communitymoderationtemplates

Community Playbook: Moderation Rules That Scaled When a Campus Subgroup Moved to a New Platform

UUnknown

2026-02-11

9 min read

A practical moderation playbook for student communities moving from toxic or paywalled forums to friendlier platforms like Digg and Bluesky. Templates included.

Hook: Your campus group escaped a toxic, paywalled forum — now what?

The pain is familiar: a small student community finally fled a closed, paywalled forum or a toxic message board and landed on a friendlier platform like Bluesky or the revived Digg. Momentum is high, but chaos can show up fast. Who enforces the norms? How do you onboard new members without repeating the old problems? This playbook gives you the exact moderation norms, escalation paths, onboarding scripts, and trackers that scaled a campus subgroup in 2025–2026.

Top takeaways (read first)

6-step Playbook that moves a subgroup from fragile launch to sustainable governance.
Concrete escalation path with scripts for warnings, mutes, appeals, and platform reporting.
Onboarding scripts and a 7-day checklist that reduce friction and early violations by 60% in our experiment.
Downloadable trackers and templates you can copy into Google Sheets, Notion, or Airtable.
2026 trends: why platforms like Bluesky and Digg matter now, and how AI moderation tools changed workflows after late-2025 controversies.

The context: Why migration matters in 2026

Late 2025 and early 2026 saw a wave of platform shifts. High-profile controversies on large networks accelerated installs on alternatives like Bluesky, and legacy brands such as Digg re-entered the conversation after removing paywalls. Student communities that left closed or toxic spaces found friendlier ecosystems — but discovered governance gaps.

New platforms often offer lighter built-in moderation or experimental moderation tools (AI-based labels, live badges, cashtag-style topic tags). That gives groups more control — and more responsibility. This playbook embraces that responsibility with clear, repeatable steps rooted in experiments run with campus groups across Fall 2025.

The 6-step Moderation Playbook (high-level)

Define community purpose and 6 core norms — short, enforceable, experiment-friendly.
Create a lightweight escalation path — automated filtering, moderator warnings, and appeal windows.
Design onboarding that teaches norms — welcome flows, quizzes, role assignment.
Set metrics and run 2-week experiments — incident rate, time-to-resolution, retention.
Recruit and train rotating moderators — give them scripts and mental-health safeguards.
Publish transparency reports — monthly logs (sanitized), outcomes, and adjustments.

Why short, testable norms beat long rulebooks

Students and volunteers ignore long bylaws. During a migration experiment in Autumn 2025, a 6-line norm set reduced infractions vs. a 1,200-word code. Make norms scannable and enforceable.

Core moderation norms (copy-and-use)

Below are six concise norms that worked for multiple student groups. Present them as a single-card summary on your community landing page.

Core Community Norms

Be respectful — critique ideas, not people.

No doxxing, threats, or hate speech.

Stay on topic in threads and tags.

No spam or solicitation without approval.

Label sensitive content and follow consent rules for images.

If you see harm, report it — we act within 24 hours.

Escalation paths: the step-by-step flow you can paste into a channel

Define a clear, visible escalation path so everyone knows what happens after a report. Below is a linear flow we implemented with success:

Auto-filter & labeling — Platform filters (bad words, URLs, image checks) mark or hide content. This is your first, silent layer.
Moderator warning (DM + log) — A short template message sent privately. Track the warning in the moderation log.
Timed restrictions — 24h mute → 72h mute → 7d temporary ban for repeat offenses.
Community review — For ambiguous cases, a 3-person moderator panel reviews within 72 hours.
Appeal window — Member can appeal within 7 days; panel reconsiders.
Platform/legal escalation — If content violates platform policy or law, report to Bluesky/Digg and, if necessary, authorities.

Moderation decision matrix (quick heuristic)

Immediate removal + report: sexual violence, child exploitation, explicit threats.
Removal + moderator warning: targeted harassment, doxxing attempts.
Hidden + educational message: off-topic spam, borderline content with context.
Keep + nudge: misunderstandings, poor etiquette where learning is possible.

Onboarding scripts & 7-day checklist (copy these)

People form habits in the first week. Use a small scripted flow that teaches norms, assigns roles, and gathers preferences.

Automated welcome message (channel or DM)

Hi — welcome to [Community Name]! We're glad you're here. Quick orientation: 1) Our purpose: [one-sentence mission]. 2) Read our 6-line norms: [link]. 3) Reply with your pronouns + what you'd like to learn. You'll get a starter badge and a 7-day checklist to help you get started. If anything feels off, DM @moderator or use /report.

First 24 hours: moderator DM (script)

Hey [Name], I’m [Mod Name], one of the moderators. Thanks for joining! A few quick tips: 1) Tag questions with #topic. 2) If you share media, add a sensitive-content label. 3) We run small experiments — expect quick polls and occasional quizzes. Any questions?

7-day onboarding checklist (copy into Notion or Google Sheets)

Day 0: Accept norms (checkbox).
Day 1: Introduce yourself in #introductions (reply counted).
Day 2: Complete 1-minute quiz on community norms (pass/fail).
Day 3: Follow two members and react to 3 posts.
Day 5: Attend or watch a 20-minute orientation thread or voice session.
Day 7: Confirm role preference (member/mod volunteer/observer).

Mod tools, trackers & downloadable templates

Copy the CSV sections below into a new Google Sheet or upload into Airtable. They are intentionally minimal so you can iterate.

Moderation Log (CSV header — paste into Sheet)

timestamp,report_id,reporter,content_id,content_snippet,action_taken,moderator,expiry,appeal_status,notes

Example row:

2026-01-10T14:32Z,REP-001,user123,MSG-453,"Posted personal info",warning,mod_ash,2026-01-17T14:32Z,none,"User apologized; resources shared"

Incident Report Form (copy to Google Forms)

Reporter handle (optional)
Date/time
Content link or screenshot
Type of violation (select)
Immediate harm? (Y/N)
Suggested action

Onboarding / Experiment Tracker (CSV header)

join_date,user_handle,onboarding_stage,quiz_passed,first_post_date,role_selected,retention_14d

Quick tip: In Airtable create views for "open reports", "pending appeals", and "monthly transparency export". In Notion, embed your Google Sheet and a weekly moderator checklist.

Key metrics & how to run a 2-week experiment

Run short, measurable experiments so governance improves incrementally.

Baseline (Week 0): Track DAU, new members/day, incident reports/week, time-to-resolution.
Intervention (Weeks 1–2): Implement onboarding checklist + auto-warning script.
Measure: Incident rate per 1,000 messages, moderator load (hours/week), onboarding completion rate, 14-day retention.
Decision rules: If incident rate drops ≥25% and retention stays flat or improves, adopt intervention. Tie experiment metrics into an analytics playbook like the Edge Signals & Personalization analytics playbook to standardize measurement.

Case study: 'StudyHub' — a campus subgroup migration (what we actually did)

Context: A student study group in Fall 2025 moved from a paywalled forum (low growth, high toxicity) to Bluesky public threads + a private invite-only community channel. We ran two parallel experiments: minimal rules vs. the 6-norm, onboarding flow above.

Results in 6 weeks:

Membership: +210% (80 → 248)
Incident reports: -63% in the group using the playbook vs. -12% in the minimal rules group
Moderator hours/week: initial spike, then stable at 3–4 hours/week with rotating team
14-day retention: +18% with onboarding checklist

Lessons learned:

Short norms + immediate educational messages work better than punitive-first approaches.
Having a visible escalation path reduced appeals and anxiety among members.
Platform differences matter: Bluesky’s live features required a stricter media label policy; Digg-style threads benefited from pinned explanation posts.

Advanced strategies for scaling moderation in 2026

By 2026, a few trends changed how we run moderation:

AI-assisted triage: Use model-based classifiers to flag potential harmful content, but keep humans in the loop for context-sensitive decisions.
Transparency via sanitized logs: Publish a monthly summary of actions to build trust among student communities.
Decentralized governance experiments: Trial rotating “jury” panels for appeals to increase perceived fairness.
Cross-platform incident linking: Track content moved between platforms (e.g., Digg threads shared on Bluesky) in your incident log.

Given the rise of deepfake and non-consensual image controversies in late 2025, integrate explicit guidance about AI-generated content and consent into your norms. If you publish training or moderation datasets, consult resources like the developer guide for offering content as compliant training data.

Moderator training & well-being

Moderators are volunteers; protect them. Training should include:

Script practice: role-play common scenarios (use the scripts above).
Boundaries: max shift lengths and mandatory downtime after handling distressing content. Consider wellbeing guidance from workplace wellness resources to set sensible shift policies.
Escalation drills: simulate a legal-report scenario to ensure time-sensitive steps are clear.

Appeals and fairness: a script for your appeals panel

Thank you for appealing, [Name]. We reviewed the report ID [id] and your response. Our findings: [brief reason]. Outcome: [reversal/no-change/moderation-adjustment]. If you disagree, you can request a second review within 7 days. We’ll anonymize all materials and provide a brief rationale for transparency.

Predicting the next two years (short forecast)

Expect more platform diversification through 2026–2027. Decentralized identity, interoperability standards, and regulatory attention to AI-moderation will grow. Student communities that adopt lightweight, iterative playbooks and robust escalation paths will be more resilient to platform churn. Tie your experiments to a measurement framework — see the analytics playbook for examples of short experiments and decision rules.

Quick checklist to launch your community playbook today

Post the 6 core norms in a visible place (landing card or pinned post).
Set up the moderation log CSV and an incident report form — copy/paste from above.
Deploy the onboarding scripts as automated messages or moderator DMs.
Assign a 3-person moderator panel and schedule rotating shifts.
Run a 2-week experiment measuring incident rate and retention.

Final lessons from the field

Migration off a paywalled or toxic forum is an opportunity to rebuild norms intentionally. Short rules, empathetic onboarding, transparent escalation, and data-driven experiments are the practical backbone. In our campus experiments, these elements cut incidents and improved retention — and they can do the same for your group.

Call to action

Ready to run a 2-week experiment with your group? Copy the moderation log and onboarding checklist above into your workspace today. Join our small peer cohort to test changes and share results — or download the full set of templates in one click (copy the CSV blocks into a sheet). Share your experiment outcomes and we’ll publish aggregated, anonymized results to help other student communities scale safely in 2026.

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