Moderation and adherence to norms

Main article: Political systems

Effective governance under a ratings system will work best if an attitude of moderation prevails. Moderation is often the path to better discussion, decision making, and social harmony. We could even argue that democratic systems can only survive if the polity is moderate, both in temperament and policy. A democratic majority that favors genocide, and then implements it, is not a democracy.

Moderation means that people’s views tend to cluster around the mean and that they are willing to compromise. It also means that there is widespread support for a fundamental ideology (ie people have basic rights, etc.) even if they diverge on specific issues of policy. By moderation we don’t necessarily mean that we can’t take unpopular or unconventional positions. It means that we don’t hew to them so strongly that it gets in the way of compromise.

A rating for moderation should be part of our system. Those who strive for it should be rewarded with a specific rating or grouping of ratings that all point toward moderate tendencies. Usually moderation manifests itself in policy-making but clues to how moderate someone is willing to be can often be found in their writing and debate style. Furthermore there are those who instinctively try to blend divergent opinions together and forge compromise. They would be given the highest ratings in this category. We believe in moderation as a principle, not only because of its power to generate compromise but because of its power to assuage.

In policy decisions, reminding users of issue complexity benefits our goal of moderation. Once it is clear that there are multiple legitimate interests and various facets of a policy decision, people generally become more moderate in their views. Building in readily available educational content and perhaps a time-delay for responses can help members digest complex issues without responding hastily or in anger.

It is possible that AI can be used to vet user responses for extreme or inappropriate content. It can also judge the tone of the response in terms of appropriateness, open-mindedness, etc. and provide some insights into how content can be modified accordingly.

Moderation is a norm. Treating each other politely and with respect is another one. Society depends on a large number of culturally enforced norms. Some of them are codified into law but it is impossible to do this for all of them, and probably not desirable. Therefore norms need to be enforced. Fortunately the ratings system is designed to handle this type of amorphous characteristic.