Moderator Training Materials

[Anonymous]

Thread for information on how to use the phpBB software as a “Moderator.” Also for discussing protocol for our community specifically.

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Here is a link to the official “Moderator Guide” published by the phpBB software community:

https://www.phpbb.com/support/docs/en/3.0/ug/moderatorguide/moderator_edit/” class=”bbcode_url”>https://www.phpbb.com/support/docs/en/3.0/ug/moderatorguide/moderator_edit/

[Anonymous]

StayLDS community standard procedures:

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SITE SECURITY:

We have several layers of security implemented to prevent trolls and spammers from gaining access to the site. It also helps weed out some trouble makers early on.

1. New users must answer a very basic question about the LDS Church to complete the registration process. This has been extremely successful in weeding out automated hacker robots and low-level trolls who don’t know anything about the site.

2. User registration also requires a field to be filled out called “Justification Text.” It’s a modification to the phpBB board software. People who register have to type in a short narrative as to why they want access. It doesn’t really matter that much what they say, so long as we can tell they have some connection to or interest in Mormonism. It’s generally easy to figure out.

3. An administrator (Brian) must approve the registration and activate the account. An email goes out to the admin mailbox to notify us when someone registers. The admin reads the Justification Text, checks the email address and other basic “reality checks” before approving the registration.

4. All newly activated accounts go into a special category that prohibits their posts from going live to the public. A moderator must read the post (or one of their posts) and “approve” it. This is a basic reality and sanity check. We catch most problematic people in this stage before they cause problems on the board. We almost always try to contact them and “coach” them if we think they need to help adjusting to the community. After 1 post is manually approved by a Moderator, all future posts go live immediately to public view.

This system has been extremely effective at keeping out all spammers and malicious bots. It is has also been very effective at limiting problems with newly registered users.

MODERATION and MODERATOR ETIQUETTE:

There are two private forum sections:

1. “StayLDS Board Discussion [Moderators and Admins Only]”

This is the back channel to manage the community. It is private, and only Moderators and Administrators can see it. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to make a post in this forum section. Other mods and admins can chime in when they get a chance.

2. “Parking Lot for Topics [Moderators & Admins Only]”

This is a private forum section we created to store problematic posts. Only mods and admins can see this forum section. If you feel that a post is a problem, or drifts too far out of our mission and purpose, then you can move the entire thread from its original location into this forum section. This gives us time to talk about it, contact the people involved, and/or edit parts of it. Once we feel the problems are resolved, it can be moved back into the correct publicly viewable forum section.

As moderators and leaders in the StayLDS community, we try to shape the conversations to keep them positive and productive, or at least on track to help people resolve their feelings and find ways to stay connected to the LDS Church community, if that is what they want to do. We try to discourage arguments over truth claims. StayLDS is *NOT* an apologist site, nor is it an anti-faith site. We try to keep the discussions focused on the practical aspects of HOW to stay connected to the LDS Church and the Mormon culture in a healthy way.

We try very hard to coach people and help them fit into the purpose of the site. We also try very hard to keep the community focused on the narrow niche of our mission and purpose. We also try to consult with each other when someone needs help, or when you see a post/reply that is problematic. If it’s not a big deal, you can start a thread in the

[Anonymous]

Can I say welcome to all the new moderators? I return after a little break and I see new GREEN names! Thanks for your help! Some of us (okay maybe just me) are feeling kind of old and worn down around here at times, it’s nice to have some new help!

[Author]

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