A developer community that moderates itself

An open-source project with 12,000 community members · Developer tools

The shape of the problem

A large, mostly friendly community with a long tail of support questions and an occasional bad week. Six volunteer moderators across five time zones, none of whom should have access to billing or organization settings.

How it is set up

• Categories separating help, development and social channels, so a newcomer can find where to ask.
• The Moderator role, which carries conversation and voice moderation and nothing else.
• Stage channels for release calls: an audience connects and listens without being able to publish, because speaking is a separate permission from connecting.
• Shareable invite codes with an expiry, rather than a permanent link that outlives the event it was made for.

Accountability in both directions

Every timeout and ban carries a reason, and the moderation log is readable by the moderators whose actions write to it — not only by the owner. That is what makes a volunteer team willing to act.