Hmm, let's see what kind of mess we are into today. I log in to the site after a few days of absence and find this whole discussion about what should be on the site and what not. We've talked about the topic of moderation many times before. Generally this is pretty clear. It should adhere to the Pinside rules. It has to have to do with Pinball. Okay. Well, general off-topic discussion is not a big issue either. Occasionally a Selma pic for good measure. Sure why not. But after that a gray line appears. And the problems for our moderators begin.
I guess it's all about perception. Some people think certain pictures are acceptable, and some don't. If I was to ban any off-topic pictures from the site, this place would become like that book "1984" (or the movie Equilibrium). I just don't like the thought of that. But personally I'm not a huge fan of all the off-topic topics/posts either. This site is first and foremost about pinball.
I would really hate to sit and watch this site go "down the gutter" either.
So how to solve this? How about this idea, I call it called "moderation by the masses" (inspired by a great tech site here in the Netherlands, called Tweakers.net):
* Each post made on the Pinside forum gets a base score of 0 points to start with. This means "unmoderated post".
*All Pinsiders (including YOU) can give out points to a post:
+3 starred comment
+2 informative post
+1 on-topic post
0 unmoderated.
-1 unwanted post
* Additionally, there will be a NSFW/F button to tag a post as not save for work/family
* All topics on the Pinside forum will get "threshold" filter buttons at the top where you can CHOOSE to not see any posts below a certain level. So you could opt not to see any posts with a score of -1 (unwanted post). Or you can filter out NSFW/F posts.
* Each Pinsider can store their preferred setting in their profile. Posts below your threshold can still be read, by simply collapsing the post manually (see the second screenshot below)
* Guests (not signed in visitors) will default to the NSFW/F filter enabled.
This should work for all of you, want a safe Pinside? Set the threshold to +1 and/or enable the NSFW/F filter. Want a fully unmoderated site? Set the theshold to -1 and disable the NSFW/F filter.
etc.
Needless to say, stuff that really doesn't belong here (as described in the Pinside community rules will still be moderated/deleted by our moderator team. There is no place here for racism, hate and other ugliness.
To get an idea how this would look, here's what it looks like on Tweakers.net where it has worked well for years:
Screen_Shot_2012-02-19_at_4.37.56_PM.png
As you can see in the second screenshot, the post from Jeroymus is below the viewers threshold, which defaults to not show anything scoring under 0.
Screen_Shot_2012-02-19_at_5.34.46_PM.png
These are all ideas - Let me know what you think and wether I should implement this! Did I oversee anything, or will this solve the issues at hand?