Moderator guidelines

The Talk Forum is a critical source of knowledge, communication, discussion and debate inside the Dallas Makerspace. Some portions of Talk are visible to the outside community as well. We strive to achieve the right balance of collaboration and open discussion while presenting a civil and professional face to the external community.

An abbreviated set of Talk behavioral expectations are described here.

Moderator Team Objectives and Membership

The Infrastructure Committee sponsors a team (Moderator Team) to moderate the Talk Forum. The Moderator Team desires and promotes an open, transparent environment on Talk that promotes inclusion, diversity of opinions, knowledge sharing, respect and fairness while respecting privacy of all individuals. The objectives of this moderation are to:

(a) maintain an orderly, organized structure to facilitate knowledge search

(b) promote a respectful environment that is free from harassment, personal attacks, verbal abuse, vulgarity, antagonism, offensive communication or anything prohibited by law

(c) present a professional external image commensurate with a business of the magnitude and community impact of DMS

(d) hold people accountable for what they say and the impact of those words

The Board of Directors has granted the Moderator Team the authority to enforce actions taken in support of the objectives above. The Moderator Team is granted certain electronic privileges to perform this moderation. The authority of the Moderator team is limited to moderating those actions that occur through the electronic forums of the Dallas Makerspace; Talk/Discourse, mail when invited (PM's), and wiki.

The Moderator team will contain no fewer than five and no more than nine members. Disciplinary actions can only be taken with a specific number of moderators in concurrence. This multi-moderator team protects members from unilateral disciplinary actions by a single moderator, while retaining enough moderators to allow an individual moderator to recuse himself/herself due to personal interests.

The Board of Directors is allowed to have one member on the Moderator team. This moderator is recused from routine administrative or disciplinary matters and is not counted in the plurality requirements. This special moderator functions as a moderator only in situations involving something materially and seriously prejudicial to the interests or purposes of DMS. In those instances, this moderator has the same authority as any other individual moderator and is included in the plurality of moderators.

In addition, the Infrastructure Committee relies on users with administrative privileges who perform IT-related tasks to maintain the site, such as creating new categories, installing updates, etc. The Administrator role does not confer Moderator Status, although an individual is allowed to perform both roles if selected to both. The Moderator Team relies on Administrators to enact some specific consequences, because moderator status does not confer administrative privileges.

Community moderation is performed through Flags. This is a function of the Discourse system upon which Talk is built, and we have retained this function. Any user can flag a post as either off-topic or offensive/inappropriate (or spam). Three flags on a single post will hide the post from view. In essence, this is community moderation.

Privacy

As much as is possible disciplinary action, including ongoing deliberations, will be kept privy only to those with a “need to know” – the affected individual(s), the Moderator Team and the Board of Directors; plus Talk Admins when a Talk silence, block, or ban is enacted.

Moderators will not disclose in-process moderator deliberations to anyone outside of the Moderator Team.

Organized TALK Structure

Structure definition: Talk contents are organized into Categories, primarily related to committees. Several categories related to internal DMS business and operations are “members only” categories, visible only to properly-accredited DMS members who are signed in. Each category may contain threads, which is a collection of related posts; i.e., a discussion of a topic. A post is a single entry into the discussion, either to start a thread or to continue a discussion.

Categories

Organizing threads in relevant categories helps make the knowledge on Talk searchable. Each person who posts should determine the suitable category. Sometimes the category of a post should be changed when:

• it is not in a relevant location
• the original poster (OP) has neglected to specify a category
• the material is prejudicial to DMS interests and should be moved into a members-only category

Trust Level 2 users and above can change the category of their own post. Level 3 users and above can change the category of other user’s posts. Neither of these actions are restricted to the Moderator Team. Any posts that appear in any of the Members Only categories should not be moved to an open view category without the permission of the original poster (and preferably all respondents as well). All users who have permissions to move posts are asked to comply with this.

Threads

The other mechanism for maintaining organized structure is the ability to join and split threads as they wander off of the original topic. When numerous posts in the same thread have strayed from the original topic, they may be consolidated into a new topic to retain this new “off-topic” information and source of knowledge in a more appropriate location. Level 4 Users have the ability to perform splits and joins. Splitting multiple related posts into a new thread is preferred over hiding them via the Flag system.

Posts

Any Talk user has the ability to flag a post as being off-topic from the original post. The post will be hidden with flags/moderator action, or can be moved to a different or new thread.

Respectful Community Environment

The DMS Code of Conduct stated in the Rules and Policies requires that we “Don't merely respect each other; be excellent to each other.” This is a basic tenet of the DMS philosophy.

Further, the Anti-Harassment policy states “Harassment is prohibited and will not be tolerated”.

Our bylaws prohibit conduct that is materially and seriously prejudicial to the interests or purposes of DMS.

Deliberate and/or escalating antagonism is not tolerated.

Personal Attacks

Personal attacks are disruptive. On Talk threads they tend to move the dialog away from the discussion and towards individuals. Such attacks are apt to draw battle lines and make it more difficult for persons to work together. Personal attacks against persons or groups of persons include the following items, regardless of whether the identity of the target is explicitly stated or insinuated:

• verbal abuse such as forcefully criticizing, insulting or denouncing someone else
• deliberately discrediting, demeaning, insulting or defaming another person
• name-calling
• attacking the character, motive, or other attribute of the person
• cruelty, bullying, harassment or deliberate intimidation

Politely disagreeing, contradicting or refuting an argument is not considered a personal attack unless it involves the type of items listed above. The prohibition against personal attacks applies equally to all. It is as unacceptable to attack a user with a history of foolish or boorish behavior, or one who has been blocked, banned, or otherwise sanctioned, as it is to attack any other user. Dallas Makerspace encourages a respectful community: people make mistakes, but they are encouraged to learn from them and change their ways. Personal attacks are contrary to this spirit and damaging to the community. The following descriptions, adapted from Wikipedia, are used to clarify this definition.

What is considered to be a personal attack?

There is no rule that is objective and not open to interpretation on what constitutes a personal attack as opposed to constructive discussion, but some types of comments are never acceptable:

• Abusive, defamatory, or derogatory phrases based on race, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, religious or political beliefs, disabilities, ethnicity, nationality, etc. directed against another person or group of persons. Disagreement over what constitutes a religion, race, sexual orientation, or ethnicity is not a legitimate excuse.
• Using someone's affiliations as a means of dismissing or discrediting their views—regardless of whether said affiliations are mainstream. An example could be "you're a train spotter so what would you know about fashion?" Note that it is not a personal attack to question a person about their possible conflict of interest on a specific topic or post.
• Linking to external attacks, harassment, or other material, for the purpose of attacking another person.
• Comparing persons to Nazis, Communists, terrorists, or other infamous persons.
• Casting aspersions through accusations about personal behavior that lack evidence. Serious accusations require serious evidence.
• Threats, including, but not limited to:
  • Threats of legal action (i.e., a threat to engage in an external (real life) legal or other governmental process that would target other persons.) A person who has a concern involving legal action against another person due to Talk Forum activity should report that directly to the Moderator team and Board of Directors.
  • Threats of violence or other off-Forum action
  • Threats or actions which deliberately expose other persons to political, religious or other persecution by a government, their employer, or any others.
  • Threats to give out personal details about a person.

These examples are not exhaustive. Insulting or disparaging a person is a personal attack regardless of the manner in which it is done. When in doubt, comment on the content without referring to its contributor at all.

Reporting a Personal Attack

Any person who feels they have been personally attacked is entitled to file a complaint. A person with a sincere complaint about personal attacks should notify the Moderator team by

• flagging the offending post, and
• selecting the options NOTIFY STAFF PRIVATELY / Something Else, and
• writing a message to the moderators describing the situation

Making a claim of an attack or “a strike” in a Talk post is insufficient to initiate moderator action. Filing a frivolous or retaliatory claim is a serious offense.

Flagging

The Talk flagging feature is a key component for the community to identify transgressions against our code of conduct. Any Talk user can flag a post that he/she feels is inappropriate. The Flag states, “This post contains content that a reasonable person would consider offensive, abusive, or a violation of [our community guidelines] .” Flagging is appropriate if the post contains vulgarity including but not limited to images or videos, personal attacks, deliberate intimidation; threating, abusive or insulting words, and/or material seriously prejudicial to the interests or purposes of DMS. Flagging as “inappropriate” is not to be used to indicate disagreement with the poster; the content must actually be a violation of our community guidelines. Flags are not to be used to target or to deliberately censor another user, or in a retaliatory manner.

Flagger identity will be protected and will not be disclosed to the person who was flagged or the membership at large.

Moderators have electronic privileges to act upon flags. A Moderator can take the following actions:

1. Defer/Ignore. The moderator acknowledges the existence of the flag, but the moderator is allowing community moderation to take its course. If three flags accumulate the post will be hidden; if fewer than three flags accumulate the post will remain. This is the preferred moderator action except where personal attacks have occurred. There is zero tolerance for personal attacks.
2. Agree with the flag. Post is immediately hidden.
3. Disagree with the flag. Post is unhidden.

In addition, Moderators can contact either the flagger or the person who has been flagged for clarifying information. This contact will be accomplished via Talk Private Message (PM) and will copy the entire @Team_Moderators.

A common occurrence in Talk has been where someone posts a lengthy post full of interesting and valuable perspective, but has resorted to adult language or other inappropriate behavior in a small section of the post. The community has flagged the post as “inappropriate” and the entire post – not just the offending section – has been hidden. The Moderators will strive to identify those sections and offer the poster the opportunity to edit those offensive sections in order to allow the remainder of the post to be visible. The Moderators will not edit any such post themselves.

Once a post has been flagged or hidden, the re-edit possibility does not extend to personal attacks. There is zero tolerance for personal attacks.

Non-Members and Guests

Talk Forum users who are not members of DMS are allowed to participate as guests as a courtesy of the Dallas Makerspace. DMS does not tolerate SPAM, trolling, flaming, personal attacks, discourse prejudicial to the interests of DMS, or otherwise antagonistic behavior. Non-members will not receive the same level of tolerance afforded to DMS members.

Trend behavior

The Moderator Team may become aware of recurring behavior that transcends single flags. This behavior can include, but is not limited to, targeting through flagging or online harassment, which is multiple/repeated derogatory comments directed at specific individuals. The Moderator Team is empowered to curtail this trend behavior through the progressive discipline steps outlined below.

Civil Environment

Violating our code of conduct or failing to respect our community environment will constitute Civil Environment infractions, unless a personal attack has occurred. Civil environment can include but is not limited to:

• gross or egregious vulgarity beyond what can be suitably handled by flags
• creating a hostile environment for other members including verbal antagonism that isn’t a personal attack
• inciting others to violate our code of conduct
• willful conduct that is violent, unlawful or has the potential to severely harm DMS including deliberate sabotage of the DMS mission
• behavior that could qualify for expulsion under the Bylaws

Members are encouraged to use the “Hide Details” option of Talk, with the appropriate warning or disclaimer, when posting artwork that has adult content or could be construed as objectionable especially to our younger members. (Gear option, right hand side of post authoring/editing dialog box)

Overriding Moderator Actions Prohibited

Non-moderators shall not take actions to override or reverse official moderator actions, nor to reverse community-moderation such as hidden posts. Examples of prohibited behavior include, but are not limited:

• Re-posting “inappropriate” content hidden by either community flags or moderator action
• Negating a flag by editing the post but without removing the offensive content
• Creating or using alternate Talk accounts to bypass any Talk sanction such as silence, block or ban
• Posting “by proxy” (i.e., through a friend) to bypass a Talk sanction, except to report equipment failures or contact the Moderator team by PM to initiate an appeal

Moderator actions should be clearly identified as official acts except in the case of flagging where it isn’t practical to identify that as a moderator action.

Consequences

Violators will be subject to progressive discipline. Non-members will not receive the same level of tolerance afforded to DMS members. (Offenses are defined the same way for members and non-members. Consequences are different.)

Actions that are imminently threatening to another member may bypass progressive discipline and be escalated immediately to the Board of Directors.

If a person posts something patently illegal on Talk, law enforcement will be contacted and it will immediately be escalated above DMS enforcement.

A person may be temporarily silenced while moderators deliberate or to allow tempers to cool. This temporary silence:

• will typically last 24 hours or less
• is not considered a disciplinary act
• doesn’t count against the user

Summary of Consequences

Below are the guidelines for progressive discipline.

Egregious Offenses (Table 1)

Offense number	Type	Discipline	Who can invoke	Appeal
Any	Imminently threatening to other member, incl. threats of off-Forum activity	Escalated immediately to Board	Any moderator	Board
Any	Patently illegal	Escalated immediately to law enforcement	Any moderator	N/A

Personal Attacks (Table 2)

Offense number	Type	Discipline	Private/public	Who can invoke	Appeal
1P	Personal attack	Official warning	Private Message	Concurrence of Two moderators	Moderator Team
2P	Personal attack	Talk silence - 30 days	Private Message	Concurrence of Three moderators	Moderator Team
3P	Personal attack	Talk block - 60 days	Posted on Talk	At least half of moderators	Board
4P	Personal attack	Permanent Talk block and formal complaint to Board	* Posted on Talk * Board agenda/minutes	Majority of moderators	Board

Non-member consequences: Offense 1 is same as member. Offenses 2 and 3 all items same as member-level, but penalty is escalated one level. E.g., Non-member Offense 2 = Talk block – 60 days, with concurrence of three mods (normally required for 2nd offense).

Civil Environment (Not including Personal Attacks) (Table 3)

Offense number	Type	Discipline	Private/public	Who can invoke	Appeal
1C	Civil Environment	Official warning	Private Message	Concurrence of Two moderators	Moderator Team
2C	Civil Environment	Talk silence - 14 days	Private Message	Concurrence of Three moderators	Moderator Team
3C	Civil Environment	Interim Talk block and formal complaint to Board	Board agenda/minutes	At least half of moderators	Board

• In no instance will a civil environment offense be invoked when a personal attack has occurred.
• Non-member consequences will be defined at a later date and will be less lenient than member consequences

Overriding Moderator Actions (Table 4)

Offense number	Type	Discipline	Private/public	Who can invoke	Appeal
1M	Overriding Mod actions	Talk block - 7 days	Posted on Talk	Concurrence of Three moderators	Moderator Team
2M	Overriding Mod actions	Talk block - 14 days	Posted on Talk	Concurrence of Three moderators	Moderator Team
3M	Overriding Mod actions	Interim Talk block and formal complaint to Board	Board agenda/minutes	At least half of moderators	Board

• Non-member consequences: Any offense for a non-DMS-member overriding moderator action results in a permanent ban from Talk, with concurrence of three moderators.

Roll Back of Offense Count

Members can reduce their level of offenses by completing rollback period(s) without an additional offense of the same type.

• Personal Attacks, Civil Environment, and Overriding Moderator Actions all qualify for the rollback provision.
• A permanent Talk ban is not eligible for rollback, regardless of the offense type that generated it.
• Permanent Talk bans assigned by the Board of Directors are also not eligible for rollback.

The rollback period for each occurrence of an offense is 180 consecutive days.

• If a user who has previously been cited for any offense (not including flags) completes 180 consecutive days without an additional offense of the same type, their offense level for that type is rolled backward (i.e., reduced) by one level.
• Offense levels may not be reduced below zero.
• The 180-day counter restarts if the user commits an offense of the same type during the rollback period.

A person with multiple offenses of the same type (personal attacks, for instance) must demonstrate attack-free-behavior with one 180-day period for each attack – they may not be calculated concurrently. For example, it would take 360 days to rollback two offenses for personal attacks.

The rollback period for multiple types of offenses may run concurrently. For example, the same 180 day time period could be used to absolve both a single personal attack offense and a single civil environment offense, provided that neither of these offenses occur again within that 180 day time period.

The date calculator referenced at the end of this document may be useful for calculating unofficial durations, but in the case of a discrepancy, the moderator-specified duration takes precedence.

The following examples are provided for clarification:

• A user is cited for a first personal attack (PA) on 1/1/2019. If the person commits zero other PA’s prior to 7/1/2019, then their PA offense level is reduced to zero. The next new PA offense is counted as a first offense due to the roll back of the offense cited on 1/1/2019.
• A user is cited for a first PA on 1/1/2019 and sanctions are implemented for a second PA 2/1/2019. If the person commits zero other PA’s prior to 8/1/2019, then their PA offense level is reduced to one (i.e., first 180-day period began on date of second infraction). Now starting from this 8/1 date of the newly-reduced level, if they commit zero additional PA’s prior to 1/28/2020, their PA offense level is further reduced to zero.

Description of Consequences

Following is a detailed narrative description of consequences for DMS members. Consequences for non-members are summarized in the tables above.

Sanctions

Sanctions, in order of severity, are comprised of official warning, silencing, block, and ban. Flags, and posts hidden by flags are not considered sanctions. Temporary 24-hour silencing imposed for deliberations or cooling off is not considered a sanction.

• Official warning. User receives a private notice.
• Silence – Silenced user has read-access to Talk features including messaging, but may not initiate new messages except to specific individuals with Moderator privileges. Silence is invoked for an interim period.
• Block – all access to Talk features, including messaging, is removed for the specific violator for an interim period.
• Ban – all access to Talk features, including messaging, is removed for the specific violator permanently.
• Effectivity – all sanctions apply to all Talk usernames for that violator, including past, current, and future Talk usernames. The consequence shall not be avoided by using or creating alternate Talk users. Posting by proxy (i.e., a friend) is prohibited except for reporting equipment outages, or contacting the Moderator team via PM to initiate an appeal.

Personal Attacks

Penalties for a post containing personal attack(s) are as follows:

(1P) First offense – personal attack. Official Warning. The offender will receive a private, “official warning” from the Moderator Team that their actions are a personal attack. This official warning can be given with the concurrence of at least two members of the Moderator Team. Moderators are advised to use the phrase “official warning of personal attack - first offense” to avoid ambiguity or confusion. The Moderator Team and the Board of Directors will be copied on this notice. To protect the privacy of the individual(s) the Moderator team will make no further disclosure of this.

(2P) Second offense – personal attack. Talk silence – thirty days.

• Enactment. This sanction can be enacted with the concurrence of at least three members of the Moderator Team.
• Notice. The offender will receive a notification from the Moderator Team that their actions are a personal attack. Moderators are advised to use the phrase “personal attack – second offense” to avoid ambiguity or confusion. This notification will be via Personal Message on Talk. The Personal Message notification will be copied to the Moderator Team, the Talk Admin Team, and the Board of Directors. To protect the privacy of the individual(s) the Moderator team will make no further disclosure of this.
• Silence. The offender’s Talk account(s) will be silenced. The block will be rescinded on the 31st day of the silence. This silence is applied to all past, current or future Talk Usernames for that offender during this time period. The Moderator team will specify the date on which privileges are to be restored. A member of the Talk Admin team is required to implement the sanction.

(3P) Third offense – personal attack. Talk Block – sixty days.

• Enactment. This sanction can be enacted with the concurrence of at least half of the members of the Moderator Team.
• Notice. The offender will receive a notification from the Moderator Team that their actions are a personal attack. Moderators are advised to use the phrase “personal attack – third offense” to avoid ambiguity or confusion. This notification will be via Personal Message on Talk and email to the email address of record on the user’s Talk account. The Personal Message notification will be copied to the Moderator Team, the Talk Admin Team, and the Board of Directors.
• Block. The offender will receive an immediate and permanent block from all access to the Talk Forum including messaging. The block will be rescinded on the 61st day of the block. This block includes all past, current or future Talk Usernames for that offender. The Moderator team will specify the date on which privileges are to be restored. A Talk Admin is required to implement the sanction.
• Publication. The sanction will be posted on the Talk Forum, so as to avoid the appearance of special treatment or secret proceedings.

(4P) Fourth offense – personal attack. Permanent Talk Ban and Formal Complaint to Board.

• Enactment. This sanction can be enacted with the concurrence of a majority of the members of the Moderator Team.
• Notice. The offender will receive a notification from the Moderator Team that their actions are a personal attack. Moderators are advised to use the phrase “personal attack – fourth offense” to avoid ambiguity or confusion. This notification will be via Personal Message on Talk and email to the email address of record on their Talk account. The Personal Message notification will be copied to the Moderator Team, the Talk Admin Team, and the Board of Directors.
• Ban. The offender will receive an immediate and permanent ban from all access to the Talk Forum including messaging. This ban includes all past, current or future Talk Usernames for that offender. The Moderator team will specify the action; a Talk Admin is required to implement the sanction.
• The Moderator Team will make a Formal Complaint to the Board of Directors asking the Board to consider appropriate additional discipline or membership sanctions on a case-by-case basis.
• Publication. The sanction will be posted on the Talk Forum, so as to avoid the appearance of special treatment or secret proceedings. Formal complaints to the Board will be published in the Board Agenda/Minutes per standard DMS procedures.

A person who needs to provide clarifying information regarding a first or second personal attack offense can do so via Private Message (PM) or email with the Moderator team.

Retaliatory or disruptive behavior toward moderators will automatically earn an additional personal attack offense. This requires two moderators to enact, regardless of the offense level.

Civil Environment (not including Personal Attacks)

In no instance will a civil environment offense be invoked when a personal attack has occurred.

(1C) First Offense – civil environment. Official Warning. The offender will receive a private, “official warning” from the Moderator Team that their actions are a violation of our community guidelines. Specifics will be provided as much as possible. This official warning can be given with the concurrence of at least two members of the Moderator Team. Moderators are advised to use the phrase “official warning - violation of civil environment ” to avoid ambiguity or confusion. The Moderator Team and the Board of Directors will be copied on this notice. To protect the privacy of the individual(s) the Moderator team will make no further disclosure of this.

(2C) Second Offense – civil environment. Temporary Talk Silence (Fourteen days). A repeat offense for violating the civil environment will be cause for a temporary silence on Talk.

• Enactment. This temporary silence can be enacted with the concurrence of at least three members of the Moderator Team.
• Notice. The offender will receive a private message from the Moderator Team that their actions are a violation of our community guidelines. Moderators are advised to use the phrase “second violation of civil environment” to avoid ambiguity or confusion. The Moderator Team, the Talk Admin Team, and the Board of Directors will be copied on this notice. To protect the privacy of the individual(s) the Moderator team will make no further disclosure of this.
• Silence. The offender’s Talk account(s) will be silenced. The Silence will be rescinded on the 15th day of the silence. This silence includes all past, current or future Talk Usernames for that offender during this time period. The Moderator team will specify the date on which privileges are to be restored, but a member of the Talk Admin team is required to implement the sanction.

(3C) Third Offense – civil environment. Interim Talk Block and Formal Complaint to Board of Directors. Persistent offenders who have repeatedly violated the civil environment will be referred to the Board of Directors for further action.

• Enactment. This discipline can be enacted with the concurrence of at least half of the members of the Moderator Team.
• Notice. The offender will receive a notification from the Moderator Team that their actions violate the civil environment. Moderators are advised to use the phrase “third violation of civil environment violation” to avoid ambiguity or confusion. This notification will be via Personal Message on Talk and email to the email address of record on their Talk account. The Personal Message notification will be copied to the Moderator Team, the Talk Admin Team, and the Board of Directors.
• Block. The offender will receive an immediate “interim” block from all access to the Talk Forum including messaging. This block will be in place until the Board meets to deliberate on the accusation. The Board will adjudicate the removal or extension of the interim Talk Block during deliberation. The Moderator team will specify the interim block, but a member of the Talk Admin team is required to implement the sanction.
• Publication. This action will be published through the agenda/minutes of the Board of Directors meeting per standard DMS procedures.

A person who needs to provide clarifying information regarding a first or second civil environment offense can do so via Talk Private Message (PM) or email with the Moderator team.

Overriding Moderator Actions

(1M) First offense – overriding moderator actions. Temporary Talk block (seven days). The offender will receive a seven day block from Talk for the initial offense (block will be lifted on 8th day). This can be enacted with the concurrence of at least three members of the Moderator Team. This notification will be via Personal Message on Talk and email to the email address of record on the Talk account. The Personal Message notification will be copied to the Moderator Team, the Talk Admin Team, and the Board of Directors. The Talk block will be posted on the Talk Forum, so as to avoid the appearance of special treatment or secret proceedings. The Moderator team will specify the date on which privileges are to be restored, but a member of the Talk Admin team is required to implement the sanction.

(2M) Second Offense. Temporary Talk Block (fourteen days). A repeat offense of overriding Moderator actions will be cause for a temporary block from Talk (block will be lifted on 15th day).

• Enactment. This can be enacted with the concurrence of at least three members of the Moderator Team.
• Notice. Notification will be via Personal Message on Talk and email to the email address of record on the Talk account. The Personal Message notification will be copied to the Moderator Team, the Talk Admin Team, and the Board of Directors. The block will be posted on the Talk Forum, so as to avoid the appearance of special treatment or secret proceedings.
• Block. The offender will receive an immediate fourteen day block from all access to the Talk Forum including messaging. The block will be lifted on the 15th day of the block. The Moderator team will specify the date on which privileges are to be restored, but a member of the Talk Admin team is required to implement the sanction.

(3M) Third Offense. Interim Talk block and Formal Complaint to Board of Directors. Persistent offenders who have repeatedly overridden moderator actions will be referred to the Board of Directors for further action.

• Enactment. This can be initiated by at least half of the members of the Moderator Team.
• Notice. The offender will receive a notification from the Moderator Team that their actions violate the prohibition against overriding moderator actions. Moderators are advised to use the phrase “third notice of overriding moderator actions ” to avoid ambiguity or confusion. This notification will be via Personal Message on Talk and email to the email address of record on their Talk account. The Personal Message notification will be copied to the Moderator Team, the Talk Admin Team, and the Board of Directors.
• Block. The offender will receive an immediate “interim” block from all access to the Talk Forum including messaging. This block will be in place until the Board meets to deliberate on the offense. The Moderator team will specify the date on which privileges are to be restored, but a member of the Talk Admin team is required to implement the sanction. The Board will adjudicate the removal or extension of the interim Talk Block during deliberation.
• Publication. This action will be published through the agenda/minutes of the Board of Directors meeting.

A person who needs to provide clarifying information regarding a first or second “overriding moderator action” offense can do so via Private Message (PM) or email with the Moderator team.

Guidelines for Operation of the Moderator Team

• The Moderator Team, plus Level 4 users, will perform actions to maintain an organized structure, either as unilateral or consensus actions.
• There is zero tolerance for personal attacks.
• For all other instances, moderating with a light hand is the preferred philosophy.
• Where the intent of the poster is unclear, especially if humor or sarcasm are suspected, moderators are encouraged to seek clarification from the Original Poster and if necessary, ask the OP to revise their post.
• Moderators will perform actions to maintain a respectful community environment.
  • Unilateral actions by a single moderator to maintain a respectful environment are not preferred, but may be necessary in the case of egregious violations.
  • Most actions require concurrence of multiple moderators. Dissenting moderator opinions should be thoughtfully considered and in some circumstances may outweigh the initial concurrence. After a moderator decision has been issued to the offender, the formal appeal process is invoked.
  • A single moderator should not unilaterally reverse the actions of another moderator. Contentious actions should be discussed among the moderator team.
• Moderators are not to assess whether allegations and assertions presented in a Talk post are accurate - only whether a personal attack or other transgression has been committed.
• Moderators must avoid all actions that give the impression of partiality or favoritism.
  • Flagging by Moderators
    • A moderator with no personal interest is allowed to flag and take immediate action. This action should be used sparingly and not for trivial circumstances.
    • A moderator with a personal or family interest should flag as an individual and let other moderator(s) act on it.
    • A moderator who is participating in a contentious discussion as an individual should publicly recuse himself/herself from any moderator actions associated with that discussion.
  • Moderators should recuse themselves from disciplinary actions where they have a personal or family interest.
• The Moderator team can highlight individual posts with “staff colors” to call attention to official notifications. A Moderator will only highlight self-authored posts or with the permission of the Moderator who was the original poster.
• Moderators should refrain from editing posts of other persons except with the permission of the original poster.
• Moderator communication with other non-Moderator members regarding moderation actions should copy the entire @Team_Moderators, to keep all Moderator Team members informed and to avoid the appearance of any secret proceedings.
• Templates are available on Talk in the Moderator’s category for the communications that are required when individuals are notified of offenses.
• It is preferred that the written Talk statements guide moderator deliberations, consequently neither the accuser nor the accused should participate in moderator deliberations. If one party must be involved, the other party should be given a comparable opportunity to participate.
• Moderators have authority to moderate PMs, but will do so only when they have been invited by one of the parties to the PM for the explicit purpose of moderation.
• Calculating Sanction duration. The following date calculator may be useful for calculating the sanction duration:

https://www.timeanddate.com/date/dateadd.html

• Offenders will be notified of the date on which privileges will be restored.
• The sanction is imposed immediately, but the date on which the sanction starts is not included in the calculations.
  • Start date: first day after the sanction is issued/implemented
  • Duration: days or weeks in the units as specified. For instance, do not substitute 2 months for 60 days.
  • Result: the date on which privileges will be restored
• Example: offense is issued and sanction is implemented on 2/1/2019. Sanction duration is listed as 30 days. Start date is entered as 2/2/2019, with 30 days duration. The date for restoring privileges is 3/4/2019.