I do insist on kids using their real names, but only on our private server at school. We all need to know who we're interacting with in a class situation, and I think it helps cut down on griefing somewhat.
We don't really insist that people use real names as long as they are known to be colleagues, and as Beth said, we don't want a griefer whitelisted on our community. Please tell Redstone Dakota s/he is welcome as someone who has been highly recommended to us.
Hi Maha, as Vance and Beth said we like to use real names here as a community like this can attract people who are just in it 'for the clicks'. They may join the community and then spam it will links to their YouTube videos for the ad revenue.
From a gamer perspective you have an interesting question. In the game world I'm not Jeff Kuhn - my identities are tied up in other names. Students may have nicknames, handles, or Gamertags in the gaming community that are more recognizable in those spaces than their real name is. So for me I tell my students to give me their preferred name whether it is real or their Gamertag but they have to stick to that one name for the course. I think it is important to let the student have that agency in how they are identified.
Here's the real problem we co-moderators must deal with, not only as moderators of a session but of a community. Perhaps you, as valued members of our community, can advise of what to do about it.
We are trying to avoid being annoyed by the kind of gamer Jeff mentions in his comment, and early in our community, when we allowed everyone in, we had to delete postings that were clearly not in accord with our agenda, which is to learn about gamification through Minecraft, and share what we learn academically.
As our community is ongoing, we get requests to join it throughout the year, and we have to judge if the entity wanting to join is likely to be one of us or not. We click on the profiles, but often there is little there to go on, as we do not yet share circles, and the profile might be a very private one.
If there is anything there indicating something of an academic nature, that person will be accepted into our G+C. Sometimes there is something there, perhaps in the photos or videos visible through the profile, that can tell us whether the person's interests are likely to intersect with ours or not. Sometimes it's obvious whether or not to reject the person, and sometimes there is not much to go on.
So we placed the caveat in our profile that people wanting to join us must be identifiable. We say that this is because we can only award badges to real people, but it's in fact to avoid spammers and griefers whom we don't want white listed on our server.
We can accept people no matter what their profile name if we can know who they are really. It might be best for the community if we reject someone unknowingly who can then appeal that decision and when we understand why the person wants to join us, then it's no problem, they can re-apply. We just want to know who our community members are, and avoid reaching bad decisions that might cost us valuable time to repair later.
One solution is to ask questions on the Google form meant to tease out what we need to know about our new members. For example, is your profile under your real name? Some people say no, but where we ask for identification, they supply it, so it's no problem.
I hope you understand the dilemma and if you have any advice for us on how we can ensure the integrity of our community when we get applications from names that don't appear attached to identifiable people, we can adapt as the community wishes.
I do insist on kids using their real names, but only on our private server at school. We all need to know who we're interacting with in a class situation, and I think it helps cut down on griefing somewhat.
ReplyDeleteWe don't really insist that people use real names as long as they are known to be colleagues, and as Beth said, we don't want a griefer whitelisted on our community. Please tell Redstone Dakota s/he is welcome as someone who has been highly recommended to us.
ReplyDeleteHi Maha, as Vance and Beth said we like to use real names here as a community like this can attract people who are just in it 'for the clicks'. They may join the community and then spam it will links to their YouTube videos for the ad revenue.
ReplyDeleteFrom a gamer perspective you have an interesting question. In the game world I'm not Jeff Kuhn - my identities are tied up in other names. Students may have nicknames, handles, or Gamertags in the gaming community that are more recognizable in those spaces than their real name is. So for me I tell my students to give me their preferred name whether it is real or their Gamertag but they have to stick to that one name for the course. I think it is important to let the student have that agency in how they are identified.
Jeff, that makes sense--I like the idea of students choosing which they want to use and being consistent
ReplyDeleteHere's the real problem we co-moderators must deal with, not only as moderators of a session but of a community. Perhaps you, as valued members of our community, can advise of what to do about it.
ReplyDeleteWe are trying to avoid being annoyed by the kind of gamer Jeff mentions in his comment, and early in our community, when we allowed everyone in, we had to delete postings that were clearly not in accord with our agenda, which is to learn about gamification through Minecraft, and share what we learn academically.
As our community is ongoing, we get requests to join it throughout the year, and we have to judge if the entity wanting to join is likely to be one of us or not. We click on the profiles, but often there is little there to go on, as we do not yet share circles, and the profile might be a very private one.
If there is anything there indicating something of an academic nature, that person will be accepted into our G+C. Sometimes there is something there, perhaps in the photos or videos visible through the profile, that can tell us whether the person's interests are likely to intersect with ours or not. Sometimes it's obvious whether or not to reject the person, and sometimes there is not much to go on.
So we placed the caveat in our profile that people wanting to join us must be identifiable. We say that this is because we can only award badges to real people, but it's in fact to avoid spammers and griefers whom we don't want white listed on our server.
We can accept people no matter what their profile name if we can know who they are really. It might be best for the community if we reject someone unknowingly who can then appeal that decision and when we understand why the person wants to join us, then it's no problem, they can re-apply. We just want to know who our community members are, and avoid reaching bad decisions that might cost us valuable time to repair later.
One solution is to ask questions on the Google form meant to tease out what we need to know about our new members. For example, is your profile under your real name? Some people say no, but where we ask for identification, they supply it, so it's no problem.
I hope you understand the dilemma and if you have any advice for us on how we can ensure the integrity of our community when we get applications from names that don't appear attached to identifiable people, we can adapt as the community wishes.