On March 1, this forum will host a conversation with Adrienne Debigare on online community engagement. Adrienne used to run the comments section of boston.com, part of the Boston Globe. She is now with Harvard Business School running several platforms including the Open Knowledge project.

Dreaded Blogger 10 hours ago
Hi. I’ve built up a meaningful following to my blog on political commentary. It had recently attracted these two trolls that was shutting everybody up with their nasty posts. How can I get rid of them?
Adrienne 10 hours ago
There is not a good way to deal with a troll. In any case, don’t try IP ban. It’s not an effective way to moderate your space. When I was managing the comments section of boston.com, we had this persistent existence of a troll that just lived on the forum. We tried banning his IP, but he would create 20 screen names a day and kept coming back. Besides, if he is using the connection from a library or a public space. You are not just banning him, but 100 people on that line.
DTrollpfromboston 5 hours ago
It was you that tried to blacklist me on boston.com? I cared about the forum way more than you did!

Bridge Builder 10 hours ago
Hi. Me and my partner are planning to build an chatroom about hiking. We are debating whether we want to install some pre-moderating mechanism. I am concerned pre-screening would drive users away. My buddy thought it would attract more people if they feel protected. How can I convince him?
Adrienne 10 hours ago
The one am building in house is a public blogging network called Open Knowledge, but the posters are students. It is meant for in classroom work. We have lots of safe space built in to try to make sure that we can filter out stuff. The way it works is that anyone can comment on a submission, but to comment,, you have to go through an email verification sign up, which we didn’t have at the Globe. There your comments get moderated before they appear. It makes more sense because a lot of the faculty were concerned about the problem of trolling. So this way, we built some quick moderation tool that allows faculty member log into the backend, they can get in a feed of pending comments and approve or deny. We also build a second permission level slightly above public commentators called verified commentators. It’s a manually curated thing, that I have to in and verify somebody. once you you become a verified commentator, you don’t have to get permission to comment.

Bridge Builder 10 hours ago
So you’re screening contents?
Adrienne 10 hours ago
It is controversial. Some people didn’t agree with moderating newcomers. I can see why. For public forum, if you make it too difficult at the beginning, they just won’t engage. I think it’s really a contextual thing. is the community you are trying to build is one that motivated enough to take extra steps to participate, or is it more important to protect the community members already there. In case the academic institution-supported system that’s public, it seems more important to protect the students, whereas at the Globe, to have a system moderating newcomers is probably an overkill
Buddy of Bridge Builder 10 hours ago
What’s the reason of having or not having a moderator?
Adrienne 10 hours ago
Moderators are essential. If you can pay your moderators that’s even better. You’re not gonna have a diversified perspective if you don’t have a moderated conversation, the same way you’ll have a paneled speakers with no moderators. Especially when something gets large or more diversified, it becomes to necessary to have someone there, just so like impartial third party in a way. You want somebody doesn’t care about the subject at all, because they can be impartial. People who are probably do the best jobs are those who really enjoy human interaction, but don’t necessarily care about the top being discussed. If i really like the Redsox and create a forum on reddit, i’ll be really an opinionated moderator. It’s like inviting people into my house. That kind of moderation is very different.

DTrollpfromboston 1 hour ago
I don’t think you have the right to censor me. Internet should be free. It’s public space. MAKE THE WEB FREE AGAIN.
DTrollpfromboston 1 hour ago
you talk about engaging the community, but you are ignoring me!!!

.