In October 2002, The BBC decided to stop post moderating h2g2 and the Hub and the communities switched to a system of reactive moderation. Reactive Moderation relies on the moderators reacting to complaints from the community. This differs from the post-moderation system, where all content written is read and approved within one hour of posting.

Is this a 'Self-Policing' Community?

Yes, with reactive moderation in place, h2g2 is a self-policing community. As any community takes on more and more of the mantle of responsibility for developing itself, it will hopefully move towards self-policing. This is where members of the community take on the responsibility to uphold their own communities' conventions and ethics by asking people not to swear on site, not to be nasty to others, and so on. Truly self-policing communities place a lot of trust in the community itself, by asking them to be responsible for making sure their home site doesn't contain illegal content (such as defamatory or copyright material). DNA contains a complaints system that has been specifically designed with a self-policing community in mind, which enables the community members to alert the site Editors to unsuitable content.

How Does Reactive Moderation Differ from the old Post Moderation System?

When h2g2 was post moderated, whenever a Researcher created or edited a piece of content - be it a Guide Entry, Conversation Posting or Journal Entry - it was looked at by a Moderator within an hour of submission. Now that h2g2 is reactively moderated, Moderators only look at content that community members and readers of the site have alerted us to by using the complaints button.

So How Does Reactive moderation Work?

The h2g2 community always said that they'd like to return to the pre-BBC days when the staff trusted them to keep to the House Rules themselves, rather than be forced to live under an umbrella of moderation.

The h2g2 community got their wish, now the BBC just asks the community not to break the House Rules. We'd rather community members didn't swear at all, but if you feel that you have to in order to express yourself, we'd like you to star out your own swearwords in order not to offend other community members. Similarly, please don't post song lyrics or other copyright material, and don't post material that others might find defamatory or offensive. You might like to read the House Rules again, if you can't fully remember the details.

The h2g2 community now effectively and happily moderates itself. Because not all visitors to h2g2 will adhere to the rules until they gain an understanding of the nature of the communities, we continue to need the communities' help to make this work.

If you come across someone who is breaking the rules, gently try to educate them. Point out what they're doing wrong, give them a link to the House Rules, explain why they're being asked to co-operate by the Community itself and press the complaints button so that the Posting or Entry can be edited or removed. Peer pressure is the best way of getting people to behave in a socially acceptable way and hopefully once they realise the level of trust that is being placed with them they'll happily co-operate with you.

It's important that everyone shares the responsibility of self-policing. This has to be something that Community members themselves take responsibility for and administer.

So I Just Click the Complaints Button Every Time I See Anything Remotely Offensive?

No please don't! We'd like you to click the complaints button if you see something that you think breaks the House Rules, or that you personally find offensive. Don't use the complaints button if you think someone else might possibly be offended by the material, or we might find ourselves reviewing loads of content unnecessarily.

Depending on the context, a strong statement that is a valid personal viewpoint might be allowed in order to facilitate intelligent debate. A posting that states, 'I think Jesus never existed', or 'I think the Nazi Holocaust never happened', wouldn't necessarily be unacceptable if it's a personally held view or written to facilitate debate as long as it didn't break the House Rules; for instance by being seen to be overtly racist or otherwise offensive. The context of the statement is very important, and any possibly contentious statements drawn to the Editors' attention will be evaluated in context for suitability, on an individual basis.

Please try not to be over-protective about moderating the site, just enjoy posting as usual, but be aware that you are now responsible for the content. We don't want vigilante moderation police groups to form and patrol the site, that shouldn't ever be necessary. We'd just like you to take care of your own areas, a bit like a neighbourhood watch scheme.

Can Member Accounts Still Be Set to Pre-moderated Status?

Yes, individual members accounts can still be pre-moderated¹. The moderators will all still be fully employed handling moderation on some other post moderated DNA sites as well as checking the complaints on the reactively moderated DNA sites. If a members account is set to pre-moderation then the moderators will check all of that person's Postings before they go up on the site.

Can We Use Languages Other Than English?

No, we'd like you post in English. If people post in foreign languages only a limited group of people will be able to review the content, and illegal content could slip though.

What About Links?

Most links will probably be fine. But if you come across one that you think might break the House Rules², please check it out, and if you're in any doubt about its suitability, use the complaints button so that it can be checked by the in-house team.

If you have any questions about reactive moderation, please ask them in the conversation forums below.