[geeklog-devtalk] Idea for another comments system

[Vincent Furia]

Basically your talking comment/article moderation with a twist.  I like it...

There is probably a simpler way of implementing it.  For instance, for
each comment/story have agree/disagree/neutral buttons.  By following
who a user often agrees with and who a poster disagrees with you can
do some algorithmic analysis (which could be as simple or complex as
you link, i.e. look at who those a user agrees with agrees with).  I
think this will get you to the same place, but in a simpler manner
(from the user's standpoint).

Another issue you have to be careful of is maintaining threads when
you reorder comments based of a user's previous responses.  Reordering
comments can cause a loss of the flow of conversation.  Also you'll
have to normalize because the nature of moderation is that first posts
get more heavily moderated (and often time more highly moderated) than
later comments posted to a story.


> 

> Trolls will quickly cluster themselves away from the main groups, which

> will also regularly rate them low. When looking at comments, trolls will

> only be able to see people that agree with them, or other trolls. Other

> groups consisting of people that would tend to rise to trollbait will

> hardly ever see the troll's comments.

> 


I don't think this will work.  Real trolls will lie, and if they are
any good they'll find sneaky ways around the scoring.  No reason to
give up on the idea, but I don't think it will be an effective
anti-trolling measure.

As with any moderation system you have to build in ways to prevent
abuse. "Mod-storming" is common on sites that don't take this problem
into account.

-Vinny