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The Pin of Shame: Examining Content Creators' Adoption of Pinning Inappropriate Comments as a Moderation Strategy

Yunhee Shim, Shagun Jhaver

TL;DR

The paper investigates the Pin of Shame, a creator-driven moderation tactic where inappropriate comments are pinned to spotlight them and invite public shaming. Through 20 semi-structured interviews, it reveals that creators use this tactic to educate audiences, shape norms, and mobilize engagement, while also enabling emotional empowerment and streamlined handling of negative feedback. However, it also highlights risks such as emotional strain, potential escalation, and scope for doxxing or harassment, underscoring the need for emotion-aware, transparent moderation designs. The work contributes to human–computer interaction and CSCW by informing design principles for restorative, transparent, and collaboratively moderated online communities that balance accountability with creators’ impression management and emotional well-being.

Abstract

Many social media platforms allow content creators to pin user comments in response to their content. Once pinned, a comment remains fixed at the top of the comments section, regardless of subsequent activity or the selected sorting order. The "Pin of Shame" refers to an innovative re-purposing of this feature, where creators intentionally pin norm-violating comments to spotlight them and prompt shaming responses from their audiences. This study explores how creators adopt this emerging moderation tactic, examining their motivations, its outcomes, and how it compares-procedurally and in effect-to other content moderation strategies. Through interviews with 20 content creators who had pinned negative comments on their posts, we find that the Pin of Shame is used to punish and educate inappropriate commenters, elicit emotional accountability, provoke audience negotiation of community norms, and support creators' impression management goals. Our findings shed light on the benefits, precarities, and risks of using public shaming as a tool for norm enforcement. We contribute to HCI research by informing the design of user-centered tools for addressing content-based harm.

The Pin of Shame: Examining Content Creators' Adoption of Pinning Inappropriate Comments as a Moderation Strategy

TL;DR

The paper investigates the Pin of Shame, a creator-driven moderation tactic where inappropriate comments are pinned to spotlight them and invite public shaming. Through 20 semi-structured interviews, it reveals that creators use this tactic to educate audiences, shape norms, and mobilize engagement, while also enabling emotional empowerment and streamlined handling of negative feedback. However, it also highlights risks such as emotional strain, potential escalation, and scope for doxxing or harassment, underscoring the need for emotion-aware, transparent moderation designs. The work contributes to human–computer interaction and CSCW by informing design principles for restorative, transparent, and collaboratively moderated online communities that balance accountability with creators’ impression management and emotional well-being.

Abstract

Many social media platforms allow content creators to pin user comments in response to their content. Once pinned, a comment remains fixed at the top of the comments section, regardless of subsequent activity or the selected sorting order. The "Pin of Shame" refers to an innovative re-purposing of this feature, where creators intentionally pin norm-violating comments to spotlight them and prompt shaming responses from their audiences. This study explores how creators adopt this emerging moderation tactic, examining their motivations, its outcomes, and how it compares-procedurally and in effect-to other content moderation strategies. Through interviews with 20 content creators who had pinned negative comments on their posts, we find that the Pin of Shame is used to punish and educate inappropriate commenters, elicit emotional accountability, provoke audience negotiation of community norms, and support creators' impression management goals. Our findings shed light on the benefits, precarities, and risks of using public shaming as a tool for norm enforcement. We contribute to HCI research by informing the design of user-centered tools for addressing content-based harm.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 28 sections, 1 figure, 1 table.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Related Work
  3. Platform Affordances for Creator-led Content Moderation
  4. Online Shaming as a Norm Enforcement Mechanism
  5. METHODS
  6. Participant Recruitment
  7. Data collection
  8. Data Analysis
  9. FINDINGS
  10. Motivations for Deploying the Pin of shame
  11. Inviting Public Attention to Foster Norm Education
  12. Shaping What Constitutes Norm Violations
  13. Leveraging Negative Comments for User Engagement and Content Promotion
  14. Consequences of Deploying the Pin of shame
  15. Holding Norm Violators Accountable
  16. ...and 13 more sections

Figures (1)

  • Figure 1: Examples of Pin of Shame found on Instagram. Content creators pin the negative comments to fix them at the top of the comments section---either without posting any additional reply themselves (left), explicitly inviting their viewers to counteract the pinned comment (center), or mocking the pinned commenter (right).