dmorison - 6:56 pm on Apr 24, 2003 (gmt 0)

How could the site be designed to have people watch the watchers if it were moderated. We all know that dmoz has some currupted moderators. Even if it were public vote based it would still require some sort of moderation.

Thinking out loud...

I envisage development of such a beast would go along like this:

1. Consider the possible ways in which attempts to abuse the directory could be executed

2. Design the rating and moderation system with (1) in mind such that the directory has as strong a natural defence as possible to the most obvious forms of abuse / spamming.

For example, you could apply a weighting to moderation gestures based on the frequency of moderation. This would mean that a site that was promoted extremely quickly (a sign of a successful spam attempt) could equally be demoted just as rapidly.

And then.. (to cover the situation you describe)

3. Consider how meta-moderation might work in cases where a creative spam attempt was successful in thwarting the natural defences. Similar to Slashdot's "bitch slap".