New Mod Orientation exercises

Hello x,

Thank you for acknowledging my previous email. In this email I will outline a bit more about what a moderator does, and I will give you the opportunity to practice post rejections and messaging.

There is a lot of useful information that you will need whilst working through orientation and because of this there are two parts to the next step, the first being covered in this email. The next will be sent in a couple of days, please look out for it. I suggest that you keep them both handy so that you can easily refer to them when needed as you will need different parts at different times.

Daily duties of a Moderator

These are the daily duties of a Moderator:

• Approving or rejecting posts that have been flagged for moderation.
• Responding to members' messages. Many members' questions can be answered with the assistance of our Member FAQs. https://freecycle.org/pages/MemberFAQ
• Reading the unmoderated postings to check for compliance with Freecycle Guidelines.
• Please make sure that your group is covered on a daily basis. If you are planning to be away, ask your Group Outreach and Assistance volunteer to arrange temporary coverage.

Logging into modtools 

Once you have been promoted to moderator, you will see the M near the top all Freecycle.org pages. 

Email settings

Before you go any further, please adjust your email settings so that you receive an email notification for pending posts and member messages. 

 

Freecycle guidelines

• Everything on Freecycle.org must be free, legal, and appropriate for all ages
• No alcohol, tobacco, firearms or other weapons, profanity or sexual content, medications
• All copyrighted material must be the original media
• No swaps or trading.
• No posts about animals for breeding or food purposes. Whether to allow pet posts is a local option.

What is not allowed on Freecycle.org

In addition to items mentioned in the Guidelines, the following are not allowed:

• Spam. Spam is any post that endorses a commercial product or is being blanketed across The Freecycle Network. To find out how to report a Spammer, click here.
• Scams. From time to time enterprising scammers attempt to fleece Freecycle members out of money, often for delivery or courier fees associated with an item they are offering. Please report suspected scammers to Spam Control.
• Adult-oriented posts
• Advertising, including ads for garage, boot or yard sales
• Foul language or vulgar ID’s

What is allowed on Freecycle.org 

Anything that isn't specifically prohibited by the Guidelines or listed above is fair game as long as it is free, legal in your area, and appropriate for all ages. We would, however, prefer that you not allow curb-alert posts.

 

Approving/rejecting posts

A list of pending posts is the first page you see when you open the mod tools page for your Town.

Practice rejecting a post.  I have made some test posts for you to attend to and these are alongside any genuine posts that are made by members. The test posts I have made are all unacceptable and must be rejected with a message explaining the reason for this. If you need to reject a post follow this procedure:

1. In Modtools, select the post that is pending
2. Click on the red Reject tab (add screenshot) 
3. Write a short reason as to why the post is being rejected in the Custom message box. Please do not send a copy of the Freecycle Guidelines. 
4. Turn on Moderator Comment and paste the same message into that box. Comments in the moderator comment box will show up in Town Activity and will help moderators know why a post was rejected.  (add screenshot) 
5. Finally click on Reject Post

Click this link for more information on Approving/Rejecting posts: https://freecycle.org/pages/ModManual/ModTools#Approve%20posts

Please do not delete posts. When a post is deleted there isn't a way to go back and look at it to see why it was removed.

Thank you for reading through this email, if you have any questions please get in touch.

Kind regards, Sig

 

Hello (Name)

As promised here is the second part of the email that contains the directions you will need to help you become a moderator.

Checking messages from members

Another of a mod’s daily duties is to check for messages from members and to reply to these accordingly. I have sent you a message which I would like you to reply to please so that I know you have been able to find it. To read your messages, click on the envelope icon on any page to get to messages, and find the tab labeled Contact Moderator. 

If you have enabled notifications for member messages you should receive a notification email with a link to the message. However, it’s always a good idea to check your messages frequently, as notification emails may end up in your junk folder.

You may have to open multiple screens to see Contact Moderator messages, especially on a mobile device. 

More information can be found here: https://www.freecycle.org/pages/ModManual/ModResources#Messaging

Modtools Guide. As a reminder, our handy modtools reference guide is at this link. https://www.freecycle.org/pages/ModManual/ModTools 

In case you forget the link, the modtools guide is also linked from the footer of every modtools page. 

I will leave you alone for a few days so that you can become accustomed to the mod tools and learn what is required. However, please know that should you have any queries or concerns, I am only an email away. Remember, there's no such thing as a stupid question. That's what I'm here for. All the best on your orientation!

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