Asking for your input on new site rules
June 10, 2023
Given recent events, here are the two changes that I’m planning on making for the site:
Developing a new set of rules and guidelines with input from the site community, and
Creating the Community Moderator system, where a rotating group of users will be able to make moderation decisions.
I’m developing the second part now and I’ll talk more about it when it’s closer to being ready, but today I wanted to gather ideas for new site rules.
In general, the rules need to be broad enough to cover most realistic situations in which they’d need to be applied, and not get too numerous and precise in an attempt to address every possible scenario. For example:
- Activity descriptions need to be three paragraphs or longer.
versus:
- Activity descriptions should provide a clear description of how to perform the activity.
I think the second is probably better because it allows for activities where a very short description is adequate.
My plan is to gather your rule ideas for a week, and then make a Google survey where I ask everyone to vote on which rules you think should be adopted on the site, starting the week of June 19. I’ll give one example of a rule that I plan on putting forward:
- Activity attachments should only consist of classroom materials. (This rule is because sometimes I see people attach completely unrelated files to their activities, like resumes or job applications. Please don’t do this – it’s not the purpose of the site, and it means anyone can see these files.)
Rules for comments and activities will need to be slightly different, since they have different purposes. It might be worth separating the rules into site-wide content guidelines, activity rules, and comment rules.
Please leave your rule suggestions in comments to this post, or send them to me using the site Contact system. If you want to talk about the situation in general, I’d request that you leave comments on the previous “June freeze” post.
Comments are invaluable. So many times small mistakes are missed and minor improvements are suggested that can change the activity for the better. I would echo the others that said, apart from one one user's activites the comments have (in my experience) been 100% positive, supportive and of benefit. Lots of ALTs are new to teaching, we need questions to be shared and answered. The same is true of the discord. Getting rid of them would be a huge loss.... It was great before April 28th. How about yearly volunteer/elected moderators? I would just like to take this opportunity to say that I think UonumaRobert would be a great moderator.
The main focus really is to assist the teachers to help the students speak english, nowhere in the ALT hand book does it say to teach social issues, leave that responsibilty to parents...lets focus on "It is, what`s your favorite food, and what color do you like"
just saying...simple is good.
Removing the comment section would make me really upset. It feels like you are uploading to the void if no one comments on an activity that you spend a long time on. There are already very few comments of appreciation as it is. If anyone else is reading this, creators really like a nice comment or two! You would have to pay to access some of these activities on sites like tes.
Regarding the comment that people would spam the report button; I would say that you personally can only report an activity once. Also, if an activity DOES get an excessive amount of reports because something doesn't align with someone's social views then just maybe, that activity is considered hate speech to a lot of people! I don't see it as a bad thing to listen to the masses. Also supporting this, you could have a like and dislike button (but have the dislike only visible to administrators or moderators), so they know how badly an activity is perceived and if (by chance) people do actuually like it.
As a mod on a fairly large subreddit, you have no idea how many people use the report button as a "super dislike" button and the mental gymnastics they'll go through to justify something simply for expressing an idea they don't personally like. Not that a report button is a bad idea per say, just understand that it will be abused.
It feels like many times when people discuss activities about LGBT, discussion will get quite heated, doesn't matter which side they are on. I have yet to see immature discussions from other topics. Maybe do a temp ban on that particular topic for a while. While of course people will complain, but like another user said, this site is not Reddit. Wait til both side grow up enough to be able to have civil discussions about it, then open the floodgates.
It would be sad to see this site go away because of those vocal minorities who are so passionate about this topic.
I strongly disagree with banning activities outside of the curriculum. Those of us who want to make an impact outside of the curriculum and teach their students about things that they would otherwise never learn are simply going to have their voices taken away. Obviously, it's important that most topics relate in some way to the curriculum, but we're not just here to teach English; we're here to be cultural ambassadors. Like, does that mean, for example, that Black History Month presentations would be removed? Any English board materials with pride content or other cultural content would be removed? In my opinion, that would be just letting the trolls win. In reality, the curriculum is watered down enough as it is, and special cultural presentations are a treat.
As much fun and as helpful as the comment section is, removing it might be the simplest and most effective solution.
I agree with adding a report button, for widely considered offensive activities and also for activities that spread misinformation to students.
Putting aside my personal values about LGBT people's right to be visible from the argument, there was some information in the controversial acitivty that claimed to be science that was simply false and disproven. I don't think we should allow students to be given incorrect information. I'm sure there have been other activities that come from a genuine place but spread misinformation about certain countries and cultures just from a lack of prior research and understanding. Maybe we could have mods also act as fact-checkers for informational activities?
I think that this site is first and foremost a place to share fun activities that are either reusable or great enough to inspire others to make their own activity. I think that the comment section is useful but I also know that people have been using that section for trolling and arguing. Personally I wouldn't want that to go. Is it possible to give every member a block function? If someone posts an activity you strongly disagree with, instead of trolling their post, maybe you can just block them so you never have to see their activities again. So many people flamed that one dude who posted an activity that was filled with their own bias toward the lgbt community but since when do we just dump on someone for having an opinion? If you dont agree with someone's views, I think blocking them and moving on is the best solution, in my opinion.
Commenting should be restricted to having at least a few activities posted, or having made donations to the ko-fi. That would be a pretty good barrier of entry to sockpuppets or people making new accounts to dogpile.
The hate spewing and transphobia isnt the epidemic that its being made out to be and doesn't require this massive overhaul of the site. It was one guy, and a few proxy accounts. This site has hundreds of activities and thats the ONLY 2 which are distasteful and mean.
Just put a disclaimer in place that activities need to follow some fleshed-out guidelines and be done with it. No removal of features, no mods, no drama.
The guidelines should require socio-cultural topics to be backed by MEXT or a textbook, and if a textbook is chosen then the uploader should be required to photocopy the chapter in question. No more "my JTE/school told me to make this." nonsense. Because that was obviously not true.
An opinion is different from infringing on human rights. Imagine someone making a PowerPoint about how they believe a certain race to be inferior to others. Would you want that to remain on a site that you use? The activities in question were hurtful to the LGBT community and were not created by someone part of that community. I am part of that community and found the materials to be gross and misleading.
If the comment section is taken away because this person wants to exercise their bias with hateful materials, then I will simply withdraw everything I have contributed to the site, and I will be encouraging others to do so. I do not want to support a site that offers a platform to trolls.
After reading through all these suggestions, I think @RayBradbury had the best idea so far. Allow for comments to reach the creator of the activity only.
"Remove the comments section, it's not needed.
Instead allow users to submit one-way feedback to the creator of an activity. Only the creator can view the feedback. You can even leave this in the same format as the comments are currently, just change the authentication on the backend. This will allow the creator to see their feedback and edit their activity accordingly."
I've been an avid user of Altopedia for years (since it was "Englipedia").
Englipedia didn't have a comments section and it worked just fine without them.
Seriously folks, we don't need the majority of comments that are shared here. Plus it would be making less work for @Jake the Admin.
Let's aim for the simplest and most efficient solution.
An idea. Whether it
s a good one or not, I dont know.Get rid of the comment section, put up a report button on the activities and if an activity gets reported by some % of the user base the activity gets flagged with a warning label like “user discretion is advised” or something like that.
People could still see the activities and use their own judgement and you wouldn`t need a dedicated group of people to moderate/curate the site.
@sophie
I understand that there are cultural and social issues that are important to you, and I accept your objectives to share them with the class. However, I also feel that if these issues are important to you, you would be able to make such content by yourself, right? I mostly use this website when I'm having trouble thinking of fun activities to use when teaching a particular part of the curriculum.
I have to agree that we shouldn't allow users to submit content on social issues that aren't mentioned in the textbook. The current problem is that this website doesn't really have any rules. Allowing you to post a black history month slide show would also allow someone else to post an anti-black history one, and that isn't a good look for this site.
I also hope that the poll doesn't allow just anyone to vote in it. I think it should be limited to members who have contributed something and/or made an account before a certain date, so it doesn't get hijacked by trolls.
It
s difficult to weigh the pros and cons since any solution is going to need a trial period to really sus out how its working. Implementing mods and rating systems is probably a bit overkill at this juncture. So far, I think TakoyakiTacos has put forth the best option to try. I think keeping strictly to MEXT guidelines is a good idea. If an ALT is asked or given the ok to do lessons outside of that, then let the responsibility of planning and preparing fall on them. I know thats not a perfect solution, since wed all like the freedom to teach what we want. But its also not our job as ALTs to overhaul the system and decide what is or isn`t appropriate for our students.I don't think this site needs well defined rules. It's easy to see the intention behind activities.
This was all started by one person. Their intention was clear. Compare that overly complicated PowerPoint to literally any other activity on the site. It's clear the intention isn't to engage students in English, it's to provoke people on an online forum. Just delete it. You don't need to stay "neutral." They put a picture of Matt Walsh in a PowerPoint for Japanese ESL kids with the label "Name one of these people for a sticker!"
I think well defined rules or a checklist upon uploading will only discourage people from posting activities.
I personally would be sad to see the comment section go. It's been a great way to get feedback, clarification, new ideas for different activities, support, etc. As some others have already pointed out, except for the two recent activities, the comment sections have generally been positive and professional.
I like that the 'latest comments section' on the Dashboard has been taken off, as I don't think it's necessary and is probably at least partially what led to the comment flame wars.
I also don't hate the thought of requiring someone to make some kind of contribution to the site before being able to comment, be it an activity, article, or monetarily donating.
Why would a post about Black History Month allow someone to post an anti-Black History Month post? One is hate speech and one isn't. We simply need a rule for no hate speech.
The more I read this thread, the more I just agree with AVGKF and jason. Unless I've missed a bunch of problems in other activities, it was two entries, by the same user, and that was about it. There's no staying neutral when it comes to transphobia, xenophobia, racism, and such. Remove the activity, give a warning to the user, and if it happens again, remove the user.
The 'report' function is still a option worth programming because there is more than just hate speech worth reporting sometimes, so it will be a useful mod tool down the line.