Here goes a big THANKS! to him, link, link and link for interacting so much with us users and making fanpop a great site!
As a member of the F4 - how many messages per day do you get from fanpop users?
papa:It varies. Some days there's a lot of messages, some days not so much. But a dozen or more a day isn't unusual. The most common request I get is to change a club icon/banner/motto. I'm always happy to do this (and we definitely need a better way to manage how this happens!). The second most common question I get is usually about medals (why don't I have one? when will I get my red medal? etc.).
I try to respond to what I can in a timely fashion. Fortunately, since there's 4 of us, I'm guessing the other guys also get their share.
Fanpop has gone through many changes, we got a new rating system, we got caps, a wall,...
Which change was your personal favorite?
papa:From the past year? I think my favorite change is the caps. Even though we know how and when a lot of the caps are granted, I still feel some element of surprise when the cap magically appears at the bottom of my screen. Like on Earth Day, I totally forgot we had programmed the Earth Day cap to appear, so that was kinda fun. I also get a kick out of making fun of Dave Lu that I have the "Jetsetter" cap and he doesn't. I was mocking him about his lack of a "Rainbow" cap, but now he has one. So I'm hoping I can get another one of the good luck caps and have more bragging rights.
There's a lot more we can do with caps. It's really just a matter of time. Our hope is to add some more into the mix to help recognize some other great things that users do on the site and also to commemorate special dates/events.
It has first been mentioned in 2007 and is still a topic of discussion nowadays- the possibility of a username-change. Do you think this is something that could be established?
papa:I don't like to say we'll never do something on the site, but this one is pretty unlikely. I will say there have been very rare instances when we changed a user's name early on. We had this one fanpopper who started off with something like "johnsgirl" or some such thing (I've intentionally changed her names to protect the innocent!). Well, she broke up with John and so she contacted us begging to change her name. So we changed it, per her request, to "jakesgirl" and figured that's that. But no, a week later she broke up with Jake and begged for another change. So we told her, ok, one last change but please pick a name without a boyfriend in it!
Anyway, I dont' want any fanpoppers to get the wrong idea. Please don't contact us about username changes!
Many users are interested in the reporting system. Does all reported content get viewed by
moderators before it's deleted or is a part of it automated?
papa:We have a bunch of measures in place. There are some automated components and some manual. For most instances where a user reports something, we do have some human intervention involved.
I will say that there's long long list of reasons why something might be removed which includes, but is not limited to: offensive comments, nonsensical/incomprehensible content, miscategorized content, spam content, duplicate/repeat content, etc.
If the user who created a piece of content, for instance, requests their contribution be removed, we'll remove it (for whatever reason). So if you posted a pick and you later regreted it - but it's a perfectly legitimate pick - we'll remove it if you report it.
This situation happens a lot where a user might post a pick and the comments gets out of hand.
In the case of miscategorized content, that covers a lot of situtations. For instance a pick that's really just a declaration such as "Hey vote for Hermione in the Potter vs. Twilight Club!" isn't really a legitimate pick. If a user wants to announce something of this sort they should really use the forums or the wall. Also personal questions are generally regarded as "miscategorized". For instance "What's my favorite Star Wars movie?" as a quiz questions is best left for a personal fanpop user club and not for the Star Wars club.
I could go on and on, but you get the point. There's usually some rhyme or reason behind what we do. But it's true we'll also make mistakes from time to time as well. Hopefully not many, but we are dealing with incredibly large nubmers of reported items.
Are you content with the reporting system as it currently is or do you think it needs
improvement?
papa:I don't think we're ever content with something on the site. Our hope is to improve things as time goes on.
Earlier when the audience was smaller I do feel that the reporting system was used more appropriately and more judiciously by the fanpop community. Also, the Fanpop team had a lot more time to go through every individual item and more carefully and try to fix things that had problems or were mistcategorized rather than outright delete things.
It seems that these days there is a little more malicious reporting (by a small minority of users of course, the majority are still legitimately helping police the site). I see a lot more "retaliatory" user reporting for instance.
Here's one tip: We'll take a report a lot more seriously when there's a note supplied by the reporting user identifying or specifying some misdeed or problem over a report that doesn't indicate what the problem is.
Also, some users think it necessary to report an item multiple times (this really isn't necessary and if anything makes us wonder if the reporter is spamming the moderation tool).
So yes, the moderation measures do help in general but there's always room for improvement.
Many fans were sad when the rating trophy disappeared from their profiles. Is there any
hope left or should they move on?
papa:I can never say never (no, I'm not a Justin Bieber fan!), but it's unlikely. HOWEVER, you remember what I said about caps earlier? I don't think it would be too surprising to see something that fills the void of the rating trophy in the future. I'm not guaranteeing anything, of course, just sayin'...
Something else that popped up quite often in the suggestion forum was the thought of giving
very responsible users some "moderator"-powers, so they could help remove spam faster.
What are your thoughts on that?
papa:This is a great idea. And, in fact, we have a small cadre of trusted vets that have helped and continue to help us with this.
I will admit that in the past, when we had much, much closer contact with the other fanpoppers it was easier for us to identify people to help us out with this. As the site got larger and more unwieldly to manage we've had to spend more and more time just maintaining the site and keeping things working (which resulted - unfortunately - in less time to interact with the fanpop community :-(
What we need to do is figure out a way to expand this role on the site without causing mass chaos to ensue (my only big fear is that someone goes a little crazy with any "extra powers" they might be given).
However, we're open to suggestions and ideas on how to handle this. So feel free to pm me or Dave on this.
Would you like to tell us something about the "mysterious" fanpop moderators? About how many are there and what is their job?
papa:I alluded to it above. We essentially have a small cadre of trusted vets who can help us out by editing content, updating club banners/icons, moving miscategorized content etc.
How long do you usually talk about an idea before it's established?
papa:It depends on the idea. Some ideas have been floating around on our project list for years. Others just kinda pop up and seem easy enough that we do it within a matter of days.
The caps feature is one that we had wanted to do for at least a year or more.
Removing the 5-star rating system and going to a simple "I'm a fan of it" is also something we'd talked about for years. Eventually we ran some stats on the accumulated ratings we had and realized pretty much everyone was just voting everything as 5-stars. So it seemed pretty clear that offering a 5-scale system didnt' make much sense at that point.
How strict are you when it comes to users having more than one account? Do you ban them or is this something that's accepted when it's not used to do mischief?
papa:Oh boy. I'm gonna get in trouble for this! Here's the deal. As long as no mischief is being made, we're likely to let people do what they need to do. Multiple accounts for reporting other users or ballot stuffing on picks or for spamming purposes will raise the ire of the moderators.
I've actually seen instances of fanpoppers who report themselves and/or abuse themselves with other accounts. Needless to say this is not a good habit and will get you banned.
It's probably all top secret, but can you tell us a little about what you're working on right now, what we can look forward to?
papa:We're knee deep in something we call "Project Green Unicorn" ;-)
I could tell you what it is, but I'd have the investors all over me. And we can't go doing that.
Anything else you'd like to say to us Fanpop Users?
papa:I'll just take a chance to thank all the great fanpoppers out there for helping make the site what it is. We still enjoy working on Fanpop b/c the fans are so crazy, passionate and inspiring. If there's any feedback you have for us please send your suggestions our way. We're all about improving things!
Thank you so much for taking the time to answer these questions, papa!
