This is a draft document – please feel free to leave comments and make edits.
Why
We don't currently have guidelines around roles and responsibilities for mailing list moderators, so this document is being created to provide support to moderators and to clearly define expectations around moderating. Note: this document is currently drafted to cover just the lists for SIGs and Regional Chapters that are overseen by the Ecosystem team. If it is useful to broaden the scope of this document to cover all Hyperledger lists, we can do that.
Who
This guide applies to both Linux Foundation staff and Hyperledger community members who are moderating lists. In particular, this includes:
- The Ecosystem team members
- SIG Chairs, Vice-Chairs and sub-group leads
- Regional Chapter leads
What
Mailing list settings can be configured in a number of different ways. This document defines the settings that are relevant for these lists and the responsibilities for moderators.
- Moderation of new subscribers: Hyperledger's lists should be open forums where anyone can join if they are interested in the discussion happening on our lists, so there should be no moderation placed on new list subscribers. This setting is only relevant for lists, such as the Marketing list, that aren't intended to be public and open to everyone. Note that the current India Chapter list has settings that require new subscribers to be approved, so we should adjust this setting.
- Responsibility of moderator: None since new subscribers should be automatically approved.
- Moderation of existing subscribers: Hyperledger moderators should not generally be policing discussions on forums – in an open community, people should be able to bring up discussion topics that are relevant to them and there will be new ideas and thoughts that are brought into the community in this way. The exceptions to this rule are if messages to a list violate Hyperledger's Code of Conduct or messages are clearly off topic (admittedly this is a judgement call, but moderators can use their discretion when deciding what is off-topic). Examples include messages that contain abusive language or messages that are advertising products or events that aren't related to Hyperledger.
- Responsibility of moderator: Moderators should reach out to individuals who are posting inappropriate messages and have a discussion about what is appropriate to post on the list. If the person sending the messages continues to post inappropriate messages then a moderator can unsubscribe that person from a list and block future posts from that person.
- Moderation of messages: Hyperledger's lists should be open forums where discussion happens freely, but there are times when messages are held for moderation. For instance, messages can be flagged as potential spam and moderators will need to approve those. Settings for a list could also be set to require moderation for all posts, no posts, or only posts from non-subscribers. For these lists, the relevant setting should be to minimize moderation and flag messages for moderation only when something is tagged as possibly spam or when non-subscribers post.
- Responsibility of moderator: Moderators will receive emails about flagged messages and they are responsible to respond to these messages quickly so that community discussions are not held up. When reviewing a message, the only valid reasons for rejecting a post is if it is clearly identifiable as spam (admittedly this is a judgement call, but moderators can use their discretion when deciding what is spam) or if a post clearly violates Hyperledger's Code of Conduct.
- Responsibility of moderator: Moderators will receive emails about flagged messages and they are responsible to respond to these messages quickly so that community discussions are not held up. When reviewing a message, the only valid reasons for rejecting a post is if it is clearly identifiable as spam (admittedly this is a judgement call, but moderators can use their discretion when deciding what is spam) or if a post clearly violates Hyperledger's Code of Conduct.
This document