Ham Shack

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5:46 PM

We designed the Stack Exchange network engine to be mostly self-regulating, in that we amortize the overall moderation cost of the system across thousands of teeny-tiny slices of effort contributed by regular, everyday users. Specifically, per the reputation privileges:

Users with 15 rep can flag posts.

Users with 500 rep can review posts from new users.

Users with 2,000 rep can edit any question or answer in the system.

Users with 3,000 rep can cast close and open votes.

Users with 10,000 rep can cast delete and undelete votes on questions, and have access to a moderation dashboard.

Posts can be flagged as spam, offensive, or just general “needs moderator attention” with an explanatory comment or link.

Once flagged, a post increments a flag count that shows up in the topbar for every moderator.

If you see anything in the system that is evil, weird, or in any way exceptional and deserving of moderator attention for any reason… flag it! That’s the primary job of a moderator: to look at every flagged post, and take action if necessary.