velospace blog

velospace now has community moderation!

Moderation flags let you help keep velospace a thriving open community

As the site approaches the 10,000 user mark the number of bikes and comments have also grown by leaps and bounds. The flood of content coming into velospace is hard to keep up with as a one-man show. My goal with velospace is to foster a community of respect and admiration for bicycles. In order to accomplish this goal I have set out some basic rules, discussed on the velospace blog previously. Some recent activity on the site had me thinking about how to manage the drinking-from-the-fire hose-feeling I have when trying to keep tabs on whats happening.

Problem: Too Much Information, Solution: Get People Involved

As a social networking site, velospace exists because of the enthusiasm of its users. To help turn the fire hose of information into a more manageable trickle of info, I have coded up some Community Moderation tools.

Basically, all logged-in users are able to flag a bike or comment on a bike as “spam”, “prohibited”, or “not a bike.” The links for flagging appear on each bike page and only require a single click. These flags are collected and stored in the velospace database. Think of it as a modified Craigslist moderation scheme. The flags are analyzed by moderators and actions will be taken when necessary. If you have any questions about what sort of content is not welcome on velospace take a look at the Rules, particularly Rule #1.

This tool gives users a direct say in the quality of the content on the site – if someone tries to lower the value of velospace by spamming the site, posting derogatory comments, or otherwise being a jerk – the community can raise its voice and be heard.

If you have any questions about this feature or any suggestions for its implementation let me know.

- Greg