The communities that we moderate are either all online or at the very least the primary means of interaction is online. A couple of interesting effects fall out of this fact.
As a moderator, you have the power to both guide the development of and even alter the history of an online community. Through the power of editing and deleting other people's posts, much like the Ministry of Truth from George Orwell's 1984, you have the responsibility of guiding the culture of your community. But unlike the Ministry of Truth, you should be doing so in a less Machiavellian way, mostly just preventing your community from tearing itself apart or devolving into a Twitter-like cesspool.
So when and how should you or should you not wield your real ultimate power? Obviously, it is highly dependent on the situation ... so we'll take a look at some. But first, let's talk about why wielding these powers is emotionally charged.
Because these communities are primarily or solely online, the only way that one exists within them is by writing. In essence, your words are you online. So someone who changes your words is altering you against your will. Even deleting part of a message can change your meaning and trigger this visceral reaction.
Deleting content is generally safer than editing it.
There are times when people post clearly offensive things with no redeeming value. These are the easy ones to handle. Your steps are:
- Make a record of the offense — it isn't often that you have to refer back to what exactly was said or posted but when you need to, you'll be glad you have it
- Issue a warning or statement that this violates the rules with a link to those rules — this is a warning to others as much as it is to the offender
- Delete the content itself
- Take action against the user, if necessary
Sometimes the post is generally worthwhile but there is a part where someone lets their frustration run away with itself. These people are almost always not trolls, they have poor impulse control and need to be reminded that they need to keep things in check. These people can still be toxic to a community but it is good to give them plenty of rope to prove what they really are by building a track record.
Your steps are:
- Make a record of the offense
- Issue a warning that this violates the rules with a link to those rules
- Excise the content with a note that it has been edited by a moderator
- Take action against the user, if necessary
For violations of the community's code of conduct, you shouldn't edit content other than specifically deleting part of a post outlined above. There are times outside of violations of the code of conduct when you can edit posts however. They mostly revolve around when those posts themselves are contributions to a shared project.
- Making Issues or Pull Requests clearer
- Editing wiki content
- Fixing or updating community blog posts