Well, we had a little thing last night, eh? In case you missed it yesterday, I had to make some changes to the commenting policy on the site for reasons I’ll re-explain better in a second. But based on your reaction, we’re going to tweak those changes further, roll some other things back, and put some new stuff in place to make as many people happy as we can. This is a community first and foremost, and I am genuinely eager to hear you all out and find the right balance. I am also being as transparent and honest as possible. I think a lot of you get that.
Gone
First, and perhaps most notably, I’ve removed the AI toxic filter built in natively to Disqus. That part was more elective than the profanity filter and mods, and it rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. Which, look, I get it. Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence is still miles away from perfection, and since it’s not a requirement, we’re nixing it. You can thank BN user Patrick W. for making a good, reasonable argument against it and changing my mind.
We’ll still be doing our best to moderate out truly toxic comments (the people who spew vile, hateful, and racist things), but it will just be done by humans (me, our mods, and with the help of all of you).
Moderators
For years, I have been pressured (by other commenters) into adding dedicated moderators to the comment section. And for the most part, I resisted, because I just don’t believe in over-moderation as a philosophy. But eventually, it just got a little too ugly down there to ignore.
So, I made a request for some volunteers, and SSCKelley was one of those who willingly stepped up. He didn’t have to. We don’t pay him. But he wanted to help out, and I was grateful that one of our regulars (who wants this place to survive and thrive) was there for us.
But after a bunch of backlash over the last few days, he offered to resign this morning. I am not accepting that. No, as a moderator, he is not perfect, and we will work on loosening up his approach (the only real goal is to eliminate REALLY bad stuff). But he means well, he is doing this to help, and I believe in him.
Now, like I said once before, if anyone else would like to step up and help out, please reach out to me at michael dot cerami at bleacher nation dot com. I would love another 1-2 regulars to be involved in self-moderation. That should help maintain a balance and make everyone feel welcome.
Explaining Why Again, But Better
I don’t think I did a good enough job explaining why we need to keep the profanity filter in place and have mods, so I’m going to try again and be even more transparent than I was last night.
Bleacher Nation is *overwhelmingly* supported financially by ad revenue (not sports betting, not affiliate links, not whatever else you think, but ad revenue). And while we do have some direct partnerships with local brands like Ankin Law, Feldco, Danleys, Obvious Shirts, etc., the majority of that revenue is generated programmatically (i.e., through various ad networks that connect us automatically to all sorts of advertisers).
Last week, one of our very largest programmatic Ad Networks (representing thousands of advertisers) kicked hundreds of sites like ours out of their stack in an effort to improve the quality of the publishers and websites they buy from. The idea was theoretically sound (the sites they were actually targeting are not like Bleacher Nation at all; we were just caught up in the mix), but their approach was blunt.
In fact, hundreds of sites with User Generated Content (content that was specifically caught by certain automated filters) were indiscriminately and immediately bounced from the network. And now, we’re all scrambling to get reinstated.
In other words, no one saw our comments and said, “Hey, that DarthHater guy is a real jerk!” Instead, it was a computer that just saw too many bad words (or whatever) and that was that. No heads up, no warning. Nothing.
So as we lobby to get back into the fold, we were told that having mods and creating profanity filters (which, for the record, were already in place, just slightly looser) would help our case. So that was another reason to keep our existing mod and expand the filter to include some more standard profanity.
Is it ridiculous? Yeah. Absolutely. I don’t want this. There is ZERO reason for swearing to be policed … it’s the internet. Like, what are we even talking about? But that’s just the reality of our situation.
Likewise, the “flag” setting (if a comment gets flagged three times, it gets sent to mods to be approved) literally didn’t change. That has been the rule for years, and like I said yesterday, I’m happy to increase/decrease that as we all agree.
Too Long, Didn’t Read:
General Recap here …
The AI Toxic filter has been turned off by popular request SSCKelley is doing his best to moderate, and we are looking for regulars to help him Moderation will be dialed back in general to match my more light-handed efforts of the past, but we do want this place to be more welcoming in general. I don’t think that’s too much to ask The flag filter is unchanged (but happy to adjust as we discuss) And for however much I agree that it’s dumb, the profanity ban has to remain in place as we were indiscriminately and unfairly booted from an Ad Network by a computer (because the future is here and very dumb)I genuinely hope that helps. And for what it’s worth, I also saw plenty of comments that are happy about some of these changes. I see and hear you guys, too. I am not ignoring your preferences either; I’m just working to strike a balance.
I know sometimes it’s easier to think of me/this site as some giant corporate machine funded by sports betting, but for the most part … it’s just me trying to hold together this place I love (and have been a part of for 15+ years). On a daily basis, that means moderating comments, fixing site issues, adding new features, managing a team of writers, editing articles, trying to woo advertisers, answering to my bosses, and then, occasionally, when I get a chance, writing about the Cubs. It’s a dream job – truly – so no complaints. But I do want you to know that I care *strongly* and want this place to be as good as it can be.
Okay, bye!
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