Feature for improvement of moderation on Utopian.io

Hello Fellow Steemians,

I am having a lot of fun contributing to open source software on utopian.io. To those who still haven't heard about it, it is a platform running on steem blockchain that rewards open source contributions with Utopian Bot upvotes.

I have already contributed 6 posts to utopian.io and received $8 worth of upvotes on every post. The contributions for utopian.io platform can be for eight pre-defined categories. These are:

1. Ideas
2. Code
3. Bugs
4. Translations
5. Graphics
6. Docs
7. Analysis
8. Visibility

In fact, this post is a submission on utopian.io platform for proposing new features on utopian.io.

How utopian.io communicates with its users?

Presently, utopian.io interacts with its users through moderators who are selected from among the community with high reputation (>50) and who frequently review others' contribution.

Selecting moderators from among the community is a reasonable way of ensuring transparency and the spirit of open source project. The moderators ensure that the quality of submissions they approve are of an acceptable level. They also share the tremendous responsibility of upholding their conduct to public scrutiny and high standards of ethics and transparency.

Problem with Moderator model of Governance

Identity conflict

When the individuals take the role of moderators, they need to shed their individual identity and become one with the platform they represent that is utopian.io.

Do you see something unusual in the image below?

Yes, you found it !! Moderator's having to write in brackets [utopian-moderator].

That's why we need to have uniforms!

When the Pizza Delivery guy comes, you know who he is. He doesn't need to tell you that he has come to deliver your pizza.

Suppose you find yourself in a shootout. The police are shooting at the bad guys. But alas! No uniforms! How do you know who are the good guys?

It's all about Psychology!

We are biologically programmed to make associations and we tend to hold on to them. Uniforms help to reinforce these associations and make us feel comfortable. In fact, Brands like Mc Donalds take special care to ensure that all their outlet look and feel exactly the same. This makes people easily associate Mc Donalds with tasty burgers and a familiar environment. No wonder it is one of the world's most popular fast food chain!

utopian.io needs to don a uniform when communicating with the users. How do we do it? Let's Think !

Dispute resolution : Individual vs Entity

Direct interaction with moderators in case of a disagreement can be difficult. Someone may accidentally associate a lone moderator being rude to a uncaring utopian community.

One can argue that same argument can be used against a customer service guy of a big corporation.

But if you ask yourself how many names of customer service professionals you can recall, you can easily notice the contrast.

I recall I called Apple yesterday. I have no idea if I talked to John, Richie or Valder!

Why - you ask?

Because they look the same. Talk the same. Feel the same. For all I care, they are all the same.

The lesson we can learn here is that uniformity and being one with the platform is necessary for anyone resolving conflict on behalf of the platform!

My Proposal

Short-Term Solution

1. Create one new steem account for each moderator.
2. The account names should be utopian-moderator 1, utopian-moderator 2, etc.
3. The information regarding the actual individuals operating these accounts should be privileged and divulged only to the core developers/managers of utopian.io
4. The profile pic of all moderator accounts should be the Utopian.io logo.
5. The language and style used by moderators should be uniform. It should usually be gentle yet straightforward.
6. A hierarchy needs to be created among moderators, with junior moderators, senior moderators, and Managers
7. More cases should first be handled by junior moderators. Any disagreement needs to be escalated to senior moderators and so on.
8. The number of moderators should be such that core developers should not be usually involved in the management of trivial moderation related issues so that they can concentrate their energies on what they do best, create awesome open source software.

Long-term Goals

1. Entire moderation system to be replaced by ticket based system as common in most modern companies. The generated ticket is replied to by anonymous moderators which look and speak similarly (use utopian.io logo as the profile picture and write in similar polite and straightforward style).

Do you agree that bringing uniformity in moderation could help resolve issues more quickly and give a professional feel to utopian?

I hope the developers accept my proposal and utopian.io becomes the best platform for contributing to open source software development!

Thanks for reading !!

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Open Source Contribution posted via https://utopian.io

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