Reply #11: Rules say [View All]

How the moderators do their job

The moderators of Democratic Underground enforce the rules based on consensus. Whenever a moderator takes action, they are required to first get a consensus from the available moderators that action is necessary and appropriate. What constitutes a consensus varies based on the situation. If a rule violation is obvious, then action only requires a second opinion from one other moderator. But if a situation is unclear, highly subjective, or likely to be controversial, then the opinions of many moderators are required. Whatever the situation, one moderator has the power to veto any enforcement action. All moderator actions are logged by our software, and can be reviewed by the administrators.

All of our moderators are unpaid volunteers. They are selected from the membership of our community, and represent the full ideological spectrum of our membership. They usually serve for terms of three months. During any given term, we usually have a mix of veteran moderators who have served for many months and relatively new moderators who have only recently volunteered. Before each new term, the administrators post an announcement calling for new volunteers. If you wish to volunteer, keep an eye on our announcements section in the forum Lobby.