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Moderator Information

For mstdn.party, the moderators are:

For mstdn.plus, the moderator is:

We welcome anyone to apply on an ongoing basis, but we are not actively looking for moderators right now.

Eligibility

In summary, you must:

  • Be an active user, for at least 6 months, of either mstdn.party or mstdn.plus;
  • Be of age of majority (at least 18);
  • Not be a bot account;
  • Not be a commercial entity (sole proprietors reflecting personal interests are excluded);
  • Uphold instance rules and the values of the fediverse;
  • Have no significant moderation infractions.

Additional considerations will be given for:

  • Cultural and linguistic diversity;
  • Diversity in topics; and
  • Political interestingness, that is, engaging in more thoughtful discussions and not just feelings to current events.

Any moderator can choose to moderate both mstdn.party and mstdn.plus should they wish, there are no additional requirements.

Moderators may resign at any time. Moderators can also be dismissed by me or Jonah for any reason, including but not limited to inactivity, wrongdoing, or reputational concerns (but we hope to only do this as a last resort).

Responsibility

The mandatory responsibilities are:

  • Adjudicating on reports, and;
  • Reviewing newly-registered accounts (esp. removing SEO accounts);

which should be done on a daily, ongoing basis.

The optional responsibilities are:

  • Reviewing federating instances (esp. maintaining federation blocklists);
  • Welcoming new users and aiding them in using our instances; and
  • Engaging in policy discussions, should rule changes are warranted.

The welcoming part can be done at your pleasure (you have some creative freedom in how to do so, and you can also link to relevant pages in this guide or other guides); the rest is, in principle, on an ad hoc basis.

You are required to:

  • Recognize that the instances' role of general service providers, and as good neighbours on the fediverse, require reasonable limits of user behaviour, aligned with good values, even if they're not explicitly stated in the rules, to maintain a good image;
  • Engage in collective decision-making, notably to consult with peers, within and outside of the instances, should there be doubts. Any decisions that could significantly impact large number of users must be discussed with me, who will hold a public commenting period; and
  • Protect personal data, especially including those who make reports. (However we have disclosed IP addresses involved in certain abuse, especially cross-instance spamming operations; in such case the decision to do so rests with me. Also, in certain cases you're permitted to contact the author of a report to ask for clarification.)

Workload

Note

The numbers are mstdn.party and mstdn.plus combined, not per instance.

Generally speaking, since you can be notified of new reports (on your account notifications or by email), for most of the time the mandatory responsibilities are on call. Essentially the perfect scenario is that at least one staff member keeps an eye on signups and reports at all times... but we're all volunteers, so it's not practical to expect any one moderator to do so, but you get the gist.

On a daily basis there are about 2~3 reports and around 30 registrations on average. Most reports can be quickly dealt with - it's often spam or someone not CW'ing NSFW content. Most registrations are benign - SEO accounts are very easy to spot. Registrations don't usually spike, but reports can (up to around 10 per day, excluding duplicates), especially during ongoing spam waves. In such cases it is important to maintain rapid response to incidents.

Operation

Severity of moderation action should depend on severity of the infraction and the nature of the account. However, do note that some users do not read warnings (often due to poor design of some clients), and such you may choose to freeze an account to require them to acknowledge warnings, provided that you give reasonable time for them to respond, and that you do so respectfully (the users are often not at fault for not reading warnings).

Appeals should be discussed among all moderators, myself included. The only exceptions are appeals for actions taken by the webhook, which only needs a single moderator to reverse if the case is obvious enough (however, as of writing, such feature has been suspended).

Moderators can read Moderation at Hachyderm to get a sense of community expectations. While it is not strictly our policy (and Hachyderm is not without controversies), it does fairly describe the spirit of moderating on Mastodon, and remember, you are required to make the instances good neighbours on the fediverse!

Selection Process

  1. Apply, unless you have been invited to skip the application.
  2. Once Jonah and I have reviewed the applications, a list of preferred candidates will be published, and a public commenting period will be held for 7 days.
  3. The comments will be reviewed and the moderators will be confirmed.