Moderator Best Practices (Private)

Moderation guideline for implementing the theory in real situations

1. Talking to people

• A. Focus on the issue, not the person

• B. Don't use threats.

  • a. Imposed consequences - what you can do with your power (kick, ban,...) These are direct threats, avoid them. Never threaten a ban, either do it
  • b. Natural consequences - implied effects of members actions. These can include "the community is growing to dislike you," or "see you as racist," etc... 2. Identify what is the underlying problem.

• A. Motivation problem - the member is not motivated to behave in acceptable manner - is a troll or otherwise enjoys being mean to people.

• B. Ability problem - the member may be direct without "filters" and their conversation often comes off as offensive while they just state things the way they see them: http://www.mit.edu/~jcb/tact.html 3. If a member is disrespectful to the mods.

• A. If you get into conflict yourself, someone is disrespectful to you as a moderator, trolling and challenging your authority - step back and ask for help, mention in the mods-team ML, and let 3rd party deal with it. 4. Be inclusive

• A. Contents of our channels should not be disrespectful towards anyone, think about minorities, oppressed communities and gender identification (he/she, they/them).

• B. Discussion topic going wild, the use of racial/homophobic or other improper language should be pointed out with an explanation that it is not cool towards minorities or other potentially impacted individuals within our community.

• C. A member being plain disrespectful on purpose... Mute them, see their reaction to moderation talk and act on it. 5. Ask other mods for assistance!

• A. We are all one large team and our more experienced mods can help you in a difficult situation.

• B. Return the favor and provide helpful input on your platform, everyone has a voice in our community
• C. Bring anything you are unsure about to the mods-team.