Grave digger.

Ok, let me weigh in with my opinion on the “gravedigger” phenomena.

In my opinion, any topic that has not been locked is fair game for replies. Having said that, you might mistakenly think that I’m advocating locking topics, but that’s not the case either.

I think there is a place for locking topics. For instance, the A/S/L topic might have been a good one to lock, since it got a lot of people pissed off.

But generally, I believe that communities should maintain a light touch.

I actually enjoy seeing some of these old topics “dug up” to see fresh discussion. If someone digs one up only to add “yeah, me too” to a topic, it annoys me, but that behavior can be usually be shaped by use of the reputation tool. A few negative reps for crappy posts and people tend to get the message. It’s even better if the reputation comes from people outside the staff!

Leaving a light touch on the moderation has allowed some of the newer social networks to thrive. Digg, Flickr, and MySpace are all largely self-governed.

I’ll add with this thought (and hopefully I’m not jinxing BBB)… we’ve been very fortunate in that we haven’t had a lot of troublesome members. I think it’s to the credit of the entire staff — stamping out spam, making their presence known, and encouraging the good kind of posts and members — that has kept BigBlueBall rolling smoothly.

And now, if you’ll excuse me… I have some gravedigging to do… 😉