Daily Jolt alters forum policies

The student administrators of the JHU Daily Jolt forum (http://www.jhu.dailyjolt.com) announced Saturday that they will follow a stricter moderation policy, which will include deleting posts that contain pornography, racial or ethnic slurs, and student names.

The administrators are also considering including partial IP addresses with posts, and are soliciting feedback as to whether or not to eliminate anonymous posting.

According to student administrator Raaid Ahmad, the changes were handed down by the Daily Jolt headquarters, which oversees the student administrators, or "Jolters," at 95 college campuses across the country. After receiving scores of complaints about slanderous and defamatory postings, the Daily Jolt headquarters suggested a stricter, more consistent policy for the JHU forum.

"The complaints reached a critical mass in the last month or so," Ahmad said. "The [JHU] forum receives three to four complaints a day, which is three times more than the number of complaints from all the other campuses combined."

Kendra Grimes, vice president of Daily Jolt, Inc., said the Daily Jolt policy itself has not changed.

"All of our schools are under the same blanket policy," Grimes said. "Each chooses to moderate in their own style under that policy. Some don't have to do a lot of moderating. Hopkins has always been a hotbed for everything; the [Hopkins] Jolters seem to have a much harder time."

The blanket policy forbids harassment, threats, content harmful to minors, content in violation of federal or state law, and content that breaches intellectual property or privacy rights of third parties. The policy also forbids "spamming," through which users post the same message in multiple areas or otherwise deliberately disrupt the forums. The policy states that the Daily Jolt reserves the right to delete or edit posts, or to block users who violate forum rules.

In the past, JHU Jolters were more lax about enforcing the policy, according to Ahmad.

Violations of policy were handled on a case by case basis; posts were not deleted unless a valid complaint was lodged. Students have always been able to report posts that violate policy, and posts can be "ranked down" if enough users rate them as offensive. According to student administrator George Telonis, students rarely use this option.

"When posts are voted on, we see them on our watch list; it brings them to our attention," Telonis said. "I wish students would use it more often. It doesn't happen as often as you would think it would, with the number of people that complain."

Ahmad said that while he was satisfied with the status quo, the decision is ultimately up to headquarters.

"I'm pretty liberal on the issue," Ahmad said. "An open forum would be completely okay with me. But we're privately owned, and as employees, we need to make the forum a much stricter place."

According to Ahmad, there are a handful of users responsible for the objectionable material inciting complaints. These "trolls" are more mischievous than malicious, said Ahmad.

"They hang around and post random comments because they are bored and like to have fun," Ahmad said. "People get irritated, and a lot take them too seriously. Any public forum shouldn't be taken seriously."

Both Ahmad and Grimes said that posts regarding the recent student deaths may have spurred the spike in complaints.

"The recent deaths probably pushed [the complaint level] over the edge," Ahmad said. "Complaints have always been just sizzling; now they're boiling over."

Until now, users have been able to post as an anonymous "guest," without a username, e-mail address, or any other identifying information listed on the post. The Daily Jolt privacy policy states that although it monitors IP addresses, it does not use them to identify posters unless necessary to enforce rules or required by law.

The administrators are now considering using partial IP addresses -- "resnet.jhu.edu," for example -- along with posts so that users can tell whether the poster is on campus or not, or whether the same poster is repeatedly posting in the same thread.

Grimes said the measure will provide accountability and create more consistency and fairness among users.

"You're less likely to post something slanderous or illegal," said Grimes. "It will also help others feel more comfortable if other users are at the same level of accountability; right now, posters who use their username are contending with others who are posting anonymously."

The JHU Jolters are awaiting feedback from users as to whether or not to do away with anonymous posting completely. In this format, all posts would include a username and e-mail address. Ahmad said that while about 70 percent of feedback is for the removal of anonymous posting, he would prefer to keep the option.

"If it was up to me, I would keep things the way they are," said Ahmad. "In some forums, like the relationship or politics forums, posters don't want their name associated with certain comments."

If the JHU Daily Jolt decides to eliminate anonymous posting, it will be the first school to do so, according to Grimes. The JHU Jolters hope to keep anonymous posting, and are increasing vigilance and reinforcing standing policies in an attempt to avoid the measure; the staff has hired two new members to help monitor forum activity.

As the Daily Jolt is a private company, the University has no say in its operation. But University spokesman Glenn Small said, "Although the University has no influence over the Daily Jolt, we certainly support any changes that would add to the accuracy and civility of posts and their forum."

Telonis is pleased with the outcome of the recent measures, and hopes the positive trend will continue.

"We've had an increase in users in the last week or so," he said. "I think people are realizing that the forum is not as bad as they thought it was."