Draft Recommendation 4 - aka Social Networking / Social Features needs your help!

Draft Recommendation 4 - aka Social Networking / Social Features needs your help!

Hi,

I've put together a draft on social aspects here:

Task_force/Recommendations/Community_health_4

I feel a bit stuck, though. Would anyone else like to chip in? Be as aggressive as you like; I'm not greatly enamoured of the way I've drafted the section that has the bulleted numbers. If you're not feeling bold, please at least put down your thoughts, no matter how vague, on its discussion page. We are running short of time now, so I'd like to hear from everyone as soon as you're able.

Bodnotbod12:02, 6 January 2010

Hey Bodnotbod, it looks good so far. I think there is a lot of good support up here. But you want to lead with the concrete recommendations. I guess that's the "memes" thing you have right now. The support can come afterwards.

I'm going to be pushing pretty hard on all the recommendations since we're coming up against the deadline soon. I don't want to ruffle any feathers, but just in case I seem very intense. Let's try to get our best four recommendations forward.

Of all the recommendations on our shortlist, social networking features make me the most nervous. It really comes down to one thing: how do we stop people from abusing social networking features? Social behavior and anti-social behavior go through the same channels and tools. Open those channels, and you see greater positives AND negatives.

Take groups. Groups function well when there are diverse points of view on, say, politics. But what if I put together a "pro-conservative" or "pro-liberal" group? In fact, what if I get even more sly, and just create a "conservative" group, and invite a slew of users (on and off wiki) who are pro-conservative? It's the same thing for anything. Homeopathy, Astrology, even Fiction seem to attract people who are very "pro"-biased towards that content, without considering issues like neutrality or weight.

Another issue is hounding. If we make it easier to follow what other users are doing, this will make it easier for stubborn editors to interfere with other users. The most active users will be able to frustrate less active users, and they'll leave. How do we ensure that people follow each other in a way that is collaborative?

... and not TOO collaborative? What if we have people following each other, forming an unofficial group with some kind of shared viewpoint? We're back to the group problem, with issues like canvassing, votestacking, and opinion cartels.

If we're going to facilitate greater social behavior, we need to simultaneously make it harder to engage in anti-social behavior. If we can't do that, I'd strongly push to postpone any addition of social features.

Randomran17:48, 7 January 2010
 

I agree with and share your concerns. However, I think that anything we can think of to make anything easier will always be open to abuse: easier editing? Easier vandalism. Easier communication? Easier to insult people. More inviting to people? More inviting to vandals.

So, whilst I share your concerns I think that we have to assume good faith and then we still have rules to sanction people behaving badly and will have to use those when needed.

Bodnotbod13:08, 9 January 2010
 

I just don't think the benefit outweighs the cost, in this one case. Take "volunteer recognition/rewards" as a counter-example. Yeah, there's a risk that you reward undeserving or even bad editors. But that's a minor problem compared to empowering cabals. Cabals and factions and other battleground behavior might actually be THE problem we're facing (at least, much of the evidence points that way). And social networking makes it possible for those cabals to organize with increased effectiveness.

I don't think this means "axe social features", although it definitely puts it on the chopping block. What would save it? If the proposal also included some checks and balances. Ideas that try to close loopholes and exploits, or at least try to anticipate abusive behaviors and come up with remedies.

Randomran17:48, 9 January 2010