Liselle's Journal: Moderation System

Anyone who likes to moderate, but never has points, might want to read on. I accidentally gamed the moderation system.

Brief introduction: shortly after I started hanging my hat here (not even a year ago), /. threw some mod points at me. So, I moderated. I didn't get any more for months after that, and then not again until months after that. At the time, I figured I fell outside the "bell curve" of page visits. It's either feast or famine with me, I'll either pass over a discussion, or roll up my sleeves and post the heck out of it.

As it turns out, I was also a bad moderator! I've collected all sorts of information about moderation from posters here, the mod guidelines, and the ranting of Taco in his journal. So the next time my turn came up, I changed the way I do things. I picked a random recent discussion (couple down on the front page), switched my Threshold to -1, Newest First, and went at it. Always moderated up, never down. Looked for the gems that got posted late, and were sitting at 0/1, didn't rubber stamp a post that was already at 3/4. On top of that, I avoided the Over/Underrated cop-out moderation.

So, a few days later, before the results of M2 even came in, I got another set of mod points. And then another, and another. Since then, I've been banging through mod points almost every 72 hours (sitting on some right now, even). So often, in fact, I was thinking about unchecking "Willing to Moderate" for a while.

The conclusion I have to draw is that modding up low-rated scores seems to have a huge impact on how many of those "tokens" (from the FAQ) that you get. I'm not much for moderation (I usually moderate with the "Reply" button, don't M2 much either) but some folks out there are, so I wanted to pass along my experiences. I figure someone might appreciate a way to be more influential around here.

Sorry about the disjointed nature and the bad grammar in this journal entry, but it's early in the morning for me. ;)

Interesting...

[Frisky070802]

I similarly went months, then weeks, then days between mod points. When I moderate, I usually pick a discussion I wouldn't comment on but find interesting to read. I usually look for low-rated gems or overrated postings. I meta-mod every time I'm asked, time permitting. I don't get mod points every 72 hours, but I do get them on average every 5-7 days I guess.

Is metamoderation overrated, then?

Re:Interesting...

[Liselle]

Seems to me that M2 can't have THAT much effect, since more or less anyone can do it. I remember when they first changed it to say "Regular Meta Moderators are more likely to get mod points", and there was a surge of people M2'ing.

Only the kings of the sandbox know for sure, though. I haven't exactly kept detailed records, and there could be a dozen other variables that I'm not accounting for. ;)

I wonder if they're tuning the system

[ekuns]

I went a while last month getting mod points before my existing ones had expired. At least it seemed that way. Some time last month, I went a good week and a half where I always had mod points.

I don't know if any of this matters, but I usually don't use my mod points right away. I wait until I read something that actually moves me to mod. I like to use all five mod points, but I mod sparingly when I have the points, so sometimes I will only use four by the time my time has elapsed. While I doubt the m

Re:I wonder if they're tuning the system

[Liselle]

From my understanding, letting mod points expire or getting rated "unfair" in M2 (to a reasonable degree. Like you said, the best mods will up-mod a controversial comment) will cost you.

I was considering sitting on mod points until I found something I cared about, but I figure I should just post a comment if I feel strongly enough. I'm just worried about having an invisible axe to grind. ;)

Anyway, I posted this journal entry less than a week ago. Since then, the points have kept coming. I just got m