Editing MetaFilter (section)

==Moderation==
One of MetaFilter's founding tenets and an important factor in the "feel" of the site is the idea that the bulk of moderation is done through [[social norms]] and [[peer pressure]], referred to as "[[Industry self-regulation|self-policing]]" in a site [[tagline]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.metafilter.com/ |title=MetaFilter &#124; Community Weblog |access-date=November 22, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030205142917/http://www.metafilter.com/ |archive-date=February 5, 2003}}</ref> Posts that do not meet the community's standards for quality are often "called out" to '''MetaTalk''', an administrative area of the site, and interested members discuss how the post could have been improved, or, in some cases, ruthlessly mock the offender. (The community occasionally concludes, after discussion, that the call-out was unwarranted.) Moderators may step in and temporarily suspend an offending user's account, but this is rare; permanent bans are rarer still, and are generally reserved for spammers and other egregious abusers of the site. MetaTalk also sees particularly excellent posts called out for praise, and moderators regularly feature superlative contributions on the main page's sidebar.

For the site's first few years, this practice of self-policing ensured a high level of quality and allowed Haughey to use a light touch in moderating the site; however, as the community has grown, Haughey has expanded the site's staff and taken a more active role. In 2004, [[Jessamyn West (librarian)|Jessamyn West]] began assisting him with moderation duties; in 2007, user Josh Millard ("cortex") was appointed as an additional moderator. In 2008, [[London]] user Ricardo Vacapinta assumed off-hours moderator duties,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://metatalk.metafilter.com/16259/New-Overlord |title=New Overlord!! |publisher=MetaTalk.MetaFilter.com |date=May 18, 2008 |access-date=November 22, 2018 |archive-date=November 23, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181123022613/https://metatalk.metafilter.com/16259/New-Overlord |url-status=live }}</ref> and in April 2011 Jeremy Preacher (restless_nomad) came on to keep an eye on things over the weekend.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://metatalk.metafilter.com/20541/Everybodys-workin-on-the-weekend |title=Everybody's workin on the weekend |publisher=MetaTalk.MetaFilter.com |access-date=November 22, 2018 |archive-date=November 23, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181123065555/https://metatalk.metafilter.com/20541/Everybodys-workin-on-the-weekend |url-status=live }}</ref> A flagging feature allows members to call moderator attention to substandard, offensive, or outstanding posts, allowing users continued input towards shaping the site while quickly alerting site staff to potential trouble spots.

On May 19, 2014, Haughey announced that effective June 1, 2014, moderators West, LobsterMitten and goodnewsfortheinsane would be laid off from their positions due to a sudden and unexpected slump in traffic caused by updates to Google's [[Google Panda|Panda search algorithm]], which reduced ad revenue generated by Ask MetaFilter by more than 40%.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://metatalk.metafilter.com/23245/State-of-MetaFilter |publisher=MetaTalk.MetaFilter.com |title=State of MetaFilter |date=May 19, 2014 |access-date=November 22, 2018 |archive-date=November 23, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181123065544/https://metatalk.metafilter.com/23245/State-of-MetaFilter |url-status=live }}</ref>