Journal joeykiller's Journal: Make Slahdot's moderation alternatives fewer -- kill Funny 4
Lately I have been awarded a lot of mod points here on Slashdot. I try to be as serious as I can while modding, but when you actually try to be serious moderation becomes a hard task.
Why does it become hard? In my opinion it's because of the sheer number of alternatives you have when valuing a post. You can deem a posting "Funny", "Insightful", "Informative", "Interesting", "Underrated", "Troll", "Flamebait", etc.
While this in some ways can be viewed upon as a strength, it sure is harder than saying "Yeah, this is a good post" or "No, this was bad".
Here's what CmdrTaco has to say about this: Bad words will reduce the comment's score by a single point, and good words increase a comment's score by a single point.
The problem is that different people will have different opinions of what's good and what's bad. In my opinion, comments moderated as Funny seldom are funny.
When a comment is posted it starts it life with a score of 1. Maybe a couple of guys comes along and mods the comment Funny. Someone else finds it Interesting, and the score total becomes 4, Interesting. But since I'm a cranky guy, and seldom finds Slashdot comments funny, the score in my eyes are (at best) 2, Interesting.
I know no one will ever listen to me, but my dream version of the Slashdot Moderation System would be to remove Funny completely, and dumb down the rest of the alternatives to two:
Insightful (+) or Overrated (-)
It may be foolish to hope for more serious debate and insightful commenting (and maybe that would kill Slashdot altogether), but in my opinion a streamlined moderation system would help to achieve this.
Comment prefs (Score:1)
Slashdot's comment options [slashdot.org] settings already let readers do this on an individual basis. You could assign anything from a -5 to +5 modifier to any post marked "Funny." The system is actually really customizable in this way, and probably underused.
I'm not sure how it deals with comments that are marked both "Funny" and "Intersting" as you mentioned. It may just negate the "Funny" points, but it may negate all + points for the comment. I'd have to do some testing or check the help.
Re:Comment prefs (Score:2)
I think that by simplifying the comment options, you get a more coherent moderation, and perhaps Slashdot can become a place for enlightened discussion and being a place where someone can actually learn something.
Another point I have is that who really sees the difference between Insightful, Informative and Interesting? These could -- in my opinion -- easily be compressed to one option.
Re:Comment prefs (Score:1)
The wide range of moderation types keeps all the different interest groups on Slashdot out of each other's hair (in theory). I can mod Funny, you can mod Interesting, and we won't get in each other's way. If we suddenly have only two moderation choices I'm going to keep modding up the funny posts, while you mod them down for being overrated/offtopic. Other moderators will com
Re:Comment prefs (Score:2)
huh!? that's weird. how did you get to know your friends in the first place? because they say things you like i presume. modding them up and leaving the rest wil create a biased view of the actual opinion, potentially degrading discussion to an "incrowd thing" (that is, if you have enough friends who do the same for you). the other negative side effect is group formation, and corresponding homogeneity in opinions. what makes the internet more interesting than a