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Automated Moderation

 
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I was thinking -- if computer programs can play chess, fly the spaceships to Mars, prove theorems, write poetry and music, why not write a program that would act like a moderator in MD? I am not talking about a trivial one that would flag a post that contains phrases like "fuck you, asshole". Instead, I am considering the one that would act as a fair, impartial, non-partisan, respected human moderator, and able to parse various topics and the content of the posts. It would scan each post post, do some analysis, and assign the rank based on how inflammatory (accusatory, less than friendly, etc.) that post is. Once the predetermined threshold is crossed, the post blocked (edited/deleted/flagged), and the poster is warned (admonished/humiliated/booted).
I actually have the technology and the similar software in place, although much more simple, and it has a different purpose. It simply looks back at all the things that you've posted in MD in the past and reports the frequency distribution of the words that you use. Take a look if you are interested.
Now I am thinking of something more advanced as a moderation tool, and here is where I need your ideas. I understand that this is probably more suited for the General Computing Forum, but since this future software is all about the MD, I would appreciate if this thread stays here, where the MDers can act as "customers" of sort, working on the specification.
Here are a few simple ideas to start:
1. This one comes directly from the About MD document. If the word "you" is to be avoided, perhaps the software could count the relative frequency of that word in the post.
2. Detection of Religion and Politics. That should be relatively straightforward, based on the collection of certain keywords. Once the "dangerous" topic is detected, the software can use some interesting algorithms to do further analysis.
3. Cross-referencing similar threads. What I mean here is that the software can look back at those threads/posts that have been closed in the past, and determine if the current thread is similar to them.
4. Cross-referencing with the Internet. Essentially, this would be the idea similar to that used by Google when it decides which ads to show based on the current discussion (for those of you who never noticed, look at the top of the screen). I am going to take it a little further than Google -- there is some interesting stuff that can be done. For example, you can get an idea of how controvercial a given discussion is based on the number of hits you get from Google when you submit a quiery containing a few key words from the thread in question.
5. Length of sentences. I have not reasearched it yet -- this is just from the top of my head, so this may be completely off base: the short sentences are more likely to be insults than the long sentences.
Well, I am running out of the ideas, as you can see, so please step in, my fellow ranchers.
 
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good work
 
blacksmith
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I think you're going to need automatic euphemism detection, as people start learning what the software is looking for and figuring out how to get around it.
 
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Alas, the Orwellian notion of Big Brother befalls us in binary form. A tour de force in human achievement which wipes away the bad taste left in your mouth after some overzealous, tea-sipping, crimpet-eating moderator deletes your elegantly-written post.
I love it.
I'm particulary interested in the cross-referencing aspect you mention. Damn Eugene, where were you when I needed a topic for my graduate project? I ended up doing some dreadfully-boring data mining crap that masqueraded itself as a high-speed pattern recognition system to identify suspects in residential burglaries. Nonetheless, the application of pattern recognition to an individual's posts is interesting indeed.
Also, the AI implications sound like fun--teaching a machine to identify assholes and other incorrigible types through their written dialog.
I wonder if I could program it into my phone to moderate over conversations with my mother so when it detected a guilt trip coming on, it would effectively simulate a bad connection, and eventually cut-off.
 
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I think you're going to need automatic euphemism detection, as people start learning what the software is looking for and figuring out how to get around it.
Or maybe they can start using stuff like this Shakespearean insult generator. Actually that wouldn't be half bad - an argument filled with Shakespearean insults might be kind of entertaining. I may have to try that next time a disagreement breaks out - just replace the combatants' words with quotes from the generator.
 
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Originally posted by Jim Yingst:

Or maybe they can start using stuff like this Shakespearean insult generator. Actually that wouldn't be half bad - an argument filled with Shakespearean insults might be kind of entertaining. I may have to try that next time a disagreement breaks out - just replace the combatants' words with quotes from the generator.


I disagree, for thou art a spleeny dread-bolted hugger-mugger!
 
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Originally posted by Ram Abdullah D'Souza:
good work


Now that, being a very short sentence, is an insult.
 
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and a cool ( ) smiley makes the post sarcastic, which with a terse reply makes double sarcasms, which is ok. right?
 
Jeffrey Hunter
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Perhaps we can institute a demerit system whereby the Forum Police issue demerits for ill-witted or otherwise offensive posts. After receiving 3 demerits, a user is summarily arrested and electronically transported to the Hangman Forum, where we all take part in a public game of Hangman...the end result being the hanging, and ultimately, public banishment, of the condemned.
 
Joe King
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Originally posted by Jeffrey Hunter:
Perhaps we can institute a demerit system whereby the Forum Police issue demerits for ill-witted or otherwise offensive posts. After receiving 3 demerits, a user is summarily arrested and electronically transported to the Hangman Forum, where we all take part in a public game of Hangman...the end result being the hanging, and ultimately, public banishment, of the condemned.


Kind of like a "three strikes and you're out" system then... perhaps there could be a little icon displayed under the display name to indicate how many strikes a user is on. From time to time moderators could "reward" users by reducing their strike count if they do something like apoligise to people they have (supposedly) offended. Only problem comes if it becomes trendy to be seen with two strikes - people would start being rude to get the icons....
 
Greenhorn
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Sometimes I think if a moderator is hot and heavy in a discussion. Then editing other posters post should be prohibited. Perhaps the forum could auto delete the bartender/sheriff.
 
Jim Yingst
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Ned, you jackass, what maks you assume that we sheriffs and bartenders aren't capable of restraining themselves when necessary? You lousy ranch hands are all alike - If you don't shape up soon, I'm going to have to >!<
[account terminated]
[ May 12, 2004: Message edited by: MooseBot 0.9 ]
 
John Smith
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Laugh all you want, Jim, but your days in MD will be over when I pull this thing together. You will be outsourced.
 
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Originally posted by Jim Yingst:
[ May 12, 2004: Message edited by: MooseBot 0.9 ]





:roll:

 
R K Singh
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Originally posted by Jim Yingst:
[account terminated]
[/QB]



Another question..

Whose account has been terminated ?? Ned's or Jim's acct. ??
 
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Two oxen pulling a plow in front of a farmer and a plow are a team. This ain't pissed, it's bad boy.
 
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Originally posted by R K Singh:
Whose account has been terminated ?? Ned's or Jim's acct. ??


The bot had a bug and terminated its own account...
 
R K Singh
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Originally posted by Lasse Koskela:

The bot had a bug and terminated its own account...



 
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A Rogue's Gallery database can be maintained, keeping track of all the ranchers who were admonished/chided/berated/censored - and what they said before they got rapped. This list ofcourse should include some of the heavy-handed/hotheaded moderators too
 
pie sneak
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Will it include 1,001 possible spellings of the word p_0_R_n ?

Maybe you can make it portable enough to attach it to email accounts - filter out spam.
 
author and iconoclast
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Originally posted by Nanhesru Ningyake:
A Rogue's Gallery database can be maintained, keeping track of all the ranchers who were admonished/chided/berated/censored



What makes you think there isn't already such a list, #47 -- oops, I mean Nanhesru?
 
Nanhesru Ningyake
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#47 Yes, in those days gone by, when the ranchers were more civil, I had once called this person who shall remain unnamed 'an unemployed, unemployable redneck'. That didn't go down too well with the moderators

(By current standards, that seems like a tame thing to say, Paul McKenna might even take that as a compliment )
 
Leverager of our synergies
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#47!

Are you the first terminated Rancher? If so, we need to put you on our history page.
[ May 15, 2004: Message edited by: Mapraputa Is ]
 
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