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Code Issues 21 Wiki
Page: Moderation
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20 Moderation
mj-saunders edited this page 2020-12-17 12:58:50 +00:00
Table of Contents

This page is very much a work in progress.

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Technical Outline

Written from the perspective of an IMC (Independent Media Centre) server.
Brief analysis on what interface features to provide with regard to Moderating content flows that are passing through the server.
(Actual content moderation is all handled by the local indymedia collective (IMC))

Trusted data sources

  • Server-local IMC members
  • Other "sister" IMC's

[HC] Moderated data sources

  • Unknown "publishers" (individuals or orgs) who utilise OMN hashtags
    • Directly picked up by local server
    • [ If coming via "sister" IMC's (or does that mean they've already been marked as trusted ?) ]
      • "sister" implies trust; certainly of their feature articles
        • should also imply trust of their newswire, in that you trust their ability to moderate
      • [Q. do Feature articles also get published to Newswire?]

There is some complexity here that is dealt with by deeper implementation of the 5 functions (link required)

UI

Specifically discussing how the UI/UX should reflect these requirements.

  • Need a way to recognise data from trusted sources (maybe already exists)

    • The signatures system in activity pub makes it easy to be fairly confident about which account an incoming post is arriving from
    • [HC] what is in your database is trusted - what is in the moderation queue is moderated - what is outside the site is outside the site

  • Set up such that anything from untrusted source gets appended to moderation queue

    • this is done by the 5 functions by a human being when they add or modify the config of the feed

  • Have a clean way for mods to view and work with that queue

    • *yes this is needed as the queue has a function
      • it is a place where social trust is earned/gathered
      • every object, person, action and flow has a meta data tail
      • you get to see what your fellow mods are up to in the data tail*

  • **Modifications to Epicyon

    • for moderation queue (See: CREATE ISSUE)**

  • Modifications to gitea ?

  • [other?]

Data duplication

An IMC's newswire has mutliple feeds of varying types and sources.
These sources can include the newswire of another IMC.
These other IMC's may also track one or more of the same feeds.

How do we prevent duplication of content?

Assuming a backend database.

  • Source URL comparison
  • [other?]

---

Data Flows for server-local Members

  • Should locally created posts go into the newswire, or should that only be for external sources?

    • Direct to Newswire
      • As they would only be written by IMC members?
    • Then admins/moderaters can create the features
      • *Yes they are done by the "collective" so need some consensus process
        • currently undefined
        • should configurable so different collectives can do it differently*
          • including potential that all members (mod or not) can participate

  • *Any user adding a feed using the 5 functions

    • This is modified [s. moderated?] by the 5 functions that the mods have given that user.*
      • [Q. Given to the user? Are these abilities, or do you just mean the list of functions?]
    • [Q. All members may submit request to add a feed to the newswire; mods may allow/deny?]

  • Its ambiguous who can publish direct from the site to the newswire as the sites get bigger

    • If they create an account they can publish
      • but this might end up in the moderation queue depending on [s. which of] the 5 functions given to the account by the modes/site
    • But on hyper local (approx. <= 150 members) this is reasonable default
      • mods may still reduce privileges at later date
    • Have this as a function that could be turned off/put on moderation/trusted, per-user
      • Actually this applies to just about every option :)
      • yes the 5 functions applies to everything
    • See: initial discussion on this here

---

Newswire

Consists of various sources, that are marked as one of the following:

  • Trusted
  • Moderated
  • [other?]

These sources may include:

  • Server-local posts
    • Equivalent to e.g. Mastodon's local timeline
      • difference being that posts may require approval
  • ActivityPub actor
    • single member of a server
  • ActivityPub server
    • The content that gets published from a server to the federated timeline
    • [Q. is this still an actor?]
  • RSS and Atom feeds
  • [OStatus?]
  • [other?]

---

Social Focus

[ ^ Is this suitable for this wiki page ? ]

Ideas/thoughts/guidelines on how an IMC might choose to moderate.

Only with regard to function/ process - not specifically how to decide on something (that's subjective).

  • ?

Regarding the subjective "how":


---

Epicyon-Specific Moderation

  • Any ideas for hyper local groups we could do test rollouts with?

  • This moderation logic will have to be tweaked on rollout testing and feedback

    • *the only function is the 5 so we can setup defaults, which is a strong power
      • but the IMC can change theirs - but bound by ETHOS of indymedia 4opens and PGA*

  • Do we have ideas for the moderation queue, for incoming flow of feeds that are not (yet) trusted?

    • At present no clear ideas about that. There is an existing moderation screen and reports can be created, but no moderation queue for incoming posts
    • There's an existing blocking system, so probably what needs to happen is that instead of marking an account or instance as blocked it should be possible to designate it as moderated

  • Communities are created by giving them tasks that they cooperate around so this moderation queue is part news and part community building

    • *We are missing the backend tools at present
      • but we are for now using gitea repos for this, so its fine*
    • Ideally then a moderator should (physically?) know the people they are collaborating with ?
      • Yes, offline meetings hyper local best
      • Was the strength of IMCs. We had a weekly meeting at a anarchist community center in oxford. Then more meetups when needed for days of action etc
      • The day to day job on indymedia was discussing article moderation

  • I expect that moderated posts should be visible to moderator accounts and there could maybe be an accept/reject/discuss** button**

    • "moderated posts" as in "seeking consensus for a proposed action on a post, before publishing"
    • sounds like a start, all actions here are added to the data tail of the person taking the action and the object acted on - everthying is a flowing object with a data tail, including user accounts.
      • [Q. How might this be achieved in Epicyon codebase?]
        • "Moderation queue": 1 timeline, transitory, unpublished, visible only to mods
        • "Local posts": 1 timeline, trusted users and approved mod queue posts, published
          • appears on newswire?
          • viewed as it's own timeline?
        • "Feature posts": 1 timeline, only consensus-based articles, published under name of IMC not individual
          • [Q. does it require it's own queue, or could it also use the "Moderation queue"?]
    • Another easy thing which people could do is check/add emoji
      • Yep a process could be 3 thumbs up and it goes through as an example.
        • Up to the local imc to work out
      • There isn't currently an indymedia emoji, for example
        • Emoji are a separate issue, but in the ui the icons could reuse emoji images. Tick/Cross/Talk
        • Really, thumbs up or tick is most appropriate for default

  • Should moderators require a minimum consensus beofre posting (like 3 mods minimum accept)? could be a modifiable value per server

    • *they have to reach "consensus". It's up to each IMC what that means
      • bound by the ethos of IMC (as long as it doesn't undermine 4opens and PGA Hallmarks)
      • we need to build tools to aid this*
    • There will always be ambiguous situations
      • for certain

  • A major factor to determine quality for untrusted data, might be reviewing cited sources

    • more an issue for an IMC as opposed to the codebase ?
      • (though we should consider the functionality perhaps)
    • *we can use queries of the "data tails" to find out lots of intresting things
      • that can be used in the building of trust
      • and dealing with SPAM/trolls, etc*

  • Remember there is only pseudo anonymity, no privacy as its a #4opens project

    • [MS] this is a separate topic