This concept is currently in the early stages of a trial

Community Moderation - what's it all about?

Traditionally OGS was moderated by a small group of hand-picked long-standing members.

It had to be a small group, because the types of "powers" that these moderators have are extensive, and the burden is high (full moderators have received death threats and other nastiness from outraged or trollish users).

This approach does not scale, so OGS is moving to enable more of the community to be involved in moderation by putting in place tools to give the wider group of people the ability to act on most routine types of report.

With more people involved there's less for each person to do - we hope that "being a Community Moderator" can be a "light" responsibility, rather than "burdensome". A Community Moderator can look at reports as often or as rarely as they choose.

What will I be able to do?

You will get access to a page that shows you reports from users.

A Community Moderator can vote on specific outcomes for reports.

For example, you may be offered voting options on a "Cheating Report" like

• Cheated game: Annul the game and warn the cheater.

• Attempted cheating: warn the cheater.

• Call the game for the winner, and warn the cheater (*)

• No cheating: inform the reporter.

  • note - votes to "call the game" are only available while the game is still in progress.

When a consensus is reached (3 identical votes) the voted action happens.

No further moderation or other human involvement is needed - suitable canned messages are automatically sent as needed.

The "canned messages" take into account whether the reported person is a beginner or not.

You can see the content of the canned messages that are sent for each situation here.

Escalation

You will also be able to vote to "escalate the issue". This is an action that will happen immediately if you chose it: the report will go to the "full moderator" queue for their attention.

Disputed votes

As soon as an issue has differing votes, it is automatically escalated.

What won't I be able to do?

• Suspend user's accounts. This is a decision that is taken by full moderators in the case of repeat or very serious offenders.

• Talk to the users about their reports.

Technically, you could approach the users, but the system doesn't provide a mechanism, and it's not really intended. If the users need to be talked to, it's best to escalate this to a full moderator - as much for your sanity as the users'.

The intent is the Community Moderation should not be a burden on community members. So it should not get you involved in "heated discussions" or "difficult decisions".

When should I escalate?

That's easy:

• “Vote on reports that are clear, escalate ones that are not”

... BUT

we encourage you to err on the side of "vote if you can", because there is no harm.

If your vote turns out to be not really the best thing, others will vote differently and it gets escalated anyhow :)

On the other hand, if you're actually right, and you vote, and everyone agrees, then that's one less report that needs more attention.