Moderator Policy

EEZI4 FORUM MODERATION RULES AND GUIDELINES

This page includes rules and guidelines for community members who act as Moderators of the EEZI4 Technical Forum. For general guidelines on how to use the Forum please check our EEZI4 Forum Rules, Guidelines & Moderation Policy.

Table of Contents
  • What is the Role of a Moderator?
  • The contract you accept as the responsibilities as a Moderator
  • What to do when?
  • Editing inappropriate content
  • Locking or deleting threads
    – Locking Threads
    – Deleting Threads
  • Marking support forum posts as spam
  • Deactivating user accounts
  • Moving threads
  • Marking threads as “Solved”
  • People, usernames and your responsibility and safety online on this forum.
  • What should I do if….
  • Consequences Policy
    – Level 1 – A Warning
    – Level 2 – More Serious Warning from more than one person
    – Level 3 – Deactivating a user, Banning or Temporary Ban
  • Pro-active healthy supporting
  • What should I do if I encounter a problem that is not covered by these guidelines?
What is the Role of a Moderator?

The purpose of the forum is for people to help each other in their use of the EEZI4 products. Guidelines for the entire community are in place to fulfil that purpose, and the job of moderators is to keep the forum operating for its intended purpose. All moderation action is to that end. The following are guidelines on what to do as a moderator.

Users or fellow contributors that are misbehaving/making bad suggestions should also be reported to Admins, depending on how delicate/severe the situation is.

The contract you accept as the responsibilities as a Moderator

This is a contract between your use of the Eezi4 Forum and EeziRider Engine Management (PTY) Ltd.   As a community member or User, and a moderator, you have the role and responsibility to stay aware and be accountable for your contributions in this space. As a leader, you are representing EEZI4 and its community.

As an Eezi4 community member and forum moderator:
  1. I accept and promise to follow all the above guidelines.
  2. I agree to take action as specified by the Eezi4 Moderator Guidelines.
  3. I agree to abide by the documented tasks and actions required by my role as a Moderator to uphold the quality of the forum and the quality of its information.
People and Responsibility of My Interactions
  1. I agree to be aware of potential multiple cultural differences between the Eezi4 product users and my fellow community members.
  2. I accept that I will be contacted by moderators, community managers, and other Eezi4 product users from the private message feature.
  3. I understand that as a moderator,  when I see or ask for Diversity and Inclusion to get involved that I will take no further action until the team reaches a conclusion of the consequences of a reported incident that violates any of the Guidelines.
  4. I also understand that I can request for a change in leadership if I recognize any toxic behaviours such as spam, continuous conflict, or a stop in participation.
  5. I understand that if there are any situations in which I am confided in that do not follow the Community Participation Guidelines I will report it and escalate it to the Eezi4 TEAM at info@eezi4.com. and inform an admin if action is not taken.
Responsible for myself I will remember to have a positive attitude:
  1. I will remember to check in with myself and recognize I need to take a break when I become frustrated or find myself in a heated debate.
  2. I understand that compassion is a trait I should display when communicating and collaborating with other community members and Eezi4 product users.
  3. I am an example and role model to other community users.
  4. I will remember to report any other toxic behaviour to an administrator and provide screenshots of conversations.
  5. I understand that I am held accountable for my posts and actions as I represent Eezi4 in the support forum. This means, but is not limited to showing respect for diverse cultures, remembering my impact with my moderator permissions, remain positive when giving constructive feedback in a professional way, and remaining respectful, but direct in my messages.
  6. I will remember to give positive recognition to new contributors for what they know as well as what they do in the forum.
I understand my role is subject to change:
  1. I understand that moderators from different regions will have different interpretations of model behaviour, however I promise to have an open mind when escalating any behaviour that is out of the basic participation guidelines for all users.
  2. I understand that people in my moderator role are subject to change, and recognize that guidelines in this document can be discussed openly with other moderators active in their role.
  3. As a Moderator, I know that after a year my leadership role will be evaluated and may be subject to change if I have not contributed in over 3 months, I have exhibited or received any warnings against the community guidelines, or have had to devote my attention to other things, hence having less time for the responsibility of the Moderator role.
What to do when….

There are two types of categorical tasks as a Moderator. The first has to do with the operations of the forum and processes that help prepare a smooth support experience from an operational approach. The second requires an entry level of experience for people management.

Two explicit examples on how to tell the difference:

Firstly – This is where you can go in, edit the content and guide the user on what should be there in a direct and professional way.
Secondly, when a user is just plain rude, when a user is affecting the safety of others on the forum and exhibits behaviour that distracts from the key use of the forum – to provide user support. For situations like this, if warnings and corrections are not working, please refer to the consequences policy, and make sure a thread is opened up in the Forum under Moderator’s headings.

Editing inappropriate content:

The following content is considered inappropriate:

  • foul language
  • person attacks
  • spam links
  • Sensitive information (personal info, phone numbers, etc.)
  • Advertising / Self-promote in the forums
  • Offensive /derogatory / vulgar / sexist or racist posts, comments, links or images are strictly prohibited
  • Cross post questions
  • Bad mouthing or slander of the Eezi4 Brand or Industry Competitors
  • Posts with inappropriate content should be edited to remove such content. Moderators will post a new comment so that it goes out as an email, to explain that inappropriate content has been removed as per Eezi4 Forum Rules & Guidelines.
Locking or deleting threads:
Moderators can lock threads or remove them completely according to the following guidelines:
Locking threads
  • Questions that are not about subjects covered in the support forum as defined should be locked, after tagging the question as off-topic and adding a reply.
  • Duplicate threads should be locked after posting a reply with a link to the original thread.
  • Threads that have completely degenerated should be reported to moderator. It will be up to the moderator to decide whether to lock the thread or not.
  • If a solved thread is getting new replies from other users, moderators should lock the thread and post a new comment to explain that users with similar issues should post a new question.
  • If an unsolved thread is getting new replies from other users seeking help, and the original poster hasn’t replied in the thread for some time, post a new comment and
    – Explain that users with similar issues should post a new question.
    – Ask the original poster (OP) if he has resolved the issue or if he still needs help.
    – DO NOT lock the thread, since the OP may still need help.

Moderators who lock a thread should always post a new comment so that it goes out in email, to explain that the thread has been closed to further replies, and why.

Deleting threads
  • In general, only spam posts in discussion forums should be deleted. Spam posts in the support forum should be marked as spam (see below).
  • Moderators should delete posts that are entirely personal attacks or profanity, and deactivate users for multiple such posts (or refer to admin if in doubt).
    –  Moderators will post a new reply explaining that an inappropriate post has been deleted before removing the post/thread, so that it goes out as an email.
    –  Moderators should also leave a record in the moderator’s forum that they removed a particular non-spam post (until a better solution is found).
Marking support forum posts as spam:

Moderators should use the Mark as spam button for support questions or replies in the support forum rather than deleting those posts. Posts marked as spam will no longer be viewable except by moderators, and do not appear in search results, and are not indexed by search engines. This effectively removes spam posts from the support forum.

Deactivating user accounts:
  • Moderators can deactivate accounts that are clearly used for spam purposes.
  • Moderators should first report to the Eezi4 TEAM prior to any account deactivating for reasons other than spam.
Moving threads:

If a thread has landed in the wrong Topic, moderators should move it to the appropriate Topic. Moderators can move threads by following these steps:

  1. Click on “Question Details” on the right hand side
  2. Click on “Edit Details”
  3. Select the right product or language
  4. Click “Save Changes”
Marking threads as “Solved”:

Moderators can mark threads as solved when the original poster (OP) clearly indicates his problem is solved (such as “thank you, problem fixed now” or “ok, it looks like it worked” etc.).

  • We will not mark as solved threads which appear to be solved and probably are but where the OP did not make any comment.
People, usernames and your responsibility and safety online on this forum:
What should I do if…

In general this forum is not any different from a professional environment that the Eezi4 community upholds. It is any behaviour that does not follow the Community Participation Guidelines.
Any behaviour that is considered toxic is anything disrespectful, disruptive and unprofessional.

Consequences Policy:

These are the consequences if users are not following these guidelines:
Level 1 – A Warning
Moderators should send a message stating what rules have been broken or what behaviour is unacceptable or/ and guide them and issue a warning to users that are not following the guidelines
Level 2 More Serious Warning from more than one person
Moderators should report in the Forum under Moderators Topic and to Admins when deactivating any account for reasons other than spam.
Level 3 Deactivating a user, Banning or Temporary Ban
Deactivating a spammer can be done without admin approval, Admins have the final decision on open Moderator Threads.

Pro-active healthy supporting

Remain Active, proactive and healthy.

  • General adherence to the Spitronics Forum & Moderators policy.
  • Healthy, Sustained contribution (doing the work) for a period of time
  • Tolerance with boundaries when it comes to interacting with unpleasant users
    However this requires a sense of level-headedness when dealing with unpleasant users.
What should I do if I encounter a problem that is not covered by these guidelines?
  • Moderators should report to the Eezi4 TEAM or Admins at info@eezi4.com. any other situation that is not currently covered in these guidelines. This also applies to “grey areas” or when a Moderator is in doubt whether a certain action should be taken.
  • Situations where users or fellow contributors are misbehaving/making bad suggestions should also be reported to Admin depending on how delicate/severe the situation is.

 

 

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