Changes

topics/moderation.md

@@ -14,11 +14,9 @@ Users in a room have 'power levels', a number between 0 and 100 that indicates h
 
 ### Mastodon
 
-Moderation rules in Mastodon are local to each server. Each server admin can create their own moderation rules as well as a theme for their server. Their TOS may include rules about whether data can leave the server, etc.
+Moderation rules in Mastodon are local to each server. Each server admin can create their own moderation rules as well as a theme for their server. Their TOS may include rules about whether data can leave the server, etc. Users choose which server to join, opting into the moderation policy, theme, and TOS they prefer. [Moderation actions](https://docs.joinmastodon.org/admin/moderation/) can be applied to individuals, or entire instances.
 
-Mastodon [moderation actions](https://docs.joinmastodon.org/admin/moderation/) can be applied to individuals, or entire instances.
-
-Users choose which server to join, opting into the moderation policy, theme, and TOS they prefer.
+Some documented [challenges with moderation in Mastodon](https://nolanlawson.com/2018/08/31/mastodon-and-the-challenges-of-abuse-in-a-federated-system/amp/) include heavy burdens on admins to address harassment and spam. Open APIs to help with moderation were [added to Mastodon in 2019](https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon/pull/9387), to help admin and developers build custom tooling for moderation.
 
 ### Reddit
 
@@ -26,6 +24,8 @@ Reddit is a centralized social platform, but takes a decentralized approach to m
 
 To help community moderators, Reddit has developed an automated tool, [AutoModerator](https://www.newamerica.org/oti/reports/everything-moderation-analysis-how-internet-platforms-are-using-artificial-intelligence-moderate-user-generated-content/case-study-reddit/), to help proactively identify, filter, and remove objectionable content. Many moderators also create or use [custom moderation bots](https://www.reddit.com/r/modguide/comments/et39hl/custom_moderation_bots/).
 
+[Notabug](https://notabug.io/t/notabug/comments/59382d2a08b7d7073415b5b6ae29dfe617690d74/welcome-to-notabug), a decentralized Reddit alternative, has a different moderation structure. Posts are created in any "topic", without requiring a subreddit for a topic to be created beforehand. "Spaces" are more like subreddits, and can accept or block content, but they do not affect the original posts in the topics. A given topic can have multiple spaces which curate and moderate differently. The automated rules for how spaces filter posts can be publicly inspected.
+
 ### Aether
 
 Each community has its own moderators, which communities elect or impeach themselves. Like subreddits, communities largely govern themselves. Mods (moderators) can approve or delete posts.
@@ -47,3 +47,5 @@ Steemit takes a bottom-up approach to moderation. Content is moderated](https://
 Steemit's approach to spam, plagiarism, and abuse relies on a single mechanism: user voting to downgrade undesirable posts. To add a negative signal to a post and downgrade its rewards, users could ["flag" or "downvote"](https://steemit.com/utopian-io/@steemcleaners/understanding-flagging-downvoting) - two terms used for the same function of downgrading a post. A discussion of the [downvoting and flagging problems](https://steemit.com/community/@baah/a-solution-to-the-downvoting-flagging-problems-on-steemit) on Steemit goes into the drawbacks of various approaches.
 
 Users can flag content they find objectionable, but they [cannot block other users](https://github.com/steemit/steem/issues/382), due to the potential for abuse of the block feature in a system that monetizes upvotes. For example, a user might block users with high reputation who might downvote them, so they could upvote their own posts within a circle of participating accounts.
+
+## Experimental Approaches