So a few years ago, I was banned for inappropriate language. However, I did not know I said something inappropriate and that I was banned for a long time. I submitted a ban appeal, and got unbanned, but I still don't know what I said to get banned in the first place. I just would wish that in the future someone would get a notification that tells them they are banned and the reason why. If this feature does not exist, would you please implement it? Thanks!
Hi TimeStop,
Thanks for sharing this with us! This feedback is helpful for us as we continue to improve our moderation processes!
We've made several changes to our moderation workflows and procedures over the past few years, including improvements in training and banning practices.
Currently, active users with previous positive contributions should receive warning messages before being banned and an additional notification once they are banned, letting them know the reason for the ban and the duration.
The exception is when the user has few prior positive contributions to the community or for significant guideline violations (swearing, harassing other users, etc.). We've found that a notification of the ban tends to worsen the problem in these situations and could potentially cause even further harm to the community.
While I can't share any specific details about your case here, I will say that "inappropriate language" could mean several different things (swearing, sexually explicit content or innuendos, comments suggesting violence, etc.). In general, it's essential to keep in mind that Khan Academy is used by a wide range of audiences. As a result, it's crucial that all discussion posts be kept appropriate for a school environment.
Hopefully this helps clarify everything! Please let me know if you have any additional questions or concerns!
How is content determined if it should be banned? Is there an algorithm that looks for specific things and then removes the content or bans the user? Or does an team member look through all the comments? If an algorithm does moderate comments and such, I am assuming the inappropriate content does not get flagged for a moderator's attention because of how many flags there would be (I don't know how many you get, I'm just assuming). If the algorithm makes a mistake or an error occurs (this could happen, right?), a moderator wouldn't be able to tell.
I understand that sometimes alerting someone who violates the guidelines can lead to other dangers, but could you automatically email the user a screenshot of the exact message or program that caused the ban? Or could this still have a negative effect on the community? That way, the people who violated the guidelines, intentionally or not, will know exactly what they did wrong.
We generally offer warning messages for any minor issues with posts (off-topic, advertising, vote-soliciting, etc.), as well as for anything that is not explicitly stated in our guidelines. In general, the only thing that could lead to a ban without a prior warning is inappropriate comments (swearing, harassment, bullying, etc.). If you make a post like this that leads to a ban, you would definitely know what the post was.
Otherwise, we do generally include links to comments or quotes from a user's post when notifying them of their ban and the reason for it. This allows them to better understand what exactly they did wrong so they can avoid the same behavior in the future.
We do have an algorithm that looks for potentially inappropriate and low quality comments, but it will not automatically delete or ban without human intervention in order to prevent users from accidentally being banned. However, sometimes content can be automatically hidden while it is waiting review from our moderation team.
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