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A Moderator's Life
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8 hrs ago
0
#4
We have moderators from all walks of life. Some of us are (university) students, employees in all kinds of fields, stay-at-home moms&dads, a few chess masters, as well as some retirees.
So first and foremost the day of a moderator is mostly just a normal person's day. Many of us play and study a lot of chess. I aspire to become a CM one day, and aim to play at least 50 classical OTB games, for example. We spend time with our families and loved ones.
As volunteers, moderators don't have any fixed work demands, and don't need to moderate when they don't feel like it. I'd guess most of us spend between a couple of minutes and an hour or two per day on moderation. But tbh, if I'm playing in a multi-day tournament with two classical games per day, I might not do any moderation during that time.
Moderators specialize on various chess.com services:
- These forums
- Offensive users (e.g. inappropriate profile pictures)
- Various twitch channels
- Various YouTube channels
- the official discord
- the /r/chesscom reddit
For example, 80% of my moderation is in the discord. All of these services have their own systems for user reports. For example, in the discord our users can ping Server Mod, which notifies a mod. Here on chess.com there are Report buttons. On twitch and YouTube it's more real-time.
But of course, we also action if we see something. Whenever I'm in the forums I scan the Most Recent sidebar for obvious spam. In the discord, I'm primarily active in the #improvement-talk channel, where we enforce a very strict conduct focused on improvement. If there are any violations, I will frequently see it before any member reports it.
When I'm watching a streamer encountering some problems, I can action that too.
Moderation is not only deleting or editing content and punishing offenders. Many times we're helping newcomers or users with various problems. We're welcoming people. Writing posts like this one. And oftentimes, we are just playing chess and engaging with the chess community. I frequently analyze games or discuss improvement in our discord, for instance.
We also have special moderator events. We have regular moderator hangout days where we play a chess arena or other games and talk about moderation, open problems, new policy and the like.
We are playing a votechess match against our discord community (and in my personal opinion we're holding our own).
Some of us went to twitchCon in the last years and helped set up the booth, organize giveaways and other activities, and played chess against anyone who was looking for an opponent.
I recently met two of my fellow moderators at an OTB tournament. We analyzed all of our games without an engine to improve our evaluation & calculation skill and give feedback to each other. My fellow moderators were woeful about only winning 20 or 30 FIDE rating points, whereas I was reasonably happy despite losing 20 
.
If you are at least 18 years old and interested in becoming a chess.com moderator, consider applying at https://www.chess.com/forum/view/community/the-chess-community-needs-you.
7 hrs ago
0
#5
Thank you so much @rufusmod! I appreciate the information, I didn’t know 80% of moderation was for the Discord but that makes a lot of sense. You’re definitely rated high enough to become a CM (my brother is around the same rating and wants to become one as well)
4 hrs ago
0
#6
Good luck with CM-path!
1. Why did you decide to become moderator?
2. Do you have a lot of doubts/hesitations during your work?
3. What are the most funny cases in your moderator’s life?
1. Why did you decide to become moderator?
2. Do you have a lot of doubts/hesitations during your work?
3. What are the most funny cases in your moderator’s life?
4 hrs ago
0
#7
Yao_Wang wrote:
Thank you so much @rufusmod! I appreciate the information, I didn’t know 80% of moderation was for the Discord but that makes a lot of sense.
Just to be clear, 80% of my moderation is in the discord. Most moderators aren't active in the discord at all. I don't moderate twitch nor YouTube for example. Another moderator might be active on both twitch and YouTube, or just in the forums, etc. .
3 hrs ago
0
#8
Leto wrote:
1. Why did you decide to become moderator?
I'm very active in the discord, and at the time it was quite rowdy. Becoming a moderator allowed me to handle that. Also, if there is a cheater in an arena or so, moderators have at least some tools. (But I am not a member of the Fair Play team.)
I'm proud to say that these days, the discord is very much focused on chess and serious chess improvement.
Leto wrote:
2. Do you have a lot of doubts/hesitations during your work?
I wouldn't say a lot. For a while I spent a lot of time moderating. My chess and other hobbies suffered a bit. These days, it's only 1-2 hours per day, and I try to keep it within that limit.
Leto wrote:
3. What are the most funny cases in your moderator’s life?
I collected the funniest appeals in the discord!
The runner-up in 2024 was:
appeal in discord
Im just worried i will be mistakenly banned for "cheating" since ive cheated once.
The winner of 2024 was:
appeal in discord
I just wanted to massage his foot and requested him to accept my proposal.
(… long story with many paragraphs…)
So that's why I cheated.
And of course I very much enjoy joking around with my fellow moderators.
Hey there!
I know that @MGleason posted a forum about the day and life of a moderator but I would like some real info. What is it like? I may consider it but I don't know...