Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answers blog

In September 2007 we launched Community Moderation, a system that allows trusted Answers users to work together to report and remove content that breaks the Community Guidelines and the Yahoo! Terms of Service. Due to its very nature, there is always a great deal of interest in this system and how it’s working, so we wanted to give you an update on it and how the subsequent appeals process works.

What is Community Moderation?

Traditionally on Answers if a question or answer broke the Community Guidelines or Yahoo! Terms of Service, an Answers user could report it. This report is reviewed by a real person and a decision is made whether to keep it up or to delete it. This system is still in place.

However, Community Moderation works in parallel to the old system. Once a report is submitted to Yahoo!, Community Moderation automatically measures the contributions and reporting history of both the reporter and the person being reported.

Community Moderation then determines whether it can remove the reported question or answer directly from the site based on community input or whether further review is needed.

So how do I build a good reputation?

First and foremost, it’s important to familiarise yourself with the Community Guidelines. If you’re interested in reporting bad content on Answers, it’s very important that you’re accurate. When you feel you have a good idea about what’s acceptable on Answers as you begin to report content, you will build a good reputation and gain influence.

On the other hand, misuse of the new system will result in a lowered reputation. A low reputation means that the power to report and remove potential abuse is diminished, and may even risk suspension.

The community is very important to the Answers team: without it the site is nothing, so we have set up protection mechanisms to filter out specific targeting of one user by another. Similarly the system promotes accurate reporters, giving them more influence.

How accurate is Community Moderation?

According to our current analysis 94% of reports removed by Community Moderation in the US were correctly removed. Occasionally it makes mistakes, which we would strongly encourage you to appeal, but on the whole your efforts in reporting are making a massive and accurate difference to the site.

What should I do if my content is erroneously removed by the community?

By the very nature of the system, incorrect reports are occasionally going to happen. If your question or answer is reported, we’ll send you an email stating that it has been removed. If you feel that the system’s decision was incorrect, first read the Community Guidelines to check. If you think there’s a strong case, click on the “Appeal” link in the email to submit an appeal. This will be reviewed by a real person. If we agree, your question or answer will reappear on Answers, and the member(s) who reported you will have less influence when they report potential abuse in the future.

As a team, we’d like to strongly emphasise the importance of appealing, once you’ve read the Community Guidelines and are certain your content has been removed in error. This is because if your appeal is successful, not only will your content be reinstated but your reputation will be boosted and those that reported you will lose reputation.