How to Moderate a Fluxer Community

A community without moderation doesn't stay healthy for long. This guide covers the practical side of keeping your community safe, civil, and enjoyable for members.

Setting Ground Rules

Every community needs rules, even small ones. Rules set expectations for behavior and give moderators something concrete to point to when enforcing them.

At a minimum, cover:

Respectful behavior. No harassment, slurs, or personal attacks.
Relevant content. What belongs in the community and what doesn't.
Spam. No unsolicited advertising or invite spam.
Legal stuff. No illegal content, no doxxing, no sharing private information.

Post your rules in a dedicated #rules channel or pin them in your general channel. Keep them short and clear. Long, legalistic rule documents get ignored.

Building a Mod Team

If you're the only person moderating, you'll burn out as the community grows. Start looking for moderators once your community is active enough that you can't keep up alone.

Good moderators are:

Active in the community. They know the culture and the regulars.
Level-headed. They don't escalate situations or get into arguments.
Trustworthy. They'll enforce rules consistently, not play favorites.

Give moderators a dedicated role with the permissions they need: Manage Messages, Kick Members, and Ban Members are the core ones. Set up a private #mod-chat channel where your team can discuss issues without the rest of the community watching.

For more on setting up roles, see How to Set Up Roles and Permissions.

Day-to-Day Moderation

Most moderation is routine. Here's what you'll use most and when:

Deleting messages. Use this for rule-breaking content, spam, or anything that doesn't belong. Right-click a message and select Delete. For bulk cleanup, bots with purge commands can save time.
Muting. Temporarily prevents a member from sending messages. Good for cooling someone down after a heated exchange without removing them from the community.
Kicking. Removes a member but lets them rejoin with a new invite. Use it for people who aren't getting the message after warnings.
Banning. Permanently removes a member and prevents them from rejoining. Reserve this for serious or repeated violations.

A good rule of thumb: warn, mute, kick, ban in that order. Most situations resolve after a warning or mute. Jump straight to a ban only for extreme cases like harassment, illegal content, or raids.

De-escalation

Arguments happen, how you handle them makes the difference.

Don't engage emotionally. Stay neutral, even if someone is being provocative. Your job is to resolve the situation, not win the argument.
Move it to DMs. If two members are fighting in a public channel, ask them to take it to direct messages or drop it. If they won't, mute both temporarily.
State the rule, not your opinion. "This breaks rule #2, please stop" is better than "You're being toxic." It keeps the focus on the behavior, not the person.
Act quickly. The longer a conflict runs in a public channel, the more people get pulled in. A fast mute or message deletion can prevent a small disagreement from becoming a community-wide drama.

Using Channel Permissions for Control

Channel settings give you tools beyond just reacting to bad behavior.

Slowmode on high-traffic channels keeps conversations from spiraling. Even a 5-second cooldown makes a noticeable difference during heated moments.
Read-only channels for announcements or rules prevent off-topic chatter in places where it doesn't belong.
Temporary lockdowns. If a channel is being raided or things are getting out of hand, deny Send Messages for @everyone on that channel until things calm down. Undo it once the situation is resolved.

For the full walkthrough on channel permissions, see How to Set Up Channels and Categories.

Moderation Bots

Bots can handle repetitive moderation tasks so your team can focus on the stuff that needs a human.

Common bot features for moderation:

Auto-moderation. Filter spam, block certain words or links, and flag suspicious messages automatically.
Logging. Record deleted messages, member joins/leaves, and mod actions in a private log channel. Invaluable when you need to review what happened.
Warning systems. Track warnings per member so your team can see a member's history at a glance.

Check the fluxer.lol bot directory to find moderation bots that fit your community's needs.