Community Service Announcement: Pinned posts by mod-bot
I first posted about this quite some time ago, but many people have arrived after that, so I thought it might be useful to reiterate an announcement that I made in the past about the use of a moderation bot in the Popular STEM community.
You may have noticed that when I post in this community, the mod-bot account frequently pins my posts.
To be clear, this is not because I'm trying to give myself an advantage as a moderator/admin of the community. Rather, it's because of a service that mod-bot provides to anyone who posts in the community. In fact, you may have noticed that some past posts by @o1eh and @massola and others have also been pinned for the same reason.
@cmp2020 wrote the experimental code behind mod-bot about two years ago, and I have been running it for Popular STEM ever since then. I wrote more about it, here. Here's a summary of how it operates:
Now, we have a total of five available "pinned" slots that our authors can take advantage of for increased visibility.
- The top post in Popular STEM promoted posts
- The second post in Popular STEM promoted posts
- Cycles randomly through all other posts in Popular STEM promoted posts in proportion to the promotion amount.
- The post in the community with the highest @null beneficiary setting
- Randomly traverses through all other posts in the community with @null beneficiary in proportion to the beneficiary setting.
Because of the way that post-pinning works, these posts will appear in reverse-chronological order (newest to oldest).
In short, if a post in the community has a null beneficiary setting, or if it is promoted with SBDs (see here for the syntax), then it may be pinned in the community. The top-2 promoted and the top-1 @null beneficiary settings are always pinned. Beyond that, the likelihood of being pinned is proportionate to the size of the post promotion or beneficiary setting. The pinned posts are checked and rotated every 15 minutes.
Unlike Steemit's #burnsteem25 initiative, there is no minimum value to get a post pinned - either for post promotion or for the @null beneficiary setting (although mod-bot is capable of setting minimums, and that may be done in the future, if it seems appropriate).
Then and now, the idea was that authors can gain visibility in exchange for burning STEEM or SBD. I'm not generally a fan of burning for the sake of burning, but I think that burning in exchange for visibility or some other service is useful because it provides utility and increases scarcity.
So, the reason that my posts get pinned in the community isn't because I'm boosting myself as a moderator, but rather because I have beneficiary rewards set to go to @null and I promote my posts by sending SBDs to @null. Anyone can take advantage of this service (in this community).
The only caveat is that normal moderation rules still apply. If the post is spammy, off-topic, plagiarized, etc... it will be unpinned by a human moderator and it may also be muted in the community.
Another update that I haven't mentioned before is that I have also activated mod-bot in the Delaware Valley Life community, though I'm not aware of many currently active Steemizens in the Delaware Valley (South-Eastern PA, South Jersey, Northern Delaware, and North-Eastern Maryland), so use in that community is obviously limited.
There you have it. If anyone has been wondering about my pinned posts in the community, now you know.
Thank you for your time and attention.
As a general rule, I up-vote comments that demonstrate "proof of reading".
Steve Palmer is an IT professional with three decades of professional experience in data communications and information systems. He holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics, a master's degree in computer science, and a master's degree in information systems and technology management. He has been awarded 3 US patents.
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Greetings, @remlaps, I hope you and your close ones are well. I have to admit I also was confused about why some of my posts kept being pinned on the community, but now it all makes sense! Loved the idea, it's simple and effective. Life's been really full for the past few weeks, but one of my goals is to go back to creating Maker Educational Content, and you can be certain I'll adapt it to the Steemit format to also contribute in the Popular STEM community. Cheers :)
Hi, thanks for the reply!
Sorry for the confusion. I had a pinned post explaining for a long time, but then the other content in the post got outdated, so I unpinned it. I guess maybe I should add something in the community description/rules.
Looking forward to seeing your Maker educational content.
This is a great initiative. The mod-bot system adds fairness and transparency, ensuring that anyone in the Popular STEM community can benefit from increased visibility through promotions or null beneficiary settings. It’s also commendable that the system remains moderated, keeping the focus on quality content while supporting community growth.
Thanks for the feedback! I'm glad you like it. TBH, I'm surprised that more people haven't made use of it, given that a post can be pinned for 0.001 SBD promotion or a 1% beneficiary setting.
One useful AI idea for the chain would be a plagiarism/AI-detecting bot that goes from post to post, reviewing the levels of plagiarism and how much, if any, AI is in the writing. I believe folks would actually appreciate that kind of AI bot. I wish I had the know-how to implement these types of ideas, but I have zero clue.
We actually had this for a while. Writing the code wouldn't be too hard, but (AFAIK) it would require a paid subscription to access an API from one of the anti-plagiarism services. I suspect that it would be somewhat expensive to keep up with the posting volume.
I would like to see it, but someone would have to come up with the funding.
Also, it came with its own problems, because people were (IMO) overly aggressive with the downvotes when posts got tagged. It didn't always get it right, and even when it did, there are edge cases where it might be appropriate to copy things. Having the information is good, but the response needs to be proportionate.
Wow, what a great idea, love it!
Thanks! I thought it was a good idea, too. It's basically ready made Steem-based advertising with market-based competitive pricing 😉. So far it hasn't attracted much usage, but who knows what the future brings.
A couple of questions: How do we activate the mod-bot in our communities? Also, would it be possible to create a bot to assist in our #SteemitDailyJackpot and track voters who click at 100% and voters who comment and upvote; for tracking use in the weekly drawing? It's one thing that's starting to be a bit of a hassle as the program expands. I'd like to see if this is an option, and if so, what kind of cost would it be to get it going?
Upvoted. Thank You for sending some of your rewards to @null. It will make Steem stronger.
Thank you, @event-horizon!