LinkedIn's Scarlet Letter - Episode 14

March 18, 2014

Marc, Scott, and Randy discuss LinkIn's so-called SWAM (Site Wide Automatic Moderation) policy and Scott provides some tips on moderation system design...

[There is no news this week in order to dig a little deeper into the nature of moderating the commons (aka groups).]

Additional Links:

• John Mark Troyer, Social Media Evangelist at VMware shares his passion for the podcast.
• Forbes: LinkedIn Ruckus Continues As Victims Of Site-Wide Moderation Defect
• Has LinkedIn changed its SWAM policy - And not told anyone? at Brainstorm Digital
• LinkedIn Help: Removing Spam from Your Group

  Block & Delete takes the member out of the group and places them on the Blocked tab, which prevents them from requesting to join again. It also deletes all past contributions. Please be aware that when you select Block & Delete for a group member, this will result in automatic moderation of all their future posts in any group site-wide. Read more about removing spam from your group. (emphasis ed.)

• LinkedIn Help: Why are my posts going through moderation in all of my groups?

  3/11/14: Note: The mechanism that changes a member's posting permissions is automated and cannot be reversed by LinkedIn Customer Support. We cannot provide a list of which groups blocked a member due to privacy restrictions. (emphasis ed.)

• Elinor Ostrom's Nobel Prize winning work in Governing the Commons is must-read material for anyone building groups software.
• Elinor Ostrom's 8 Principles for Managing A Commons
• We also suggest Order without Law: How Neighbors Settle Disputes by Robert Ellickson
• and Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches - The Riddles of Culture by Marvin Harris

Transcript is available at SocialMediaClarity.net