Because Trailforks is built as a tool for trail associations, we try to give control to local associations over the content in their region. This differs from other sites that try and centralize control & moderation. We believe that local groups know the best about their region; local users know their trails and what should be public access. Locals have a better understanding of the corner cases, and different regions have different policies concerning "unsanctioned" trails. This is why we provide the tools to let each region decide how their content should be represented.
How Moderation & Control Works on Trailforks
There are several ways that content, including trails, is approved & moderated. Our preferred method is assigning users from a local trail association with moderator permissions over the content in their region. In this way, if a new trail is added to your region, the user with moderator permissions would be notified and can make the decision to approve, deny, or modify that added trail.
It takes time to build up a database of local admins. We vet each regional administrator application and give preference to directors from trail associations. We can also give control to other groups or local users if the local association agrees to it.
If a region does not have any local admins, then the content will sit in a global approval queue. This is where we utilize the power of crowd sourcing. Users can check pending content and vote to either confirm or reject the content. If an item gets enough votes in either direction, then it is added or rejected from the site. Each user on Trailforks has a "trust score", which is earned by adding confirmed content to the site over time. Users with higher trust scores receive more weight in their votes to either confirm or reject content.
The final way that content is moderated is by the Trailforks staff. We will periodically go through the global content queue and confirm or reject content ourselves. If we see the content resides in a region where local admins are set-up, we will leave that content for at least one week giving the local admins time to review that content themselves.