Team Fortress Wiki:Moderator guidelines

For a list of moderators, see Help:Group rights.

Moderators are a subset of the Wiki's team of editors, noted for being most familiar with the site's standards and practices, who are awarded an elevated set of powers (permissions) used to keep the peace and act as a source of guidance for newer editors. Moderators are not all-powerful and should peruse the Wiki as a regular user would, only using their moderation responsibilities when necessary.

Note: Like with any policy, exceptions to the guidelines here will probably exist. Rules never override common sense.

Moderator powers

The community invests a lot of trust that moderators act responsibly and fairly with these elevated permissions.

• Marking edits as "patrolled"
• Move/delete files and articles
• Undeleting files and articles
• Protecting files and articles
• Block/unblock users from editing
• No CAPTCHAs

Moderator responsibilities

As a moderator, you are tasked with extra responsibility.

• The main responsibility of a moderator is to moderate. This involves looking at the recent changes feed to watch out for bad edits or conflicts, and to patrol all edits reviewed.
• Moderators have the power and responsibility to block users and/or protect articles, should a conflict arise between certain editors or around a certain article. However, this should only be used as a last resort, when communication has failed to resolve the problem.
• Moderators should actively seek to help out users, old and new. This means greeting them if they are new to the Wiki, pointing them to useful resources, helping them out through certain procedures (archiving a talk page, etc.).
• Moderators should also be available if users seek their help.
• Moderators should have a sufficient knowledge of English.
• Moderators are expected to be relatively proficient about how the Wiki works, which templates to edit in order to achieve a given result, the dictionary system, etc.; or be able to point users in need of such proficiency to another moderator more knowledgeable in the area.
• Moderators are expected to stay active in the Wiki community. This includes editing, participating in the IRC channel, participating in staff discussions, etc. Should a moderator decide to take a temporary break or leave, permissions will be reduced until they become active again.
• On IRC, moderators are required to stalk the word "~staff".
• Moderators may have the final word on a decision if a consensus cannot be obtained otherwise.
• Moderators must follow all the rules that regular users also follow.

Localization moderators (loc mods) responsibilities

Loc mods are moderators with a specialization in a certain language. While they focus mainly on their language's section on the Wiki, all rules applying to regular moderators also apply to localization moderators.

• Loc mods should be heavily involved in their language's translation group. They should know the translators of their language, and greet new ones.
• Loc mods have to moderate edits to articles in their language. They are also free to moderate other articles, although this is not a requirement.
• Loc mods should guide new translators through the translation process.
• Loc mods should organize and coordinate their translation team.
• Loc mods, like regular moderators, need a sufficient knowledge of English, but are also expected to be fluent in their respective language.

Note about user talk pages

In the past, we disallowed the removal of personal talk page content because it was often used to disguise whether a user had been warned. This was unnecessarily restrictive: users should have full control of the content on their talk and user pages (provided they are kept within existing rules of decency, terms of use, etc.).

To combat attempts to hide warning history, all warnings should be noted in the edit summary. This can never be erased by the user.

These exceptions only apply to a user editing their own talk page.

How to become a moderator

Moderators are usually chosen by the existing staff. As such, there is no formal "sign-up form" to fill out in order to become a moderator. If you feel that you would be a good fit for the position, however, contact a staff member or a loc mod of your language about it. Certain points should be noted:

• Members becoming moderators should have significant Wiki experience or existing moderator experience before they become Wiki moderators.
• Not being a moderator does not mean you cannot moderate the Wiki. All users are able to do most of the work of a moderator, and having done such work puts them in a good position to become a moderator.
• Having a Wiki Cap does not make an editor a moderator. Conversely, being a moderator does not guarantee having a Wiki Cap.