I randomly started up a message board over a year ago, because it was mentioned in the game Super Paper Mario. It was really just an experiment to see what would happen.. would anyone would actually find it? Well, they did, and now there are about 1000 active members. I now have a captive audience ready to be dazzled by my creative genius. My plan is to take it to the next level as a virtual world totally powered by user-created content.
There is only one thing that stands in my way of total virtual world domination: the users! Flame-wars erupt, spam floods the off-topic areas, and people post vulgar messages and images. The phpbb forum moderation system didn't cut it. I had to hack up my own and this is how it evolved:
- Ban user
- Banning is too harsh in most cases, and it drives users away
- Jail user
- Imprisonment allows the member to stay on the site, but only lets them post in the Prison forum.
- Strike user > Jail after 3 strikes
- Users know what they did wrong, and have two chances to clean up before being punished.
- Strike or warn user > Jail after 3 strikes > auto-release after calculated time based on # of strikes.
- Users get a harsher punishment each time. Warn users if they are new or first-time offenders.
- Report bad post > moderator confirms > strike or warn user > jail after 3 strikes
- Users help point out bad posts by reporting them.
- Report > mod confirms > user pleads guilty or not guilty > user defends in Court > user pays fine if guilty.
- Users thought the strikes were unfair, so now they have a chance to defend themsevles. Accusers are kept anonymous. Fines are a softer punishment.
It basically became the US justice system (or at least traffic court). Now members have a chance to defend themselves so they feel they have a voice (they can even hire an attorney). They are not punished until after they are determined to be guilty. The accusers are kept anonymous to avoid personal attacks. Punishing with fines (users earn "coins") does not encourage people to leave the site like imprisonment or banning does. A minor offense doesn't have a huge punishment just because you have a bad history. As the site grows, I could even have lower-level courts handle problems before being escalated up to me.
It's interesting to see this online community develop like a real microcosm of modern civilization. A thesis paper is probably in there somewhere...
