# Have you assembled a moderator team?
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/have-you-assembled-a-moderator-team/318994
**Category:** Community Building
**Created:** [July 29, 2024, 10:45am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/have-you-assembled-a-moderator-team/318994 "2024-07-29T10:45:26Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Zoe](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Zoe)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2024, 10:45am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/have-you-assembled-a-moderator-team/318994/1 "2024-07-29T10:45:26Z")
Hey guys,
I am currently managing a Forum community and learning how to better oversee it. As the community continues to grow, more and more users are discussing issues on the Forum. Sometimes, I am unable to respond promptly, so I am considering forming a moderator team.
I would like to learn from your experiences:
- Have you established any rules/guidelines to regulate the behavior of moderators?
- Do you have any management suggestions you can share?
Thank you! đ¤
---
### Author:  [@merefield](https://meta.discourse.org/u/merefield)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2024, 10:50am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/have-you-assembled-a-moderator-team/318994/2 "2024-07-29T10:50:54Z")
I will just say that:
- this is a great idea (costs/availability permitting)
- prior vetting of these people is very important!
- consider recruiting them from existing high Trust members
---
### Author:  [@Lilly](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Lilly)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2024, 10:51am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/have-you-assembled-a-moderator-team/318994/3 "2024-07-29T10:51:50Z")
> [@Zoe](#):
>
> - Have you established any rules/guidelines to regulate the behavior of moderators?
> - Do you have any management suggestions you can share?
In addition to Robertâs points above, I would suggest a Code of Conduct (or Terms of Use or some other form of guidance for the users that moderators can refer to) and a Moderator Policy that provides guidance for what is expected of moderators. You would also do well to have a [moderation guide](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-moderation-guide/63116) tailored to your forum.
---
### Author:  [@anon48433008](https://meta.discourse.org/u/anon48433008)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2024, 12:33pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/have-you-assembled-a-moderator-team/318994/4 "2024-07-29T12:33:51Z")
> [@Zoe](#):
>
> suggestions you can share
First make it known you are thinking to do this and seek feedback on who may be interested.
Take-your-time.
Asking in advance may save you frustration as the level headed ones youâd ask often wonât touch the job, you may be left with those who are indifferent or who are freakishly zealous.
That is frustrating as youâll see things the indifferent ones arenât handling as youâd wish and see the zealous ones thinking theyâre prison guards, i.e. you will need to moderate the moderators, if you choose wrong they may actually alienate users and harm your forum.
Any visitor who spends time at your forum increases your sites value, you do not want to chase off any users if it can be avoided, moderators may not comprehend or value that, you may not yourself, spend some time learning about bounce rate etc and visitor value.
To understand better check out sites like
> **[Similarweb: AI-Powered Digital Data Intelligence Solutions](https://www.similarweb.com)**
>
> Similarweb is an AI-powered digital data company providing real-time market intelligence, competitive insights, and consumer trends to accelerate business growth.
> **[AhrefsâAI Marketing Platform Powered by Big Data](https://ahrefs.com)**
>
> We help marketers drive visibility across AI search, SEO, content, and social â with the largest AI and search databases online.
Also, allowing users to interact with each other in seemingly unhealthy ways may actually be healthy, for them and your board, they will come back for more, if you look at sites like Infowars youâll see a huge site built on bad vibes, Facebook became big by capitalizing on peoples narcissism, two seemingly undesirable traits that warrant a closer look, if you care of course.
Seek peace maker moderators with tact, patience and a desire to help others, ones who only want to use a ban hammer and get off on a power trip will cost you users, and you never know what value a single user can bring.
My best suggestion is again, take your time, announce it, wait and feel out the feedback, let it sit awhile and revisit, you donât want to loose good, valuable day to day visitors as they make poor, costly day to day moderators.
---
### Author:  [@JammyDodger](https://meta.discourse.org/u/JammyDodger)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2024, 1:19pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/have-you-assembled-a-moderator-team/318994/5 "2024-07-29T13:19:35Z")
> [@anon48433008](#):
>
> if you look at sites like Infowars youâll see a huge site built on bad vibes, Facebook became big by capitalizing on peoples narcissism, two seemingly undesirable traits that warrant a closer look, if you care of course.
I think itâs worth noting that often people wonât want to have their communities based on this kind of negative interaction/draw and may wish to moderate to prevent it. Sometimes itâs not about quantity but more about quality.
---
### Author:  [@anon48433008](https://meta.discourse.org/u/anon48433008)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2024, 4:17pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/have-you-assembled-a-moderator-team/318994/6 "2024-07-29T16:17:55Z")
> [@JammyDodger](#):
>
> based on this kind of negative interaction/draw
I would think or hope never, my point is there are two sides of a coin, failing to recognize will cost you, some communities may have no interest in size whatsoever, that price may be of no concern, my opinion is not a one size fits all, so a good suggestion may well be to identify desires and needs first, then form a plan based on those.
Seems likely the OP is doing it in that manner too, ask for guidance, weigh opinions, act accordingly.
Perhaps @Zoe can share more about their forum?
---
### Author:  [@Tris20](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Tris20)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2024, 7:53am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/have-you-assembled-a-moderator-team/318994/7 "2024-07-30T07:53:50Z")
> [@merefield](#):
>
> - prior vetting of these people is very important!
> - consider recruiting them from existing high Trust members
> [@Lilly](#):
>
> In addition to Robertâs points above, I would suggest a Code of Conduct (or Terms of Use or some other form of guidance for the users that moderators can refer to) and a Moderator Policy that provides guidance for what is expected of moderators. You would also do well to have a [moderation guide](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-moderation-guide/63116) tailored to your forum.
Both of these are great recommendations.
I wish I could remember which of [Richard Millingtonâs books](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=richard+millington&__mk_de_DE=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&crid=23O5DP4Z5FXAR&sprefix=richard+millingt%2Caps%2C228&ref=nb_sb_noss_2) I got these ideas from, but below are some of the things I consider:
## 1. Choosing the right people
### a. What are your minimum acceptable standards?
What do you consider crossing a line? - The people you choose should already agree with your idea of what is ok, and what is too extreme. This is normally defined in your Code of Conduct.
### b. Attributes of good Moderators
When Iâm looking for a new moderator I consider the following list, and aim to see 7 out of 9. In some cases Iâll 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 donât/canât provide, often due to expertise or having experiences that most memberâs donât.\[1\]
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.
## 2. Helping your moderators grow the culture you are looking for
Aside from leaning on the excellent moderation guide linked by Lilly, what weâve started to do is have a private subcategory with moderation examples. Here members of the moderation team can post questions about how handle specific sittuaions. It leaves you with a nice set of records and precident which helps everyone stay consistent.
* * *
1. This is not really needed to be a skilled moderator. Itâs on this list because giving someone like this your stamp of approval by making them moderator can encourage them to provide more of this unique value. Further, it encourages others to provide more of their own unique value because they see this kind of contribution is desired
---
### Author:  [@NateDhaliwal](https://meta.discourse.org/u/NateDhaliwal)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2024, 1:24pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/have-you-assembled-a-moderator-team/318994/8 "2024-07-30T13:24:49Z")
I think that a very important thing is also trust. Moderation requires integrity, like when having access to userâs IP address.
A thing that you could try is by putting contenders up to TL4, where you have access to some special features. If they do well, then promote them up to Moderator. You could also get the opinion of the community before promoting them.
---
### Author:  [@Bas](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Bas)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2024, 1:34pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/have-you-assembled-a-moderator-team/318994/9 "2024-07-30T13:34:02Z")
In addition, there is also the concept of the category moderator as an intermediate step đ
> [@What are all the things a category moderator can do?](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-are-all-the-things-a-category-moderator-can-do/308745):
>
> We are looking to add some community moderation to our site and are trying to determine the best way to go about it. We initially thought about trust levels (TL4) but 1) some users are already TL3 so the operating window is very small and 2) this would give them some site-wide privileges that we donât want. We are instead looking to create moderation user groups and grant them moderation privileges in select sub-categories. This begs the question: What can they do in those categories?
---
### Author:  [@Ed\_S](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Ed_S)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2024, 4:25pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/have-you-assembled-a-moderator-team/318994/10 "2024-07-30T16:25:02Z")
> [@anon48433008](#):
>
> First make it known you are thinking to do this and seek feedback on who may be interested.
Personally I wouldnât do this. Some of the keen people will be unsuitable and youâll need to reject them. I recommend you work through a private shortlist of your most stable and level-headed members. You need people who will think before they act, who can engage in private conversations on sensitive topics without going public, and who can follow guidelines. If you talk to the right candidates, you might get useful feedback about how things are perceived even from people you donât end up promoting to moderator.
---
### Author:  [@Architect](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Architect)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2024, 4:15pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/have-you-assembled-a-moderator-team/318994/11 "2024-08-02T16:15:11Z")
> [@traceymoko](#):
>
> (E.g. to mention an idea that you brought up recently in another topic, we did have it advertised in our community when we were looking for moderators. This has been different at various times â sometimes we reach out to people personally, sometimes we trialled with having it open)
Which did you find yielded better moderators?
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### Author:  [@ThunderThighs](https://meta.discourse.org/u/ThunderThighs)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2024, 5:54pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/have-you-assembled-a-moderator-team/318994/12 "2024-08-02T17:54:54Z")
Iâm currently the lone staff moderator but I have trained people to cover for me and I have a team of volunteer moderators.
When we had a team of moderators, most came from our community. They were people that were already active in our community, helping others, had the voice we wanted, etc. Same for our volunteer moderators. I currently have 4 wonderful VMs.
For the VMs, I created a private category that only we can view/post. The pinned topic is the guidelines and âhow toâ things. This is where they can ask questions, escalate things to me without doing it in the public forums, and I can give guidance or tips as needed. The private category has been invaluable and I highly recommend it.
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### Author:  [@Architect](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Architect)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2024, 7:22am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/have-you-assembled-a-moderator-team/318994/13 "2024-08-03T07:22:10Z")
> [@ThunderThighs](#):
>
> When we had a team of moderators, most came from our community. They were people that were already active in our community, helping others, had the voice we wanted, etc.
This makes sense for community leaders to also be moderators, however seems like there can be a potential conflict with that.
I donât have a lot of background in moderation, but in theory for moderators to be good seems that it could help for them to be a step back from being a community leader so that they can see clearly the perspective of new people on even ground with long-term members.
That can depend a lot on the kind of site and community and what it is for.
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### Author:  [@HAWK](https://meta.discourse.org/u/HAWK)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2024, 5:14am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/have-you-assembled-a-moderator-team/318994/14 "2024-08-04T05:14:02Z")
Iâve managed several moderation teams over the years, primarily volunteers, some large. I have never known a situation in which being a longstanding member (or leader) wasnât beneficial as a moderator. You donât have to appoint all your leaders moderator, but Iâd take a leader over someone else any day. Theyâre already intrinsically motivated.
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### Author:  [@fyodorovich](https://meta.discourse.org/u/fyodorovich)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2024, 6:59am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/have-you-assembled-a-moderator-team/318994/15 "2024-08-04T06:59:16Z")
A moderation team is a positive thing. However, you need to recruit people who share similar values.
TLDR; we expelled two people over a period of twelve months and now have a very harmonious community.
Our forum initially had a large number of very loud voices. We implemented a moderation team and moderation guidelines. The guidelines were a set of positives: behaviours that we encouraged. My instructions to the moderation team was that when a post was brought into question, we would ask the poster to explain to us how their behaviour aligned with the guidelines.
The moderation team hated this. They kept pushing for a set of rules, at which they could point and say, âyou broke this rule.â I resisted because I wanted our community to be self-aligned toward a positive environment, rather than being punished by âhigher upsâ for being in a negative space.
As the community manager, I found the kick back from the moderation team to be the most exhausting thing. As they didnât want to engage in the moderation methodology, anything contentious or disputed was passed to me. Every time this happened, the decision that I made was then questioned by the team. It made my role very difficult.
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### Author:  [@scottfsmith](https://meta.discourse.org/u/scottfsmith)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2024, 12:18pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/have-you-assembled-a-moderator-team/318994/16 "2024-08-04T12:18:10Z")
> [@fyodorovich](#):
>
> I resisted because I wanted our community to be self-aligned toward a positive environment, rather than being punished by âhigher upsâ for being in a negative space.
It sounds like by trying to escape negatives in the community space, the moderator space was filled to the brim with them. A little negative in the community helps keep everything balanced.
Re picking new moderators we use a simple method: some people start being good moderators before they are officially moderators. They help new members, remind people of forum policy, flag concerning posts and leave helpful comments with the flags, etc. We just watch those people and have a little discussion on who to promote to an actual moderator.
---
### Author:  [@Architect](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Architect)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2024, 3:13pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/have-you-assembled-a-moderator-team/318994/17 "2024-08-04T15:13:19Z")
> [@fyodorovich](#):
>
> My instructions to the moderation team was that when a post was brought into question, we would ask the poster to explain to us how their behaviour aligned with the guidelines.
This is good, that can be challenging to do that.
> [@HAWK](#):
>
> I have never known a situation in which being a longstanding member (or leader) wasnât beneficial as a moderator.
In general people who are committed to a community and show leadership would usually also be good moderators. What I was talking about in previous post was risk in that if all of your moderators have been members of an established community for over 10 or 20 years then their moderation methodology with new members might not be the best, because human nature can be that a community becomes full and they donât really want any more members or outside perspective contrary to their own.
That is just general over-simplification, and for some communities they may want to be closed not doing outreach for new members. If a site is wanting to engage broader audience from different countries with different ways of communicating, having a moderator who is impartial and not heavily invested as a permanent member of the community can in theory be of benefit to the community overall.
Metaphor could be if someone wants to give a speech in a town square criticizing the mayor, the mayor probably isnât going to be the best moderator for that speech.
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### Author:  [@NiceOldGuy](https://meta.discourse.org/u/NiceOldGuy)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2024, 3:55pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/have-you-assembled-a-moderator-team/318994/18 "2024-08-04T15:55:28Z")
There are a couple of good [data explorer](https://meta.discourse.org/t/32566?silent=true) queries to help identify active users to consider for a moderation team.
[Top posters in a given timeframe](https://meta.discourse.org/t/top-x-posters-in-a-given-timeframe/309724/4)
[Top users by likes received overall](https://meta.discourse.org/t/dashboard-report-top-users-by-likes-received/293714)
[Top users by likes received from a variety of people](https://meta.discourse.org/t/dashboard-report-top-users-by-likes-received-from-a-variety-of-people/293723)
[Top users by likes received from users w lower trust level](https://meta.discourse.org/t/dashboard-report-top-users-by-likes-received-from-a-user-with-a-lower-trust-level/293717)
[Top quality users in last six months](https://meta.discourse.org/t/top-quality-users-in-last-six-months/275006)
Each of these links go back to a topic that discusses how they work; what theyâre measuring. And there are many more queries in the rich #sql-query tag that may be helpful in identifying potential moderators.
> [@Tris20](#):
>
> below are some of the things I consider:
I also particularly like @Tris20âs list of characteristics to look for in a moderator.
Finally Iâll say that, as a perfectionist whoâs finishing his first year leading a moderation team Iâve been part of for three yearsâitâs been difficult to recognize that there are other right ways of moderating. Learning from my team has not been easy but has definitely been good.
---
### Author:  [@HAWK](https://meta.discourse.org/u/HAWK)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2024, 8:01pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/have-you-assembled-a-moderator-team/318994/19 "2024-08-04T20:01:23Z")
> [@Architect](#):
>
> Metaphor could be if someone wants to give a speech in a town square criticizing the mayor, the mayor probably isnât going to be the best moderator for that speech.
If people are coming to a community to criticise the moderators then perhaps itâs not the right community for them! đ
---
### Author:  [@Urania](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Urania)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2024, 9:18pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/have-you-assembled-a-moderator-team/318994/20 "2024-08-04T21:18:52Z")
I am a âMini Modâ on a large forum, meaning Iâm one of a handful of TL4s working below the main mod (like @NateDhaliwal suggested above).
Obviously, we donât have access to usersâ background information or the ability to remove or suspend users but it means weâre on hand to edit out inappropriate posts or photos and tidy things up when the main mod is not online. We have a private group chat to discuss mod issues and raise anything we canât handle with the main mod. I think it works well as an option if you donât want to open up backgroud information but need a bit of extra help.
[Next page](https://meta.discourse.org/t/have-you-assembled-a-moderator-team/318994.md?page=2)