Tips on moderating an online discussion about the 2024 Election cycle
January 25, 2024 12:04 PM Subscribe
Very recently, some of the folks on a server where I hang out (where I am in a kind of leadership role) started making noises about wanting a place for 2024 US Election and state-level election related posts. Moderating discussions around politics is something I'm only peripherally familiar with, and I am doing my best to better educate myself about how to be effective in that role when the discussions start. I am looking for ways to get ahead of some of the common challenges/pitfalls moderators typically have to watch for in this sort of situation, and suggestions for what kind of content I might want to post in a sticky of sorts (getting out the vote info seems like an obvious place to start).
Hello MeFites!
Very recently, some of the folks on a server where I hang out (where I have ended up in a kind of leadership role) started making noises about wanting a place for 2024 US Election and state-level election related posts. Moderating discussions around politics is something I'm only peripherally familiar with, and I am doing my best to better educate myself about how to be effective in that role when the discussions start. (I should probably also mention that the members of this community are mostly left-leaning neurodivergent folks.)
All I've done so far is create the space for those discussions, and posted some basic guidelines about keeping things constructive and civil and about how to pace oneself to avoid/minimize burnout, etc.
My next thought was to put a short collection of links and info snippets related to "getting out the vote" efforts (and how to help) in a sticky, and maybe add short summaries of national, state and perhaps more granular elections, as well as summaries of 2024 issues and such. Then once that's done, I intend to get out of the way and let the members do their thing. This is all just from the hip, and as a politics and moderator noob I'm slightly worried that I might be overthinking things or overlooking something important.
Would love to hear y'all's thoughts on what content should or shouldn't be included, how it should be presented, etc. Thanks in advance!
Hello MeFites!
Very recently, some of the folks on a server where I hang out (where I have ended up in a kind of leadership role) started making noises about wanting a place for 2024 US Election and state-level election related posts. Moderating discussions around politics is something I'm only peripherally familiar with, and I am doing my best to better educate myself about how to be effective in that role when the discussions start. (I should probably also mention that the members of this community are mostly left-leaning neurodivergent folks.)
All I've done so far is create the space for those discussions, and posted some basic guidelines about keeping things constructive and civil and about how to pace oneself to avoid/minimize burnout, etc.
My next thought was to put a short collection of links and info snippets related to "getting out the vote" efforts (and how to help) in a sticky, and maybe add short summaries of national, state and perhaps more granular elections, as well as summaries of 2024 issues and such. Then once that's done, I intend to get out of the way and let the members do their thing. This is all just from the hip, and as a politics and moderator noob I'm slightly worried that I might be overthinking things or overlooking something important.
Would love to hear y'all's thoughts on what content should or shouldn't be included, how it should be presented, etc. Thanks in advance!
Response by poster: Thanks for the reply!
How big is the community?
Around 30-40 active-ish members, with maybe a handful of them being likely to participate in the politics discussions.
How diverse do you expect it to be in terms of political beliefs but also race, class, state of residence, gender, sexuality?
Political beliefs is a gray area, as politics have not really come up much before now (outside of a few LGBTQIA+ and neurodiversity discussions where social justice stuff bubbled up slightly), but the impression I have based purely on what politics I have seen, as well as from reading between the lines, is largely left-leaning. Maybe one or two far-lefters, highly doubt anyone is on the right.
Race I would say is probably mostly white. Class I'm fuzzier on, but my guess would be mostly lower and middle. State is mostly Washington State, and a few Oregonians. Gender seems to be about 50-50 male-female. Sexuality seems to be *extremely* diverse and it's hard to tell what the majority might be.
What's your plan for knowing when someone is breaking the guidelines? (i.e. reporting channels, expected response time, number of people authorized to act?)
Plan for when there is a violation is to start with a direct message and a public warning, along with simultaneous content deletion (but depending on the content), with a finger on the pause button for the relevant discussion area should things escalate. Step 2 would be pausing the discussion for a day or two and a second warning to the member(s), along with a public reminder about the guideline.
Reporting happens via direct message, but we monitor the channels for reports/complaints as well, and will be watching this new discussion closely. We have three folks who have moderating ability. Response times are not defined and I have no idea how quickly the members expect them to be (my guess would be mostly "get to it when you can"), but we tend to respond very quickly to most kinds of issues. (And to date, we have had almost zero obvious friction between members).
posted by christopherious at 1:26 PM on January 25
How big is the community?
Around 30-40 active-ish members, with maybe a handful of them being likely to participate in the politics discussions.
How diverse do you expect it to be in terms of political beliefs but also race, class, state of residence, gender, sexuality?
Political beliefs is a gray area, as politics have not really come up much before now (outside of a few LGBTQIA+ and neurodiversity discussions where social justice stuff bubbled up slightly), but the impression I have based purely on what politics I have seen, as well as from reading between the lines, is largely left-leaning. Maybe one or two far-lefters, highly doubt anyone is on the right.
Race I would say is probably mostly white. Class I'm fuzzier on, but my guess would be mostly lower and middle. State is mostly Washington State, and a few Oregonians. Gender seems to be about 50-50 male-female. Sexuality seems to be *extremely* diverse and it's hard to tell what the majority might be.
What's your plan for knowing when someone is breaking the guidelines? (i.e. reporting channels, expected response time, number of people authorized to act?)
Plan for when there is a violation is to start with a direct message and a public warning, along with simultaneous content deletion (but depending on the content), with a finger on the pause button for the relevant discussion area should things escalate. Step 2 would be pausing the discussion for a day or two and a second warning to the member(s), along with a public reminder about the guideline.
Reporting happens via direct message, but we monitor the channels for reports/complaints as well, and will be watching this new discussion closely. We have three folks who have moderating ability. Response times are not defined and I have no idea how quickly the members expect them to be (my guess would be mostly "get to it when you can"), but we tend to respond very quickly to most kinds of issues. (And to date, we have had almost zero obvious friction between members).
posted by christopherious at 1:26 PM on January 25
Response by poster: I am also interested in any specific content suggestions anyone might have, just in case that part of the question was too subtle. E.g. good summaries of noteworthy and/or important 2024 issues.
posted by christopherious at 1:37 PM on January 25
posted by christopherious at 1:37 PM on January 25
Best answer: Ok, great, that is a setup that has a very good chance of working out. (I was terribly afraid you were talking about several hundred people, which... would give me flashbacks.) I think your outlined plan looks solid, and I'll just make a couple of suggestions:
- Watch really closely for patterns of rhetorical escalation. It is easy, not unlikely, and catastrophic for the conversation if the positions on a subject get to the "the world will end if your preferred option wins", even if that is a reasonable fear. It's good to find a way to get people to cool off before it gets to that point and help people figure out where they fundamentally agree.
- In a group that size, I would strongly encourage non-political conversations, especially with the members who are all-in on the politics. It leads to much better long-term results if everyone has ways to remember that they fundamentally respect, if not like, one another.
- It sounds like you probably won't have issues with this, but keeping topic bleed to a minimum will help everyone. It gets very hard to avoid politics these days, but being able to get some space from it is necessary for everyone's mental health.
For resources, if you haven't already, ask your members! It's very useful for everyone to get a sense of what info everyone's working from.
posted by restless_nomad at 5:51 PM on January 25 [2 favorites]
- Watch really closely for patterns of rhetorical escalation. It is easy, not unlikely, and catastrophic for the conversation if the positions on a subject get to the "the world will end if your preferred option wins", even if that is a reasonable fear. It's good to find a way to get people to cool off before it gets to that point and help people figure out where they fundamentally agree.
- In a group that size, I would strongly encourage non-political conversations, especially with the members who are all-in on the politics. It leads to much better long-term results if everyone has ways to remember that they fundamentally respect, if not like, one another.
- It sounds like you probably won't have issues with this, but keeping topic bleed to a minimum will help everyone. It gets very hard to avoid politics these days, but being able to get some space from it is necessary for everyone's mental health.
For resources, if you haven't already, ask your members! It's very useful for everyone to get a sense of what info everyone's working from.
posted by restless_nomad at 5:51 PM on January 25 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: Whew! Thanks so much, restless_nomad!
posted by christopherious at 10:10 AM on January 26
posted by christopherious at 10:10 AM on January 26
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Guidelines are great and stickies are a good tool, but neither are moderation. Happy to dig in on the details but it is really specific to the scale and makeup of the community, and the resources available to manage things.
posted by restless_nomad at 12:27 PM on January 25 [1 favorite]