The Moderation of the Melonland is mainly directed to help and preserve a positive and welcoming board culture; dealing with issues and implementing the Rules and Guidelines is only a secondary task of moderating. If you find a topic or post that you find problematic, disturbing, negative, annoying, or misplaced (wrong sub-board, duplicate, etc) feel free to use the “Report” function to rise our awareness!

These are some hints to help moderators to keep up a pleasant community. These aren't rules to be enforced, but rather guidelines.

• Creative expression is the primary goal.
• The board should be balanced. If there are many joke topics, consider to create a serious one or vice verse.
• Topics that promote new knowledge need should be balance with topics that promote expression and past knowledge.
• Ideally, no topic should be left without a reply or some sort of engagement - it's very sad to not get a reply.
• Sometimes topics that get people out of their zones are good things.
• Thanking people for posts and threads might feel clunky, but is often nevertheless a nice thing to do.
• Some threads/subjects are like homes for people; they will often form a ritual of returning to check one particular thread; these threads are very important to keep alive.
• People like to have something low effort to check into and be known - see the Personal Announcements thread, Mastodon handles thread.
• Often talking about non-online things makes the space feel more alive

One of the main activities within moderation is the approval of new members; other recurring activities are the discussion of the correct reaction to reported postings, the merging of duplicate topics and to filter out spam.

• Pay attention for new members. They might need help to understand how the forum works, and the culture that is prevalent here.
• Unexplained special words and acronyms are exclusionary. Remind people to explain those.
• Remind people to not reveal to much information that might make them identifiable. Have an eye out for users with their real name as username.
• The username, the avatar and the signature are also a part of a users communication - try to stay aware and keep your eyes open for salient profiles.
• Most moderation issues are just because people feel insecure or feel unsure of themselves.
• Keep an eye out for consistent negativity or expressions of not fitting in.
• Words, terms, ideas and memes that clearly come from toxic communities should be avoided as much as possible.
• Mentions of hate forums, groups, or acts of terror or extreme violence should be removed immediately.
• Often just locking topics and letting people cool off on an issue for a day or two is a good solution.
• Controversy topics attract trouble.
• Hot topics attract debates.
• When people join the forum, they have the right to start fresh - with that in mind its not ok to bring external drama in.
• The shoutbox is rarely an issue, but its worth looking at its conversation from an outsiders perspective to keep it in check. There are moderation buttons on the top right of the shoutbox.
• The audience is diverse. Various political values, world views, philosophies and religious views can coexist here; this means that there is no place for intolerance.
• Make sure topics have descriptive titles, so people find what they search and need.
• Moderation should be as transparent as possible. Leave PMs to Melooon, for they can be tricky.

There are various tools available, that can be either accessed via the “Moderate” control panel, the banner bar under the control panel, or directly in the postings and threads that you want to moderate.

Moderators can use a BBCode to make parts of postings or messages more visible. This is done by using the

[mod]Moderation Note[/mod]

code. Sometimes this is useful for making a very clear moderation statement; however often it's better to just try and guide the conversation via casual interactions.

Threads can be moved by pressing the “move topic” button (either above or beyond the topics text corpus). You can then choose a target destination and post a redirection topic; this helps users who want to revisit a topic to find it and reduces frustration about seemingly deleted topics. After moving a topic, you have to manually fix the link to fit the topics new URL (this isn't done automatically!).

The moderation is not always sure if a topic goes against the Rules and Guidelines; for this reason, supposedly problematic topics are often moved to the “Holding” board until the issue is discussed within the moderation. This also allows to restore topics that were “deleted” by accident.

The Holding Board contains also a thread named “Moderation Chat”. It is mainly used to post away-messages, and to answer and discuss questions regarding the moderation. (This article is essentially a write-up of this topic).

See Splitting a thread

Topics can be merged with other topics; this is especially done when two topics have a nearly identical content. To do this, click the “Merge”-Button (either above or beyond a threads text corpus). You can then either select a board and a target topic, or enter the target topics ID. In the next step, the name for the merged topic can be selected.

Members postings can be edited by using the “Edit” button in their posts. Only do this when needed and use the [mod]-Code to document the changes you've done and why.

Moderators can delete posts and topics, but this usually shouldn't be done. Move them to “Holding” instead (see above).

Moderation over private messages are - in cause of their inherent non-transparency - a tricky field, so it is better to leave the more delicate tasks here to Melon, the boards administrator. In cases where a private message is needed or most practical, be sure to include a block using the [mod][/mod] in your message, and check for the members profile for a favored name and pronoun.

Important threads might be “pinned” to the top by using the Sticky button. Be frugal with it.

New members need to be approved before they can participate. If members wait for approval, this is shown at the banner section (under your private message notification). Click there to go the the approval UI.

You can now see the members waiting for approval, along with a text they've written at registration.

Check if the users

1. name is appropriate
2. E-Mail looks real
3. has set any visible effort in their application text.
4. has social media or websites linked (also check the profile, sometimes new users only set the link there). Are these compatible with the Rules and Guidelines?
5. is old enough (minimal age is 14!)
6. are there any other “red flags” you spotted?

If you think that everything is in order, select the account and use the “Approve and send E-Mail”-Action. If there is a problem or you are unsure, write a short note at the “Moderation Chat”-thread; only the Administrator can reject users for safety reasons.

For further information and help about member approval, see the “Advanced Questions” section.

Open moderation reports appear as a notification in the banner section, below private messages and member approval (if present).

The Reported Posts page will show the post that was reported, not the reason or reporter. To view the report reason, and any discussion, click the “details” button in the top-right of the reported post. You can leave new comments at the bottom of the discussion.

It's often enough to visit the thread and leave a post. Try to steer the conversation in a more constructive direction.

If the issue raised is particularly serious or alarming, consider moving the thread to the Holding board while you or other moderators decide what to do about it. If it was an active thread, create a redirect (see Moving).

Moderators may make reports if they want opinions before they take action, or aren't able to deal with the situation themselves.

You can close a report when you feel the situation is resolved, and the discussion about it has ended. If it was opened by another moderator it's best to leave it for them to close so they can respond to the discussion if they need to.

The following sections try to give some more in-depth information about moderation and related topics, and tries to give hints for tricky questions and situations.

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The Melonland-Rules and Guidelines are also applied to links posted in the forum and member sites in the Profile, but are usually less strictly enforced, especially if numerous links lie between a posting and the problematic content. Sites that promote or enable hate, crime, or other highly problematic content should not be linked, promoted, or in any other way discussed here.

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Posts and links posted in the Melonland shouldn't cause harm to an assumed, relatively innocent user. Postings that put the poster or others at risk (including the revealing of data that allows identification) should be moderated.

Topics that are potentially harmful to users should be moved to “Holding”. This especially includes medical or juristic specialty subjects and advice, as we lack the expertise to give sound information in these areas.

External conflicts or behavior by users generally do not matter for the membership at the Melonland-Forum, if said users respect and uphold the rules and guidelines. Extreme cases might be discussed and handled on case-to-case basis by the moderation team.

There is a small number of Online-Communities that had tensions with the Melonland-Forum in the past, or that cultivate a board culture that is incompatible with the board culture of Melonland. Some of the names of these communities are auto-redacted, and mentions, discussions, and links to these communities might be subject to moderation. Being active in one of these communities is, however, not a substantive reasons for exclusion from the Melonland-Forum.

The general policy towards links also applies for mentioning and linking online communities.

The Netiquette is a list of informal rules for online communities that developed over the last decades. Upholding the Netiquette isn't required at the Melonland-Forum. Users are, however, expected to interact in good faith with each other, and forgo behavior that might be disturbing or annoying to others.

Politics and political activism on the Melonland are encouraged, as long as it is compatible with the general Rules and Guidelines. As such, the promotion of hate, violence, or discrimination is strictly forbidden.