Moderation guidelines

Last updated: January 18, 2022

Moderation goals & duties

Moderators help ensure that content aligns with our community values. This is done through:

• Adjusting topic tags or moving posts to spaces for relevance
• Locking comments on a post to limit off-topic conflict
• Editing content in serious violation of community guidelines
• Deleting posts that are spam
• Suspending accounts with repeated serious violations of community guidelines

Moderators should uphold values of transparency and fairness by leaving a record (typically, a comment) of actions taken and rationale. Please do not use private DMs with community members to discuss moderation matters.

Moderation scenarios & steps

Moderators can actively moderate as they read posts, but this is time consuming and not required.

Moderators are welcome to only moderate content flagged by a community member or our anti-spam plugins. Content flagged by community members should take priority as such content remain public while undergoing moderation.

Example scenarios not requiring moderation

• User asks a question for support but provides vague context
  • Leave a comment encouraging the user to include specific details such as model and firmware version
• A humorous comment has triggered a series of follow-up jestful comments that are no longer relevant to the topic
  • If the comments are respectful, just enjoy the show ;) Maybe even join in the fun!
• A user asks a question that is very similar to an existing one
  • Comment with a link to existing post
  • Encourage the user to delete their question if it has, in fact, been resolved in the older post

Note: regular users are also welcome to leave comments in the manner detailed above.

Example scenarios requiring moderation

• User asks about a FortiAP config but post is not in that space
  • Adjust tags and a comment noting that a topic tag has been added
• Comments on a post have become irrelevant and inflammatory
  • Lock comments
  • Add a note explaining your actions
• A user duplicates their past post or starts a new post that simply links to their previous past post; there is no new information in either the comments or the post itself
  • Such posts can be considered spam
  • Leave a comment on the newest post encouraging the user to delete one of the duplicates and to bump up the remaining post by leaving a comment instead
• A user has accidentally revealed their password or parts of the post include harmful content
  • Redact the relevant section(s)
  • Add a comment explaining your edit

Suspending accounts

Accounts posting illegal, hateful or harmful material or links will be suspended immediately.

Accounts suspected of being bots will be suspended immediately.

Accounts that blatantly and repeatedly violate our community guidelines (especially incendiary or disrespectful behaviour) will be subject to a temporary ban of two weeks.

Accounts with three temporary suspensions within six months will be suspended permanently.

When suspending an account, moderators should leave a note in the moderator’s forum with a short explanation.

Conflict resolution

If a user disagrees with a moderation decision, the user may email fortianswers[at]fortinet.com. A staff member who is not part of the moderation team will review your concern and come to a final moderation decision.

Support for moderators

A private space is available for moderators to:

• Voice concerns and suggestions to improve moderation
• Obtain a second opinion on decisions or discuss grey areas
• Plan community events
• Get to know each other

Leaving or taking a break from a moderation role

If you will be away for more than one week, or would like resign from being a moderator, just drop a note at the Moderators’ Space. We appreciate a few days’ notice to arrange for other moderators to step in if needed.

Change log

January 18, 2022

First published