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The coordination/cooperation of cleaning and curation initiatives is one of the key issues preventing the development of more effective/efficient curation as well as anti-abuse operations. In this post a conceptual framework for said cooperation will be laid out in order for a roadmap to be developed and implemented that achieves that crucial goal.

Two Sides of the Same Coin

National Numismatic Collection, National Museum of American History

Curation and cleaning are two activities that although usually conceived as distinct and separate from each other, are truly the two sides of the same coin. There is no effective curation without cleaning and there is no effective cleaning without curation, each one depends on the other in a symbiotic and complementary fashion. Curators depend on cleaners to detect abuse and cleaners depend on curators so that abusers are not supported and abuse incentivized.

The Carrot & The Stick

© Nevit DilmenCC-by-sa/3.0

It is a situation that is similar to the proverbial carrot and stick, curators incentivize the creation of original and desirable content while cleaners deincentivize the creation of abusive content and curb the proliferation of abusive schemes. When the carrot and the stick bearers do not coordinate/cooperate a whack-a-molish and sisyphean nightmare ensues in which neither tool is sufficiently effective, this is one of the main reasons why abuse in the platform is completely out of control and it is of the highest importance for the healthy growth of the platform for this issue to be solved as soon as possible.

On one hand the intelligence derived from abuse detection needs to be available to curators in the form of easy to use tools that allow curators to be readily informed of the abuse background of users so as to not be tricked into supporting fraudulent content and users, a rudimentary, provisional solution was proposed in this previous post that suits that purpose in an ad-hoc manner, but better solutions should, can and will be developed.

On the other hand curators need to act upon this intelligence and are perfectly positioned to contribute to abuse detection and deincentivization. The coordination and cooperation of cleaning and curation forces is a match made in heaven, a win-win partnership in which everybody is benefited.

Inter-curator Coordination

Source

It is very common for abusing users to start preying on a certain community or curation initiative, and when the abusive nature of the user is detected by said initiative for the user to move on to prey on the next curation initiative. This is possible because there is no established means for curation initiatives to share abuse intelligence and also because when most curators see abusive behaviour they restrict themselves to merely not vote for it instead of reporting it. Hence, a solution that facilitates the reporting, a cultural change of curators regarding this issue and an abuse intelligence sharing platform are urgently needed.

Early Warning and Education of Users

Curators and moderators of curation initiatives are perfectly positioned to provide users an early education regarding abuse, about what to do and what not to. When users join an initiative they should be first made to read key publications regarding abuse then provided support in the form of votes, this is crucial for the early education of users and to help solve the famous "I didnt know" problem.

Onwards,
Jaguar Force.