Bitcoin Forum

The forum regularly get hundred of visitors online at the same time, but it is becoming an issue where people are misbehaving and such...Like this thread http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5006.msg73541#new where bitcoiners are assaulted by NSFW images.

Sooner or later, we will need additional moderators or janitors that handle drive-by assault, forum split, and spams. As the bitcoin economy grows, so will this forum.

Either that or somebody code a self-moderation feature so that users can take of nasty problems on the spot.

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/constructive.png

We also need to set up an "acceptable" policy. SlikRoad exists for anything that is not accepted here.
We should also separate the NSFW section from the others. A dedicated forum for NSFW posts would be the best.

I'm willing to volunteer to be the bad cop.

You're hired!

I just noticed that I am a global moderator.  :o

I'd be willing to patrol the forums a bit and clean out the spam. I'm already on a lot anyway, and I'm pretty well invested in the health of the community at this point. Though I understand if you're reluctant: I'm still relatively new here.

I guess the theory is, he who complains, has to do something about it.
/me runs like hell

lol

If you need more moderators, I can lend a hand.  Just let me know.

Any chance of changing away from this type of system into a reddit-style system where entries are voted up and down? This forum's style of data presentation seems a bit old-fashioned these days as the got bits get lost in the ho-hum bits :)

There's a bitcoin reddit if you want :) It already has quite a few users!

Oh No, Please don't!
I hate the social-media type of crap that is more and more infecting the internet!

Righto..

How about threaded conversations then? Or is that a bad idea.

I like the forum just the way it is. But what do I know. I'm old  :D

Agreed.

The forum is fine for some things, but in my opinion the "Marketplace" should be moved to something more appropriate. Exactly what, I'm not entirely sure right now. But IRC doesn't strike me as a good solution either.

Indeed there is  :)

We also dont like the social media crap as you can tell we have no facebook or twitter integration whatsoever .

Good. Nor do I :) More closed systems...

Isn't this thread to volunteer to be a moderator and explain why you would be a good one? It seems you guys are going completely off-topic in a serious thread, a problem that is developing in this community. I'd go as far as to say it is a common problem.

My advice for recruiting moderators would be to approach the forum members that are well established in the community and that do not have too much controversy and that give the impression of fitting your criteria first. You probably already have done that but mentioning it again can't hurt. TBH I do not think I would meet the reqs to be a moderator here, but once I am a more established member I will be happy to help.

I would also suggest that you implement a another "degree" of moderation, a good division is in 2 1/2 : Admins (this is the half as it should contain <3), Senior Moderators (established as moderators, have proven themselves to be good moderators, have a lot of power), Moderators (Your normal average Joe Moderator). You could add a Jr.Mod which would be a Mod in training or establishing themselves enough to be trustworthy. Just my 2 cents

No, this thread was about the need to increase moderation to keep up with the spams and drive-by NSFW attacks, and other janitorial duties. It's just so happens that the higher ups decided to increase the number of moderators as solution to the problem and choose long-standing members like me.

Sorry it seemed to go a bit off-topic in my judgement but then again who am I to criticize when there are mods in this thread regularly?

Yes, for me long-standing is what I meant by established. You guys could also do per section moderation if/when the demand lowers for global mods. ie: French section moderator for someone who spends 99.99999% of his time in the French section.

One thing that may help the moderators' job is a report post button. I know this has been a HUGE success at my main forum, techpowerup.com

http://img.techpowerup.org/110328/Capture091.jpg

the thing I marked by a red square. From what I understand, all (online?) mods get notified by a reported post and my guess is that they can mark it as dealt with when they do their job. They do use a by section moderation, and senior mods are basically global moderators with more power. They are also color coded (red green blue (Adm/S.mod/mod)).

http://img.techpowerup.org/110328/Capture088.jpg
http://img.techpowerup.org/110328/Capture089.jpg

Sorry if I'm giving useless info or polluting this thread, just trying to help! ;)

I don't think that I should be a mod :P  I'm a bit to @.@ crazy for that sort of responsibility.

This thread is the result of the tragedy of the commons.

Im happy people do such a thankless task who are not me.  :)



The bitcoin forum should be for bitcoin discussion not for porn - thats what nsfw.witcoin.com is for lol

Moderation shouldnt = censorship.

It doesn't have to but I don't see cleaning up NSFW a censorship.
You're going to hurt the community if people are worried about coming to the forums.
Hell just make a subforum for NSFW and who cares (for the most part) what gets posted there.


I'm on the forums almost all day everyday so I'm not opposed to being a janitor.
I spent a lot of time lurking though before I registered so if you guys want to grab me farther down the road that's fine with me.

There is a working report feature on the Bitcoin forum, though the link is hidden by CSS. Look for the link in the source if you want to report a post.

a lot of hassle for now xD I doubt many people will use it if it is hidden in the surce

http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=reporttm;topic=5019.21;msg=XXXXX if anyone was curious

How to turn on the "Report to moderator" link in Google Chrome:

1. Install the Personalized Web extension. (https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/plcnnpdmhobdfbponjpedobekiogmbco (https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/plcnnpdmhobdfbponjpedobekiogmbco))

2. Go to Tools > Extensions and click Options under Personalized Web.

3. Click "Add New Rule."

4. Under "Rule Name" put whatever you like. (I typed in "Bitcoin Forums.")

5. Under "Match URLs" put ^http://(www.)?bitcoin.org/smf

6. Under "Add CSS" put td.smalltext[id^="modified_"] + td.smalltext[align="right"][valign="bottom"] {display: block !important;}

7. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save.

"Report to moderator" will now be visible on all posts.

Honestly that's not too much work but I don't think the average person will do it, especially if they don't know about it.
Of course if we have 50 guys with report buttons, hmm call them hall monitors if you want, then the mods will have an easy job.

If anyone can come up with CSS that hides the IP address thing without hiding "report to moderator", the site's CSS might be changed.

What is the IP address thing?

The pointless "Logged" text and image:
http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/7418/loggedw.png

In Firefox, you can see the "Report to moderator" link by going to View -> Page style -> No style.

Why not remove the "Logged" link from the template?

This CSS rule will work to show the "report to moderator" link and not the "logged" link:
td.smalltext[id^="modified_"] + td.smalltext[align="right"][valign="bottom"] {display: block !important;}
td.smalltext[id^="modified_"] + td.smalltext[align="right"][valign="bottom"] img,
td.smalltext[id^="modified_"] + td.smalltext[align="right"][valign="bottom"] .help {display: none !important;}

If Bitcoin still needs more moderators, I've been spending a few hours a day on these forums lately, I'd be more than willing to help out!

Moderation is based on exercising judgment. What is the science behind that judgment? How can non-moderators verify the application of that science?

Not that I post anything that needs to be moderated, I'm just curious how the science and implementation works.

I'd assume they have rules and try to make them as clearly written as possible.
If something doesn't fit exactly a mod makes a judgement call based on what they feel is in the best interest of the forums / btc.
If one mod gets out of line I'd assume the others (or boards) make it an issue.

Ideally the rules will be decided on by the community.

So one of my pet peeves is the United States Legal System.

It has lots of rules.  The problem is nobody can possibly read them all.  And yet "ignorance of the law is no excuse!"

I'm a big fan of a few general, fuzzy rules and common sense.

Gavin, I'm with you on that. When I mean clear I'm talking about normal English and simple maybe not specific.
I agree mods should have plenty of power to decide but if they're shown to be horrible at it they can have their privileges removed.
The most important part though is people can grasp what is and isn't allowed unlike the US Legal System.

The two laws of civilization...

1)  Do all that you have agreed to do...

2)  ...and to not encroach upon the person or property of others.


This shall be the whole of the law.

The question is, how does this translate to an Internet forum community?

I've seen other forums that had a section for self (or moderator forced) segregation without outright sensorship or banishment.  Some forums call this NSFW, but some call it "The Thunderdome".  Some members could be confined to posting in those sections for a period of time for flaming, baiting or NSFW posting.  Like being put into a 'penalty box'.

The "common law" of the Internet is widely known these days.  I.E., don't (persistantly) flamebait.  No personal insults.  No words that you wouldn't speak in front of your own children or parents.  No photos that you wouldn't let your children or parents find on your computer.  Nothing that would get the site owner sitting in front of a prosecutor, or even close to that.

I'm not sure if a policy should be written or not, that's up to the site owner.  If a policy is written, I will enforce it to the best of my ability; but even then I think that the mods should have much discretion.

Should we figure out how common law works down to a science and then apply it here to prove that it works?

I think we need separate forums for each pool.
Having a 77 pages forum thread is not nice to read.

It amuses me that the longest thread on this forum is about mining and about half of all of my posts.

One possibility would be to allow pool/business owners to pay some btc for a dedicated sub-forum.  The revenue from this would go to hosting, SSL cert, etc.

That's a good idea. We can use market signals (exchange) to understand what is valuable and adapt accordingly.

Thanks. I added it.