By adrian on

Some notes on the building of CodeZoo

Last week, O'Reilly (where I work) launched a new site called CodeZoo, which is a directory of free, reusable components for software projects. The launch was a big success, with an instant Slashdotting and a lot of fantastic feedback from early users, and Jason suggested I write up some of the things we learned while doing the project.

A very interesting point (I thought) was about the "playing dead" model :

We used Joel Spolsky's "playing dead" model for inappropriate user submissions -- a user who submits a tip or review will always see it on the site immediately, but other users won't see it unless and until it is approved by the moderators. If the submission is abusive or inappropriate, the submitter will think they've succeeded in spamming or subverting the site, but no one else has to worry about that. Suffice it to say this has already been a huge help. You have to assume people will try to use any community software to spam or otherwise misuse the system; playing dead is a great way to minimize the harm of that misuse.

Comments

geokker’s picture

geokker commented

I can see how that would be frustrating for bonafide posters unless the moderators are on their toes and approve quickly. This also presumes that the spammer will 'go away' when he/she sees the successful post. Perhaps the spammer might continue posting spam encouraged by the instant approval and effectively spam the moderators.