This a collaborative post on the project Ricarose Roque and I have been working on:

Interview Protocol for Moderators
To understand the perspective of community moderators, which includes a full-time online community coordinator, we plan to interview one or two members of the moderation team. We frame our interview questions using our project’s three research questions (listed below). To make our conversations concrete, we plan to ask moderators to identify two-to-three examples of particularly challenging scenarios of moderation specifically around civic engagement of Scratch community members. Below is our interview protocol for moderators organized around background questions, specific examples, and looking ahead.

Research Questions for the Interview

When young people use a media creation and sharing community to engage in civic discourse and expression with their community and their peers, what does that look like?
How does this effect the community (members + moderators + parents/educators) ?
What lessons can we distill from these narratives for designers of youth communities to balance personal expression and community well-being?

Background Questions

How did you join the Scratch online community?
How would you describe the Scratch online community?
How would you describe your role in the Scratch online community?
How did you get involved in moderation?
How would you describe moderation in the Scratch online community?

Diving into Examples

Pick 2 – 3 challenging examples specifically around civic engagement of Scratch community members.
For each example,
- Describe what happened.
  - How did it come about?
  - Who was involved?
  - What was challenging about this issue?
- How was this issue resolved?
  - Were other people involved in thinking about this issue?
  - How did the people involved react?
  - How did the rest of the community respond?
  - Was there reactions from parents/educators?
  - Did it have other implications beyond the issue, such as general community policies?
- Why did you choose this example?

Looking Ahead

How have your thoughts and views about the community changed over time?
What do you see are challenges as the community becomes larger and more diverse?
What would you recommend for other community moderators across other online spaces for young creators?