Hellobee came out of beta just a few weeks before Olive was born, so the site is around 16 months old! In all that time, we've had almost no trolls... it's been wonderful. In the past few days though, we've gotten 12 flags... mostly about a relatively new member.
I've been thinking a lot about how to handle the situation. We've been really careful to have an extremely light hand when it comes to moderating the site. That said, it's clear when you look at this user's comments that they're sometimes intended to incite an angry reaction. Still though, I don't like the idea of banning someone - even a troll - just because their comments are mean-spirited and flamebait-y.
So we've decided to try out a compromise: a no-ban policy. We won't ban members from the site, unless they spam or scam our members. But if you're generating a ton of flags and a careful review of your posts reveals that you're posting a lot of flamebait... then we'll consider putting your account into moderation (a new feature we've built). If you've been put into moderation, that means that every post you make will have to be manually approved before it shows up on the site.
We'll see how this "no ban" policy goes over the coming weeks. I hope it's a good compromise that allows us to minimize moderation while keeping the site relatively free of trolling and flamebait.
Let me know what you guys think!
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