General moderation policies

[ondrej]

@Architect

unless moderator is omniscient

Jammy was almost all knowing when he was community moderator

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I’m not sure how large your community is but from the outset my advice would be to choose moderators from members with a high trust level already. Having a moderator team is about quality not quantity.

@Architect

I got one new user recently who is wanting to be a moderator and administrator

Key word here is ‘wanting’

I’d thank them for expressing their interest in wanting to help the community but since they are new they need to prove that they are trustworthy, basic things like being around for a while, actively participating etc. Therefore, I would be very reluctant to give them a category moderator role - I probably wouldn’t.

Notice that here on Meta users that are TL4 and not in @Team are rare. That is not to say that everyone else is untrustworthy and doesn’t want to help, but in your community, the circle of trust should be tight if that makes sense.

@Architect

If a moderator is an active poster / community member it can set tone for how a lot of conversations go

That is true

@Architect

but can also be disruptive to some conversations being able to go well

I’m not sure I fully understand

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I’ll leave you with some great points by @Tris20 made on another topic.

@Tris20

Attributes of good Moderators

When I’m looking for a new moderator I consider the following list, and aim to see 7 out of 9. In some cases I’ll accept a 6 if I see good potential.

1. High levels of involvement - They make lots of contributions already.
2. High levels of Expertise in the subject of most topics - They will assist in ensuring correctness of information.
3. Platform Skill - They are competent in their use of Discourse as a platform
4. High levels of passion for the topic - They will stay up to date and happily help others in their learning.
5. Distinct/Unique Contributions - They provide ideas that existing members don’t/can’t provide, often due to expertise or having experiences that most member’s don’t.[1]
6. Interesting Positions/Constructive Conflict - They provide ideas which are often neglected or omitted, but in a contructive way.
7. Emotional Intelligence/Customer Service Skills - This is the most important: Are they capable of being nice to people who are not being nice to them?
8. Great Contacts - They can bring the right people to the discussion, e.g. with @mentions
9. Strategic Fit - Will push the community in the right direction: their vision aligns with yours, they want to build the same thing.

About half of these attributes are about being a good contributor to the community, and the other half are about suitability for moderation. Great moderators are a combination of both.