Appreciation post: Picking a moderator over a free-for-all in my local community forum

I help run a neighborhood Facebook group in Cleveland, and last month we had to choose between letting every single post go through or hiring a volunteer moderator team. We picked the moderator route after a guy kept posting fake crime alerts that caused panic. It's been 5 weeks now and the group actually feels safer and more useful for real info like lost pets and garage sales. But I still wonder if we went too far, since we blocked 3 people who were just loud but not breaking rules. How do you balance stopping bad info without turning into a censor?

2 comments

2 Comments

hannah_williams14d ago

Have you ever checked out that research from like MIT about how false news spreads way faster than true stuff on social media? I think it's something like 6 times faster. That really stuck with me when our neighborhood group had a similar issue with a fake emergency room closure rumor. In my experience, you can set clear written rules about what counts as misinformation versus just being a loud opinion, and have an appeals process for blocked people.

patriciam2214d ago

6 times faster, huh?" Sounds about right. Wish my brain spread info that quick, @hannah_williams - usually takes me three tries just to remember where I put my phone.