Something Awful is also heavily, heavily moderated and it's a group of fairly like-minded people, especially in the subforums outside GBS. If I remember right, I think the $10 charge was more to recoup costs of running the site. Keeping out crazies is a side effect.
It's not very heavily moderated, but it does have moderators that can be summoned with the report buttons.
One of the first things you learn on SA is to "grow a thicker skin", because there aren't enough moderators with sufficient time to stop users from ganging up on some people and giving them a hard time. And as a result, moderators also allow a harsher tone.
The moderators are vital, but I wouldn't say that they are moderating heavily.
It does show the relevance of communities like SA versus random gatherings of visitors that most comment systems on websites constitute.
I think heavy, but not overly up-front moderation is the key to building a good discussion - this simply means clearing out comments which are superfluous - thereby creating richer, more readable content.
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Something Awful is also heavily, heavily moderated and it's a group of fairly like-minded people, especially in the subforums outside GBS. If I remember right, I think the $10 charge was more to recoup costs of running the site. Keeping out crazies is a side effect.
It's not very heavily moderated, but it does have moderators that can be summoned with the report buttons.
One of the first things you learn on SA is to "grow a thicker skin", because there aren't enough moderators with sufficient time to stop users from ganging up on some people and giving them a hard time. And as a result, moderators also allow a harsher tone.
The moderators are vital, but I wouldn't say that they are moderating heavily.
It does show the relevance of communities like SA versus random gatherings of visitors that most comment systems on websites constitute.
I think heavy, but not overly up-front moderation is the key to building a good discussion - this simply means clearing out comments which are superfluous - thereby creating richer, more readable content.