Likely because Lemmy doesn’t have private communities so we use other channels.

That isn’t what !moderators@lemmy.world is?

Excellent timing on this post.

First of all, I’m not sure how new users are invited to the Discord that I’m aware of, so I don’t feel very comfortable in addressing that - but there is a Discord where some mods hang out.

But second of all: I’ve relatively recently been added as an admin here on lemmy.world. It’s been a very slow onboarding process for any number of reasons - for one, it’s summer so I know in places that actually have vacation days, some folks have been out on vacations. Also, there’s not really a formal admin on-boarding process, if I may be so bold as to say so. Not that I think it’s a problem - I’m slowly gaining access to more of the tools we use, and slowly seeing what all we do, so I’ve started to take a few actions, but not much yet.

But one of my big missions is that I have had some moderation and administration experience in other places that I want to bring in here.

Just yesterday in one of the admin’s groups I posted something about trying to pick up more of what we are doing so I can participate more in doing those things. But also:

One of the things I’ve noticed about sites like Lemmy - but also reddit, which I will say I ahve some experience with as well - is that because anyone can start a community, and by starting a community become its sole mod, and remain its sole mod unless they add more people - the people who start communities are not always good moderators. Just because they may well lack the skills and experience.

And I think that’s an issue on sites like Lemmy and reddit, where a lot of the users’ interactions with “authority” are community (or subreddit) moderators.

When I asked about moderator onboarding, the answer I got so far was “I think we have a few things somewhere” - but not an answer where yet. I’m sure someone will point me there, but I don’t have it yet.

I think it’s very important. I’ve had a few idea on some things I’d like to do. One of which is to find communities that the mods have abandoned - well, we do keep an eye on those already. And in fact, if you find a community that appears that the mods haven’t done anything on Lemmy in a few weeks or more, and you’d like us to consider handing the community over to you (or perhaps start a thread in the community discussing and give us a list of people who volunteer), post over at !support@lemmy.world and we’ll investigate. I’ve been involved already in a couple of communities that had mods who hadn’t been around for a couple of years and helped get them handed off to new mods.

But I also want to have a dialogue with new mods - particularly those who don’t have previous moderating experience. I see a lot of mods taking actions that are rather unfriendly and unwelcoming - from removing things and banning people for insufficient reasons to just handling moderating poorly.

I’ve found that while you can’t do much against people who come just to troll, opening a dialogue with people who are new to your community who break the rules usually without intending to - or not understanding WHY the rules are the way they are - a surprising amount of time, being patient with them and explaining actually helps.

Also, over on reddit where there are some good moderator tools and the ability to have notes on a user that only mods can see (that also link to the comment where the note was added so you can easily see the reason for the note) - it allows for doing things like first giving a warning; then, if they repeat the behaviour, escalating to a one-day, three-day, seven-day, thirty-day, and THEN a permaban only if needed. (Although egregious violations can skip steps and go immediately to permaban if bad enough).

It can be difficult because it requires time, energy, patience, kindness. And a lot of the time, you still get personal attacks from the moderated user. But a lot of the time… it’s worth the effort.

So I don’t yet know where this will end up. I’ve sent a message to one of the admins who does a lot of the looking at abandoned communities to see if some of what I want to do is plausible without interfering with their work. Haven’t heard back, but gotta give a couple/few days - everyone is busy with life.

I don’t plan on doing anything too radical, I can’t imagine. But I definitely want to work with mods to help show them a better way to interact with users - although again, understanding that, to quote Cool Hand Luke, “Some [people], you just cain’t reach”. But the ones you can can turn into valuable community members. I won’t give specific details that would identify myself, but I saw this firsthand on subreddits I moderated as well as other sites.

So I’ll be keeping an eye on this thread and hopefully posting here again in a few days or so with some updates - maybe giving those who express interest whatever info I can as I’m able.

So nothing concrete yet, but I’m hoping to help change this exact experience.

Good idea.