for abuse would be crazy. A discussion forum, like techsoup is another idea i had, but again, someone would need to moderate that...
Maybe the key element lies in the way you wish people to interact with your Blogers. Perhaps you are really building a Discussion Forum, albeit with Blog software? (a lot of people do this).
Whatever it's called - If your forum is to be an interactive meeting place of equals then I think some moderation will be required, and would be expected by your contributory community. If it is really nothing more than a 'soap-box' Blog (singular opinionated commentary without an expectation of contributory input of equal value), then IMO you really cannot moderate commentary without impacting on the right of Free Speech.
Joined on 02-16-2006
TechSoup Member
Hmmm. Do you have any examples of discussion forums built with blog software? From what I understand from the ED, the vision is to create a place for the community to come to and discuss the topic of the day...btw, thanks for all your input so far...
>> btw, thanks for all your input so far...
No trouble at all - it's a good topic for discussion...
Conceptually any Blog where the originator or someone else replies to a comment becomes a 'Discussion' by the nature of the discourse. A great many Blogs are of this form.
What a lot of people don't realise is that Blog software *IS* Discussion Forum software - the only difference being the font and layout used to give the original post prominance, the features adopted for those who reply, and the fact visitors cannot start a new thread on someone else's Blog - they must start their own 'Blog' (or discussion topic).
The first 'Blogs' (although not named as such) started in about 1995 and were simply Discussion Forums with tight posting rights (new forum members could not start a new thread, but they could reply to the comments of others hence any original comments posted were 'Blog' entries). I hosted one of these for volunteers back in '95 and later moved it to a YahooGroup because the members wished for a more open and equal style of discussion.
Maybe what could work for you is a Discussion Forum where a moderator simply posts a "Topic of the Day", inviting input from any and all on the subject...
Don
Joined on 02-16-2006
TechSoup Member
Hmmm, i'll run it by the ED. Once I get a better sense of his vision hopefully that will help me focus on using the right tool for the job. Either way, though, moderation is going to be a part of the deal. hmmmm...
Good luck with whichever way you choose to go...
To answer your original question about moderation, I think you have to decide what you want the "rules" to be, and then keep an eye on whatever system you decide on so that the rules are followed. In many cases that can be made more easily by moderators getting email copies of posts and returning to the site if some action or response is needed.
While I suspect that a "forum" of some kind like that TechSoup uses may be what you really need, since it's more "community-friendly", the right blog software could also serve the basic purpose you seem to want.
Most blogs allow "comments" either by anyone or only registered users, and you can get notification via email when a new post is made. It is possible to let a number of people start "topics" and sometimes new posts can even be made via email, which is nice. I have seen several blogs where back and forth discussion is carried on in the comments, but I think this is a poor replacement for forum software.
It sounds like the task of moderation is what has you concerned and I would recommend going with forum software. Then I would create the rules under which the forum will be run, and lastly I would choose some people to serve as moderators for different parts of the forum. If you are sort-handed you can watch for people to post messages that seem like the might be able to make good moderators and ask them to help out.
I hope this helps,
Chris
Joined on 02-16-2006
TechSoup Member
Chris,
This does give me a few good ideas on how to approach the blog/forum format. The email updates of the comments seem like a quick and easy way to keep the moderators informed on what's going on without having to constantly patrol the site looking for the one or two problems. As donc said, a lot of blog software is used as forum software. Is there any specific forum software out there you recommend? I really appreciate this input! It does help a lot.
Adam
No, I've used a couple and they seem much the same to me. If you have a Linux server for your hosting then you have many choices for forum software. Maybe someone knows of a review site for forum software that also provides demos of the different kinds...?
Chris
Joined on 09-23-2005
TechSoup Member
I use Blogger and usually alter the settings to allow commenting and to only show comments once they've been moderated.
I leave the original comment as it stands but sometimes append a message of my own to the end, [in square brackets - and signed Jason]. Almost always this is a polite message thanking the person for their contribution but sometimes it adds some extra information or thought which their comment has inspired.
So far everyone has been polite and publishable!
Joined on 01-31-2008
TechSoup Member
Interesting topic and one I'd like to resurrect as I am currently dealing with trying to balance the needs of the community with the needs of the organization.
Have any of you seen an increase in blog moderation (not comments - just posts) in the past couple of years (per the original post date of this thread), and do you think it is viable?
Joined on 08-20-2001
San Francisco, CA and the web
I've seen a number of blogs have problems with spam and have to move towards a somewhat moderated format. In this compromise, folks must give a name and email and be approved the first time they post, but once approved can post without moderation. This adds some moderation time with new users, but usually not an unmanageable amount and it works well to solve the spam problem.
--Megan
Captchas can be helpful too. A captcha is a question that proves you are a human being.
Be very clear about your posting rules and follow them to the tee.
Be accepting of dissenting views as long as they fall within your rules and don't engage in hate language.