Canuckduck: Pond Development Guidelines

1. Overview

Pond serves as the open discussion forum for Canuckduck, enabling users to engage in conversations about issues, policies, and solutions. It is the entry point for issue identification, influencing Flightplan and Consensus.

This document outlines key development rules and guidelines for software engineers building and maintaining Pond.

 

2. Core Functionalities & Interaction Model

2.1 User Roles & Permissions

  • Guest Users: Read-only access, cannot participate in discussions.
  • Registered Users: Can create posts, comment, and upvote/downvote discussions.
  • Moderators: Can flag, edit, or remove discussions based on policy violations.
  • Administrators: Have full control over configurations, user management, and system policies.

2.2 Post & Discussion Structure

  • Each discussion thread consists of:
    • Title & Description: Users must provide a clear title and a description of their issue or topic.
    • Tagging System: Users must select relevant issue categories (e.g., Municipal, Provincial, National, Economic, Social, Environmental).
    • Thread Ownership: The original poster maintains control over updates but cannot delete the discussion once responses exist.
    • AI Summarization: Automatically generates a summary when a discussion thread reaches a certain engagement threshold.

2.3 Engagement Mechanics

  • Upvoting & Downvoting:
    • Users can upvote or downvote discussions based on relevance and importance.
    • Discussions with consistent downvotes trigger review mechanisms (not automatic removal).
  • Trending & Priority Topics:
    • Discussions with high engagement move into a “Trending” category for visibility.
    • AI-based sentiment analysis helps identify emerging concerns.
  • Discussion Timeframes:
    • Open-ended discussions remain active unless flagged as resolved or irrelevant.
    • Archived discussions can be revisited but cannot be modified.

 

3. AI & Moderation Mechanisms

3.1 AI-Powered Monitoring

  • Toxicity Detection: AI flags hate speech, harassment, and misinformation for human moderator review.
  • Engagement Pattern Recognition:
    • Identifies coordinated brigading attempts.
    • Highlights underrepresented discussions with high community impact.
  • Content Summarization:
    • AI generates structured summaries of long discussions to ease review.
    • High-impact discussions may be suggested for transition into Flightplan.

3.2 Human Moderation Tools

  • Flagging System:
    • Users can flag content, but moderation action is not automated.
    • AI assists by grouping similar flagged issues for efficient review.
  • Rate Limiting & Cooldowns:
    • Prevents spam by enforcing cooldown periods on mass posting.
    • New accounts have posting limitations until engagement credibility is established.

 

4. Issue Transition to Flightplan

4.1 Identifying Issues for Flightplan

  • Discussions transition to Flightplan when:
    • They meet engagement thresholds (X upvotes + X unique commenters).
    • They pass AI relevance checks (consistent discussion themes, structured problem statements).
    • A user submits a formal issue request for consideration.

4.2 User Champion Selection

  • If a discussion is moved to Flightplan, an Issue Champion is required to structure it.
  • Users can nominate themselves, or an automatic selection process is triggered based on engagement and credibility metrics.

 

5. Transparency & Data Handling

5.1 Public vs. Private Data

  • All discussions are public, but user identities remain anonymized by default.
  • Data is stored in geographically distributed, encrypted storage.
  • Users cannot delete past discussions but can request anonymization.

5.2 Geographic Relevance Tracking

  • Discussions do not track specific user locations.
  • Instead, a proximity metric (e.g., "within 2 km of the issue") is recorded without saving GPS coordinates.
  • This ensures privacy while maintaining local relevance.

 

6. Technical Stack & Performance Considerations

6.1 Technology Stack

  • Frontend: React.js / Vue.js (component-based architecture)
  • Backend: Node.js / Python (FastAPI or Django)
  • Database: PostgreSQL + Redis (caching layer)
  • AI Services: GPT-based models for moderation & summarization
  • Hosting: Kubernetes-based cloud deployment (scalable infrastructure)

6.2 Performance Optimization

  • Discussions are indexed for fast searchability and filtering.
  • AI moderation runs asynchronously to avoid discussion lag.
  • Image & media uploads are restricted to verified users to prevent spam.

 

7. Future Enhancements & Roadmap

Improved AI-assisted debate scoring to identify high-quality arguments. Real-time engagement analytics for moderators to highlight emerging issues. Federated Learning for AI moderation, improving detection across decentralized models. Better integrations with Flightplan & Consensus for seamless issue tracking.

 

8. Conclusion

Pond is the gateway to civic engagement on Canuckduck. The development approach ensures scalability, privacy, and meaningful engagement, providing a structured yet open environment for users to voice concerns and discuss solutions. This guide will evolve as user needs and technical advancements shape Pond’s future.

For additional developer inquiries, contact: info@canuckduck.ca