Flag and Flaggability in Automated Moderation: The Case of Reporting Toxic Behavior in an Online Game Community

Title of the Paper

Flag and Flaggability in Automated Moderation: The Case of Reporting Toxic Behavior in an Online Game Community

Paper Information

• Subject Area: Online community governance, particularly automated content moderation in esports games
• Keywords: Reporting mechanism, online community, automated moderation, gaming culture, toxic behavior, game fairness, League of Legends, community governance, social interaction, artificial intelligence

Research Background and Problem

• Problem or Challenge: On many online platforms, user reporting (flagging) serves as the first step in managing contentious content or toxic behavior. However, research on how these reporting mechanisms actually function and how users employ them remains insufficient, especially in automated moderation contexts.
• Significance: Understanding the practicality and social dynamics of reporting is crucial for improving platform governance and reducing harmful behavior. Additionally, the highly competitive nature of user behavior in esports gaming environments presents unique challenges to reporting practices.
• Motivation and Related Work: Existing literature focuses on the labor of human moderators or how platform rules shape behavior, but there is less attention on how ordinary users perceive and adapt to reporting mechanisms. This study aims to fill this research gap by exploring how users utilize reporting mechanisms to address toxic behavior in their communities.

Solution

• Proposed Solution: Through qualitative research, including interviews and forum data analysis, the authors investigate how the reporting mechanism is used by players in League of Legends (LoL). The study reveals a significant disconnect between the intended design of the reporting system and how players actually use it, introducing the concept of "Flaggability."
• Innovation: The concept of "Flaggability" highlights how players construct their own standards for reporting based on competitive culture, rather than adhering strictly to the official definitions of toxic behavior. The qualitative analysis also demonstrates how players’ reporting behaviors reflect their social interactions and emotional management strategies.
• Implementation Steps and Techniques:
  1. Data Collection: Semi-structured interviews with 35 LoL players were conducted to gather data on their reporting practices, complemented by analysis of approximately 111 forum posts and 2,053 related comments.
  2. Data Analysis: Thematic analysis was used to synthesize player experiences and identify key themes related to reporting practices.
  3. Concept Development: "Flaggability" is proposed as an effective theoretical tool to describe players' reporting practices.

Research Findings

• Specific Findings:
  1. Players’ distrust of the reporting mechanism stems primarily from a lack of feedback and transparency after submitting reports.
  2. Players construct reporting standards based on "Flaggability," treating behaviors that are unhelpful to game outcomes as reportable, beyond the official definitions of toxic behavior.
  3. Players discuss and organize reporting within the game to increase the likelihood of punishment.
• Advantages: Compared to existing solutions, this study uncovers the social complexities of reporting mechanisms and emphasizes how design flaws in these systems reflect the cultural characteristics of competitive environments.
• Experimental or Evaluation Results:
  • Reporting behaviors reflect players’ prioritization of winning and high expectations for team members’ conduct. These practices include not only reporting toxic behavior but also actions that conflict with players’ game objectives, such as failing to follow the game’s "meta" (mainstream strategies).
• Limitations and Future Directions:
  1. Limitations: The study’s data is limited to players in North America and may not be generalizable to global audiences or other types of online communities; it does not address the downstream effects of reporting or the overall moderation process.
  2. Future Directions: Explore reporting behaviors across different cultural contexts, investigate how reporting mechanisms can enhance community engagement, and design more transparent and socially integrated reporting systems.

Design Implications

• Improving Transparency: Increase the visibility of reporting data, such as providing detailed feedback mechanisms to inform players about the outcomes and progress of their reports.
• Emotional Support Design: Develop emotionally supportive information systems for both reporters and reported individuals to reduce emotional burdens.
• Enhancing Community Participation: Allow users to transition from reporting to higher levels of community governance, such as through trusted reporter programs.
• Optimizing Behavior Classification: Refine toxic behavior classifications to better reflect players’ actual experiences and incorporate the concept of "Flaggability" to more effectively capture user behavior.

References

A list of relevant references is provided at the end of the paper, offering further insights into online community moderation and player behavior research.