Life As An OkCupid Moderator

HUFFINGTON POST - Oct 22 - Christopher Cantwell never asked to become a moderator of online dating site OkCupid. Many OkCupid moderators are pulled from the site’s userbase and just six months after signing up for the singles site. They review posts flagged by OkCupid users and are tasked with marking the profiles “deleted,” “left alone” or “can’t tell.” Moderators can see comments from other moderators and how they ruled on an issue, but not who those moderators are or what ultimately happened to each of the posts in question.

Q: What did you have to do to become qualified to be a moderator?
A: Absolutely nothing.  They notified me that I had been made a moderator.

Q: What kinds of things do you see getting flagged?
A: Users can flag a profile and then the profile gets put into what’s basically a queue for the moderators to go through. And most of it is kind of frivolous.

Q: It’s remarkable that people have access to private messages, in some cases, and get to weigh in on them.
A: Yes, it is.

Q: What have you learned about people since being a moderator on OkCupid?
A: I’ve learned that people are nitpicking and if they see something they don’t like, they’ll flag it for no good reason.

Q: What’s the strangest thing you’ve seen during your time as a moderator?
A: I’ve seen some nude photos, but I’m no stranger to that, and I’ve seen scammers.

Q: What would you do when you came across something illegal?
A: In the case of child porn, we would contact the FBI.

by Bianca Bosker
See full article at Huffington Post

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Comments

[Mark Brooks]

I understand OKCupid wanting to draw moderators from its userbase. That makes a lot of sense, despite privacy concerns. However I cannot comprehend them doing it without their opt-in? What am I missing?

[Online Dating in several flavours]

You can't over emphasise the importance of profile checking. It may be a chore but it's integral to the quality of the site.

Seems a bit odd to be simply notified that you've become a moderator but judging by the description in the article it appears this is a novel way of reducing the administrative overhead a little by weeding out the obvious undesireables, leaving the "can't tell" ones to more experienced moderators.

[JB]

I find and report about 5 fake "widower" profiles on Match everyday. They're fairly easy to pick out and the profile is always gone within a day. I just wonder how these profiles get past the so called first line people that let them get put up to begin with? Who approves these ridiculously easy to spot fakes?