From The Otherkin Community

	The Otherkin Community Handbook » Moderation » Policies » Action
	The Otherkin Community Handbook is a collection of information about The Otherkin Community, Inc. and its services. The Handbook is designed to provide helpful aid to members and visitors of The Otherkin Community, as well as information for staff, employees and volunteers. Categories: Forums, Moderation

In most situations, moderators may act alone so long as they follow proper procedure (while procedures are not publicly viewable, policies provide an overview of procedures). However, moderators are encouraged to collaborate on all but minor issues before exercising any moderation.

Contents 1 Professionalism 2 Acting Alone 3 Majority Vote 3.1 Emergency Action 4 Taking Responsibility 4.1 History 5 Notes

Professionalism

Moderators must remain professional, neutral and composed during their moderation. Moderation posts, PMs, letters, or any form of communication should reflect an unbiased, neutral view in line with The Otherkin Community's values. If you find yourself personally attached, deeply offended, or highly irritated by a situation, take a step back before moderating, or pass the task off to another moderator.

Here are some questions you can ask yourself in order to ensure that your action remains neutral and professional:

1. Does my message contain any condescending remarks?
2. Do I have a personal attachment (positive or negative) or dislike of the individual that is reflected within my message?
3. Do my reasons for moderation strictly reflect the rules or my own personal opinion on the matter?
4. Does my backing (evidence) for violations reflect the rules or my own personal opinions?
5. Would the other moderators feel my message has a negative tone?
6. Would I be content with my letter being published for everyone in the world to read and comment on? (Would my message reflect qualities of the Community that I would stand behind, or will others point out problems within the message that reflect personal views?)

Acting Alone

When acting alone, moderators should record their actions in the appropriate area as defined within the moderation procedure.^[1] Other moderators may review the action taken to ensure that it was just (see #Taking Responsibility below).

Moderators may act alone for minor incidents that present clear violations of the Rules & Regulations, or are clearly outlined within this handbook. Such incidents may include (but are not limited to) topic locks, providing warnings for harassment and upholding order.

Moderators may not act alone when majority vote is required by the moderation staff.

Majority Vote

Many situations require the majority vote of the staff within the respective committee before any moderation may be performed (for exceptions, see #Emergency Action below). For example, when moderating within the forums, moderators may have to consult other forum moderators and reach a consensus of the majority.

The most common situations requiring majority vote are account suspensions (both temporary and bans), as well as any warning that would result in an account suspension.

Emergency Action

Certain events may place a moderator in a situation where he/she must act immediately in order to ensure that a severe situation does not get even further out of hand. In these situations, the moderator may temporarily perform his/her duties without the need for a majority vote. However, the action must be reviewed by the rest of the staff after the fact. After the review, a decision will be made as to whether or not the action should be reversed.

Emergency action may be taken in the following situations:

• If a user is continuously violating the Rules & Regulations on any service, the moderator may issue a temporary suspension to (a) prevent the malicious user from causing more harm and (b) allow time for the moderators to reach a decision on how to handle the situation.
• In the event of an attack on the site ("raid") due to mass registration, an administrator may disable registration temporarily. If the attack involves mass posting on The Otherkin Community Forums, the administrator may temporarily disable the forums. Similarly, if the attack involves a raid of a channel within the chat, the moderator may enable moderation (+m) on the channel and selectively give voice to chatters.
• If a user's account is believed to be compromised, or if the administrator feels that a moderator or other administrator's account has been compromised, the administrator may deactivate the account until the identity of the individual may be verified.
• This is by no means a comprehensive list. The moderator may act when necessary using their own discretion, unless otherwise stated within this document or the appropriate procedure. Moderators will be held responsible for misconduct.

Taking Responsibility

All moderators will be held personally responsible for misconduct (failure to abide by policies outlined within this handbook, as well as follow proper procedure). For example, if a moderator inappropriately moderates an individual, or the staff deems the action unjust or a violation of protocol, the offending moderator must personally apologize and explain the misconduct to the user. If the situation became public, the moderator would be required to make a public apology.

History

This rather harsh decision was due to a variety of past factors involving the moderation of certain individuals. The Otherkin Community upholds a strict policy for moderation. If a moderator acts against the set policies and procedures, his/her action risks providing a negative impact on the entire organization. In order to ensure moderators have the incentive to abide by the procedures and keep up to date on any new procedure, this policy has been put in place. The Otherkin Community staff does not wish to hide mistakes or misconduct from its members. If something has been done incorrectly, the members will know.

Decision to adopt this policy was made during a staff meeting on 24 Jan 2009.

Notes

1. ↑ Moderation procedures are not publicly viewable for security purposes. However, policies provide a detailed overview of the procedure, without the specific steps.