When Should a Website Edit Its Users?

rw2 asks: "Can a weblog edit users comments without opening itself up to liability in case of a slander suit? I run a political weblog and have a policy similar to slashdots in terms of the comments posted belonging to their owners. I'm worried about instituting something like lameness filters as it seems like as soon as you start regulating what your users post you have agreed to edit them for other reasons as well. Can someone point me to a good resource on issues like this. Those of us who aren't owned by publically traded companies are better off avoiding potential problems rather than hire lawyers to help us wiggle out later." Honestly, this greatly depends on the type of weblog you run and the community behind it. I don't think a one-answer-suits-all-sites solution exists, particularly for the reason that what may be inappropriate for one site may be more than appropriate for others. What say you?

Comments

Some honest tips from a troll

[The Turd Report]

As a troll, I can post on-topic for this discussion.

1. Don't follow Slashdot's lead. A moderation system can be nice, but any zealots on your website will just act ignorant with it. As an example; ALL my posts are at '-1', yet every other day, some moderator will try to mod me down. If you have moderation, you should ban people who will not follow the moderation guidelines.
2. Don't try lameness filters. You see how well they 'work' here. the 'Eat my Nuts' ascii art still shows up, but if you try to post a semi-large snippet of perl, you get filtered.
3. Is stopping the trolls woth the time and effort? As you can see, most trolls here post at '-1' by default. The only people who read the trolls are people who *want* to read them. If you are censoring trolls, they will see your efforts as a challenge and will just try harder. You might make your situation worse. I know many trolls troll slashdot because it gets a reaction from the editors.

But, since I am a troll, I just can't be 100% helpful, so here is a goatse.cx link.

Fixing Slashdot

[Walter Bell]

Jamie,

Haven't you ever taken an objective look at this site and noticed that it is spiraling downward?

Haven't you ever stopped to consider that the most mature and intelligent geeks quit posting to Slashdot years ago, leaving a site full of groupthinking kiddies who learn and regurgitate the "party line" just to fit in?

And don't you wonder why it all had to end up like this?

It all boils down to respect. And if you lose the respect of your users, they will destroy your site. And all of the mod points, lameness filters, and *slap.pl scripts in the world aren't going to change that, because the users will find ways to beat your system. If programmers had a good solution to the ingenuity of a malicious human being, the computer security industry would have never been born.

What can you (the editors) do to gain the users' respect back?

• Show some interest in your site. (That means you too, Taco - stop the anime tape for a second and listen.) Post interesting stories, once. Post comments from time to time. Keep your opinions out of the stories and put them where they belong. Post at +1 or +2 like everyone else. Pretend that you're not too wealthy (?) to care what happens.
• Be honest with people. The parent post is a sign of progress but it is too little, too late, and too sanctimonious. We geeks might not have very good social skills but we can see through bullshit very easily.
• Don't pander to high schoolers. In fact, don't pander at all. Start posting articles about the innovative, honest technologies coming out of Redmond as well, instead of just complaining about the things that they screw up. Help us open our minds.
• If you feel like posting fluff (such as Ask Slashdot submissions that can be answered by Google's "I'm feeling lucky" button), don't post anything at all.
• Don't silence critics. Somebody should be apologizing for the moderation on the VA story, but that's only the tip of the iceberg.
• A little democracy never hurts. How about fixing the "automatic voting" option and then running the "Dump the Jerk?" poll again?
• Most importantly, stop making this site into a gigantic role-playing game. If you stop treating us like little kids with your automated rewards and punishments, many of the troublemakers will get bored and move on. But if you keep writing more filters, troll-detection scripts, and other useless devices, you add to the fun of beating the system. Is that really what you want? Some people live to beat "the system" and at least a few of them are trolls here. Learn how to take away their fun.

This site isn't too big to fix. And certainly there is little profit motive to make it worth reading again, given that you already get half a million hits every day. But when VA finally gives up the ghost and Slashdot is a thing of the past, you will either be left with memories of running a crappy site and moderating ASCII art, or a sense of pride in what you created. Whether you want Slashdot to be remembered as a dismal failure or a great online community is up to you.

Yes, IHBT.

~wally