Community Moderation

you can't always halt a flamewar with one raised eyebrow (but it rarely hurts to try)

Rev. Azure Jane Lunatic

• Raised on Mailman lists
• Explored message boards
• Ran LiveJournal's Suggestions community
• Spent time on a private IRC server
• Moderated #dreamwidth during transition from private server to Freenode
• Substantial contributor to http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Moderation

Overview

• Misconceptions and barriers
• Fundamental elements
• Tools and tactics (an introduction)
• "Soft" moderation
• When to get super firm
• This one time in IRC…

Moderation isn't (just)

• Manually approving every message on a mailing list
• Humorlessly enforcing on-topic rules
• Adhering to the same standards that other communities use
• Using external moderators in a way that prevents community-internal moderation

Barriers to moderation

• It will start a fight
• It would look bad
• No power to make changes in this space/the people who are willing don't have the power
• No rules
• The rules are unenforceable in practice

• Removing a known bad actor may upset power dynamics
• A known bad actor may also be a "valuable" contributor
• People being disruptive may also be oppressed (yay intersectionality)
• Politics
• Free speech?

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Red_Herring.png

What is Moderation?

"A weapon is a device for making your enemy change his mind." - The Vor Game, Lois McMaster Bujold

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Moderation is any tool or technique used to enforce the rules of your forum.

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Elements of Moderation

• Forum
• Purpose
• Technology
• Rules
• Empowered Moderators
• With tools
• With access to use the tools
• Available to moderate
• Communication
• Iteration

Purpose as Prime Motivator

Define your forum.

• Do you have more than one forum within your organization?
• What organizational purpose does each forum serve?
• Describe how each forum works currently.
• Describe how you would like them to work.

Forum Technology

• What technolog(ies) do each forum use, and does it work for the purpose?
• What does your ideal technology do?
• What moderation tools are available for the technology?
• How easy is it to customize for your use case?
• How easy would it be to switch to something closer to ideal?

Rules

• Find rules that will work for your forums.
• Look at rules that other forums use.
• Figure out what rules your forums need.
• People have feelings; take that into account.
• Make sure the rules can be enforced.
• Will leadership accept them?
• Will the community accept them?
• Can your technology work to enforce them?
• Tailor the rules to the enforcement possibilities.
• Make sure your users know the rules.

Fantastic Moderators

and how to empower them

• Trustworthiness
• Personal integrity
• Trust from owners
• Willingness to enforce rules
• "Soft" moderation skills (emotional labor)
• Availability
• Real-time moderation
• Time-intensive moderation
• Access to moderator powers
• Communication & Feedback

The Secret Moderator Backchannel

Moderators need to communicate privately, persistently, and accountably.

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• Log items needing moderation
• Discuss sub-threshold actions & patterns
• Discuss 1:1 conversations
• Discuss particular users frankly
• Allow leadership insight into moderator acts and discussions

Don't Go Chasing Waterfalls - Iterate!

• Expect problems at first.
• Review your forums regularly.
• Listen to moderators and users.
• What moderation tasks take up time/effort?
• What do the users think of the moderation and forum vibe?
• You don't have to address all the existing problems all at once.
• Change is best accepted slowly.

Moderation Tools

http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Moderation

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• Manually approve messages before posting.
• Automatically identify & halt inappropriate messages before posting.
• Remove inappropriate messages after posting.
• Remove users posting inappropriate messages.
• Promote/demote particular messages.
• Promote/demote particular users.
• All the fuzzy edge cases.

Moderation Tactics

http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Moderation

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• Appoint trusted moderators
• From leadership community
• Promoted from users
• Community self-moderation
• Identify and discourage unacceptable behavior
• Identify and encourage excellent behavior

Soft Moderation

• Actively introduce new users to the rules.
• Introduce a short summary of the rules including the most frequently violated points.
• Is there a more appropriate venue?
• Point out that certain behaviors are against the rules, in the moment.
• Sum up the positions, pros, and cons of an ongoing escalating disagreement.
• Keep summaries of frequent flamewars.

Don't point that eyebrow at me!

It might be loaded!

• Introduce a new topic as a distraction.
• Ask the combatant you have the best rapport with to de-escalate.
• Ask (with empathy) what is the problem.
• Hyperspecificity: "Don't do that here" vs. "Don't do that (at all)!"
• This works great for organizations who are in favor of free speech.

Moderator Bias

• Moderators are human too.
• Moderators who acknowledge their biases compensate for them better.
• Moderators can recuse themselves from issues they can't moderate well.
• Banning politics as a topic of conversation because too many moderators catch fire is an entirely legitimate rule.

Stop! Banhammer time!

Some things aren't worth tolerating even a little bit.

• Patterns of bad behavior
• Breaking the same rule over and over
• Testing the limits on different rules to see what gets enforced
• Aggression to other users
• Multiple users breaking the same rule in short succession
• Multiple moderators recusing themselves
• Spam.

Storytime!

This one time in IRC…

Q & A

Twitter: @azurelunatic

Blog: azurelunatic.dreamwidth.org

Email: azurelunatic@gmail.com