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posted by NCommander on Thursday February 13 2014, @03:42AM   Printer-friendly
from the e=mc-hammertime dept.
As the to-do list of tasks continues to be whittled bit by bit towards launch, one large item remains: distribution of moderation points. While I wish I could reuse the existing Slash code, the fact is that this code is completely inappropriate for a site smaller than Slashdot. So, I've been working with a couple of users in chat to rework the underlying math so that mod point distribution actually works in a reasonable way. If you're interested in the potential algorithm behind this, read on. Be warned, it is a bit dry and technical.The current thoughts are that slash should enforce that a specific number of mod points must ALWAYS be in circulation, and in the hands of our potential moderators. Without going into too much detail, we're running off the assumption that the total number of moderations applied in an article should approximately equal the number of comments. To account for inactive users and for the constant flow of new articles/comments, twice as many mod points will be distributed.
Have I lost you yet? To reiterate, two mod points must exist for every comment in active articles. As far as problems go, having too many mod points in circulation is far preferable too little. If you don't understand why, I recommend trying to find +5 posts on other slash sites like Slashdot Japan or BarraPunto.

Here's an example:
Assuming that we have two articles with approximately 200 comments each, that means we need to have 800 points in circulation. However, if we stuck with the old Slashdot method of 5 points to a user, we'd end up needing to have 80 people read an article and not comment on it. Obviously, that's not going to work, and as we have more articles/comments, that number will only increase.

Instead, we'll limit the number of moderators to approximately 30% of active accounts who haven't moderated relatively recently. In this context, active means that you have logged in within the last 5 days. The process_moderators script will calculate how many mod points are currently in circulation, how many need to be in circulation, and how many, if any, it needs to add to the pool. It then looks at the list of eligible moderators, selects 30% of them, and hands them out. To prevent moderation fatigue, we'll cap the maximum number of points a user can receive, and by the same logic, also set a minimum. I don't know about you, but I'd be a little annoyed if I found I had gotten a whopping 1 whole mod point.

This should allow a relatively fluid system, and I hope, allow us to have something very similar to the moderation system we've all grown to love. I'm open to suggestions or even radically different ideas on how to improve this below.
 
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  • (Score: 1) by SurvivorZ on Monday February 17 2014, @08:42PM

    by SurvivorZ (792) on Monday February 17 2014, @08:42PM (#1053)

    Give the first 10,000 accounts 25 mod points every single day starting today and forever.

    You'll get 10,000 users really quickly!

  • (Score: 1) by migz on Wednesday February 19 2014, @11:44AM

    by migz (1807) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @11:44AM (#2344)

    Mod up! Er...

    But seriously don't complicated things, fixed number of mod points that expire at the end of the day. E.g. 25 per person per day.

    Those who feel strongly will burn their mod points on what they think is important. Those who are lurkers, won't affect anything anyway. Any wierdness in unforseens resulting outcomes can be remedied tomorrow without upsetting anybody who had been hoarding their mod-points.

    This system might encourage sock-puppets, but seriously who has time for that?

    Once karma gets going the allocation can get tweaked to take this into account. Eventually points can be tweaked start carrying over e.g. 10% points carry over to next day for active top karma scorers. Random allocation of mod-points can be added later.

    But KISS and get it going ASAP. Please ...

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Non Sequor on Thursday February 20 2014, @12:18AM

    by Non Sequor (1005) on Thursday February 20 2014, @12:18AM (#2997) Journal

    10,000 accounts... 8,000 of which are controlled by a botnet upmodding spam posts.

    --
    Write your congressman. Tell him he sucks.