Concerning Community Moderation and Foldit

Started by inkycatz

inkycatz Lv 1

Hello community,
I wanted to address a specific incident this weekend surrounding a volunteer moderator releasing potentially sensitive information in our chat system.

Our volunteer moderators are exclusively drawn from the community at large for being long term involved members that we can trust to deal with community issues, and we know how important maintaining that trust is. Please note the volunteer moderator responsible is no longer part of our volunteer team, and all the remaining volunteer moderators have been reminded of our policies and instructed on handling feedback regarding moderation. You may also contact me at any time to discuss actions taken by our volunteer moderators.

We remind our community that our community guidelines are posted here:
http://fold.it/portal/communityrules

We also expect all of community moderators to uphold these standards, as well as be trustworthy citizens of our community. Furthermore, we expect them to treat all Foldit community members with respect even in difficult interactions, as well as IP addresses they may be able to see as a result of moderating chat tools in IRC. Foldit uses IRC to manage its in-game chat. Anyone may connect to our IRC server either through game or through external IRC clients. IRC makes all chat participants' IP addresses public by default.

We want Foldit to be a place of good science and trust, and apologize for the damage that has been done to your trust as players as a result of this incident. We rely on our community to help make Foldit a better place to be, solve science problems, and promote a safe and collaborative atmosphere.

As always, my message box is open to your feedback and concerns at any time regarding Foldit, our volunteer moderators, and community suggestions.

We can't do this without your help, and I appreciate everyone who has taken the time to post and email me about this matter.

  • Nova "inkycatz" Barlow

(edited to add contact links)

inkycatz Lv 1

I have edited in additional information regarding our chat system:
Foldit uses IRC to manage its in-game chat. Anyone may connect to our IRC server either through game or through external IRC clients. IRC makes all chat participants' IP addresses public by default.

spmm Lv 1

I have now read the log files and viewed the image of the offensive email on reddit, I fully support your actions.

I would like to suggest that a notification on the use of IRC be included in the Guidelines and the Terms and Conditions.

The surprise and subsequent concern of the new folders about exposed IP addresses in IRC has been voiced before, although it should be noted that the IP shown usually belongs to the Internet Service Provider and further lookups do not directly expose much more than a geographical region. Web based chat services can mask the IP completely.

spmm

inkycatz Lv 1

That's a fantastic suggestion and one that shouldn't be too difficult to implement. (And since we send a lot of people to the wiki, there too.)

leetdood Lv 1

IRC can mask IP addresses. I'm surprised you haven't set that up already. Most major IRC networks have it set up.

inkycatz Lv 1

The FAQ (http://fold.it/portal/info/faq) has been updated with the following passage:
Foldit uses IRC to manage its in-game chat. Anyone may connect to our IRC server either through game or through external IRC clients. IRC makes all chat participants' IP addresses public by default. In most cases all that can be easily determined is who the person's ISP is and possibly the state and city they reside in.

Q: Okay, so how can I turn off chat?
A: Community member jeff101 has written two great posts about this topic, located here.

We are currently reviewing the Terms of Service and Consent to determine what language changes (if any) are needed.