jfmiller's Journal: Gripe about Metamoderation

Democrasy is the worst form of government -- except for all the rest

Prime Minister Winston Churchill

Ok, I know that no system is perfect and that the slashdot moderation system is better then anything else out there, but I'm going to gripe anyway.

People have complained that the Over-rated and Under-rated Moderations which are immune from M2 are abused by moderators. In general I tend to agree with this, and as a point of personal ethics aviod using them. I am now having to rethink that decission.

When I moderate, I as general rule look for two good comments in the range of 1-3 to mod up, one or two comments goatsx type comments to religate to -1ism and at least one comment that has gotten into the 4 or 5 range that is factually wrong, Just trolling for reaction, or flaming a parrent post without any real reason other then the "I dissagree and your stupid to say that" type of thing.

Slashdot does not currently have a "Factually incorrect" moderation, but it does have Troll and Flamebait. When I use these to kill a "Taco Smokes Crack" post all is right with the world (of M2), but if I use them to shoot down a +5 post that starts "Anybody who is stupid enough to use when in deserves to get hacked. All users are big loosers." and never give any facts or even compelling opinions then M2's come back as unfair. In my opinion, just because a post is on topic does not necessarly make it a good post, but apperently the slashdot M2 community dissagrees.

Except when I'm moderating, I read threaded, highest score first, with a -5 modifier to funny comments. I what to read the 10 most interesting, insightful, and informative comments and go ont to the next story. When I moderate, I try to put the pssts that I want to read closer to the top, to ones nobody wants to read off the map, and the post that made it to +5 because it was posted 30 seconds after the story went live with a viseral knee jerk reaction out of the way of those comments that are actually worth reading.

Upon reflection, it seems to me that this is just the kind of thing the Overrated moderation was created for, but because it is not M2'ed it can be easily abused. I think the best solution would be for the kind people who M2 comments to hold a higher standard for what a good post is. In otherwords to acknoledge that there are trolls that are far more sifisticated than the 14 year old script kiddie who posts "Linux Sucks" for every story about Linux. There are people who with great verbosity and pomp will wax elliquent about "Linux Sucks" with not an original thought in the whole thing. To spite there way with language these post are no more then Asses in Silk Undies.

So what do you think. A couple weeks from now when it is once again my turn to moderate should I use overrated to knock down these gift-wriped gonads, or stick to real moderations and suffer the consequences in M2. JFMILLER