Moderating Uploads

June 4, 2000 1:15 PM

Moderation
I've been working on the image upload part of the site, and realized there's no way to limit what type of content gets uploaded.

So I've come to the conclusion that the only way to keep out off-topic scans & stories (like porn or pictures of your cat) is to induce a moderation process. Pretty much anything resembling a story along with an image of something that looks like a ticket stub will get through and posted (guidelines will be posted along with the site so this is clear).

Do you have any objections to such a setup? It would induce a bit of lag, but I don't know if submissions would be that substantial on a day-to-day basis. Also, I'll set it up so I get an email the instant something is submitted and after a simple glance at it, will approve it with a single click.

I know metafilter has always been wide open, but since this site is starting from scratch, I don't think it will affect the growth too much. Do you think it's a good or bad idea? why? Is there possibility that human intervention (i.e. me or some other possible moderators) would spoil the growth? Or would it ensure a quality site?
posted by mathowie (staff) to Ticketstub Project at 1:15 PM (17 comments total)

I can't see any problem with it at all. Good idea. I can't see why it would spoil the growth. Perhaps you should give the admin pass to a few friends so that if you go on vacation or get bogged down, the new post can still get moderated. One vote in favor.
posted by sylloge at 9:02 PM on June 4, 2000

Two votes in favor! And chalk up another mark for being able to search the text of all the articles, too. I know that's expensive; maybe you could make a hash every week or so. If the recent posts are going to be available from the index, we can search them there.
posted by katchomko at 6:56 PM on June 5, 2000

Matt, you could make the uploading procedure similiar to either the [on] display section @ k10k or the uploading system @ DeskMod, you could have it such that the image & story stay in a temp folder until you or one of the moderators goes through it and approves it, if it's not approved the moderator could send a generic, pre-formatted e-mail explaining why the image can not be accepted. Moderation has more advantages than disadvantages on the web, if the moderators are fair, unbaised and follow the guidelines.

Good luck!
posted by riffola at 1:02 PM on June 6, 2000

Um I agree with sylloge, that you may need to have others with admin ability, as the site will end up receiving 'n' submissions per day once it's well known and you probably won't have enough time to go through it all. Then again if you can handle it, nothing like it.
posted by riffola at 1:10 PM on June 6, 2000

it seems to me that anyone with an account should be able to upload, and anyone who's posted at least n (2? 5?) metafilter stories (not just comments) should be eligible to moderate, which in this case would just mean rejecting a post as inappropriate. a totally hands off process -- the only thing an admin would need to do would be to review the rejected posts to ensure no one is abusing their power. even this process could be handled by mefi users, with a little bit more thought. democratize the process as much as possible -- this site is called metafilter, after all.
posted by sudama at 10:53 AM on June 8, 2000

Sudama, the site in question is the TicketStubs [TS] project, which has very little to do with MetaFilter per se. I don't think all MeFi users will be the only members of TS, so it would be unfair to give MeFi users special priveleges.
posted by riffola at 8:15 AM on June 10, 2000

Yeah, but it is part of the Metafilter network, so all of the boundaries are a bit iffy. It's pretty much what Matt decides to make of it, anyway.

As for the moderation system, you could always steal - erm - take inspiration from the "new swanky", where all it takes for an entry to be approved is a thumbs-up from three other members. Of course, with dialups and dynamic IPs, that could get a little hairy..
posted by Freakho at 10:49 PM on June 11, 2000

If you can do it Matt, I suggest you keep overall editorial control with a few 'deputies' to cover holidays etc. Letting MeFi members decide what is or is not appropriate would work better I think if you got to see all the rejected entries, just in case of erm....discrepancies.
posted by Markb at 7:07 AM on June 14, 2000

Ultimately, it's your page and you should do whatever makes you feel secure that others aren't twisting your vision. I'm sure others will stay around.
posted by Ezrael at 5:39 PM on June 15, 2000

Considering that you will receive scans in all manner of dissarray, such as huge bitmaps, .tiffs, scans of the entire scanner bed, and god knows what. You'll need to scan for quality anyway. There probably isn't an automated procedure that you could create, with the exception of some sort of OCR thing that could scan for text, a barcode, a serial number, or even a range of colors. That could work, but would be tricky.
posted by Dean_Paxton at 9:57 PM on June 15, 2000

I'm really sick of coming back to the TicketStub project only to see that the promised "Late May" date has come and gone, and some lame excuse about a June 3 update as well as all the discussion that seems to be leading nowhere at all. Get on with it already and post the site dammit. If you have no idea what the site needs to be don't announce a launch date, for cripes sake! Get the damn site uploaded, and let peeps happen. We need visual data. Enough talk; let's see some action already. Or is it that by "Late May" you meant "Late May 2003"?
posted by hugh2 at 10:00 PM on June 16, 2000

(Yes, thank you Hugh2, that's very helpful.)

Now, Matt - If I were you I'd take complete control over what is posted, and or give only one or two other people administrative access - preferably people you 'know' and you know will do a good job. This will ensure quality. I think quality is preferable over quantity.
posted by prolific at 2:11 AM on June 19, 2000

It is now fast-approaching mid-July. Billions of tickets have been sold since the initial promise date of the TicketStub project. At first, it sounded like a great idea, but after all this time it really has lost its luster. Obviously, judging from the drop in discussion, nobody else seems to care about it either. Metafilter and the TicketStub seems to have lost as much momentum as dot coms have lost stock value on NASDAQ. It seems as though now would be a really great time to either narrow MetaFilter's focus and perhaps dump the TicketStub idea, or spin it off to someone who's really serious about getting the site launched. Any statement of intentions would be better than nothing at all. But it does seem that any further "input" about interface, usability or functionality is just so much vapor. Let's get the truth about TicketStub out there. Come on, be honest with yourself and the rest of us. What's going on?
posted by hugh2 at 10:08 PM on July 7, 2000

Jesus christ hugh2, what's your problem? Comparing my sites to NASDAQ?

I make ZERO DOLLARS off this or any other project, they're done for FUN and the sheer JOY of it. They take SHITLOADS of work to build and maintain, not to mention the gobs of time I spend on them. And for what? So people like you can sit around and poo-poo my ideas?

I made plans for the site when I had a lot of free time, and unforseen circumstances changed that. I feel bad that the project is not done, but be my guest and start your own.

I can't belive you're criticizing me publicly for something I haven't launched yet. Just unbelieveable.

I'm not a fucking corporation hugh, I'm just a guy.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 12:00 PM on July 12, 2000

Matt: I sincerely apologize for any remarks that have offended you in any way, shape or form. You need not apologize since your intentions are no doubt of great honor. I am not worthy of viewing the Ticketstub project but look forward to its eventual upload nevertheless. I am certain that I can contribute in a postive way once the structure is in place.
posted by hugh2 at 1:49 PM on August 11, 2000

Weirdo.
posted by waxpancake at 4:20 PM on March 8, 2001

Ditto
posted by hugh4 at 11:18 PM on July 20, 2001