From healthy communities to toxic debates: Disqus’ changing ideas about comment moderation

Figures & data

Table 1. Blog posts per year.

year	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
#	31	71	78	61	23	42	39	39	25	55	44	38	46	45	9

Table 2. Moderation-related keywords.

Keywords

moderat (132), admin (67), approv (28), ban |bann (33), blacklist (5), block (31), catch (37), delet (36), filter (45), flag (30), identify (59), kick (27), remov (48), report (80), restrict (16), rule (32), timeout (7), whitelist (6), featured (45), reputation (24), trust (66), verified (11), harass (6), spam (63), toxic (9), troll (29), downvot (14), upvot (30).

Figure 1. Blog posts with and without moderation keywords per year.

Figure 2. Moderation-related keywords in the blog posts per year. Figure created with the assistance of Martina Schories.

Table

In-text citation	URL
DB-2007-04	https://web.archive.org/web/20101015210512/ http://blog.disqus.net/2007/04/10/bhl-presents/
DB-2007-08	https://web.archive.org/web/20090604212722/ http:/blog.disqus.net/2007/08/28/beta-opens-up-some-more-plus-new-changes/
DB-2007-10	https://web.archive.org/web/20100213051448/ http://blog.disqus.net/2007/10/30/disqus-launches-in-public-beta/
DB-2007-11	https://web.archive.org/web/20100409101246/ http://blog.disqus.net/2007/11/20/tickets-tracking-trolling-and-turkey/
DB-2007-12	https://web.archive.org/web/20100606013706/ http://blog.disqus.net/2007/12/07/on-content-ownership-or-how-disqus-received-a-lawsuit-threat/
DFAQ-2007	https://web.archive.org/web/20071226063520/ http://disqus.com/faq/
DB-2008-03a	https://web.archive.org/web/20100220192444/ http:/blog.disqus.net/2008/03/14/disqus-releases-beta-2-%e2%80%93-new-features-lots-of-bug-fixes-improved-performance/
DB-2008-03b	https://web.archive.org/web/20100615060933/ http://blog.disqus.net/2008/03/10/what-if-anonymous-comments-were-illegal/
DB-2008-03c	https://web.archive.org/web/20101111172122/ http://blog.disqus.net/2008/03/25/statistics-on-verified-profiles/
DB-2009-03	https://web.archive.org/web/20100511091655/ http://blog.disqus.net/2009/03/26/upgraded-interface-and-performance/
DB-2009-09	https://web.archive.org/web/20100516232100/ http://blog.disqus.net/2009/09/01/guide-new-moderation/
DB-2012-03	https://web.archive.org/web/20120315211302/ http://blog.disqus.com/post/18875154463/the-all-new-disqus-moderation-introducing-user
DB-2012-05	https://web.archive.org/web/20120526000359/ http://blog.disqus.com/post/23634202841/d12-the-next-steps
DB-2012-06	https://web.archive.org/web/20120625100051/ http://blog.disqus.com/post/25017922977/the-new-disqus-2012
DB-2014-01	https://blog.disqus.com/commenter-spotlight-hamish-lamont
DB-2014-08	https://blog.disqus.com/3-tips-for-sparking-rich-discussions-in-your-community-ft.-nikki-of-styling-you
DB-2016-04a	https://blog.disqus.com/are-you-doing-moderation-all-wrong
DB-2016-04b	https://blog.disqus.com/what-if-microsofts-tay-bot-was-unleashed-in-your-community
DB-2016-04c	https://blog.disqus.com/4-best-practices-for-integrating-community-guidelines-in-your-site
DB-2016-05	https://blog.disqus.com/when-does-moderation-become-censorship
DB-2016-06	https://blog.disqus.com/user-blocking-is-now-available-on-disqus
DB-2016-07	https://blog.disqus.com/disqus-hacks-the-roadmap-june-2016-recap
DB-2017-02	https://blog.disqus.com/our-commitment-to-fighting-hate-speech
DB-2017-04	https://blog.disqus.com/first-steps-to-curbing-toxicity
DB-2017-05	https://blog.disqus.com/introducing-shadow-banning-and-timeouts
DB-2017-08	https://blog.disqus.com/developing-toxicity-fighting-technology-at-disqus
DB-2017-12	https://blog.disqus.com/disqus-and-zeta