Fedora Discussion Forum (Self-)Moderation Guidelines and Rules

These moderation guidelines are intended to help set expectations for all users on the forum, at all "trust levels". Their aim is to empower forum users to moderate themselves and the wider community effectively, but also to make the moderators' actions predictable and understandable.

Core (Self-)Moderation Guidelines and Rules:

  1. The Code of Conduct applies to all categories and all topics on Fedora Discussion. Users are asked to review the Code of Conduct before engaging in discussion on Fedora Discussions.

  2. The AI policy of the Fedora Project applies to all categories and all topics on Fedora Discussion. Users are asked to review the AI policy before using AI on Fedora Discussions.

  3. To include as many people as possible, the language of Fedora Discussion is English, except categories and sub-categories that are explicitly determined for other languages.

  4. Spam is not allowed on Fedora Discussions: spam accounts are to be deleted in Fedora Discussion and disabled in FAS immediately.

  5. Accounts that use AI in a form that is not legitimized by the AI policy, and which can be determined as bad faith, shall be immediately deleted in Fedora Discussion and disabled in FAS: e.g., hidden AI training. Bad faith AI use is therefore treated like spam. Flags should be done with "something else" and a comment about AI for the record. In comparison, good faith cases that break guideline 2 by accident (e.g., users trying to help others with AI-supported answers while they can be assumed to not know that there is an AI policy) are to be treated with the moderation actions on violations (below).

  6. Multiple Accounts

    1. Multiple accounts for a single user should be avoided and all such require prior approval and adequate justification.

    2. Due to the potential for abuse, multiple accounts can be only allowed for known long term members of the Fedora Community, such as TL3 or community members with comparable contributions. There is no right for approval: approval for multiple accounts on Fedora Discussion can be done by moderators or Fedora Infra Team members.

    3. Users found to be making Illegitimate use of multiple accounts, which is having multiple accounts by one person that is not approved and which can be determined as bad faith (e.g., to bypass sanctions, or to make others believe this account to be a separate person), shall have their accounts immediately deleted in Fedora Discussion and disabled in FAS.

    4. While it justifies further investigation, moderators shall not presume that one IP address among multiple accounts proves them to be one person.

  7. Posts have to be on-topic for the title topic.

  8. Topics have to be on-topic in each (sub-)category.

  9. Unclear cases of moderation are to be discussed in the Moderation Coordination area, which is not public for the protection of user privacy. The Moderation Coordination shall be used only to discuss unclear matters in Fedora Discussion moderation and how to improve Fedora Discussion with means that do not need a change of guidelines but that rely on moderation experience (e.g., when and how to resolve flags, etc.). In unclear cases, moderators shall open a Moderation Coordination topic and follow the consensus of the moderators, Immediately necessary actions to mitigate problems should be handled promptly without waiting for concensus (e.g., to avoid escalations between users or to remove incentives that encourage the violation of guidelines).

  10. TL3 users, who are automatically promoted by an algorithm without active involvement of moderators or or other users (promotion has occurred through reading topics and posts in the forum, and through getting likes on posts), act as means of transparency to the wider community. As they get access to the Moderation Coordination area it is encouraged they review and contribute to topics in the Moderation Coordination area, and also to contribute to moderation of topics in Fedora Discussion.

  11. Abuse of moderation powers are to be reported to the Fedora Code of Conduct Committee.

  12. Moderation actions, which are actions only available to people with formal moderation privileges and not available to TL4 and below, should be reviewed by peers. A user, of TL3 or above, who becomes aware of an issue not yet known shall flag it for moderator attention. Immediately necessary actions to mitigate problems are allowed without prior discussion (e.g., to avoid escalations between users or to remove incentives that encourage the violation of guidelines). The cases shall still be flagged and the action correspondingly documented to allow other moderators to review in the aftermath.

  13. All users can open topics in the site feedback category with suggestions about how to improve the site, including moderation and its guidelines.

  14. Anonymizing or deleting Discourse accounts is a right for users of Fedora Discourse:

    1. If a user wants their Discourse account to be deleted or anonymized, they can flag any of their posts with the reason “something else” and then elaborate their wish.

    2. Moderators make users aware of the consequences and ask for confirmation before action, and if applicable kindly ask users to accept anonymization over deletion in order to not break topics by removing individual posts.

    3. If users ask for individual posts to be deleted rather than their account, mods can remind users that this can break existing discussions and also render other people’s contributions worthless. We still respect the right for deletion if they confirm their will.

    4. If users ask for deletions beyond Discourse, or if a moderator does not feel it appropriate to enforce their deletion because the deletion requests of a user would render the contributions of others useless in more than 10 cases per year per user, the mod can choose to not delete but instead refer them to the formal process of deletion in Fedora, forwarding them to the Personal Data Request Form. This form is intended only to ensure legal compliance, and only to implement deletions that are legally obligated. Deletion requests that are not legally obligated are likely to not be implemented.

  15. Continued breaking of guidelines.

    1. If users over time keep regularly breaking the “(self-)moderation guidelines” of “Fedora Discussion” or, in cases that outreach beyond “Fedora Discussion”, regularly cause disruptions through breaking other explicit Fedora community guidelines that justify approving their flags, and if they accumulate many approved flags over time, moderators are allowed to lock these users on Trust Level 2. This can include cases of users who do not act in bad faith but who seem to remain unable to use Discourse constructively (this guideline is also to protect them).

    2. Mods can act immediately if necessary, but should follow with a dedicated Moderator Coordination topic and have to gain either lazy approval or rough consensus in that topic. When the majority of TL3+ who are active in the topic are -1 to the lock, the locking is rejected (if already applied, it has to be lifted). Mods can unlock later without approval.

    3. Any TL3+ can ask for others’ locks to be lifted in Moderation Coordination at a later time: if the majority of TL3+ active in the topic then is +1 for lifting, the lock has to be lifted.

    4. This guideline shall not impact the use or applicability of other guidelines but serve as independent additional means to give moderation flexibility in tailoring means to the situation (facilitate choosing the least invasive of the constructive/promising means).

  16. No mod (TL3+) is forced to exercise any power against anyone if they do not want. Trust levels are about trust and reasonable constructive use of powers, not about dedicating a specific or increased amount of time. Promotions in trust level go along with the expectation to make constructive reasonable use of contributed time, but does not carry an expectation of how much time is to be contributed. That said, the exercising of some powers in some contexts can be problematic and should go along with a feeling of the current sense and expectations of the community in order to appropriately choose the appropriate least invasive means. At times a TL3+ user may be rarely active and this should be kept in mind. In case of a doubt, Moderation Coordination topics can always be reviewed or opened.

  17. Advancement to TL4

    1. General requirements for TL4 promotions.

      • 250 likes received

      • 250 likes given

      • Their first TL3 promotion was at least 1 year ago (it is not required to be permanently TL3 throughout the given year!)

      • Fulfill TL3 criteria at the time of the application (an applicant can ask any mod in any way to find out about this in advance once the other requirements are fulfilled)

      • Applicant is part of “FPCA” (earlier known as “CLA”) group (the user can at any time sign the FPCA in their FAS interface to become part of this group)

      • Applicant has contributed to at least 50% of the Moderation Coordination topics in the recent 1 year

    2. Self Nomination

      • Current TL3 users can open a topic in Moderation Coordination and ask for promotion to TL4 once they have fulfilled the above conditions:

    3. Nominations by others

      • Nominations are possible as well, but before submitting the nomination the user being nominated must be asked in advance by a private PM if they want to accept it and concurrence must be received.

    4. After promotion to TL4

      • Once a user has been promoted to TL4, they can ask to get added to the discussion-mods FAS group. They can do so by asking in the Moderation Coordination area or by flagging any of their posts with “something else” and elaborate in the flag.

Moderation actions on violations:

Except cases that lead to immediate disabling of Fedora Discussion accounts and the immediate disabling of the related FAS account, the following procedure shall be applied when accounts are used to violate guidelines:

  1. If the case can be interpreted to be an accidental violation, which is not intentional, the user is to be made aware of the guidelines and kindly asked to obey them in the future. This should be formulated, and handled in a way that informs the user that "we have to do this and it is in our interest because of that reason".

  2. If the case cannot be interpreted to be an accidental violation, or if the means of 1. is not adhered to, a moderator officially warns a user with the "official warning" function (which uses PM and adds the tick for "official warning"), or with a warning in the very topic explicitly with @<username> and that is complemented by staff color, and subsequently documented in the "user notes" of the very account. Moderators are allowed to determine by themselves in each case which of the two ways of warning is more appropriate in order to achieve compliance and deescalating the case. The warning must contain the information that the next stage is suspension.

  3. If 2. does not work, the next step is a suspension of 1 week.

  4. If a suspension does not work, moderators can decide if they add more suspensions, or if the account is to be removed from Fedora Discussions and disabled in FAS, or if another suspension is to be done. In case of a doubt, moderators shall prefer further suspensions over immediate bans. Subsequent suspensions have to increase in the time (e.g., the second shall be at least 2 weeks).

→ exception: if a user account is to be banned, but is associated with legitimate posts, the account shall not be deleted in Discourse but only disabled in FAS in order to not break topics by removing individual posts. The right for anonymization/deletion remains also for banned users, who have to contact us by other means.

Implications of removing / disabling accounts:

Accounts that are deleted in Fedora Discussions need to be disabled additionally in FAS, which is to be done in the public topic between the Fedora Discussion moderation and Fedora Infra. In cases in which people are member of both moderation and infra, the person that requests the disabling of an FAS account needs to be a different person than the person implementing the disabling. Requests for disabling need to be linked to a reason (e.g., spam).

If a user exploits the short period after the Fedora Discussion account is removed but before the FAS account is disabled, through using the FAS account to re-create the Fedora Discussion account, moderators shall mitigate by adding a permanent suspension to the account. Once the FAS account is disabled, the permanently suspended Fedora Discussion account can be removed as well.

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