MESH Team Update: Tools, Standards, Training & Communication
Posted on Oct 30th 2007 6:32PM by Nancie Meng
Filed under: User Experiences, Social Media, Community Info, Marvelous Mob, Community Management
Smarter moderation and enforcement tools: Two things have occurred to help speed the way to completion of this task. First, our team now "owns" the support and fix functions as well as the development of these tools. This means that we control prioritization of both feature development and support rather than having to vie with other teams for time and resources.
Second, all the MESH Team members sit near one another now, so the people responsible for policy, process and technology can toss requests, suggestions and feedback back and forth all day long. Prairie dogging and trips to the "war room" have increased exponentially. In fact, I think I heard them yell "war room" and clomp over there just a few minutes ago.
Easy to understand community standards: Once everyone has signed off on these, you will be the first to know when they'll be rolling out. There won't be any surprises except that you'll actually understand the standards if you couldn't before. And, those who did understand them (but claimed not to in attempts to worm their way out of a legitimate, well documented block) will have no excuses.
I'm tempted to call the new standards "The Seven Deadly Sins." We're aiming to have these done this week. Short of fires or floods, it should be so. In the meantime, remember that community standards are all based on Terms of Service and we all know those by heart.
New training for our teams: Though we review and train our teams on a weekly basis around here, we have done a thorough review of our curriculum. This resulted in expanded definitions and better processes related to the review and removal of user-generated content. Most of the changes were driven by a focus on our users' experience. First, we referred to all the mail we receive from users via our various feedback boxes. Then, each time we made a decision, we asked ourselves: "Can we explain this to our users? If not then why are we doing it this way?"
Clear channels for user feedback and escalations: Okay, this is a big one, especially since there are fewer of us and we want to be able to respond as quickly and effectively as possible. We've discovered that folks write to a multitude of mailboxes, some of which are appropriate and some of which don't even exist. I think many people just slap TOS in front of any old screen name and think it will go to the right place. Others write to 10 different TOS e-mail boxes each time they raise a concern. This is neither efficient nor effective if we want faster turn around times.
We want your e-mail to get to the right person and for that person to handle it quickly. When the community standards roll out we'll include the correct mailboxes to write to. We'll post that information here and in other areas, too, to get the word out. In the meantime, if you send things to AOLPeopleMGR@aol.com your mail will definitely get to the right person.
Frequent and ongoing communication with users: We will be using this blog as a way to keep you up-to-date on universal community related issues. We do not have the bandwidth to hit all message boards to ensure that folks get the information they need. Though we will still roam the boards and respond if we run across a question, we may miss something. Having this place to centralize messaging provides for better consistency. Everyone reads the same message and there's an opportunity for clarification if people need it. So feel free to ask questions of us here.Developing better communication channels and closer relationships with product owners: This is something we work on all the time and we will continue to do so. As people step in to fill the gaps left by the actions of two weeks ago, our team will be reaching out to say hello and to bring them up to speed on what our customers are looking for in the way of features.
That's it for today. Stay tuned for more.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1. The seven deadly sins. Not really waiting on the edge of my seat to see those! Simplification is good.
Would AOLPeopleMGR@aol.com work for Hometown homepages? I sometimes run across comment spam posted to Flickr that links back to scam pages on AOL Hometown. It's kinda troublesome with AIM name to report such.
Posted at 11:35PM on Oct 30th 2007 by Steven
2. Hi, Steven. Yes, AOLPeopleMGR@aol.com will work if you want to report content in Hometown that violates TOS. Just make sure to include a link to the content you're reporting and, though it's not always necessary, any comment that would describe why you feel the content is in violation.
Also, though I didn't mention it in the article (our to-do-list is long) we are looking to align the ways users -- no matter what type of screen name they are on -- can let us know about content that violates TOS.
Posted at 8:26AM on Oct 31st 2007 by Nancie Meng
3. I would like to know why, when I open my aim.com pages they don't enlarge. You know I enlarge the whole page, the outer parts enlarge, but the part with all these goodies in in stays small. Can anyone out there help me figure out why this is happening? Thanks Elle
Posted at 8:36AM on Oct 31st 2007 by Ellen Gyftoopoulos
4. Ellen,
Most likely, this can be caused by a modified Web browser font size. This feature is helpful for users who prefer to view larger text online so it can be more readable.
If you have a scroll mouse, hold down the CTRL key and scroll up or down to adjust the font size to your preference.
It may also be helpful to try clearing your cache and cookies and trying again so your browser accesses a fresh page.
Let me know if this helps! :-)
~ Joseph
Posted at 10:54AM on Oct 31st 2007 by Joseph Manna
5. GOOD judgment comes from experience.
Posted at 2:46AM on Nov 3rd 2007 by Muhammad Brohi
6. Have a quick question here, could you please help?
Was wondering if there's lists or could they please add links to chatrooms like for the AOL Sports chats, News , etc other room?
I can't seem to find links to the AOL Sports, News chats now.
I love to talk about Sports alot.
Is there anyway they could add them?
Posted at 4:05PM on Nov 10th 2007 by Annie
7. Any more updates on all of this?
I know that AOL sprang for the 3 of you to go jetting around the globe to train the Indian and Filipino moderators, but unfortunately moderation is still inconsistent.
I'd love to see Community Standards actually listed, because to me they always seemed very vague. Vague isn't good, Nancie.
I know that it is said that message board features take a long time to be developed, but, really...THREE years?! Has communication improved between MESH and the message board team? I know Joe M. was trying to get "traction" on some issues back in July/August, but unfortunately there have been no answers on many issues.
Posted at 3:23PM on Dec 13th 2007 by Brenda
8. Hmmm....more than a month since I made the previous comment, and still no response. Oct 30th the last "update" on MESH.
Posted at 11:42AM on Jan 15th 2008 by Brenda
9. I'm curious, there has been a new tactic used on the mesage boards. Filing false TOS violations against members because of different political views. I have had my account closed due to this new childish game.
I wrote to the AOLpeopleMGR. with a link to someone admitting that they had been doing this.
The AOLpeopleMGR's response. I will look into the post you sent me and forward your issue to the proper dept.( The MESH team )
And here I sit, 2 weeks later. My acct. still closed.... and 4 more emails to the AOLpeopleMGR. Read, but gone unanswered. What's up...?
I was a paying AOL member for 17 or more years. Just recently switched to wireless and a free acct. in my
20 years in retail and I have never seen customer service ( or lack thereof ) like this....
I am not the only one having this problem. You are losing members left and right. Do you care....?
Posted at 1:55PM on Jan 17th 2008 by David
10. David,filing false TOS reports is not a new methodology employed by some users. But, the MESH team's actions are not taken based on the fact that a report has been filed. They are based on whether or not the behavior demonstrated in the post violates guidelines. It is true that (since humans are involved) that a post may be actioned incorrectly and you did the right thing by writing to AOLPeopleMGR. I'll ask the managers to review your case again.
Posted at 2:29PM on Jan 17th 2008 by Nancie Meng
11. Thank you Nancie, that's all I really wanted was for someone to acknowledge that I exist. I know that I didn't commit a major violation. If at all...
A a warning would have been suffcient if indeed I did violate the TOS. Mater screen name for the account effected was Chisna@aol.com
Thanks again....
David
Posted at 8:02PM on Jan 17th 2008 by David
12. I would hope that after more than 17 years with AOL that I would at least rate a email telling me what TOS violation I had committed. Perhaps...?
I know..AOL has the right to terminate my service at their discretion. While I continue to see violations that dwarf anything I might have done. This is going to be a ugly election year. I hope that AOL is prepared to lose quite a few customers. Foul language would not have been the reason for my account being closed. Or pictures that violate the TOS. Perhaps I defended myself from a personal attack on the message boards ?
Maybe I called someone a nutcase...? Because they were...? If this is what AOL is booting long time members for. Boy... you are going to shrink your customer base fast. The election is almost a year away...
If you care to let me know what I did to lose my account. Email me at Chisnariver@aim.com.
I don't expect to hear from you. But it sure would be nice.And be the least I deserve for being a paying member for 17 years. Sincerely, David
Posted at 1:49PM on Jan 21st 2008 by David
13. I have the same question concerning the TOS debacle going on right now. Why would posts containing what some "Thought Police" poster deems as BAD be immediately TOS'ed with absolutely no explanation while posters with disgusting names like Nancys (insert Vagina) be allowed to continue posting along with racist remarks and their party views continuing? WHY?
Posted at 7:40AM on Jan 24th 2008 by dddfarmguys2
14. I have asked many times why the inconsistency in enforcement of TOS. It apparently continues unabated. I thought the MESH team traveled overseas this summer specifically to get the foreign Mod Squad trained. The language barrier is significant.
There apparently isn't going to be a further update to the post about MESH here. In fact, there hasn't been an update to this entire blog in more than two weeks.
Interesting...
Posted at 10:05AM on Jan 25th 2008 by Brenda
15. I have been terminated from aol after 10 yrs.While I have received tos notices before--not all were just and am curious about why i was simply knocked off---no notice----and been unable to contact anybody about this issue.I was told no more tos by some chatters and directly insulted because they figured no retribution was gonna result.I have argued with some people who have insulted me but wonder why i was terminated.I called and left a message---i wrote----snail mail---no response.rmurrary@aol.com is my account name---a response would be appreciated.ty------Richard murray
Posted at 8:45AM on Feb 1st 2008 by Richard Murray
16. I had been an AOL subscriber since 1994. Abruptly, this week my PatJBell@aol.com account was suspended. I do not believe that I violate TOS regulations, though I may have ruffled a few feathers.
I called the given number to inquire about the suspension and got no satisfaction at all, other than being given the snail mail address for an AOL team in Virginia. I wrote, but have not heard back yet, and frankly, that's a very poor way to communicate.
I know some have obtained redress by phone conversations, but AOL does not make it easy to find those numbers.
Considering the foul-mouthed language and vulgar screen names that seem to keep popping up, I feel very discriminated against.
I would put down my AOL address but at the moment, it seems rather pointless.
Posted at 3:01PM on Feb 2nd 2008 by PatJBell