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Less automatic moderation system

Kate VIP

I think me and many users agree that with how much the website is growing, we need to get some moderators, and not just rely on the automatic system when people report. 

The automatic system works perfectly fine for things like hiding spoilers, but anything more serious, that might lead to ban or deleting someone's account should be dealt with more care. 

There was a time when I honestly thought my account might get banned or deleted, because a group of users I disagree with were considering mass reporting me. Whenever it could happen or not, the case stays the same - lack of communication because there is mostly automatic system makes users nervous, since it's easy to abuse mass reporting.

More moderators to whom users can direct their questions and complains is needed. Also, a specific place where the list of moderators can be found. The idea of just looking around the website for a user who has "moderator" next to their name is questionable at best. 


Edit: to be fair, I'm not even sure we can get banned automatically after being mass reported, but that's part of the issue - most of us does not really know how it works, what reporting does etc.. 

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npatch

I agree. AFAIK, there's no other social networking site or even forum that auto-deletes your account due to mass reporting. At best you're auto-banned pending review. Auto-flag the incident is fine as well. But auto-delete is a step too far.

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Saarthak

Plus some written set on rules on which mods can act and inform the user about the violation when they remove the post/comments.

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Meng Po

Yeah, i'm a victim of the system today :P . So yeah  - i think some changes should be made. First of all i had verified account via phone. And even then i didn't have any notification that i was banned. That's the first issue for me.  It would be nice, if i put such a , for some people private info on the site, to have some profit from it, in such a situations. Even with back up "Hey, you were  banned, contact us via e-mail, to solve it" auto reply. Or have even some message, when you try to log in, like anything will be fine. 

Second of all - imo yes, it should be hand checked via people . Because machine is "stupid" and can ban you for something which shouldn't  be banned.  And in both cases - if someone is down voting/reporting comments or if system catch something sneaky. Or any other,  when people, just for being petty, or not agreeing with you, can jump on your comment and down vote it, just because. If machine, can't catch some niuances, and you can't teach it,  verification should be done manually by human.  I'm aware it takes some time, effort and humans to do so, but imo it's worth it. People maybe will think twice, before they will wrote something, report something or vote. And we avoid accidental bans, for words or links, catched via auto. 

Third -  imo people should know, how the system works, and what can ban them - what type of content, what they shouldn't put in the comments, and i'm aware we have overall some net  etiquette, and common sens in the rules. Still, it's grey area for many.  Should we not put some content, links, words, anything? because if bot can catch it, via auto and accident,  imo people should be aware, what is "dangerous" for them, to put there.  Does we have some ratio or other stuff, we should know? Simple,  if we can't teach system, maybe teaching members of the site, how to navigate through the comments section to avoid accidentally blocking, might help both sides? Also, imo it would be amazing tip for moderators, to navigate and help better in some situations, especially those in the grey area, to decide what is still fine, and what should be removed. 

Fourth - connected to  first imo  we should have some clear info, that we were banned.  Because i was really confused at first. 

Fifth - as @Kate mention, some list and more mods.  So everybody will have clear info, when, why to who, they should respond or send their issues.  And maybe overall some "emergency" contact, when i can't log, and for example staff page also doesn't work, so i would know, what to do step by step, when i have some issues, and it's ASAP stuff.  


Probably i should write more but i forgot. Anyway the point is - more clear rules, what can be banned (transparency not only with overall content but also some technical issues, like ratios , forbidden links, spams etc. ); better system to inform member, that she/he was banned and what to do after that (who should be contacted, maybe the reason etc.) ; clear list of people, who should i ask, or seek help, in any comments section issues ( because as far i know, some of AStaff sometimes also are noted about the issues, and sometimes they can't do much about it);  and most important, adding HUMAN factor to the whole banning system, for verification, if "machine" didn't  made a mistake, and ban someone innocent. 

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Ji-N Admin
 Kate:
Edit: to be fair, I'm not even sure we can get banned automatically after being mass reported, but that's part of the issue - most of us does not really know how it works, what reporting does etc.. 

You cannot get banned automatically via reports

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mjf314

I think MDL needs more moderators.

When I report comments or reviews for violating the site rules, nothing is done.

When I request a new streaming service to be added, nothing is done.

Threads on the support forum sometimes get ignored by the mods.

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Kate VIP
 Ji-N:

You cannot get banned automatically via reports

That's good. But the fact most people have no idea what can and cannot ban you, nad what exactly happens with posts/comments and users that get reported is kind of part of the problem... 

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j729
 mjf314:
I think MDL needs more moderators.

When I report comments or reviews for violating the site rules, nothing is done.

When I request a new streaming service to be added, nothing is done.

Threads on the support forum sometimes get ignored by the mods.

This. ^

Let me start by saying I know from moderating a different (unrelated topic) forum how crazy it can be, and how it burns you out. It is a thankless job without any pay. I am glad people generously donate their time here.

That said, to me, it appears the site is largely on "cruise control" or "auto pilot".  The sheer amount of requests and help tickets that seemingly go unanswered (maybe there is something done via private messaging?) sometimes makes me wonder about the long-term viability of this site.  I have been on other forums that were in a similar situation, and over time the site grew out of control and turned into a very toxic and spam ridden place because it was basically abandoned by the mods. 

Hopefully that isn't the situation here, but it would be nice to see more moderators, or more visible activity to let us know they are around. 

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Selbee

I looks like the Admins of the site are more concerned with adding new features (which are mostly useless: like splitting feeds three ways, giving flowers to actors, now games...) then trying to moderate what exists (like support forum tickets that mostly do not get an answer: we'd posted a few times issues with the Android app at least since August and we are still waiting for an answer!) Every time a new feature appears, the site update goes haywire and glitches for days on end! As the above user said, the site's preexisting features seem to be on an auto-pilot unfortunately!

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FoxFae

agreed 100%

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emmagucci

BUMP

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ASTER

totally agreed with @Selbee 

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VxV467

Another imperative to be implemented please

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JulyMoon VIP

I agree

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lapis

So, if I understand this right, if only one person reports a user's numerous hateful comments on a title's page, nothing will be done about them because there's not a real person reviewing reports and instead there's just an automatic system that won't do anything unless several people report the same comments? If so, yikes. And yes, the situation I described isn't a hypothetical, I reported a user's venomously transphobic comments on a movie's page over two weeks ago and they're all still there.

I'm definitely in favor of this site getting enough moderators to combat unfair reporting like OP describes and keep up with legitimate reports. Clearer communication on the subject in general is also important, like what kind of behavior is considered inappropriate, what kind of action may be taken against anyone that violates site policies (temporary ban from commenting, temporary ban from accessing the site, permanent deletion of a user's account, etc.), and informing people of what they violated and what action has been taken in response. Granted, the site Terms go over some of this, but creating a separate page in layman's terms that includes example situations of what could get users in trouble would be a helpful reference for both regular users and mods alike.

Editing in an update to my first paragraph: After I made this comment I tried reporting the offensive comments in the official spam reporting thread and they were deleted within a day, along with the user account that posted them. While that's encouraging for legitimately problematic comments, it doesn't seem like that should be the most (only?) effective way to deal with the situation and the points brought up in this thread still stand.

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