Chacham's Journal: Rant/Suggestion: Study/Report Moderation History

I don't think anyone will argue that Slashdot moderation is good. Better than nothing? Yeah, sure. I use the higher numbers to filter out the the best comments. That works somewhat, but not well.

I guess the purpose of moderation is in question. My childish gut reaction is a reward system. Good post, here's a karma point, or "kudos". Bad post, shame on you, here's a slap. I think that would explain the general tendencies. However, when I actually *read* article comments, I use the moderation totals to weed out the best comments, unless I want to read what everyone has to say. IIRC, that was Taco's original intention.

The most disturbing thing for me is the ratio of comments in each number. +2 are for people with a quickie mod. Mods happen a lot, and many comments will be modded. Does half sound good? +3 is already pushing it, this is a double mod. In other words, a serious comment. Whatever the ratio of +2 to +1, +3 should be even less in relation to +2. +4 should be the same, and +5, the ultimate mod, should have next to nothing in it.

For a quick example, I'll check the hof for the most popular story, comment-wise. Currently. that is What's Keeping You On Windows? with a total of 3212 comments.

Here's the breakdown excluding -1.

# AMT Twd Lwd Per Lwdp
-------------------------------------
0: 3161 0000 0000 00.0 00.0
1: 2268 0893 0893 71.7 28.7
2: 0919 2242 1349 29.0 43.4
3: 0144 3017 0775 04.5 24.9
4: 0074 3087 0070 02.3 02.2
5: 0059 3102 0015 01.8 00.4

# - Moderation number.
AMT - Amount of comments.
Twd - Total amount of comments weeded out. (Amt - 3161)
Lwd - Amount of comments weeded out this level. (Last level's AMT - AMT)
Per - Percentage of total comments. (AMT / 3161)
Lwdp - Percentage this level weeded of total. (Lwd / 3102)

+2 cuts out most of the comments. +3 is good too, it further cuts the comments in half. +4 already, however, is dissapointing. It only weeds around two percent of the total comments or only half of the last level's. And +5 is a joke, weeding less than half a percent,a dn staying nearly the same as the last level.

I think a study should be done on many stories. To see the general tendencies, and when moderation works. In popular stories, past +3 it really doesn't, though there must be a way.

Extra modifiers

[lpret]

Also, you have to take into account extra modifiers that you put on yourself. I give Insightful, Informative, Interesting, and funny an extra point, because I've noticed that the +4 is about the same as +5 (as you noted) and that then gives a chance for the +3 to be seen by me (I weed out +3 and lower) This way I get to see everything that is insightful, informative, interesting, and funny, but keeping it at about 50 comments. It works well. On top of that, I give a +5 to friends because I already know that I either think the same or am stimulated by what they have to say.

Re:Extra modifiers

[Chacham]

The extra modifiers do not effect the numbers in the drop down box. For example, you are showing up here as +5, yet the list shows you in the count of +1.

I notice the +5/+4 similarities a lot. I just chose one discussion to study. If there's any interest, maybe I'll do others. This is a bad trend, but it looks like most people don't care.