SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the prevention-goes-a-long-way dept.
So, every once in awhile, if things have been quiet, I like to pop a post seeing what the general feelings of the community are towards the site, seeing what we could do better, etc. I think its been a few months since the last time I posted in Meta, so I think this is a good time to get a pulse on the community, and provide a venue to get any feedback (good or bad).
On the staff side, I know things have been relatively quiet over the summer due to most of us being busy with life and such, which is why we haven't made a major site upgrade since the original rehash upgrade at the end of May. For myself, I've been working at a new job, and dealing with a fair bit of non-Soylent related things to the point that I really only have the time or energy to post, and occasional check in, and I'd like to thank the rest of the staff, and mrcoolbp in particular for holding down the fort for me.
Anyway, in contrast to my usual posts, I'm going to cut this off here, and will be looking forward to your comments below.
73 from NCommander
(Score: 4, Disagree) by gman003 on Tuesday November 17 2015, @04:17PM
There seem to be too many people here who are being excessively tribalistic about things. Comments get moderated up not for actually being insightful or informative, but because they toe the party line - and moderated down if they disagree.
Groupthink has always been a problem for /. and it's children. It's always been easy to rocket straight to +5 Insightful by badmouthing Microsoft or the RIAA or the Patriot Act. The troubling thing here is how ruthlessly this is being done - it's not enough to just upvote those who are aligned with you, anyone against you must be modded into oblivion. I would not be surprised to discover there are accounts made just for this, or that there is off-site coordination of this activity.
It's gotten excessive to the point where I'm getting annoyed at it even when I happen to be on the same faction. Insightful comments (that disagree with me) with are often modded down as troll or flamebait; stupid comments (that agree with me) are often modded up. Even that is getting obnoxious - I do not want to be coddled by constant agreement. I don't want an echo chamber. And I don't think that's what Soylent's users want it to be.
I do not know what the solution is. Perhaps simply making the users aware of the problem will be enough to solve it. Perhaps changes to moderation are needed. But the problem is real, and needs to be solved.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 17 2015, @04:50PM
> Perhaps changes to moderation are needed.
Buzzard will be right on that! Ain't never been a change to moderation he didn't love.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday November 19 2015, @02:59AM
Actually, it's about ethics in.... no, wait, wrong forum. Actually, I'm pretty happy with moderation as it stands.
gman003 If anyone's in a position to bitch about that it's me and I'm more or less good with how I get moderated. There are enough people willing to give a comment a fair shake to counterbalance the ideologues most of the time. And, really, most of the time is as good as you're ever going to get without capital M Moderators.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday November 18 2015, @01:14PM
I don't think this place will ever turn into an echo chamber as long as jmorris, Ethanol, aristarchus, Buzz, ikanreed, and others are around.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday November 19 2015, @03:01AM
Yup, I do take great pride in keeping us having the one true diversity; intellectual diversity.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by NCommander on Thursday November 19 2015, @12:44AM
Well, to be fare, we have the disagree mod, and overrated/underrated are still there for their intended purpose. The moment I start blocking people from moderating just because they agree/disagree on something is the first step on a slippery slope :/.
Still always moving
(Score: 2) by gman003 on Friday November 20 2015, @01:01AM
Blocking people from moderating definitely isn't what I'm asking for.
I think the problem might lie in just too many people having too many mod points. If essentially everyone gets five points a day, every day, they're doing to be given away a lot more freely. Something to consider, at least.
(Score: 2) by NCommander on Friday November 20 2015, @05:02AM
The problem is anything else encourages hording (to the point points expire w/o being used just incase something awesome comes along). We ran into this problem the hard way which is why we despense them regularly now.
Still always moving