h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

As I understand it the BBC doesn't have a problem (in principle) with URLs in fora it is just that they don't have the resources to check that they are still valid.

Would it therefore be possible to somehow get trusted non-BBC employees (say the ACEs) to do some of this moderation load?

Z

I think ideas similar to this have been proposed recently on other fora, and the problem seemed to be that *any* addition to the volunteer schemes and their duties would require either more italics or more work for the ones that are there. hence, not doable at the moment, but possibly in the future?


mikey

But how about this? URL's in fora posts are generally for topical interest at the moment of the conversation - most are dead within a week. Since the problem cited is one of 'revisiting' why not allow fora url's to stand for a limited period if they are deemed OK - say one week and then remove them? I'll give an example: a new user remarked that they found it difficult to find anything on the web so I recommended a well-known search engine beginning with G which was moderated, but not until after the person concerned had seen it anyway. The url was redundant so the moderation caused no problems. See what I mean. Most urls in conversations are only important in the heat of the debate/ conversation - if we knew they were only there for a limited period we would note them elsewhere if required.
Is this workable?

I hope so, but I would make it 2 weeks.

I would hope something like that is workable but presumably it will involve a bit more work for the moderators since they will need to check the URL once to ensure it is appropriate (i.e. not linking to pronographic, racist etc. material). And then remember to come back in a week and delete it.

Still if we can show that as a community we are sensible (i.e. there are very few inappropriate links posted that require moderators to make decisions) this may still prove less work than the bbc originally anticipated and there is a chance we can persuade them to do it.

Z

The deletion can be done simply in the next release of the code, by flaging any forum entry with a url, and when the age passes 2 weeks, automatically re-submitting it for moderation. It should be a relatively trivial bit of coding.

But it would involve extra work for the moderators who have to be paid to do the extra work. So the BBC/H2G2 will have to do a 'risk assesment' of the extra work required.

I do think however it is possible and it would be nice to have a response from someone to say if the BBC is considering this idea.

Thanks
Z

No, it wouldn't. they could then be relieved from the duty of having to check the url's for two weeks, as out of date or dead links won't matter after that. This would then let us use external url's as we normally did, while covering them for long term use. In the mean time, the time they don't spend checking temporary links will let them start building a database of "trusted sites" that links can be checked against at review time of plus 2 weeks. that list would very quickly save them a lot of time. in the same way that peer review rather than editing does the editors. They could even have the code automatically add any remaining links after two weeks into the trusted database, saving them even more time. more programming though.

Mentioning another well known search engine and web portal, beginning with "Y" ending in "oo" and having "ah" in the middle.. yes, you all know.. but that's not a link so that's okay to mention, is it not?
Anyway, with their Clubs (now merged with an internet groups service to make "'Y' Groups", when you subscribe to a specific group, you are sent an e-mail (I know, nothing to do with h2g2, but trust me, it's going somewhere...) and in that e-mail is a link to a URL which expires after a week or so of being made, or as soon as it is visited and clicked onto another URL.. so then you are registered with that group... get the drift?

So, I Say the deleted link thing is a good idea, and with a special timer, this can be possible without the need for moderators!

Tell me if I Have missed something or what you think

aka

PS. If the ACE Mods thing would've went ahead, I'd be okay with that, but some people would find that that would kill off the Friendly Kindness of the Aces, as look how much people shudder with disgust when they hear the word "Moderator", "Posting Hidden", or "Pending Moderation"!

I think the difference would be (and I could be completly wrong here) that the expiring URL in Y Groups does one of two things
1) Either links to a page which is automatically deleted after 1 week
or (and I think this is more likely)
2) Automatically submits some information (including time) to the Y website when it is used. If the date is older than 1 week then the action would not be allowed.

However I believe here we would want to expire the link not the actual page, and the other external pages would not have the capacity to process <1 week codes.

In principle I'm still sure there would be a way of doing it.

In relation to ACEs moderating, my view was that ACEs would only be doing the "are URLs still valid" moderating. They would not remove URLs for being 'inappropriate' and would not remove text for breaking the house rules. (The latter is already done by the existing system)

Z

In the mail, i think it expires the link, not the actual page... hmmmm how much do you think the beeb will sell h2g2 for? I Might get
it bought and put back on it's h2g2.com site, no more Beeb restrictions!!

*sigh* if only...

aka

Are you thinking about putting h2g2 up for sale on an auction site, then?

They'll never allow it.

*sigh* no. i just would do anything to get rid of the bbc rules!