Regifting, Plugins and Yahoo! Moderating and customising large Yahoo! groups

Introduction Background on Regifting Background on Edward Key Issues Plugins Futures Wishlist

Background on Regifting Free no-strings-attached gifts –Anything which could go in landfill –Sofas, computers, nappies, Giant African Land-snails… Freecycle is long-standing Groups user –Since May 2003 –4,676 groups with 6,385,000 memberships –70 countries

Background on Regifting Other smaller Networks –ReUseIt: 495 groups –RealCycle: 49 groups –FullCircles:15 groups Groups differ –Rules –Geographical coverage –50 to 30,000 members –5 posts/week to 150 posts/day – vs Web access

Background on Edward Goal: improve Yahoo! experience for members and moderators of (primarily) Freecycle groups Freecycle –Moderator for Edinburgh, UK (21,000 members) –No official position in Freecycle hierarchy… –…but tools used by > 1000 groups with > 2.3 million members –Other volunteers (e.g. DBs and hosting) Day job: –Has it really been 19 years? –Manager and developer –Class 5 switch and next-generation phone services

Key Issues Moderators –Socially worthwhile but in practical terms dull –Lots of clicking / cutting and pasting –Enforcing group rules –Spammers –Bulk operations Members –Have to remember rules –Messages rejected –Busy groups

Plugins Two completely separate kinds –Both software installed into user browsers –Aimed at Freecycle plus other regifting networks For moderators ( –From late 2006 –Much is generic moderation function For members ( –From mid 2008 –Regifting-specific

Moderation Plugin Aims: –reduce moderation tasks to one click –easily enforce rules –spot abuse Features: –Pull content / actions into main pages –Standard messages to approve/reject –Summarise posting history, record member info –Colour-code bad subjects and worry words –Multiple Joiners and Spammer list –Crosspost checking –Bulk operations –…we could be here all day.

Moderation Plugin - Implementation Runs on moderators machine –Changes what Yahoos pages look like –HTTP requests under the covers –Does not republish content Firefox extension –No Internet Explorer, Safari, Chrome etc. Demo… Issues –No formal API –999 errors

Member Plugin Aims: –Get posts right from the start –Work easily with posts OFFER->TAKEN WANTED->RECEIVED Features: –Much simpler than Moderator Moderators configure per-group settings No member settings –Modified Post page –New My Posts page –Buttons

Member Plugin - Implementation Runs on members machine –Changes what pages look like –HTTP requests under the covers Firefox and Internet Explorer (so far) Demo… Issues: –They have to install it –No formal API

Futures My Freecycle –Dedicated website to host Freecycle groups –Google Ads –Now starting to go live; optional to move Inertia vs Enthusiasm Grassroots vs Organisation My unofficial take: –Most groups on Yahoo! into the future –But must improve experience for members

Wishlist Let us in! –Yahoo! as application delivery platform? –Geeks write code for free Members –Custom post page –Custom join questions –Better non-Yahoo! address support Moderators –Would kill for the above three. Really. –Otherwise we can get by, but… Subject rules to force message to Pending Prevent No Spammers/harvesters

Summary Dont forget we love Yahoo! Theres loads we could do Bang-for-buck: –tweaks not rewrites –top 5 items would do wonders