Pre-Moderate Comments

 
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User comments are not published immediately, but are held in a moderation queue and approved by a website administrator.
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User comments are not published immediately, but are held in a moderation queue and approved by a website administrator.  
=== What Problem This Solves  ===
=== What Problem This Solves  ===
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User comments are a target for spam, which reduce the quality/value and SEO of your website. Comments can also be used for unsavoury or low-value opinions. Pre-moderating comments allows you to disregard spam and decide which user comments are worthwhile reading for your visitors.
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User comments are a target for spam, which reduce the quality/value and SEO of your website. Comments can also be used for unsavoury or low-value opinions.
=== When to Use This Pattern  ===
=== When to Use This Pattern  ===
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Use this pattern if your content management platform doesn't offer any built-in protection from spam, if it has a history of attracting low-value comments, if you frequently cover controversial topics, or if you don't have the time to frequently moderate comments.
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Use this pattern if your content management platform doesn't offer any built-in protection from spam, if it has a history of attracting low-value comments, if you frequently cover controversial topics, or if you don't have the time to frequently moderate comments.  
=== What's The Solution?  ===
=== What's The Solution?  ===
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Ensure your content management platform has a pre-moderation option. You can then choose from a range of options ([http://contentini.com/when-bad-comments-happen-to-good-websites-strategies-for-managing-comments-online/ source]):
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Ensure your content management platform has a pre-moderation option. You can then choose from a range of options ([http://contentini.com/when-bad-comments-happen-to-good-websites-strategies-for-managing-comments-online/ source]):  
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*''Moderate all comments and publish selectively based on quality or relevance'': This is a difficult option and one that can create a number of problems. First of all, it is potentially time consuming to not only moderate but to also consider each comment based on merit, a measurement that should also be made transparent to your readership. Though it may result in less unwanted noise and more productive discussions, there is the potential for backlash as people may perceive that you are trying to censor or re-contextualize comments as a PR strategy.
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*''Moderate all comments and publish selectively based on quality or relevance'': This is a difficult option and one that can create a number of problems. First of all, it is potentially time consuming to not only moderate but to also consider each comment based on merit, a measurement that should also be made transparent to your readership. Though it may result in less unwanted noise and more productive discussions, there is the potential for backlash as people may perceive that you are trying to censor or re-contextualize comments as a PR strategy.  
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*''Moderate all comments and publish everything that doesn’t contravene your Commenting Policy'' (i.e. spam, personal attacks, obscenity etc.): This is a fairly obvious option and it’s the one most frequently employed by web managers who are trying to limit the noise on their site. It attempts to balance the elimination of unwanted noise with a desire for unfettered discussion and an engaged community of readers. The problem with this strategy is that it can be time consuming and moderation needs to happen quickly so that comments don’t become stale while sitting in the queue. I’ve worked with a number of clients who use this strategy but don’t actually have the time to adequately manage the task.
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*''Moderate all comments and publish everything that doesn’t contravene your Commenting Policy'' (i.e. spam, personal attacks, obscenity etc.): This is a fairly obvious option and it’s the one most frequently employed by web managers who are trying to limit the noise on their site. It attempts to balance the elimination of unwanted noise with a desire for unfettered discussion and an engaged community of readers. The problem with this strategy is that it can be time consuming and moderation needs to happen quickly so that comments don’t become stale while sitting in the queue.  
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*''Moderate all comments and post everything (except for spam) but do something to embarrass or undermine hateful commentors'': Boing Boing occasionally uses the practice of ‘disemvowelling’ particularly vitriolic comments. According to Boing Boing founder Cory Doctorow, this method helps to “let the rest of the community know what kind of sentiment is not socially acceptable.” Although it’s an interesting idea, it still potentially allows for a lot of noise on your website – particularly if the focus of the discussion shifts from the topic of your content to the ‘funny’ way you’ve handled the inappropriate behavior. It’s also potentially a time consuming option unless you have someone who can create some code to help you automate the process. See [[Sanitize_Comments]].
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*''Moderate all comments and post everything (except for spam) but do something to embarrass or undermine hateful commentors'': Boing Boing occasionally uses the practice of ‘disemvowelling’ particularly vitriolic comments. According to Boing Boing founder Cory Doctorow, this method helps to “let the rest of the community know what kind of sentiment is not socially acceptable.” See [[Sanitize Comments]].
=== Why Use This Pattern  ===
=== Why Use This Pattern  ===
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Edit this. Describe the user and business benefits for this pattern, with links to evidence or additional research data if available.  
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Pre-moderation allows you to determine and guide the quality of commentary on your website, without frequently checking and reacting to comments as they are posted.
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=== Examples Gallery  ===
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=== Categories ===
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Edit this. Upload images of this pattern in use, if available. Otherwise, delete this section (and heading).
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[[Category:Comments]] [[Category:Social]]
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[[Category:Edit_this._Pattern_Category]]
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Latest revision as of 04:10, 17 January 2011