How should Searchfunder address low quality comments?
March 18, 2022
by an admin from Massachusetts Institute of Technology - MIT Sloan School of Management in Portland, OR, USA
Hey Searchfunder Community!
We're constantly trying to make Searchfunder work harder for you. We know that some users take advantage of our novel "free-if-you-post" mechanism and earn free access by consistently posting non-substantive comments. We occasionally see some people commenting random punctuations marks or even emojis. We flag this whenever we see it. Such users are probably not aware that we still try to read almost every post and that their comment history is clearly visible on their full profile page for all the world to see.
Our free-if-you-post mechanism is designed to encourage as many substantive comments as possible. And many times short comments are, indeed, substantive. And we certainly don't want to penalize anyone who generally makes substantive comments just for occasionally making a short one, .e.g., "congrats on acquiring," "I just sent you a PM," "tagging so-and-so," etc. Sometimes short comments are entirely appropriate.
We're trying to crack down on those serial abusers who consistently make non-substantive comments and never make substantive ones. We are aware that it clutters up notifications on posts-your-following, is very annoying, and generally makes Searchfunder much worse.
How should Searchfunder address low quality comments going forward?
Should we ban such accounts?
Should we merely flag them as low quality?
Or should we just live with them as a necessary corollary of creating a heathy ecosystem where we try to maximize substantive comments instead of minimizing non-substantive ones.
It's devilishly difficult to maintain an open collaborative community that doesn't devolve into spam. We're lucky we've made it this far. We need your help going forward!
Thank you for your insights!
With Best Wishes, ^redacted
in New York, NY, USA
One can understand the inclination for a free thing, but it's like getting invited to a party, and it's "free" as long as you bring... Some chips (or in this case, the value-add comments), and they're like, "oh, yeah, here's a chip I found in my couch," and it's like one of those crummy tiny little chips at the bottom of the bag, and now it's covered in dirt, you know?
It's like alright... That's... Not what the trade was...
By way of process:
So, perhaps if it happens once, then you can flag the account (flagCount == 1). flagCount = 1 would cause the user's account to redirect to a standard form PM from you on the messages page, and it would say "Hey. Look. I get it. But, like... don't do that. Not cool." and require some kind of acknowledgement (like a simple green "Okay, sorry." button at the bottom of the page.), which will unflag the account, and restore full operation.
If it happens again, just freeze it again (flagCount == 2), which triggers a review. If it's borderline... Your call. If it's blatantly "Yeah, I heard you the first time, but IDGAF about what you're trying to do here, and I'm all about MeMeMe." Well... You've got their LinkedIn account. Just ban them. Who wants 'em.
You could even have the users suggest flagging with the Report button.
Do you think this was would really reduce workload and increase platform quality in this respect? Sounds like it might?
Thanks for all this!
Paul
from London Business School in London, UK
- Introduce article types beyond just plain text, e.g. polls work particularly well, they're promoted when posted and when they conclude.
- Allow long form posts that are promoted above normal posts (like LinkedIn Pulse articles) that keep readers within your ecosystem rather than sending them offsite via links.
- Promote "editor choice" articles on the feed as well as beyond your walled garden like on LinkedIn or homepage.
- I think your readers use the community to search for answers in an opaque market (I know I'm here for that) so encourage a Q&A style post where the most correct answer to a posted question can be voted on and made prominent (e.g. like Quora or stackoverflow).
- Only reward posts that have 10+ likes (that's an obvious one that you've probably already considered) or those that link to the entries in Deals / Companies / Industries / Valuations.
- Encourage and make it easier to discuss market valuations, case studies or detailed financial analysis by leveraging your resources like IBISWorld, BVR etc.