Hi, there! My name is Alex, and I served as a moderator with CareerVillage from 2016-2018. I then continued moderating as an intern and staff member from 2018-Present. Over my years at CareerVillage, I wanted to provide you with some insider tips about moderating! I hope you find these useful, or helpful in answering a question not found elsewhere in the handbook.

I highly recommend moderating from your smartphone! There is a mobile app for Slack that you can download on your phone. You sign in to your Slack account the same way that you do on your computer, and you can access all of the features you need for moderation. Typically, moderating through the Slack app is actually faster (sometimes there is lag on computers after you approve posts). You may also find it much easier to read longer posts using the app, because the text is more condensed. Most importantly, this allows you to moderate on the go! You can whip out your phone while standing in line at the cafeteria, waiting for a class to begin, multitasking, etc. Of course, you can moderate on whatever platform you prefer - this is just an FYI.

Accidents happen - it's no biggie. If you ever accidentally reject a post that you didn't mean to, or approve a post that should have been flagged, that's okay - you just need to tag Gurpreet or Alex in a comment on that post (which will either be in the #mod-approved or #mod-flagged channel) so that we can do a quick fix.

It is difficult for two mods to be working simultaneously. Sometimes you'll find that you are approving posts, but the feed seems to be jumping around a lot, posts are moving just as you're about to click "Approve", or posts are disappearing entirely. This likely means that you and another mod are clearing the mod-inbox at the same time. This can be frustrating for you as a mod - staff have had this happen, too! When you are moderating at the same time as someone else, it's great to message them on Slack and let them know. You can check which other mod is online by checking if they appear with a green circle next to their name in your left sidebar.

Sometimes Slack can get buggy. For example, sometimes a post with be stuck in the mod-inbox, even though you clicked "Approve." That's okay - just message Gurpreet or Alex to let us know!

Don't become leaderboard-obsessed — take your position seriously! NEVER approve posts without reading them just to increase your leaderboard rank. This defeats the entire purpose of doing moderation and could result in offending many users in the CareerVillage community - professionals and students alike. If we drive users away with offensive/inappropriate as a result of negligent mods, we can't fulfill our mission of connecting youth with personalized career advice. Don't think that this behavior will go unnoticed - the staff will periodically check the mod-approved channel. We can see who approved the content, and how quickly they did so. Failure to attend to each and every piece of content will result in the termination of a moderator's position. We hope that you appreciate our mission and care about the students we serve, and will not let this happen. If you are ever sincerely unsure whether or not you should flag a post, you can always reach out to Alex or Gurpreet to ask! :)