Well I'm coming to think the issue is my inexperience with moderated fora.
I have the experience of unmoderated fora with the inmates keeping the discussion on track in ways left to their discretion. And you might think there is a lot of swearing but I assure you there is almost none. I can't count all the things I have learned on these type of fora. The signal to noise ratio is usually high, at least in the groups I frequent. In general, I would characterize the signal to noise ratio for moderated fora as lower because the signal is low, not because the noise is high.
People migrate to moderated fora for a reason. Unfortunately that reason is not the same reason people post on unmoderated fora. Having seen the success of unmoderated fora, I have trouble seeing how moderating ones can possibly succeed in the same way to the same degree.
I have the experience of unmoderated fora with the inmates keeping the discussion on track in ways left to their discretion. And you might think there is a lot of swearing but I assure you there is almost none. I can't count all the things I have learned on these type of fora. The signal to noise ratio is usually high, at least in the groups I frequent. In general, I would characterize the signal to noise ratio for moderated fora as lower because the signal is low, not because the noise is high.
People migrate to moderated fora for a reason. Unfortunately that reason is not the same reason people post on unmoderated fora. Having seen the success of unmoderated fora, I have trouble seeing how moderating ones can possibly succeed in the same way to the same degree.
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