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Greetings once again,
This is the second phase in our changes to the moderation system, unlike the Warning Point System, this has already been implemented and the moderators are now following this system.We will be adjusting the system based off your comments and when we implement the third phase.
Changes are still being made and your comments/suggestions are welcome. (We know there are probably mistakes, things that need changing and things that need to be clarified.) This guide is based off the old private moderation guide, however this one covers the new system and is updated to hopefully cover all areas.
The final version of the "Moderators Guide" will be made public, we wish to make our moderation methods as transparent as possible. Thanks to Doomsider for creating the early version of this and Kojinus for updating, adding and adapting to fit the new warning point system.
Changes to the Warning Point System can be found here.
- SMD Administration
This is the second phase in our changes to the moderation system, unlike the Warning Point System, this has already been implemented and the moderators are now following this system.We will be adjusting the system based off your comments and when we implement the third phase.
Changes are still being made and your comments/suggestions are welcome. (We know there are probably mistakes, things that need changing and things that need to be clarified.) This guide is based off the old private moderation guide, however this one covers the new system and is updated to hopefully cover all areas.
The final version of the "Moderators Guide" will be made public, we wish to make our moderation methods as transparent as possible. Thanks to Doomsider for creating the early version of this and Kojinus for updating, adding and adapting to fit the new warning point system.
Changes to the Warning Point System can be found here.
StarMade Moderators Guide
Introduction
The reason this guide is being written is to give the basic guidelines and expectations for all moderators. This guide is also meant to be a great starting point for new moderators.
This guide in no way represents every possible situation that could arise on the forums, and exceptions can be made on a case by case basis. This means that just because something isn’t listed here, doesn’t mean it’s necessarily okay. If you find any questionable content on the forums that doesn’t fall under anything mentioned in these guidelines, please bring them to the attention of other Moderators.
Policy
The StarMade forums are designed to allow the community of StarMade to interact and communicate with each other in a positive way. The public image of StarMade is very important to the design team and the moderators. In order to keep up the public image all moderators must understand these basic concepts meant to keep the public image of StarMade and its forums clean and professional
General Guidelines
Posts by moderators should always be courteous and professional. Moderators are subject to the same rules applied to forum users. Keep in mind that moderating is more about responsibility than power. When posting be careful not to be impulsive or act without thought. Always consider your actions before you commit to them.
When interacting with users of the StarMade forums always respect users' opinions as long as they do not troll, degrade, attack, or flame. When responding to a user about your actions please stick solely to the facts and be sure to give all the relevant information.
When working with design team always be courteous and respectful as they are the ones who are working the hardest to improve StarMade. If you have issues with someone on the design team please attempt to resolve the issue with them. If you cannot please contact the forum manager with the issue and accompanying documentation.
Moderators are all part of the same team. Moderators should always show unity on all issues. Respect all action from other moderators. If you do not agree with a particular action always discuss it with all related parties. No one outside of the moderation team is supposed to know about it so do not discuss these details outside of the moderation team. In the rare instance that there is an issue between moderators that cannot be resolved the forum manager should be contacted with all relevant information.
Expectations
Moderating is a time consuming process. Set aside a couple of hours a week to dedicate to reviewing the forums. Please give as much time as you can. If you will be gone from the forums for an extended amount of time we understand as personal life is important. Please let your fellow moderators know if you will be gone for an extended period.
Moderator Guidelines
Use the following explanations to determine whether a user has violated any of the rules or if you’re unsure of whether or not to take action.
NOTE: These guidelines apply to both the forums and the chat(where applicable).
Advertising:
If the advertisement in question is not directly related to StarMade servers (In the “Servers” sub-forum) or a StarMade fan service then the user in question will have their post removed from public view and warning points administered to their account for unsolicited advertising. If the user in question can be confirmed as a spambot then an instant ban will be issued.
Baiting:
Baiting is a term to describe when a user is going out of there way to elicit a negative response from someone else. Under no circumstances is baiting to be tolerated. In the event that this happens, the person doing the baiting is subject to a temporary removal of their ability to make posts on the forum as well as an appropriate number of warning points. The person or persons who responded to the baiting are subject to a warning point. Baiting should always be reported to a Moderator as soon as possible and never humored by the user.
Bumping:
Bumping is discouraged unless it is a support question and the user has not received an answer in over a 24 hour period of time.
Closing or locking a thread:
When deciding if a thread should be closed or locked, a few things should be taken into consideration.
If any of the following conditions have occurred then you may choose to lock the thread.
If you aren’t sure feel free to get a second opinion from another Moderator.
Deleting a post:
Posts are never truly deleted, when a moderator deletes a post, it is removed from public and only view-able to administration. We like to keep records of as many posts as possible so hiding it from public view allows administrators to look back on the relative content.
When deleting a post ensure that the post violates forum rules before making any action, if you determine that it has violated any rules then remove the post and administer the appropriate warning points to the user.
Flaming:
Flaming is when one user is being negative towards another user based on any number of contributing factors, be it the users opinion, spelling, grammar, choice of faction, etc.
We have a zero tolerance policy for flaming. We want to encourage a friendly environment on the StarMade forums, and flaming has no place in that design. Anyone found flaming another user for any reason will have the appropriate action taken against them. There are ways to disagree with someone that don’t involve being negative towards them.
Personal attacks:
Personal attacks against anyone on the forum (Be it user or staff) include such things as insulting, threatening, or harassing someone. These actions are not taken lightly and will always be met with at least 15 points applied to the users account depending on the severity of the attack. (See Warning Points documentation for more information)
Reports on personal attacks will be handled on a case-by-case basis. Multiple members of the SMD staff must provide input on the report in question to determine the severity of the attack and decide what action to take.
Personal information:
If one user releases personal information of another user without their consent then depending on the information in question it will be dealt with as though it were a personal attack against that user. Personal information includes but is not limited to: Email address phone number, IP address, location of residence, real name, or social security number.
Salty Language:
A bit of foul language here and there never hurt anyone, but if any user is excessively swearing in their posts then they will be met with the appropriate actions.
Spam:
Spam consists of one or multiple people repeating the same thing (or very similar things) over and over in a very small amount of time. Spamming will be met with a removal of offending posts and the appropriate action taken against the user. (See warning point documentation).
Splitting/merging threads:
Splitting and merging threads should only be done if two very similar threads are created within a short period of time. More often than not a repeat thread should be met with a lock and letting the user know to redirect their messages to threads already created on that topic.
Racism/Hate:
Racism and hate will not be tolerated at all under any circumstances (joking or not). There is no room for that kind of behavior on these forums. Any user found being racist towards or hating on another user will be permanently banned from the forums.
Reporting:
If a report has been made please post all relevant information to the report chat room. If possible a second moderator should review and execute the action that has been agreed upon. If a moderator is already involved with a user or action they should refrain from dealing with the report and let another moderator commit to the actions that are agreed upon. A rotation of moderators executing actions is important to keep moderators insulated from personal attacks.
In the unlikely event an issue cannot be resolved by the moderation team and the user still feels they have a legitimate complaint the moderators will forward all factual information to the forum manager for review. The forum manager will respond within two weeks with a written response and his or her decision. If the complaint still remains unresolved and appears to have merit a committee will be formed to review the issue. After convening they will respond within a month with a written response of their decision.
Warning Points:
If it is found that a user has violated a rule, the moderator must refer to the warning point system and ONLY issue the number of points and expiry time stated. If the moderator wishes to issue more points or expiry time than is stated, a message to an administrator requesting for more points (or expiry time) must be made.
(This section is likely to change when our moderation tools and functions are reviewed and changed.)
When a warning point is issued, the moderator must send a Private Message accompanying the point(s). This message should contain why the user has been issued these points, what rules were broken (this should include a reference to the warning point system) and how many points were issued. The moderator should also send a message informing other mods regarding the actions taken, this should be done in the moderation channel.
Alt Accounts:
Alternate Accounts(AA) are accounts owned by a user that are separate from the main account that they use on the forum. Unacceptable use of AA’s are as follows:
ANY use of an AA when any of your accounts are banned (temporary or permanent) is considered ban evasion which will lead to an instant permanent ban across all accounts owned by the user in question.
Ban Evasions
Evading a ban (Ban Evasions) is when a user uses alternative account(s) to get around any type of ban, whether it be temporary or permanent. All alternative accounts have to be issued the points other accounts have received. If a user does evade a ban using an alternative account that has not been issued the warning points, this will be met with a permanent ban on ALL accounts (20 points).
Discussing Staff Actions
Discussing any moderational/administrative actions in a thread or chat is not tolerated. All messages and actions from a moderator involving moderation or administration is private information and should not be discussed in a thread or on our chat. If a user has a problem with moderational/administrative action(s) taken, a report process is available or the user should utilise the Private Message system.
NB: General changes to rules and moderation procedures can be made. This must not contain any references to previous moderation actions (i.e. mod names, warning points issued, verbal warnings, mod discussions…)
Offensive Content - Images/Videos
Offensive Images/Videos are regarded in almost exactly the same way as trolling, however the use of images/videos is awarded with more warning points.
NB: Visual content should only be issued with trolling images/videos, if the text is also in a trolling manner, Offensive Content should replace trolling points and trolling warning points should NOT also be issued with it. Offensive Content should replace the trolling warning, instead of adding on to it.
Trolling:
Trolling is when one user is going out of their way to incite a response from people that is more often than not negative. Trolling will often be handled on a case by case basis to determine the severity of the trolling.
If Images/Videos are also used to troll, see “Offensive Content - Images/Videos”.
Pirating:
Pirating is the act of acquiring digital goods online illegally without paying for them.
Because this is highly illegal and we will not allow discussion of pirating to occur on the forums. This includes pirating video games, software, books, images, movies, television shows, or anything else.
Explicit Material
Explicit Material on the forums include: Pornography, Gore, Violent images/videos etc. The posting of any such material on the forum will be met with a 20 point warning, which
will result in an immediate and permanent ban from the forums.
Word of Advice
It is impossible to please everyone. Once you accept this your life as a moderator will improved greatly.
Introduction
The reason this guide is being written is to give the basic guidelines and expectations for all moderators. This guide is also meant to be a great starting point for new moderators.
This guide in no way represents every possible situation that could arise on the forums, and exceptions can be made on a case by case basis. This means that just because something isn’t listed here, doesn’t mean it’s necessarily okay. If you find any questionable content on the forums that doesn’t fall under anything mentioned in these guidelines, please bring them to the attention of other Moderators.
Policy
The StarMade forums are designed to allow the community of StarMade to interact and communicate with each other in a positive way. The public image of StarMade is very important to the design team and the moderators. In order to keep up the public image all moderators must understand these basic concepts meant to keep the public image of StarMade and its forums clean and professional
- Maintain a clean and professional image for every moderator and the team as a whole
- Prevent internal confrontations between team members and work together in a constructive and cooperative manner.
- Foster an atmosphere of creativity and positive interactions amongst users of the forum.
General Guidelines
Posts by moderators should always be courteous and professional. Moderators are subject to the same rules applied to forum users. Keep in mind that moderating is more about responsibility than power. When posting be careful not to be impulsive or act without thought. Always consider your actions before you commit to them.
When interacting with users of the StarMade forums always respect users' opinions as long as they do not troll, degrade, attack, or flame. When responding to a user about your actions please stick solely to the facts and be sure to give all the relevant information.
When working with design team always be courteous and respectful as they are the ones who are working the hardest to improve StarMade. If you have issues with someone on the design team please attempt to resolve the issue with them. If you cannot please contact the forum manager with the issue and accompanying documentation.
Moderators are all part of the same team. Moderators should always show unity on all issues. Respect all action from other moderators. If you do not agree with a particular action always discuss it with all related parties. No one outside of the moderation team is supposed to know about it so do not discuss these details outside of the moderation team. In the rare instance that there is an issue between moderators that cannot be resolved the forum manager should be contacted with all relevant information.
Expectations
Moderating is a time consuming process. Set aside a couple of hours a week to dedicate to reviewing the forums. Please give as much time as you can. If you will be gone from the forums for an extended amount of time we understand as personal life is important. Please let your fellow moderators know if you will be gone for an extended period.
Moderator Guidelines
Use the following explanations to determine whether a user has violated any of the rules or if you’re unsure of whether or not to take action.
NOTE: These guidelines apply to both the forums and the chat(where applicable).
Advertising:
If the advertisement in question is not directly related to StarMade servers (In the “Servers” sub-forum) or a StarMade fan service then the user in question will have their post removed from public view and warning points administered to their account for unsolicited advertising. If the user in question can be confirmed as a spambot then an instant ban will be issued.
Baiting:
Baiting is a term to describe when a user is going out of there way to elicit a negative response from someone else. Under no circumstances is baiting to be tolerated. In the event that this happens, the person doing the baiting is subject to a temporary removal of their ability to make posts on the forum as well as an appropriate number of warning points. The person or persons who responded to the baiting are subject to a warning point. Baiting should always be reported to a Moderator as soon as possible and never humored by the user.
Bumping:
Bumping is discouraged unless it is a support question and the user has not received an answer in over a 24 hour period of time.
Closing or locking a thread:
When deciding if a thread should be closed or locked, a few things should be taken into consideration.
- Has the thread become so off topic that there would be no point in trying to get it back on topic?
- Has the thread been necro posted in with no real gain to the subject of the thread? Sometimes locking a post that has been necroed is a more beneficial alternative to leaving it alone as it will often boil down to users harassing the necroer about necroing the thread.
- Has the user that created the thread requested that it be locked?
If any of the following conditions have occurred then you may choose to lock the thread.
If you aren’t sure feel free to get a second opinion from another Moderator.
Deleting a post:
Posts are never truly deleted, when a moderator deletes a post, it is removed from public and only view-able to administration. We like to keep records of as many posts as possible so hiding it from public view allows administrators to look back on the relative content.
When deleting a post ensure that the post violates forum rules before making any action, if you determine that it has violated any rules then remove the post and administer the appropriate warning points to the user.
Flaming:
Flaming is when one user is being negative towards another user based on any number of contributing factors, be it the users opinion, spelling, grammar, choice of faction, etc.
We have a zero tolerance policy for flaming. We want to encourage a friendly environment on the StarMade forums, and flaming has no place in that design. Anyone found flaming another user for any reason will have the appropriate action taken against them. There are ways to disagree with someone that don’t involve being negative towards them.
Personal attacks:
Personal attacks against anyone on the forum (Be it user or staff) include such things as insulting, threatening, or harassing someone. These actions are not taken lightly and will always be met with at least 15 points applied to the users account depending on the severity of the attack. (See Warning Points documentation for more information)
Reports on personal attacks will be handled on a case-by-case basis. Multiple members of the SMD staff must provide input on the report in question to determine the severity of the attack and decide what action to take.
Personal information:
If one user releases personal information of another user without their consent then depending on the information in question it will be dealt with as though it were a personal attack against that user. Personal information includes but is not limited to: Email address phone number, IP address, location of residence, real name, or social security number.
Salty Language:
A bit of foul language here and there never hurt anyone, but if any user is excessively swearing in their posts then they will be met with the appropriate actions.
Spam:
Spam consists of one or multiple people repeating the same thing (or very similar things) over and over in a very small amount of time. Spamming will be met with a removal of offending posts and the appropriate action taken against the user. (See warning point documentation).
Splitting/merging threads:
Splitting and merging threads should only be done if two very similar threads are created within a short period of time. More often than not a repeat thread should be met with a lock and letting the user know to redirect their messages to threads already created on that topic.
Racism/Hate:
Racism and hate will not be tolerated at all under any circumstances (joking or not). There is no room for that kind of behavior on these forums. Any user found being racist towards or hating on another user will be permanently banned from the forums.
Reporting:
If a report has been made please post all relevant information to the report chat room. If possible a second moderator should review and execute the action that has been agreed upon. If a moderator is already involved with a user or action they should refrain from dealing with the report and let another moderator commit to the actions that are agreed upon. A rotation of moderators executing actions is important to keep moderators insulated from personal attacks.
In the unlikely event an issue cannot be resolved by the moderation team and the user still feels they have a legitimate complaint the moderators will forward all factual information to the forum manager for review. The forum manager will respond within two weeks with a written response and his or her decision. If the complaint still remains unresolved and appears to have merit a committee will be formed to review the issue. After convening they will respond within a month with a written response of their decision.
Warning Points:
If it is found that a user has violated a rule, the moderator must refer to the warning point system and ONLY issue the number of points and expiry time stated. If the moderator wishes to issue more points or expiry time than is stated, a message to an administrator requesting for more points (or expiry time) must be made.
(This section is likely to change when our moderation tools and functions are reviewed and changed.)
When a warning point is issued, the moderator must send a Private Message accompanying the point(s). This message should contain why the user has been issued these points, what rules were broken (this should include a reference to the warning point system) and how many points were issued. The moderator should also send a message informing other mods regarding the actions taken, this should be done in the moderation channel.
Alt Accounts:
Alternate Accounts(AA) are accounts owned by a user that are separate from the main account that they use on the forum. Unacceptable use of AA’s are as follows:
- Downvoting another user’s post
- Upvoting your main or AA’s posts
- Posting in main account threads to promote ideas
ANY use of an AA when any of your accounts are banned (temporary or permanent) is considered ban evasion which will lead to an instant permanent ban across all accounts owned by the user in question.
Ban Evasions
Evading a ban (Ban Evasions) is when a user uses alternative account(s) to get around any type of ban, whether it be temporary or permanent. All alternative accounts have to be issued the points other accounts have received. If a user does evade a ban using an alternative account that has not been issued the warning points, this will be met with a permanent ban on ALL accounts (20 points).
Discussing Staff Actions
Discussing any moderational/administrative actions in a thread or chat is not tolerated. All messages and actions from a moderator involving moderation or administration is private information and should not be discussed in a thread or on our chat. If a user has a problem with moderational/administrative action(s) taken, a report process is available or the user should utilise the Private Message system.
NB: General changes to rules and moderation procedures can be made. This must not contain any references to previous moderation actions (i.e. mod names, warning points issued, verbal warnings, mod discussions…)
Offensive Content - Images/Videos
Offensive Images/Videos are regarded in almost exactly the same way as trolling, however the use of images/videos is awarded with more warning points.
NB: Visual content should only be issued with trolling images/videos, if the text is also in a trolling manner, Offensive Content should replace trolling points and trolling warning points should NOT also be issued with it. Offensive Content should replace the trolling warning, instead of adding on to it.
Trolling:
Trolling is when one user is going out of their way to incite a response from people that is more often than not negative. Trolling will often be handled on a case by case basis to determine the severity of the trolling.
If Images/Videos are also used to troll, see “Offensive Content - Images/Videos”.
Pirating:
Pirating is the act of acquiring digital goods online illegally without paying for them.
Because this is highly illegal and we will not allow discussion of pirating to occur on the forums. This includes pirating video games, software, books, images, movies, television shows, or anything else.
Explicit Material
Explicit Material on the forums include: Pornography, Gore, Violent images/videos etc. The posting of any such material on the forum will be met with a 20 point warning, which
will result in an immediate and permanent ban from the forums.
Word of Advice
It is impossible to please everyone. Once you accept this your life as a moderator will improved greatly.
- SMD Administration
