infobong.com

I'm working on a final write-up for a research project, where I look at how moderation on sites like Slashdot, Kuro5hin, and Plastic may be used to enforce ideological norms in the discussions. I haven't moderated in some time, so I was a little concerned that I wouldn't be able to refer to moderator screens while writing. When I sat down this afternoon to work on the paper, I loaded Slashdot, and the top of the page informed me, "You have 5 Moderator Points! Use 'em or lose 'em!" That's great timing for me.

My idea is that although comments generally do not disappear, the comment filtering makes higher-rated comments more apt to be read, and moderators will tend to mod up comments that jibe with their own viewpoints, and since moderators are veteran users of these cites, the effect of moderation will be to generally perpetuate the existing discourses of the forum. I'm sure this seems obvious to anyone who's spent much time on Slashdot, but I've yet to see any papers that tackle this issue.