Moderation Toolkit

There are a number of tools available for you when you are handling an issue.

Content Tools

Deletion

Removing messages in Discord or structures in Minecraft both fall under this category. Deletion is effective at preventing, slowing, or stopping an issue from growing. However, deletion should be used carefully, in only severe instances.

Deletion can lead to problems when evaluating issues by creating gaps in information. TNW uses the Sapphire bot to log deleted messages, but these logs can only be accessed by admins and it can be difficult to parse the complete incident. Unwarranted deletion of user messages can also be viewed as unfair oppression by users if the content is not blatantly breaking rules.

Deletion is most useful and least problematic in urgent and dangerous situations such as the occurrence of phishing, hate speech, sexual content, and other obvious and immediate threats.

Slow Mode

Discord allows channels to limit the rate at which each user can send messages. This is called slow mode. In TNW, all public channels have a slow mode of one second as a preventative anti-spam measure, but trial moderators and higher-ranking staff can set the slow mode of a channel using the /setslowmode Sapphire command.

Increasing Slow Mode is typically only useful in situations where conversation is tense, but not problematic, and the number of users and frequency of messages are too much for staff to handle effectively.

Channel Lock

Channel Lock is a feature from Sapphire Bot that allows trial moderators and higher-ranking staff to restrict users from sending messages. Channel Lock can be controlled using the /lock and /unlock Sapphire commands. In the event of an extreme emergency, all channels can be locked using /lockall, and view permissions can also be revoked using /lockall view_channel:False.

Locking a channel is an extremely disruptive action and should only be used as a last resort in situations where multiple users are overwhelming staff. Locking all channels has never happened on TNW, but in the rare event that a coordinated, multi-user, persistent dangerous content attack occurs on multiple channels, locking all channels and revoking view permissions is the best course of action.

Chat Pause

Minecraft chat can be paused in the same way as Channel Lock using Dreamvisitor's /pausechat command. This will prevent chat messages, /me messages, /rp messages, and incoming messages from the Discord chat channel.

Like Channel Lock, Chat Pause is an extreme measure and should only be used as a last resort.

User Tools

Mute

Muting a user is possible both on Minecraft and Discord. On Minecraft, a user can be muted using the EssentialsX /mute command. This prevents them from sending messages. On Discord, muting is referred to as timeout, and prevents messages users from sending messages as well as using interactions like commands and buttons. A user can be timed out using the /mute Sapphire command.

Muting is a useful tool to stop a problematic user from furthering an issue. Muting is typically used to stop an incident and allow moderators to investigate the case without simultaneously handling interactions with the user.

Jail

In Minecraft, you can use the EssentialsX /jail command to send a player to jail, where they cannot perform any actions. This serves a similar purpose to in-game muting, but stops other game actions. You can remove a player from jail with /unjail. They will be returned to the location that they were when they were jailed.

Warn

Warns use Dreamvisitor's infraction system which follow our three-strikes system. You can read more about this system in the following article. Warns are permanently recorded and do not inherently restrict a user. Warns are usually given after a problematic situation is stopped and considered.

Kick

Kicking a user removes them from the Discord or Minecraft server. In the case of the Minecraft server, this will simply disconnect them as if they had left the game, and they may rejoin the game at any time. Kicking from Minecraft is a generally non-destructive moderation tool, and it's not very effective for stopping a user behavior. Kicking is useful when used as part of a panic. Panic is a Dreamvisitor command that kicks all non-operators from the sever and sets the player limit to zero, removing all players and preventing them from joining until the player limit is reset. This 

In the case of the Discord guild, kicking is a bit more destructive. 

Ban

Bans should rarely be administered hastily, but there are situations where it is appropriate to deliver an immediate ban. In urgent cases where a Discord member is spamming obscene or disturbing content and they have no or little prior community history, an immediate ban is appropriate. Going through the warning system is not effective in a case where the member has no desire to stay.