Good morning folks... today we're launching our new (free, browser-based) game Trust & Safety Tycoon. Please go check it out. Everyone thinks they know how trust & safety should work, but very few have actually done the job. Now's your chance! https://trustandsafety.fun/
Not sure why the link didn't show, so let's try that again: https://trustandsafety.fun/
The game puts you in charge of a trust & safety team at a rapidly scaling social media startup. You have to make a bunch of tough calls on moderation decisions, but also make decisions about policies and resource allocation, all while trying to keep the site from descending into a cesspool.
Meanwhile, you're balancing a variety of interests, including keeping your team morale up, but also dealing with the demands of your boss, the CEO, who has their own incentives and demands. You also have to deal with the media, law enforcement, policymakers, and more.
You can read more about the game in my Techdirt blog post here, but we've been working on this game in some form for years, including conducting over 40 hours of interviews with dozens of trust & safety professionals. https://www.techdirt.com/2023/10/17/trust-safety-tycoon-try-your-hand-at-managing-a-social-media-trust-safety-team/
@mmasnick amazing timing today.
@mmasnick this is good!
@mmasnick Had a really fun time with this. Excellent little game. Here's my outcome: #TrustAndSafetyTycoon
Won via IPO and stayed to grow Yapper
Score: 1993
Rating:
@mmasnick I especially enjoyed the funding decisions. Really fun to consider the options and how it led to various forks.
@mmasnick Super fun. I, of course, bailed out early (score: 216) because of my slow moderation speed but my community was delighted with me.
@mmasnick Did it again and retired to a chalet with 1911 points. Phew that was a journey.
@mmasnick gotta include protocol (https://) for the link to embed
@mmasnick I'd recommend you go edit your first toot, so this nice link preview can embed there too. As someone else mentioned, you have to add the protocol (I agree with you that that should be unnecessary, but that's how it is) :)
@mmasnick Looks so much better in my boost!
@mmasnick #TrustAndSafetyTycoon
Won via IPO and stayed to grow Yapper
Score: 2044
Rating:
Play Now: https://trustandsafety.fun/
@derrickb that's a really good score!
@mmasnick This looks hella neat; I'm into year two right now.
One bit of constructive criticism: change "whitelist" to "allow list" (or some other alternative), given the problematic implications of the term elevating "white" to mean "allowed" or "correct". (It appears in the "controversial sports team name" item.)
@delfuego Good point. Will change...
@mmasnick Somewhat ironic that you launched this a day after that VC billionaire published his "manifesto" indicating that the ideas of trust and safety are ENEMIES!
@danyork @mmasnick A16z will soon release an EVM-based blockchain game called "Futurist Tycoon", a thinly-veiled pro-fascist retread of Axie Infinity, one of the projects they were hyping full-throatedly in 2021 before, well, you know, the free market happened to it:
https://a16z.com/announcement/investing-in-axie-infinity/
@mmasnick Thanks! I needed something for a few weeks from now - just added it to my syllabus for Social Computing at UNC Charlotte
@mmasnick
Too bad that so many of the social media platform owners think of the business their in of just being a game and that their decisions don't have a tremendous possibility of causing society great harm.
Thanx 4 making the Trust & Safety Game to help teach tech people about the impact of some of their decision.
@mmasnick Mike, the fact that this starts out with picking simplistic slogans is a real turnoff. A good reason I would never work for such a company!
Huh.
I apparently was terrible.
But I'm actually proud of the ethical way my 'team' worked. We took our ethos (Tech for Humanity) seriously and yeah our team speed took a serious hit. Sorry, KPIs.
But we dealt with bad actors with integrity and tried to bring clarity where we could.
(I'm really hoping the 'team' has a good manager next. I guess I'll take my severance and write that romance novel in Tuscany now.)
Lost due to slow moderation speed in Year 1
Score: 212
Rating:
Play Now: https://trustandsafety.fun/
@DeliaChristina Couldn't stop myself from taking on more and more work for the team.
@hybridhavoc
I should see how well I do making terrible mgmt decisions.
@DeliaChristina
Made it to year 4 picking the Do Nothing options as much as possible and spending on automation and team morale. Score of 458.
@mmasnick I got a 1927
@mmasnick @DeliaChristina the only thing i learned from my first play through (on mobile), is ... a monied economy does not make it easy to have safe online communities. every time i made a decision that was in the interest of health, safety, and community, i lost funding.
Lost due to slow moderation speed in Year 4
Score: 546
Rating:
Play Now: https://trustandsafety.fun/
@mmasnick Much respect for having the game adapt perfectly to literally any aspect ratio and screen resolution.
@mmasnick This game is so easy!!!! :D
@mmasnick I was determined to operate according to human-good focused anarchist ethics (Save the World) and managed to squeak by with a four star score and retirement. My moderation speed was almost always teetering in a game over state.
The only time I violated my principles is when my stupid CEO did it for me.
@mmasnick extremely cool but if I get PTSD playing this is there a support forum
@mmasnick very well done game!
Won via IPO and retired from the tech world
Score: 1971
Rating:
Play Now: https://trustandsafety.fun/
@mmasnick minor bug: I can't click on "Take our survey" on the last screen, it always just says "Score copied to clipboard". I'm on Firefox mobile.
@ConnyDuck will look into it... we had a bug on that earlier, but thought we'd fixed...
@mmasnick first try!
I put all the $$$ on my mod team speed and then spent some on 2fa.
@vonxylofon @mmasnick it's a thankless job for sure and management (me) was asking a lot, but at least the company provided legal fees support and counselling, including ofc our overseas team.
@vonxylofon @nsa that is a part of the game, yes.
@mmasnick I have fun playing this game! Cheers!
@mmasnick That was a stressful line of decisions. Nice game!
Won via IPO and stayed to grow Yapper
Score: 2006
Rating:
Play Now: https://trustandsafety.fun/
@mmasnick Great job! Now do Techno-Optimist Tycoon
@m lol. think i can get a16z to fund that?
@mmasnick Great game, very reflective of my experience: T&S needs a lot of effort to do well.
@mmasnick That was fun, thanks! I had to go back a few times though because I ran out of moderator time.
Won via IPO and retired from the tech world
Score: 1863
Rating:
Play Now: https://trustandsafety.fun/
@mmasnick it was very vindicating to be able to threaten to quit when the company was planning to launch something without involving trust and safety. thank you for the catharsis.