With the dawning of a new month, AN is unveiling a new way of maintaining the basic Community Guidelines for hanging out in “Blez’ living room”. Hopefully, the changes will be for the better in many ways – and not for the worse in any way. To help make it as clear as possible, I have broken the explanation down into three parts: A Basic Explanation, “What Is Changing,” and “What Isn’t Changing”. Lettuce know what you think…

   A Basic Explanation

AN 3.0 has a feature whereby any user can “flag” any comment, categorizing it either as “spam,” “troll,” or “inappropriate,” and writing a short explanatory note to go with the flag. Flagged comments, and their accompanying notes, can only been seen by AN’s “moderators”. Starting today, “flagging” comments will become the official way of reporting suspected Community Guidelines Violations (CGVs).

The regular front-page writers (baseballgirl, Blez, louismg, monkeyball, Nico, notsellingjeans, TajAdib), and two members of the old “Sub-Committee” (gigglingone, McFood), will keep an eye out for CGVs, flagging them for fellow moderators to evaluate. Meanwhile, any user can also flag a comment for the moderators to see and evaluate.

If a moderator flags a comment and two other moderators agree that it is a CGV, a “strike” will be given and the user sent a private email informing them of the “strike”. If a non-moderator flags a comment and two moderators agree that it is a CGV, a “strike” will be given.

   What Is Changing

* To complain about a comment you feel violates the CGs, instead of writing to “cgv@athleticsnation.com” you will flag the comment, mark it as “inappropriate,” and write any accompanying notes about why. (The moderators will take it from there.)

* Instead of a complaint needing three yes votes out of four Sub-committee members, now it will need three yes votes out of a possible nine moderators (only some of whom will see a given complaint in time to evaluate it).

* While the moderators still will not “look for” CGVs, they will be asked to flag any they see, so it will be a slightly more proactive process than before. (This will almost surely cause a spike in “strikes” in the near future.)

* The identities of the “group of trusted users” who are evaluating complaints is now public.

   What Is Not Changing

* The Community Guidelines themselves are not currently changing in any way.

* The system of “warning strikes” and “full strikes” will stay in place (see the CGs for amplification).

* Information about whether or not a CGV was issued will remain strictly between the moderators and the complainee, i.e., if you flag a comment you will not be informed as to the outcome.

* It will still be “3 strikes, yer out!” and a given “strike” will still roll off after four months without a CGV.

* All users, including moderators, will be equally accountable to the CGs and accompanying sanctions. Moderators will be instructed to put any personal feelings aside when judging a comment against the stated CGs, and will be asked to recuse themselves if they feel they may be biased in any way.

   As of midnight this morning, the slate has been wiped clean and everyone gets to have zero “strikes” – even an idiot like you! OK, almost everyone. :-(