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[kejlina]

A question for those of you who moderate livejournal communities:

I'm launching a new community soon and I want to be an effective moderator. What are some of the qualities that make an effective moderator? How do you determine the rules for the community, and what do you do if somebody breaks those rules?

Comments

[peaceofpie]

I moderate a LJ community! Maybe you have heard of it. It's called hippiecommune. XD

Seriously, though, this is basically how I moderate shit on my own LJ:

1. If you have something to say, say it.
2. If someone says something that bothers you, you're welcome to tell them.
3. If you're a dickwad, someone's probably going to tell you you're being a dickwad.
4. Sure, you can BE a dickwad if you want to, but then you probably won't learn anything, and that's no fun. Neither is being told you're a dickhead. So, you're encouraged to play nice. But not required. ;-)
5. If you're not sure whether something you want to say is "okay", see rule #1.

[nymphatacita]

I want to copy your rules for my community.

[lacyjae]

The above are pretty good rules, imo. :)

If it's a community that requires a little more strictness than above, some kind of warning system/three strikes, might make sense? I'm not really sure, otherwise. I like communities that kinda run themselves, very much like peaceofpie's rules suggest. :)

[peaceofpie]

Yay! I like you. Most people think I'm nuts when I say that. ;-)

What would lead you to feel that a community required more strictness than that?

[anonymous]

If snarking personal journals were allowed, this comment would probably end up in vegansnark.

RULES FOR BEING A MOD:

1. Have an ego the size of a small solar system. No, make that every solar system EVER.

2. Pretend to be nice to people who break the rulez and then make fun of them elsewhere.

3. After behind-the-back snarking, BUST OUT THE CAN OF WHOOP ASS because we all know just how important RULEZ are. If any are broken, THE WORLD COULD SUDDENLY FLATTEN ITSELF, thus making a lot of stupid people suddenly brilliant. We wouldn't want that.

4. Make up more rulez just in case the current rulez are not enough to create worshipers in the Church of Modz.

5. Eat a cookie.

[lavajin]

Bahaha butthurt dumbass wimp much?

[queerbychoice]

Write sensible rules that do not lean too far toward either tyranny or doormattishness. State the rules clearly in the userinfo, and enforce them consistently. That's it.

[bareftinthesnow]

I'm a mod for boltveggies and bike_wpg. I find it's a pretty hands-off job in both cases. My only acts have been to set the icons and patrol for ads. Unless the nature of your community inherently invites snark, I'd let the community build to a critical mass and organically self-determine its culture before enshrining rules on the profile page. I think the cases needing comment control are few, and I get super annoyed with mods who are over-involved. Let the discussions happen, yo.

If you're using lj to run a contest, or have narrow standards for content (art, recipes) and format (photos, tags), then be clear what you want, but in a forum-style community I think a nice general statement is totally adequate. (i.e. *play nice* or, *don't make me use my mod stick*)

[bareftinthesnow]

I guess the exception to this would be support communities...