Leigh HoneywellFeb 15, 2023

Even when Twitter’s T&S infrastructure was at its most functional – which I’d say was 2021-mid 2022 – I sometimes saw appeals on content decisions, suspensions, etc. take 2-3 months unless I escalated to personal contacts at the company.

I keep seeing folks expect #moderation and community management decisions on volunteer-run fedi instances to happen in hours – not even days – and jumping to defederation when they don’t get immediate responses. It’s going to burn out so many admins, and makes me sad and worried about the sustainability and scalability of our communities.

#fediverse #fediadmin #contentmoderation #communitymanagement #mastoadmin #mastodon

Show threadKim Crayton ~ Her/She
@leigh this is one of the reasons I developed the “Rules of Engagement” which helps me quickly evaluate a situation and prioritize my strategy…folx seldom consider the human toll moderation takes, particularly when they’re actively being “harmed”, on those tasked with this role…the only real long-term solution I see is the establishment of strong community norms rooted in harm reduction, for self-regulation, while leaving the more complex decisions to a core team…not perfect though
Feb 15, 2023 at 11:34amWeb
Show threadLeigh HoneywellFeb 15, 2023
@KimCrayton1 this is a great framework, thank you for sharing it 🙏 I’m curious your thoughts on the speed-of-response issue - I feel like it’s a problem for small and volunteer run instances even if one does have a good framework (like yours) in place for moderation. Mods need to sleep 😅
Show threadKim Crayton ~ Her/SheFeb 15, 2023

@leigh this is a huge concern and what I did when I had my Kim’s Community Cafe on Discord was to ensure that I had enough TRAINED moderators across time zones and had them on a “moderation” schedule.

I benefited from doing the unheard of and locking things down so that the cafe was only “open” when I had enough folx there to monitor.

We also, used bots to remind and encourage folx to use inclusive language and had facilitated conversations to model expected behavior.

Show threadKim Crayton ~ Her/SheFeb 15, 2023
@leigh specifically regarding speed of expected response time, it’s best to be clear on what your community regards as “can wait to all hands on deck” issues and share the realities of your team’s bandwidth. Be honest about what folx should expect when making a report as well as what’s appropriate to be reported i.e. actual safety OVER discomfort…it’s the “discomfort” reports that waste a lot of time and energy as designed
Show threadLeigh HoneywellFeb 15, 2023
@KimCrayton1 💯 on the discomfort vs safety thing
Show threadKim Crayton ~ Her/SheFeb 15, 2023
@leigh building true community, which, if I’m honest, I don’t most folx here or elsewhere think deeply enough about, is the ONLY way to scale moderation, especially with volunteers. The community as a whole must learn how to manage itself, using something like the PWO Guiding Principles and the Rule of Engagement [proactive], leaving the trained moderators to oversee/manage other issues. The more that is explicit, the more bandwidth is available when serious harm is being inflicted
Show thread: j@fabrica:~/src;  Feb 15, 2023
@KimCrayton1 Have you written about these subjects in long-form? I know I have learning to do and I especially don’t feel like I have a solid mental framework around this distinction.
Show threadKim Crayton ~ Her/SheFeb 15, 2023
@josephholsten
Show thread: j@fabrica:~/src;  Feb 15, 2023
@KimCrayton1 yay, you’re in kobo! Thank you so much.
Show threadLeigh HoneywellFeb 15, 2023
@KimCrayton1 I love the idea of having opening and closing hours! Such a nice change of pace ☺️
Show threadKim Crayton ~ Her/SheFeb 15, 2023
@leigh yep…I knew that I only had bandwidth for a certain number of hours per week, so the Cafe was only open, unless there was some unexpected thing that happens that folx would benefit from from a safe space to process, on Friday’s from 8am-8pm EST.
Show threadClaudius LinkFeb 15, 2023

@KimCrayton1 @leigh
Thanks for the framework,

Could you provide #AltText?
I try not to boost post without it and here I'm torn 🙂
(at the same time I have the feeling that my alt tex would capture it adequately 😬​)

Show threadKim Crayton ~ Her/SheFeb 15, 2023
@realn2s @leigh the #AltText was already added to the images. Just click on them.
Show threadClaudius LinkFeb 15, 2023
@KimCrayton1 @leigh
😳​
My bad, I didn't realize how the Web client showed AltText. Sorry
And boosted 🙂