Comment Google method will have many advantages! (Score 1) 202
As I see it, the Google method would have many advantages which would also eliminate some of the other relevant issues.
Let everybody be moderators all the time with no restriction on moderation! A single moderator's opinion will not count for much anyway, unless he has very good alignment (in which case it would probably be fair moderation).
Having everybody effectively being moderators would also eliminate some of the ego/anonymity issues. Moderators could even discuss issues of moderation openly (except maybe moderation of specific stories/threads/comments?).
Some would-be "Mee too" posters could perhaps also be satisfied if given a lurker's 2p worth of moderation power. Of course, masses of not-so-impartial 2p votes could obscure moderation, but couldn't that be dealt with by ignoring low-alignment moderation for comments that get lots of both ups and downs?
I think the sheer nature of a Google-like moderation system would make impartiality a non-issue as it should be!
A variant of this system could also be applied to any subset of current moderators, if not all were to become moderators always.
For those who don't know the system used in Google, in Slashdot terms it could translate to this:
"A posting has a high score if
- Moderators with high alignment moderated it up
- Lots of moderators with high alignment moderated it up
