Discourse moderation and privacy

Discourse overview

Moderation

Usually very little moderation should be required. There are moderators but by default moderation will be off for new posts and replies in all categories (except Announcements).

On Discourse there aren't separate moderators for each forum; instead there is just one set of moderators.

Note: in addition to Moderators, there are higher-powered Admin users who can change all site settings. "Admin" and "Moderators" are called "Staff" in Discourse parlance.

Behind the scenes, Discourse also has 5 trust levels; we're not really using those. By default all users are on level 1 and post topics and replies. In exceptional circumstances, a user can be put onto level 0 by moderators, which means any posts must be approved. This might happen if the user's account has been hacked for example.

Contacting the moderators

Anyone can contact the moderators by emailing centralmods @ ilovefreegle.org (squish). This is a separate mailbox unconnected with Discourse.

If you have concerns about a specific posts then you can "Flag" it for the moderators' attention.

Note that Discourse admins can see all posts in the "Discourse Mods" category. There is a private discussion category for the Discourse Moderators.

Currently there is also a private "Staff" category for admins and moderators, but this may not be needed.

Private messages disabled

Private messages could be enabled for users; however admins would be able to see all these messages; to avoid confusion, private messages are therefore disabled.

Moderators can still send private messages to each other and users. However this is not recommended - to avoid extra channels of confusion (which can be seen by admins).

Privacy

The Discourse discussions forums will only be visible to Freegle volunteers with a ModTools account. This will be quite a few people, so please don't share anything confidential.

Please try not to share personal details of Freegle users on the forums - for example use their numeric user id rather than email address to identify them. Do not share personal details outside of the forum.

Your email address and the groups you moderate will be visible in Discourse to other volunteers.

Admin users can see all activity in Discourse, so private messages for users and private categories and groups are not used (apart from the moderators and staff categories as described above).

In accordance with our general Terms and Volunteer Agreement we will not pass on your email to anyone else.

Freegle will not use adverts on Discourse.

Special Notice Announcements

The central mods can send out a special notice by posting a topic to the Announcements category. If you are in Mailing List Mode or watching this category then you will be notified. You cannot reply to these annoucements. You can switch off these notifications in your Preferences.

Note that there is only one Announcements category, so there aren't per-category special notices.