Vector Image of Jasen BalmatEMPOWERING COMMUNITY MODERATORS TO MAKE VALUES-BASED DECISIONS
Jasen Balmat, OkCupid

Working in tandem with scripted filtration tools, moderators act as gate-keepers. Often under-paid and poorly supported, community moderators work invisibly at the heart of the social community. Each day, these individuals make thousands of judgement calls on behalf of the community they serve. At their best, community moderators provide personal care and an attention to detail which enriches each community member’s experience on an individual level. Their careful decisions contribute to a sense of safety and well-being that is the hallmark of a healthy community.

About the Speaker

Online moderation teams serve in online communities as arbiters of codes of conduct. As members of the community they co-create, moderators are at a unique intersection in their communities. Able to both understand the way community members interact with one another and also guide the course of these interactions, moderators hold a potent and often invisible position in online communities.

Jasen Balmat, @jbalmat, is a visual artist turned tech-geek. He holds BFA from The Savannah College of Art and Design. As an advocate for safer online spaces, Jasen has worked for the past eight years to solve the complex problem of protecting individuals users on social dating sites. He currently leads the Community Moderation team at OkCupid. Jasen challenges his team to engage in values-based communication when determining appropriate conduct and behavior in an effort to foster complex understanding of the issues facing their community.


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