Peer moderation on Slashdot
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Global, Slashdot, Online- Where did this use case occur?
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1997-2003- When did this use case occur?
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Slashdot- Who were some of the key collaborators
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At the height of popularity Slashdot had ~5 million users.- How many people participated?
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Social Platform- What are some keywords?
What was the problem?
Slashdot emerged as a news site for “nerds” where comments were allowed from anyone visiting the site, without the need for them to become users. In time, as the user base expanded, there were people claiming to be site moderators, quarrels and decreased harmony. This expansion of the community size demanded the founding team to distribute moderation work.
How does the community approach the problem?
The first moderators were the co-founders, then they took in their good friends from high school and university. They experimented with different add-ons to the moderator structure to enforce rules to maintain a safe, secure and respectful environment.
No Specified Tools
What were the results?
For many years, Slashdot continued to be a trusted source of curated news for many professionals in the technology space. As newer platforms like Reddit slowly dethroned the platform, they made use of the many features like karma points and meta-moderation in their governance. This way, Slashdot’s governance experimentations shaped a culture reaching far beyond the single platform’s realms.
How participatory was it?
Empower
Active members of the Slashdot community may choose to take on moderating and meta-moderating duties to make sure their community remains safe and with high-quality, correct information.
What makes this Use Case unique?
'One of the earlier examples of users moderating user-generated content. Influenced Reddit et al heavily, especially with karma points. Not sure I’ve seen the meta-moderation mechanism on any newer platform, though. Perhaps that is yet to come.' -Sem