Both of these are great recommendations.
I wish I could remember which of Richard Millington’s books 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 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.
- High levels of involvement - They make lots of contributions already.
- High levels of Expertise in the subject of most topics - They will assist in ensuring correctness of information.
- Platform Skill - They are competent in their use of Discourse as a platform
- High levels of passion for the topic - They will stay up to date and happily help others in their learning.
- 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]
- Interesting Positions/Constructive Conflict - They provide ideas which are often neglected or omitted, but in a contructive way.
- 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?
- Great Contacts - They can bring the right people to the discussion, e.g. with @mentions
- 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 we’ve 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.
This is not really needed to be a skilled moderator. It’s 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 ↩︎