# Recommendations for handling difficult situations

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/recommendations-for-handling-difficult-situations/47574>\
**Category:** Community Building\
**Tags:** moderation\
**Created:** [20 يوليو 2016، 11:52م UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/recommendations-for-handling-difficult-situations/47574 "2016-07-20T23:52:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 3

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**Author:** ![jomaxro](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/jomaxro/32/126216_2.png) [@jomaxro](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jomaxro)\
**Post date:** [26 يوليو 2016، 3:42ص UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/recommendations-for-handling-difficult-situations/47574/3 "2016-07-26T03:42:05Z")

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> [@codinghorror](#):
>
> Share moderation duties with multiple people

> [@lordbanks](#):
>
> Serious action like thread closure (our people don’t like to be interrupted) or suspension requires more than one pair of eyes to go through.

That. 110%. Over at Stonehearth any “major” action that is taken is discussed by at least 2 staff and typically ends up being discussed by all active staff before taking place. We’ve taken advantage of the updated blocking feature, to prevent public posting while we chat quietly with a user. If necessary - and thus far very rare - we’ll go for a suspension. If the offense is clear, non-disputable, we’ll block without discussion, but that too is quite rare. The only instances where a single moderator would block without discussion would be an inappropriate username and/or profile image. Even when we had a clear spammer posting pornographic videos, (which were quickly flagged into oblivion), we didn’t delete the spammer until after a (brief) discussion.

Another focus for us is **leading by example.** Our staff is active in the community, and many users don’t immediately associate us as _staff_, just as a friendly user. We try to welcome each new user after their first post with a “hello and welcome” reply and be as friendly as we can. If a user posts in the wrong place, we’ll move it, and then post a reply explaining why. 95% of the time, users are appreciative, and this helps foster a friendly and helpful community. With this, most users will seek us out when they need help, and we aren’t some unknown being watching over the forums.

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