Announcing Automod: a systematic, automated method to address undesirable posting behavior

[sanahtlig]

A comprehensive analysis of posting behavior has revealed that a small number of malcontents are disrupting peaceful and orderly discussion on Fuwanovel.  Furthermore, moderation has been criticized for its slow, inadequate, and uneven response to this growing threat.

To deal with this unexpected challenge to the social order, a systematic and fully automated approach was proposed (hereafter referred to as Automod).  An automated approach was preferred to eliminate human biases that can lead to favoritism or uneven enforcement, and also to respond in real-time to new threats.

Automod is implemented as follows:

1. If a single post is reported more than 10x, the post will be automatically deleted and the user will be issued a warning (max 1 warning per thread).
2. If a user accrues 3, 6, or 9 warnings, the user's account will be suspended for 1, 7, and 30 days, respectively.
3. If a user accrues 10 warnings, the user's account will be permanently banned and the IP address banned from account creation and sign-in.
4. Warning count will decrease by 1 at the start of each month.

In acknowledgement that long-time users and controversial opinions should be allowed more leeway, the following modifiers were also added:

1. Each like on the post cancels out 1 report.  Thus a post with 10 likes would require at least 21 reports to result in Automod action.
2. For every 100 total likes that the member has, the report threshold is increased by 1.  Posts by a member with 800 likes would thus have to be reported more than 18x to trigger Automod action. 

I was given the task of testing this feature due to my extensive experience creating thought-provoking responses.  The result can be viewed here (post deletion was substituted with strikethrough and an automated message for the purposes of this public demonstration, and warnings were disabled).

We hope the introduction of Automod will allow Fuwanovel to continue to be a safe space where visual novel fans of all types can gather and discuss without fear of toxicity, bullying, or exposure to loli images.

[Arcadeotic]

A clever idea

In theory it'd make Forums a lot more efficient place to post

I support this

EDIT: 30 minutes later I actually noticed this was a shitpost, GG me

[Kurisu-Chan]

Nice, criticize others for clickbait, make a clickbait h

[Rose]

?????????? good shit go౦ԁ sHit? thats ✔ some good??shit right??there??? right✔there ✔✔if i do ƽaү so my self ? i say so ? thats what im talking about right there right there (chorus: ʳᶦᵍʰᵗ ᵗʰᵉʳᵉ) mMMMMᎷМ? ?? ?НO0ОଠOOOOOОଠଠOoooᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒ? ?? ? ? ? ? ? ? ??Good shit

Shit-posting aside, I'd honestly like this to bea thing. 

[Deep Blue]

Automod sounds so futuristic for a moment I imagined a robot as a moderator banning everyone or going crazy like Tay xD

[babiker]

This is so well put I can't believe it's a shit post

[wraithseeker]

Essentially it's what Reddit's built in mod does

[ChaosRaven]

4 hours ago, sanahtlig said:

I was given the task of testing this feature due to my extensive experience creating thought-provoking responses.

[Kaguya]

I know it's bait, but seriously thinking about an automod, never in the history of fuwanovel has something been reported 10 times  

The most we got on the same post was like, 4, and that's in a peculiar day where everyone who could take mod action went to sleep and a spambot appeared. 

Of course, people would (hopefully) report more stuff under such a system, so I guess that'd be ok. 

This creates a dangerous system where a few people can join together and fuck over other members with no reason, though. It's kinda tough. 

[AaronIsCrunchy]

I fell for this hook line and sinker. Nicely done \ /

In the event of an automated system being created, as Kaguya noted there would be the issue of potentially people ganging together to 'kick' someone, effectively. Could there be some kind of overriding moderator authority which, if these 'triggers' are tripped, could verify real quick? Or is this not how it (hypothetically) works?

[Black Sands Entertainment]

4 hours ago, wraithseeker said:

Essentially it's what Reddit's built in mod does

Yeah and I fucking hate reddit with a got damn passion. Their invisible rules.

 

In order to advertise, you must first have a ratio of 10 mindless post that people like to 1 self advertising post.

Not everyone wants to comment on every freaking thread in existance lol

[sanahtlig]

I hope everyone enjoyed my little satire.  In keeping with my tradition I made it believable enough that someone could conceivably read the entire post and think it was real (and perhaps even a good idea!).

The giveaways that it was satire:

1. Two of the links point to ridiculous witch hunt posts that exemplify exactly the dangerous kind of mob justice this system could allow.
2. One of the links points to a post where I complained about clickbait. 
3. The pitch claims the system is systematic and removes personal bias from the equation, yet relies on users reporting others at its core.  For the same reason the system isn't fully automated.
4. I slipped in my trademark remark about loli censorship at the end, and the final line also uses the "safe space" language widely derided by opponents of shame culture.

The system could work and that was kind of the point: to illuminate the very real temptation, and the danger, of censoring content we don't like.  Disconcertingly, it's not a far cry from the current system of "remove the post or lock the thread if too many people complain or start arguing".

The best use of such a system would be as a crowdsourced spam filter, and that's actually how I originally envisaged it.

4 hours ago, AaronIsCrunchy said:

I fell for this hook line and sinker. Nicely done \ /

In the event of an automated system being created, as Kaguya noted there would be the issue of potentially people ganging together to 'kick' someone, effectively. Could there be some kind of overriding moderator authority which, if these 'triggers' are tripped, could verify real quick? Or is this not how it (hypothetically) works?

Abuse could theoretically be stemmed by punishing flagrant abuse with a warning point, at the discretion of human moderators.  There's built-in cooling off periods into the punishments, so that would allow time to review the offenses before someone ended up banned.

[bigfatround0]

4 hours ago, Black Sands Entertainment said:

Yeah and I fucking hate reddit with a got damn passion. Their invisible rules.

 

In order to advertise, you must first have a ratio of 10 mindless post that people like to 1 self advertising post.

Not everyone wants to comment on every freaking thread in existance lol

 

You're just pissy cause your VN didn't get much attention over there.

[Black Sands Entertainment]

3 minutes ago, bigfatround0 said:

 

You're just pissy cause your VN didn't get much attention over there.

nah. I havnt posted in months in the vn reddit. I just hate the global mod.

[solidbatman]

30 minutes ago, bigfatround0 said:

 

You're just pissy cause your VN didn't get much attention over there.

To be fair, if it isn't generic anime bullshit, /r/visualnovels doesn't care.