Commenting & Reactions
Problem
Cue the Curves did not have interactive features such as commenting and reactions, which limited community engagement. Users desired a simple way to engage with posts, but we also understood the importance of maintaining a safe and inclusive community space. Moderating user-generated content was a priority to prevent harmful comments and ensure the platform remained positive and supportive.
Approach
Customer feedback made it clear that users wanted a way to express opinions without necessarily leaving full comments. Additionally, some users voiced concerns about encountering negative or inappropriate content, which aligned with our goal of community safety. We explored free and paid solutions for moderating content, including automated tools and human review options, to ensure that the commenting experience would be positive and well-regulated.
We scoped the project to start with lightweight engagement tools like customized emoji reactions and then build a more complex commenting system with moderation features as we gathered more user input.
Solution
We began by introducing customized emoji-based (Cue the Curves special) reactions, which provided a simple way for users to engage with content. This allowed for quick and easy interactions without the need for full comments and also served as a way to test user engagement with minimal development effort.
To address user concerns about safety, I integrated a user-friendly commenting system with moderation capabilities in the backend. We ultimately selected an automated screening process that looked for inappropriate language and terms and phrases commonly used to comment on people’s bodies negatively. This system allowed us to ensure that harmful or inappropriate comments could be moderated before they reached users. We also added the ability for users to like and report comments to add an extra layer of protection and to make sure our community felt empowered to continue to create a safe space.
