Design an open source content management filtering system that is governed by a decentralized community

This question is asking you to describe how you would design an open-source system that manages and filters content. The system must be governed by a decentral community rather than by a central authority. Understanding the key components of this question can guide you in providing a comprehensive response.

1. Open Source System: This means the system's source code is openly available and can be altered or enhanced by anyone.

2. Content Management Filtering System: This is a tool that arranges, categorizes, and structures all the information uploaded to it.

3. Decentralized Community: When we talk about a decentralized community, we mean that the authority and control of how the system runs lies not with one central entity (like a company or specific team) but is distributed among the community who contributes and uses the system.

Your interview response should address how you would design the required system, making sure to include details about the architecture, the components of the system, how the system will accommodate open-source contributions and be governed by a decentralized community.

One approach to designing an open-source content management filtering system governed by a decentralized community would be to leverage blockchain technology. A blockchain-based architecture would provide the built-in mechanisms required for decentralization, transparency, and security.

In the design, users would be nodes in the network and hold full replicas of the content database. To ensure data consistency while allowing many sources of modification, the system could implement a consensus algorithm. This would allow decentral community members to agree on which changes are accepted or rejected.

For content management and filtering, smart contracts could be used. These are scripts that automatically execute actions when specified conditions are met. Different filters could be created as smart contracts that work with different types of content, and users could vote on their effectiveness or preference for such filters.

To ensure good user experience, a web interface could be built where people interact with the system. Also, a set of APIs could be developed to allow other services to use the data or functionality of the system.

An alternative design approach might be the use of a distributed peer-to-peer (P2P) network. In this case, the content would be stored in a distributed hash table, enabling resilient and decentralized data storage.

For content management and filtering, users could create their own filters using a scripting language. These filters could then be shared in the community, tested, and ranked based on user ratings. This would allow the system to be self-regulating to an extent and foster a community of developers improving the platform.

Contributors could follow a transparent process to propose and review changes. Git, a decentralized version control system, could be used to control source code changes and monitor contributions. Subsequently, a Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) pipeline can automatically test and deploy approved changes.

Concerning governance, the system may involve a democratic process where code contributors have voting rights on major policy or technical decisions. The inclusion of detailed user and developer documentation will be crucial to foster a vibrant community centred around the platform.