Table of Contents
On moderation #
~450 words: 2 minutes read
Thanks to all RTC fellows for the productive discussions on gab !
I bumped be_kind to version 1.0.1 and added a "moderation" feature. The readme wasn't very clear on that point, but a bottle can be answered SEVERAL TIMES.
Technically, each user might get the opportunity to answer the bottle once.
Bottle thrown recently, and being seen less time are prioritized when the user
picks a random one with ./be_kind catch.
Now with 1.0.1, once you answer to a bottle, the user can answer a question:
"Do you want to put this bottle back so someone else can answer as well ?"
This is the sole mechanism for removing bottle from the pool.
I expect it can help with the broad "moderation" of the app. Moderation is a HARD THING™, and is heavily subjective. I like that with the design I give the community the full ownership of its moderation. Don't like what you see ? Answer the bottle, and remove it from the pool. A few words like "I was offended by your message and removed it" is enough power for anyone to help moderate.
Throws are limited to one per day, and catches to one per hour. That should logically prevent spamming and trolling. I also like that moderation powers are distributed but very limited: each user can only remove a single bottle every hour.
Questions : #
Should users be notified that their bottle was removed ? #
I decided against it for now. There is no benefit knowing your bottle was removed. The original author might feel sadness or grief learning their message is now lost forever. It might just be that it's the seventeenth time a user catches the very same bottle or that the message is not relevant anymore.
Should users be able to discard a bottle without answering it ? #
I decided against as well. I think that every bottle, even a troll deserves at least an answer. Hopefully, it also responsibilizes the act of retiring a bottle.
What to do next ? #
At the moment I benefit from the RTC community to test out the app. Down the line I'd love to share it with more people. The two options I'm considering are:
Sharing it on more pubnixes. Since I like RTC and I'm too lazy to subscribe to another one, so I think I'll just share the source code and installation instructions. Where ? How ? I don't know :)
Making a web version of it. Allowing non-RTC users to throw and catch bottles.
That's it.
Run /home/berru/be_kind to use it, and less /home/berru/be_kind.readme.md to see the documentation.
Happy bottling !