Moderator Guidelines

#1

Is there a standard SOP (standard operating procedure) the mods are using when interacting with folx? I think it’d be helpful to see the approach to a problem, a list of mods. I assume there’s some guidelines for each one that they’re held accountable to. Something that tells members when you should be flagging something and what falls into general discourse or disagreement would also be helpful.

I looked around a bit but didn’t see that. I’d appreciate being pointed to it if it already exists. If people are messaged this on joining it would be helpful as well, I bet.

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#6

Great point, the other mods and I are working that stuff out, but we’re not ready to release a mod guide and examples just yet. You can find a list of the moderation team here though.

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#7

Awesome, thanks! I’m sure some of it is not knowing how to navigate here. I’ve never been a part of any forums before. But I think it’s important that people know the guidelines about how something is enforced and why, so that the mod is accountable for the decision and people understand the procedure.

Vague rules are only semi helpful, like assume best intentions. What’s over the line beyond a subjective gut feeling in that case? Do mods apply specific rules dispassionately and request a different mod if they can’t do that? When do I as a user know when to flag something, etc. I find this all really new and intimidating so appreciate y’alls patience. :slight_smile:

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#8

That’s fine! I think it’s safe to say the majority of people here haven’t been in a forum in a long time (I sure have been out of forums for almost a decade), so we’re figuring stuff out as we go. The mod team is very active in communicating with each other and getting second opinions before making decisions, and we’re building our formal guidelines from that.

One of the core rules for the Forums right now is “if it’s not part of a meaningful discussion of RPGs, it needs to be changed”. So if you see a topic or reply that’s just “here’s a thing” or “I think this is cool” (with no extrapolation or call for discourse), it’s very flag-worthy.

Your questions will be very helpful in making sure users know what to do on the Forums.

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#9

Some of this is covered in https://forums.gauntlet-rpg.com/faq (for example https://forums.gauntlet-rpg.com/faq#flag-problems) but we are still getting a lot of this stuff codified. Know this: we are working on it.

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#10

Awesome! Thank you for your hard work mods :slightly_smiling_face:

I think it’ll be helpful to make policies public and what the expected ‘punishment’ is for such infringement. Because from each actionable policy normal users can piece together what a good action in the forum looks like, compared to a bad one. The policies become the action of the inclusivity policy, which is vague.

Currently harassment is supposed to be reported to Kate But she’s not a mod, nor is Jason. And makes it sound like reporting harassment isn’t in the mods purview but in direct organizational folx instead. It might even be better if it’s multiple people investigating and dealing with harassment like mods.

I’ll check out that policy stuff. What I did was look in each category and my inbox for the answers to Q’s and then posted since I couldn’t find it. Although I’m on mobile browser so maybe I missed the links. I tried to find a list of mods and couldn’t see that either. So might just my clumsy navigation of the site.

Edit: Totally missed the FAQ in the nav bar, for instance. But I think actionable stuff is better than the vague guideline of treating it like a park. At least for Big Stuff. Like hate speech gets you banned on the spot, or whatever.

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