Moderator guidelines

Moderators keep discussions useful and safe. They act on the community rules — the same rules for everyone — and every decision is written down with a reason the author can read and appeal.

Roles

Administrator (platform staff)

• Can: everything below, plus appoint global moderators, change the trust level of staff accounts and sign an account out on every device.
• Cannot: act without a written reason — every action goes to the moderation log.

Global moderator

• Can: hide and restore publications and comments anywhere; decide reports and pre-moderation; issue sanctions of any length — a permanent ban is always a human decision; review appeals of other moderators' decisions; review community requests and ads; change a member's trust level by hand, with a written reason.
• Cannot: change their own trust level or that of staff; change prices or site settings; appoint other global moderators; read private messages unless they were reported; review an appeal against their own decision.

Community owner

• Can: everything a community moderator can, in their community; appoint and remove its moderators.
• Cannot: act outside their community; issue permanent bans.

Community moderator

• Can: in their community only — hide and restore content, decide reports, issue warnings and restrictions of up to 7 days.
• Cannot: act in other communities; issue permanent bans; review appeals against their own decisions.

Rules for every moderator

1. Always write the reason and point to the rule that was broken. "Rule 4: spam — the same link in five communities" is a reason; "no" is not.
2. Same rules for everyone. Advertisers, Premium members, friends and well-known authors get no special treatment.
3. No conflicts of interest. Do not moderate a discussion you take part in, content about you, or people you are in a dispute with — hand it to another moderator.
4. The smallest step that works. Hide one comment rather than a whole thread; a warning before a restriction, unless the content is illegal or dangerous.
5. Explain, don't punish in silence. The author is always told what was restricted, why, and how to appeal. There are no shadow bans.
6. Appeals go to someone else. An appeal is reviewed by a different moderator within the 180-day appeal window.
7. Privacy. Never reveal who filed a report, and never share personal data you saw while moderating.
8. Illegal content first. Reports of illegal content (child abuse, terrorism, threats) are handled before anything else and passed to global moderators.

Where moderators work

The moderation queue holds reports, content held for review, automation alerts and appeals. Every decision appears in the moderation log; the transparency page publishes the totals.