Allowing users the right to contest a decision? If a user contests the decision to delete a comment, or block them, don‘t enter into a discussion within the thread itself, but move the discussion elsewhere (to a contact centre, for example). As one of our community managers, Tom Miller, says: ―It's unwise to respond to the user who is protesting a moderation decision within the thread itself. Any limited discussion tends to snowball into more users asking 'but why X if not Y?'. It‘s best to direct it through to a contact centre. If the protest starts a new thread, close it with something like 'Hi xx, we don't discuss moderation issues on the board itself. Please get in touch at xxx and the forum support team will be happy to help'. If it‘s an old thread, the posts should be split to archive and a post put up along the lines of 'A number of posts have been removed from this thread. We don't permit discussion of moderation actions on the board itself but are happy to discuss via xxx'. ―At the contact centre, after you've explained the decision, if the user still isn't happy and you see no reason to alter the decision, you need to close the discussion: an almost-mean 'we're perfectly within our rights to determine who can and can't use our services and if you can't follow the T&Cs then you're out. No further discussion will be entered into' can work for repeat offenders or particularly silly banned users. There is of course a nicer approach for people who‘ve just got it a bit wrong, saying something like: ‗we hope you can understand our reasoning and change how you post next time‘.‖
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Don‘t enter into a discussion within the thread itself, but move the discussion elsewhere
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