Standard Operation Procedure for Moderator

You can get an overview of a user from their public profile. To access a profile click the user’s avatar or username in a topic, their avatar in the topic list, or search for them. Above their profile is a count of official warnings, suspensions, flags received, and helpful flags given by the user. Just below are details on the user’s account: when they last visited, posted, and registered. You can review all public activity by the user, as well as review the notifications they received.

You can also view and modify the user’s preferences. This can be very helpful if a user is reporting an issue with their account that you suspect may be related to a preference change.

From a user’s public profile you can access the user’s Admin page. The Admin page can also be accessed from the hamburger menu, and then by clicking on Users. There you can search for users by username, email, or full name. Once opened, you can review additional details about the user, including non-public information like their registration and last-used IP address. IP information can be helpful if a user appears suspicious or acts too similar to another user. IP lookups are completed locally, no data is sent outside the server. As mentioned in “The Difficult User” section, this is also where users can be silenced, and their trust level adjusted.

If Topic has poor title or select the wrong category, you can edit the topic to update one or both. Scroll to the top of the topic and click the pencil next to the title.

If the posts in the duplicate topic add to the discussion, they can be moved to the existing one. Moving all posts in a topic will automatically close the topic Just Select all and you can Delete/Move.

If discussion in a topic is no longer productive/focused, moderators should step in, Make a staff post. Many times, a simple reminder is enough to solve the issue. You can create a post reminding users to be polite, warn them they’re talking in circles, etc, and then use the post admin wrench to mark the post a staff post. This indicates to users that the post is the official position of the site.

If the staff post doesn’t help, or discussion seems so heated that a reminder won’t help, you can “pause” the topic. Use the topic admin wrench to set a topic timer for auto-open. This will immediately close the topic, preventing new posts, and display a notice when the topic will reopen.

Flags can be your best friend. When a user doesn’t like a post, they can choose to flag it for moderators. The flag dialog has 5 options:

Off-topic, inappropriate, and spam simply cast a flag, and the user is done. Something else allows for a custom message and then casts the flag. Once a flag is in the queue, moderators will see a red notification on the hamburger menu and can open the flag queue, you can decide what to do about the flag :

For example, a user might flag their own post if they need help with something. You would then ignore the flag so it doesn’t hurt their trust level. Agreeing will hurt their trust because their post was flagged, disagreeing may eventually hurt it because a moderator disagreed with their flag (disagree trust level impact is not developed yet). If you are ever uncertain about which option to choose, pick ignore and handle the post manually.

Posts with 3 flags will be automatically hidden without waiting for moderator action.

Flagging is an in-built moderation measure in Discourse, intended to dissuade bad behavior and spam, as well as to promote civilised discourse. If you want to raise an issue about a post without derailing the topic at hand, the best course of action is usually to flag it.

Marking a post as Off-Topic, Inappropriate or Spam will trigger a moderator notification so moderators may review the issue in their flag queue. Furthermore, this also “casts a flag” on the post, which has other consequences:

If another 3 flags occur, the post will be hidden again and editing will not unhide the post.

By default, clicking the flag button will present a user with the following options:

Most of the time, lags are easy to handle :

Sometimes the issue can be harder to address. Maybe a user is continually swearing in their posts and abusing others after being warned. Maybe the request isn’t easy to solve. In those cases, don’t be afraid to reach out to your fellow moderators, or the forum owners for advice and support. Unless you are the only moderator, you shouldn’t ever feel like you have to make a decision on your own, that’s why you have a team. The auto-created staff category is a great place to have discussion with you team in private. At the same time, don’t hesitate to make your own decisions - you were made a moderator because you are trusted to do the right thing.

What happens when you flag something?

For a single flag, the post appears in the staff flag queue. Staff can review the flag and choose which action to take, including hiding the post, deleting the post, ignoring the flag, and more. For full details on flag handling by staff, see the Discourse Moderation Guide.

If a post receives multiple flags before staff can handle it via the flag queue:

Now some what ifs.

If the same post is hidden a second round of flags, the flags must now be manually handled by a moderator at that point, there is no automatic unhiding through edit possible.

(Note that a repeated set of flags from the same folks over and over on the same user should be discounted. We want a wide range of trusted users to think a person’s post is offensive, not the same people over and over.)

The goal here is for the community to be able to protect itself from the worst users, even without a moderator present. But it works even better with a moderator, as the moderator can accelerate the process by handling the appeals.

Or you could disable it altogether, and go back to a world where every raised flag must be manually handled by an official mod, if that’s how you roll. But this is on by default.

First, try to avoid assuming that the user has a negative intent. They may simply be ignorant of the rules, may not speak your forums language well, may be young, or have another reason for the way they act.

Try to contact the user privately via PM to let them know what is wrong with their behavior. Remember to talk about the negative behaviors - don’t attack the user themselves. When possible, link to existing rules, guidelines, FAQs. In most cases, this contact will be enough. However, if it is not…

You can make the message an "official warning". This PM will automatically gain staff color, and a notice that the user has received an official warning will appear on the user profile for other moderators to see. In the official warning, be sure to explain the negative behavior you have seen, detail specifically what you’d like them to do instead, and the consequences of not changing their behavior.

Select The User and Click on Send a PM → then Click on Offical Warning

If the behavior continues, be sure to follow through with the listed consequences. You may choose to :

Silenced users are prevented from creating new topics, posts, flags, or PMs on the site. They are still able to complete other actions, like "liking" posts, reading topics, replying to PMs, etc. Additionally, they can communicate with moderators via PM, so you can continue to communicate with them to try and address the behavior. Silencing a user is done from the user’s Admin page. To access it:

Navigate to the user’s profile, click Admin, then click Silence.

Enter the silence duration, a reason, and a message. When silencing a user, explain to them what they need to do before they can be unsilenced.

If the behavior still continues…