Moderation Basics

Basic public-safe notes about moderation on the Fediverse.

Moderation is the work of keeping a community safe, usable, and aligned with its rules.

What is moderation?

Moderation means reviewing behavior, posts, accounts, and reports to decide whether something breaks the rules.

Moderation may include:

• reviewing reports
• removing posts
• warning users
• limiting accounts
• suspending accounts
• blocking spam
• blocking abusive servers
• writing clear rules
• communicating with users

Why moderation matters

The Fediverse is decentralized.

That means there is no single central moderation team for the whole network.

Each instance has its own:

rules
admins
moderators
community standards
federation choices

- Good moderation helps protect the local community.
- ---
- ## Instance rules
- Instance rules should explain what is allowed and not allowed.
- Rules may cover:
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harassment
hate speech
spam
threats
NSFW content
illegal content
bots
commercial posting
impersonation
doxxing
content warnings
language expectations

- Clear rules help users know what to expect.
- ---
- ## Reports
- Users can report posts or accounts to moderators.
- A report may include:
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reported account
reported posts
reason for report
comments from reporter
local or remote account information

- Reports can involve local users or remote users from other instances.
- ---
- ## Local moderation
- Local moderation affects users on the same instance.
- Possible actions:
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warning
post removal
account limitation
account suspension
account deletion
email confirmation reset
disable login

- Exact options depend on the software.
- ---
- ## Remote moderation
- Remote moderation involves accounts from other instances.
- Possible actions may include:
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silence or limit remote account
suspend remote account
reject media
block domain
limit domain
suspend domain

- Remote moderation helps control what reaches the local community.
- ---
- ## Domain moderation
- A domain is another server or instance.
- Domain-level actions can affect many users at once.
- Examples:
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limit another instance
silence another instance
block another instance
reject media from another instance

- This is powerful and should be used carefully.
- ---
- ## Defederation
- Defederation means one server blocks or disconnects from another server.
- Reasons may include:
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spam
abuse
harassment
bad moderation
illegal content
malware
large-scale trolling
repeated rule violations

- Defederation can protect a community, but it can also reduce communication between users.
- ---
- ## Silence / limit
- Silencing or limiting is usually less severe than a full block.
- It may reduce visibility of a user or server without fully blocking all interaction.
- Use depends on platform and configuration.
- ---
- ## Suspension
- Suspension is stronger.
- It may prevent an account or domain from interacting with the local instance.
- Use carefully, especially for domain-wide decisions.
- ---
- ## Spam
- Spam can include:
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repeated unwanted posts
fake accounts
link spam
scams
mass mentions
automated abuse
commercial flooding

- Common response:
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remove spam
suspend spam accounts
block spam domains
tighten registration
add approval for new users

- ---
- ## Bots
- Bots can be useful or annoying depending on behavior.
- Good bot behavior:
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clearly labeled as bot
does not spam
posts at reasonable frequency
respects replies and mentions
follows instance rules
has contact information
does not scrape private data

- Bad bot behavior:
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spam posting
mass following
reposting without credit
harassment automation
scraping users
ignoring robots/community expectations

- ---
- ## Content warnings
- Content warnings hide post content behind a label.
- They may be used for:
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spoilers
sensitive topics
long posts
politics
medical topics
food images
NSFW content
distressing news

- Different communities have different expectations around content warnings.
- ---
- ## Alt text and accessibility
- Good moderation culture can encourage accessibility.
- Good habits:
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add alt text to images
avoid flashing media without warning
use content warnings where appropriate
write clear descriptions
avoid unnecessary screenshots of text

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- ## Moderator mindset
- Good moderation should be:
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consistent
transparent when possible
proportional
focused on community safety
documented
not driven by personal drama
careful with private information

- ---
- ## What not to publish
- Do not publicly publish:
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private reports
private DMs
user email addresses
IP addresses
admin notes
moderator-only screenshots
tokens
private server logs
personal information

- Use sanitized examples only.
- ---
- ## Basic moderation workflow
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1. Read the report.
2. Check the reported content.
3. Compare with instance rules.
4. Check context if needed.
5. Decide action.
6. Take the least severe useful action.
7. Document the action if needed.
8. Escalate if unsure.