Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Policy & Help >

On User Juries...

Page: 1 2(3)

14:46 / 24.10.03

Flux: Sometimes I think we collectively lose perspective on what is actually happening here vs. what we'd like to think is happening here.

Well, I think that's true, but I also think that's inescapable -- and I think one of the useful things about an idea like User Juries is that the actual practice is gonna be really banal, but the concept will be very, very positive. The intangibles that come with being given the option to be part of the system. It's like going to a town meeting... really boring discussions, but it's kinda cool being there and knowing you could raise your hand and, y'know, have the floor.

Matthew Fluxington

19:05 / 25.10.03

That's a really good way of looking at it, Grant. And a lot more down-to-earth in terms of expectations.

09:55 / 27.10.03

It's like going to a town meeting... really boring discussions, but it's kinda cool being there and knowing you could raise your hand and, y'know, have the floor.

Well, yes Grant, that's exactly it. It would be good to be given the opportunity to help, you know? I think a lot of the comments here are from moderators who can't really see how user juries would help the board as a community, but perhaps those people are not looking at it from the right perspective. I think there are lots of people like me (who aren't moderators or in any way involved in the day to day running of the board) who value Barbelith very much as a community and who would therefore love to help in any way possible. User juries would allow us to feel like we were actively contributing to the 'looking after' of the site and not just 'using' it as a message board. Being given the chance to directly contribute in some way to the upkeep of the community we value perhaps allows us to feel even more part of the community.

But perhaps just as importantly, user juries do not encroach upon people who post on the board but do not wish or do not have the time to get involved in the 'community feel'.

Reading what everyone has said here, it strikes me that user juries are a really good way of keeping everyone happy;

1/ Community members like me who care a lot and would like to be more involved, would be.
2/ Community members who are very involved and who have expressed a preference for the board to feel even more 'inclusive' would be happy.
3/ People who post but who do not see Barbelith as a community would not be affected.
4/ Community members who are concerned about trolls would find this solution acceptable.
5/Moderators concerned that there would be more work for them would not be affected.
6/Moderators who are concerned about the suggested 'dark overlord' feel of the moderators would be less worried.
7/People who feel Barbelith is an experimental community would feel like things were on track.

As far as I can see, the only person who (quite rightly) might not be so wild about it is Cal, as he'd have to do all the work!

But it would 'give me a happy' anyway.

23:10 / 01.11.03

Sounds like a cool idea - I'll click the Agree button too.

(I should check Policy&Help more often...)

10:08 / 03.11.03

Another agree button to go. User juries really appeal to me as a way to involve community members who perhaps wouldn't have put themselves forward for moderation duties. You can be shy in text too, and this is a good way to get around it.

12:39 / 07.11.03

i got nothing new to add, but from where i am, it seems that we'd have little to loose by trying this and possibly an awful lot to gain in terms of better distribution of labour, better attitudes, and a obviously a more horizontal diffusion of power. So that'll be a cautious 'yes' from me.

Jack The Bodiless

11:04 / 12.11.03

While you might consider the board to be - you know - just a message board, that might be because you haven't had to maintain, rebuild and work almost daily to keep it together over the last four and a half years. If you had, maybe you'd have a different point of view.

Oh, good grief.

11:11 / 12.11.03

All I'm saying is that it's easy to dismiss things as being trivial and easy when you've not been responsible for the work that goes in. If I thought barbelith was 'just a message board' I'd have shut it down years ago as - frankly - not being worth the bloody effort.

18:03 / 12.11.03

Well I should have spoken up before and agreed with this; I think it's a damned good idea. So I'm going to do it now.

I think this is a damned good idea.

Tryphena Absent

18:24 / 12.11.03

JtB why are you critiquing Tom's own personal melodramatics when you engage in your own far more often than he does? Hmmm?

13:03 / 13.11.03

All the reasons why have been enumerated by everyone above me, so I won't bother repeating them... I think that this is a good idea too.

10:02 / 16.11.03

Hmm... Flux I think your "crybabies" comment was rather insensitive and certainly uncalled for. And Jack, I'm really surprised at you. How can you be so flippant about all that Tom's done to maintain and keep this board going?

Anyway, enough about all that. Just thought I'd jump in and say I love this User Jury idea. And as Stoatie has said, moderators don't have to do all of their moderation actions anyway. And if the randomly selected can't initiate actions, only approve or disapprove, I think possible damage to the board should be relatively minimal.

Page: 1 2(3)