Battling a Rising User Count
Kitsu has been known by its users for being hands-off, except when we're needed. With the KitsuCore being merged into one document for all services that Kitsu runs, we ensure that our policies are fair for users while preventing bad actors from spoiling the party for our users.
I have been monitoring what I call the Moderation Ratio- that is, how many users there are for each administrator. Currently, this ratio sits at about 1:329 for myself, while my administrators are sitting at about 1:106, on average, and for KitsuChat Kitsu's matrix service, this is sharply rising.
While having 550 accounts on all of my platforms is a truly amazing feat - Something I never thought I would ever accomplish! - It's also made a bit of a problem for my storage and moderation capability.
Dealing with rising numbers, with more numbers
The first way Kitsu worked to overcome this burden was to enlist some help. Ferny and Senhara, two awesome friends of mine, answered my plea, whom I cherish for their generosity. Outside the communities, I also have a fair share of friends who share bad actors between each other. This has helped me get my numbers back into a manageable state and has prevented me from closing the doors on one of my communities.
" Howdy folks! Looks like my moderation ratio is soon going to reach 1:100.
What does this mean for me?
KitsuGay has many friends now! I'm super excited, but also really, really anxious. This means.. Well, good news and bad news.
the good news: KitsuGay needs a new moderator, and it could be you! Veteran users, fedimaids, and those ready to step up to the plate are encouraged to message me on Matrix.
the bad news: Until i get that moderation ratio back down to 1:50, i'll be rather uncomfortable accepting new registrations. 1:100 will be our limit, at which i will be promptly closing registrations.
- Posted on 6/18/23, Link [NSFW]
Even still, having gone over our original "comfort cap" here on both KitsuClub, Chat, and KitsuGay, I still look quite fondly upon the community that I had first-hand created.
It helped, but only for a little.
Getting more people to help with moderation did buy us some time to get our numbers back down; managing to get the moderation ratio to 1:45, but we're now sitting at 1:106 once again, in two months. So, what's the next idea? Finding staff was incredibly difficult, as I wanted to find people who were going to irk nobody.
Then it struck. Those numbers are inflated.
Well, not fully inflated, but there were many accounts that were silenced due to one of our administrative policies, or from accounts that were created and never used. With that, Kitsu has begun following a measure called "Account Atrophy".
Account atrophy has the same premise as muscle or ticket atrophy; if you don't use your account for a long period of time, then you'll lose your account. There are certain accounts that Kitsu will not delete - for example, users who let us know they're taking a break, or users who pay for a subscription.
If you've been sitting with an account you signed up for and never used, or an account that you've neglected, then it'll be removed after 1 month, or 3 months, respectively; though this may fluctuate.
Before then, you might find an email in your inbox giving you a two-week warning; which is Kitsu's standard for warnings and corrections.