Table of Contents
- 1. Introduction
- 2. The Importance of Moderation
- 3. Ticket Procedure and Etiquette
- 4. Conclusion
- License
Before we jump into the details of this handbook, a big thank you for stepping up as a moderator! Your dedication to keeping our community positive, respectful, and welcoming makes a huge difference. We're excited to have you as part of the team and can't wait to work alongside you to keep making this space awesome for everyone.
Here at All Things Linux, our staff team is a tight-knit bunch of volunteers who genuinely care about what we're building. We're all about creating a space where people feel safe, and where knowledge flows freely.
Our team is as follows:
| Name | Role |
|---|---|
| Kaizen | Founder, Owner |
| Scott | Administrator |
| Tess | Administrator |
| Exulan | Senior Moderator |
| FarCotton | Senior Moderator |
| Khrozma | Senior Moderator |
| Amilie | Moderator |
| Arkannon | Moderator (VC) |
| Atmois | Moderator |
| Beacrox | Moderator |
| Estralia | Moderator |
| Flatbread | Moderator (VC) |
| Green | Moderator |
| Lactose | Moderator (VC) |
| Pocki | Moderator |
| Ilovecanada | Junior Moderator |
| Vuks | Junior Moderator |
In All Things Linux, the chain of command is structured as follows:
- Owner: The ultimate decision-maker who oversees the entire community and its operations.
- Administrators: Responsible for managing the server, implementing policies, and supporting moderators in their roles.
- Moderator Director: The head of the moderation team, responsible for training, support, and ensuring the effective implementation of moderation policies.
- Senior Moderators: Experienced moderators who take on additional responsibilities, such as handling escalated issues and providing guidance to other moderators.
- Moderators: The frontline team that actively engages with the community, enforces rules, and addresses member concerns.
- Junior Moderators: Newer members of the moderation team who are learning the ropes and assisting moderators in their duties.
We want to make it clear that every voice on our staff team matters! While we have a chain of command, our internal chats are pretty laid-back. We encourage everyone to toss out suggestions and share fresh ideas, no matter their role. You'll quickly see that we're a friendly and open team, always ready to hear your thoughts and ideas, no matter where you fit in.
Our community is a lively hub for Linux and tech enthusiasts. We've got folks from every corner of the Linux world: curious newcomers just getting their feet wet, seasoned veterans, and everyone in between. What brings us all together? A shared love for Linux and technology, and the thrill of constantly learning and sharing what we know.
Our conversations are all about tech. We love to chat about distributions, troubleshooting, custom scripts, security setups, the coolest open-source tools, or whatever new thing the FOSS world has stirred up. The key is quality. We want our main chats to be places where people can pick up valuable knowledge or share meaningful experiences. So, while jokes, memes, or non-tech off-topic chatter can be fun, we like to keep them minimal in our main spaces. There are other channels for that.
We're not a stale, stuck-in-the-mud community. We're fast-paced and flexible, always open to trying new things. We experiment with new channels, content types, and ways to keep people participating, learning, and enjoying themselves. Trial and error are part of our DNA. Sometimes things work out, sometimes they don't—and that's okay! We adjust as we go and aim to learn from each experiment.
As a moderator, you'll notice that the community's needs and trends can change quickly. What might work one week could need a tweak the next. Being adaptable and open to the community's pulse will help us continue to grow and improve.
By moderating, you're not just enforcing rules—you're shaping a space where members can have meaningful, positive experiences. Effective moderation builds trust and encourages healthy interaction.
- Uphold standards: set and enforce guidelines to ensure the community remains healthy and positive.
- Maintain order: manage discussions, and redirect conversations that veer off track.
- Mediate conflicts: step in to resolve disputes and misunderstandings, creating a balanced space.
- Protect the Community: address spam, inappropriate content, misinformation, and other threats to our community environment.
- Abuse your powers: the tools at your disposal are here to maintain order, not to silence people you disagree with or to enforce bias.
- Engage in personal vendettas: we expect you to be professional and impartial in your moderation.
- Micro-manage every interaction: It's not your job to control every conversation or over-police minor issues.
Besides the above, try to be as approachable as possible. We want people to feel comfortable coming to you with their questions and concerns. You're here to be a helpful presence, not a distant enforcer.
We obviously don't expect you to have every single rule memorized, but having a general understanding of our code of conduct is essential. These guidelines provide a clear, consistent framework for decision-making and help keep us fair across the board.
Moderating isn't about using personal bias or enforcing your own personal views. it's about enforcing the community rules as they're written. When handling issues, especially those that aren't super urgent, take the time to reference the appropriate section of the code of conduct. This means when issuing warnings, mutes, or bans, include the specific rule number in your reason message. Doing so not only makes your actions transparent but also educates members about what behavior crossed the line and why it wasn't acceptable.
Relying on the code of conduct ensures that moderation stays consistent, fair, and free from bias. It also gives members a better understanding of our standards, reducing confusion and having a sense of "accountability".
While moderators generally have the discretion to manage situations as they see fit, it's crucial that they remain transparent about their decisions. If in a staff discussion, if we ask for clarification regarding a warning, mute, or ban, you should be ready to explain your actions and provide context.
It's important to remember that issuing warns, mutes, or bans should never be taken lightly or used as a joke. These actions can significantly impact a member's experience, so they should be reserved for genuine violations of the code of conduct. While we trust our moderators to act independently without needing to seek consensus on every decision—since doing so can slow down the team—we also expect them to exercise that discretion responsibly.
- At a member's request: Our cases system exists solely for actual violations of the code of conduct, not for requests. (see
$s timeout) - Without context: If you don't have enough information, err on the side of caution and don't make a final decision yet.
- As a joke: Using warns, mutes, or bans humorously undermines the seriousness of these actions and can damage trust within the community.
As a moderator, you'll often need to address situations directly in the chat before they escalate to the point of needing a ticket. Here are some tips for handling common scenarios:
Example: A user is making comments like "If you don't use Arch Linux, you're not a real Linux user."
In this case, a quick, friendly reminder in the chat can often suffice: "Hey @user, let's remember that Linux is for everyone, regardless of their distribution of choice. We want to keep this community welcoming to users of all skill levels and preferences."
Example: A discussion about the best text editor is getting increasingly aggressive.
Here, you might step in with: "Alright folks, let's take a step back. Everyone has their preferences, and that's okay! Let's keep this discussion friendly and respectful."
If the situation continues to escalate, consider moving the conversation to a ticket to address it more directly with the involved parties.
Example: A conversation in #linux has derailed into an off-topic discussion about favorite movies.
A gentle redirection can help here: "Hey everyone, let's try to keep #linux focused on Linux and tech topics. Feel free to continue the movie discussion in off-topic!"
The key in chat is to keep your interventions brief and positive. Aim to guide the conversation back on track without being overly disruptive. If a situation can't be resolved with a quick comment or two, it's probably time to move the culprit users to a ticket.
Exercising your discretion, you opt to make a ticket to address either a Code of Conduct infringement or another general concern or query. This segment sets out key guidance and the general outline of how your tickets should be structured.
A ticket is simply a temporary channel created for the moderator to directly communicate with any user they wish.
A moderator can add a user to the ticket, resolve the issue and then close the ticket when the objectives of the ticket are met. We use tickets to ensure a direct line of communication with our members, maintaining professionalism in a space infinitely less cluttered than in popular chats such as general.
Depending on your preference, two methods can be used to open an empty ticket:
-ticket/ticket
Additionally, if you want to open a ticket with the target user already added, you can do so:
- Right-click on the user's profile. (or on mobile simply open their server profile)
- Select "Apps"
- Click "Create Ticket"
When a ticket is created, only you and your colleagues in the mod team will be able to access it. In order to talk to a member, you'll need to add them to the ticket.
You can do this by simply typing:
/add [user]
An important point to note, as part of the ATL moderation team, we operate a "One-moderator-per-ticket" policy. This means that only one moderator should interact with a ticket at any given time (unless in exceptional circumstances when an Admin may need to intervene).
We do this to ensure that our members feel fairly treated and lessen the chance of them feeling overwhelmed or like they're being "ganged up on". It also prevents moderators unintentionally conflicting each other and stepping on each other's toes.
To help maintain this practice - each ticket must be "claimed" by the moderator who made the ticket. This can be achieved by pressing the "Claim ticket" button at the top of each ticket.
By doing so, you make it so that only you can interact with the ticket and its contents.
The most important aspect of your ticket is the opening message. Maintaining professionalism and addressing the member with an appropriate tone are just some of the requirements needed for this.
You'll come to learn as a moderator that opening a ticket with a positive and respectful tone is often the driving force behind achieving the outcome you wish to accomplish.
The vast majority of tickets should be opened with a greeting, making sure to @ the user you wish to address - our advice would also be to include a friendly opening line.
For example:
Hello @user - I hope you're having a good day!
Crucially (and one cannot stress this enough) by opening a ticket with a positive attitude and demeanour, as demonstrated above, you place yourself in the best possible scenario to get the optimal outcome.
The bulk of the ticket will be case specific - that is to say, entirely dependent on whatever it is you have ticketed the user for. However, there is a general scaffold you should follow when composing this section.
Let us take an example of a user with an NSFW bio, thereby violating our Server Code for Conduct - §1.1. Your ticket body should be structured similarly to the following:
"It has come to my attention that your bio contains an NSFW element - this violates our server Code of Conduct - Rule 1.1. Our server contains a large minor contingent, and therefore we ask that members have bios appropriate for all ages. Please rectify this in order to remain a part of our community."
As shown, your body should:
a) Address what you're not happy with
b) Reference which area of the Code of Conduct they are in violation of
c) Point towards how they can rectify their actions, and subtly hint as to what could happen should they choose not to
With the conclusion of the body - rejoice! The hardest part is over. Wrapping up your opening statement, is simple.
We would advise to end with: "Any questions, do let me know."
All this does is help tie up your remarks, and encourage the user to engage with the ticket.
Working on the assumption that your member has noticed the ticket and interacted with it - it's important to respond to any statements, questions or concerns they have with etiquette, decency and decorum. And above all, patience.
You are far more likely to make errors of judgment if you are rushing to respond or defend yourself to a member in a ticket.
To reduce this occurring, we advise waiting a couple of minutes between receiving their message and responding to it with one of your own - by slowing things down you give yourself more time to formulate an appropriate response and reign in any potential emotional flaws with your response.
If you ever find yourself in a pickle, or feel that you're unsure on how best to reply - please don't think that you are required to figure it out for yourself!
Your fellow moderators in mod-chat will always be around to provide sound guidance and advice, so don't hesitate to reach out.
When all is said and done, if required you'll need to log the user and their infraction with Wick's "Warn" command. Wick is one of the bots you'll learn to use in its entirety - but for now let's just focus on the warn command.
To use this command, simply:
/warn [user] [reason]
Note: There is no need to use the proof prefix.
When writing the reason section of the warn, make sure to reference the area of the CoC that they have violated.
For example, if we continue with the NSFW bio scenario from earlier:
/warn [user] reason: NSFW bio - kindly agreed to change it [1.1]
Huzzah! You're nearly done - but we need to close the ticket before you can go enjoy a well deserved break. Firstly, ensure that the member has no more questions or queries - once you've received this confirmation you're ready to close the ticket.
You can do so in two ways:
/close - this will generate a button that will close the ticket immediately upon being pressed
-rclose - this method will generate a button for the member to close the ticket themselves
And that's all! And with that, you've just completed your first ticket - congratulations! It really is as easy as that, remember if you're ever stuck you've got a wonderful team to help guide you along the way.
Happy ticketing!!!
All Things Linux Presents: The Discord Moderator Manual is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
