Live data from Hacker News

Show HN: Moderator Mayhem, a game about the difficulties of content moderation

moderatormayhem.engine.is

31–40 of 128 posts

Re: Show HN: Moderator Mayhem, a game about the difficulties of content moderation

#31

In the tutorial, the very first card I was presented with was reported for being "illegal", and the description was (from memory. I might not have it quite right) "A post about the movie Cocaine Bear recommends doing cocaine while watching the movie and contains a photograph of a bag of white powder with the hashtag #cocaine" That... seems like an obvious joke to me. And even if it's not, while "doing cocaine" is ill…

> Content moderation is hard, but I'm not very impressed that the very first card shown got it (in my opinion) totally wrong

The authors are very clear that there are no right or wrong answers. Interpreting it that way misses the entire point of the exercise.

Re: Show HN: Moderator Mayhem, a game about the difficulties of content moderation

#32

In the tutorial, the very first card I was presented with was reported for being "illegal", and the description was (from memory. I might not have it quite right) "A post about the movie Cocaine Bear recommends doing cocaine while watching the movie and contains a photograph of a bag of white powder with the hashtag #cocaine" That... seems like an obvious joke to me. And even if it's not, while "doing cocaine" is ill…

That’s the point though, right? Encouraging illegal activity may not itself be illegal but moderators aren’t arbiters of the law, they’re protecting the integrity of the website for the intended user base. If you want to allow people to encourage cocaine usage on your website, you have to be prepared to deal with law enforcement — because when someone follows the advice and dies with the website open on their compute…

Certainly social media companies can choose to disallow suggestions that people take illegal actions. But that's not what the moderation policy for "illegal" content says.

It says "Content that violates local or international laws or regulations."

I don't know all the laws of all the countries, but my local laws make very little content illegal. Various types of obscenity, true threats, etc. "You should do drugs while you watch a movie about drugs" is definitely not one of those.

It would be very easy, if that's what they want, to change it to "Content that encourages breaking local or international laws or regulations."

Re: Show HN: Moderator Mayhem, a game about the difficulties of content moderation

#33

In the tutorial, the very first card I was presented with was reported for being "illegal", and the description was (from memory. I might not have it quite right) "A post about the movie Cocaine Bear recommends doing cocaine while watching the movie and contains a photograph of a bag of white powder with the hashtag #cocaine" That... seems like an obvious joke to me. And even if it's not, while "doing cocaine" is ill…

It's ironic that the first post on this thread is about missing the point of the first card that user saw.

What was the point of it, and how did I miss it?

Re: Show HN: Moderator Mayhem, a game about the difficulties of content moderation

#34
post #3

This is more like a game about shitty management communication. The rules are fairly arbitrary, and you're not told about any of them until you screw up, and even clear-cut cases like someone posting someone else's phone number are used to slap your wrist (apparently the second person consented, but nobody explains why that's your problem. Surely the second person can post their own phone number). Some advertisement…

You should intern as a content moderator and create a game based on your real experience.

I've been involved plenty of content moderation, just not as an outsourcing target for a microblog company. I suspect the job is much easier when the rules are explicit, provided in advance, and the moderation team is sufficiently staffed, which is the environment I worked in. I have other priorities than making a computer game about it, so we'll never know for sure.

Re: Show HN: Moderator Mayhem, a game about the difficulties of content moderation

#35

In the tutorial, the very first card I was presented with was reported for being "illegal", and the description was (from memory. I might not have it quite right) "A post about the movie Cocaine Bear recommends doing cocaine while watching the movie and contains a photograph of a bag of white powder with the hashtag #cocaine" That... seems like an obvious joke to me. And even if it's not, while "doing cocaine" is ill…

> Content moderation is hard, but I'm not very impressed that the very first card shown got it (in my opinion) totally wrong The authors are very clear that there are no right or wrong answers. Interpreting it that way misses the entire point of the exercise.

I mean, when I approved leaving up the cocaine post, the game that they authored gave me a big red X and said I did it wrong that it clearly was illegal and should have been taken down.

Where were they clear that there are no right or wrong answers?

Re: Show HN: Moderator Mayhem, a game about the difficulties of content moderation

#36

In the tutorial, the very first card I was presented with was reported for being "illegal", and the description was (from memory. I might not have it quite right) "A post about the movie Cocaine Bear recommends doing cocaine while watching the movie and contains a photograph of a bag of white powder with the hashtag #cocaine" That... seems like an obvious joke to me. And even if it's not, while "doing cocaine" is ill…

...that seems like an obvious joke to you?

My God, we must run in different circles. I had people I know who shamelessly posted almost that exact thing. A few of them, lol.

They weren't joking. :P

Re: Show HN: Moderator Mayhem, a game about the difficulties of content moderation

#39

A neat game, but my enjoyment of it is somewhat dulled since I watch my mom play this in real life on a daily basis - her job is moderating product reviews.

Did it enhance your empathy for her work?

Not really; I've sat with her as she worked, and she shares enough things that I feel like this didn't add much to my knowledge.

(And she doesn't take Nerf breaks!)

Re: Show HN: Moderator Mayhem, a game about the difficulties of content moderation

#40
I guess I’m boring somehow, I got 100% in several rounds then got promoted after round 8 (which ends the game!).

The trick seems to be that you have to check the “extra info” frequently, and be reasonably quick to decide as soon as you see it. It doesn’t seem possible to make the right decision on many of the cards without that context. It is kinda fun to see all the attempts to game the system.

Post reply on HN