Hey look, me again! Just like we need community rules, we also need moderator guidelines to set expectations for our behavior. As with community rules, we want everyone to weigh in on them since this is a community for all of us. Here’s what we have, let us know what you think:
Moderator Guidelines
- Don’t be mean to users. Be gentle or neutral.
- When in doubt about whether or not a user is problematic, send them a DM if you have the time and energy.
- Don’t waste time debating/arguing with problematic users.
- Assume the best, but don’t tolerate sealioning/just asking questions/concern trolling.
- Ask another mod to take over cases you struggle with, or when things get personal.
- Ask the other mods for advice when things get complicated.
- Don’t perform too much moderation in the comments, except if you want a verdict to be public or to ask people to dial a convo down/stop. Single comment warnings are okay.
- Send users concise DMs about verdicts about them, such as bans etc, except in cases where it is clear we don’t want them at all, such as obvious transphobes. No need to notify someone they haven’t been banned of course.
- Some users are stupid and focus on pedantry and technicalities. If you struggle to deal with such users, send them to another mod.
- Explain to a user why their behavior is problematic and how it is distressing others rather than engage with whatever they are saying. Ask them to avoid this in the future and send them packing if they do not comply.
- First warn users, then temp ban them, then finally perma ban them when they break the rules or act inappropriately. Skip steps if necessary.
- Use neutral statements like “this statement can be considered transphobic” rather than “you are being transphobic”.
- Remember you are a voluntary moderator. You don’t get paid. Take a break when you need one. Perhaps ask another moderator to step in if necessary.
Seems fair to me, and probably something talked about in the mod matrix that I haven’t joined yet lol. I’d prefer nonmod folks to take priority in weighing in, but I like these guidelines
Can I get an invite to that space please
As others have said, I think its important to include some level of accountability for moderators. Ways for the users to identify when a moderator is abusing their responsibilities and clear, fair, and accessible process for users to remove them from those responsibilities in a case of consistent abuse.
Some users are stupid and focus on pedantry and technicalities. If you struggle to deal with such users, send them to another mod.
Would be great to not use ableism in the rules, perceived intelligence is not why people are trolls/bigots/harmful.
Use neutral statements like “this statement can be considered transphobic” rather than “you are being transphobic”.
I personally think this removes all accountability from offending users. They might not like hearing it, but they’ll never learn unless they are held fully accountable not only for their intent but much more importantly, for their impact.
In any case, good luck to you!
The updated version in the sidebar has gotten rid of the ableist language.
Neutral language is to deescalate. It’s for the community and the mods as well as for the offending user.
Edit: Oh I see the moderator guidelines haven’t been added to the sidebar yet! my bad
some users are stupid and focus on pedantry and technicalities
The wording of this is a bit ableist. Alternative:
some users focus disproportionately on pedantry and technicalities, causing possibly difficult communication.
Another thing we discussed in the matrix was adding a minimum consideration time for actions taken against users, provided it’s not something that needs to be dealt with at once, like obvious transphobia or threats etc.
A consideration time like that would force us to process something more before actually taking action, and would give other mods more time to weigh in before an action is taken. For context we share most of the actions we take and screenshots of the DMs we send.
Basically codifying a “let cooler heads prevail” kinda thing.
A side effect is that not everything would be acted on instantly, but how much of an issue that is depends on the consideration time chosen. It’s a policy to consider and discuss at least.
A policy to instead just take our time with mod actions might do basically the same thing, even if less specific.
I’m definitely a fan of sending a dm explaining why action was taken to the relevant user. In that sort of spirit would it be a good idea to include the username of the mod in the message for the modlog? With how hard it can be to try and figure out which mod did what action it can lead to misunderstandings, and trying to make that more transparent could be good. Would also help show if a particular mod is abusing their position or something (I don’t think it’s super likely you all would do that on purpose, but still).
🤔 the modlog for lemmy as a whole is transparent wlth usernames, so which mod did what is actually visible to everyone if you know where to look.
Could be a thing to link modlog in the sidebar for more transparency?
so which mod did what is actually visible to everyone if you know where to look.
Where do you look? Because on both my current and previous instances it only says “mod” in the modlog, and seeing who made individual decisions would be an improvement on that for the reasons WrittenInRed mentioned.
I would also like to know how to see what mod did what. I just assumed it wasn’t possible. Hope it isn’t just what writteninred described.
That’s an instance setting. I can change it if you like
It sounds like it would be popular with the people in this post at least, and I wouldn’t mind it being turned on myself!
Ok, I’ve changed the instance setting.
Yeah I know it’s technically visible, but unless I’m just dumb afaik the default ui doesn’t have a way to easily see which mod did an action unless you manually filter by every mod it could be. Since it is possible to do that it’s really not a huge deal, just something that could help prevent misunderstandings.
love it!
one i would suggest also establishing at least a rough process for internal review/checks and balances.
two and maybe given the past it would be good to include “poll the community before making decisions of significant scale.” the move to .world wasn’t the first decision that was enacted without any prior approval from 196, for example moldy mondays was a weird thing that was sprung on us.
three if there is any (legitimate) doubt, “being tired” should not be a reason to make a decision, at least not a permanent one. temp bans pending further review are perfectly fine in my book.
When in doubt about whether or not a user is problematic, send them a DM
if you have the time and energy.four these are the ones i especially like and why =3
Don’t waste time debating/arguing with problematic users. based we don’t need flying squids in this community and it’s especially bad when mods feed the trolls
Explain to a user why their behavior is problematic and how it is distressing others rather than engage with whatever they are saying. Ask them to avoid this in the future and send them packing if they do not comply. this is good because it quells the the goofs who get hung up on “but i should be allowed to transphobic against trolls” like no you shouldn’t, you are making this place miserable
Use neutral statements like “this statement can be considered transphobic” rather than “you are being transphobic”. this is good especially for users who are new to trans spaces and don’t know how transphobia looks always. it deescelates the situation.
Without something more than what was, the same mistakes will be repeated.
How is one mod held accountable by the other mods?
How does the community hold the mods accountable?
Why aren’t these questions answered in the first published draft of the rules?
That’s what this post is.
It’s a draft regarding how us moderators should behave and a way for the community see our draft and make suggestions. When a moderator breaks the spirit of these guidelines you know you have a case so to speak against the offender, so it is also a way to hold us accountable, otherwise we would not write or share these guidelines.
The person you reply too seems a bit aggressive, but maybe a rule like “Any move of this community will be submitted to a vote of the community members” could help
