Nip it in the Bud: Moderation Strategies in Open Source Software Projects and the Role of Bots

TL;DR

This paper explores moderation strategies in open source software communities, highlighting the roles of human moderators and bots, and offers insights to improve moderation effectiveness and automation.

Contribution

It characterizes moderation practices and content in OSS projects, and discusses how automation and bots can support moderation efforts.

Findings

Moderation involves diverse strategies and community norms.

Bots can assist in conflict mitigation and content moderation.

Practitioners recommend automation to enhance moderation efficiency.

Abstract

Much of our modern digital infrastructure relies critically upon open sourced software. The communities responsible for building this cyberinfrastructure require maintenance and moderation, which is often supported by volunteer efforts. Moderation, as a non-technical form of labor, is a necessary but often overlooked task that maintainers undertake to sustain the community around an OSS project. This study examines the various structures and norms that support community moderation, describes the strategies moderators use to mitigate conflicts, and assesses how bots can play a role in assisting these processes. We interviewed 14 practitioners to uncover existing moderation practices and ways that automation can provide assistance. Our main contributions include a characterization of moderated content in OSS projects, moderation techniques, as well as perceptions of and recommendations for improving the automation of moderation tasks. We hope that these findings will inform the implementation of more effective moderation practices in open source communities.