Moderator Guidelines

Moderator Expectations/ Guidelines

Our Trust & Safety vision is to make Whatnot the safest P2P marketplace. As we grow our business, good moderation is key to successfully managing our community and maintaining compliance with our Community Guidelines. We need to set and maintain a high bar for our local moderators while also giving them the appropriate tools to moderate livestreams.

The guiding principle should be to “lead by example, not by force." The hard work of our moderators in keeping communities safe during each livestream ensures that Whatnot remains a safe and fun platform for all users.

Having moderator powers comes with great responsibility. Moderators should not abuse their powers. Mods should:

• only remove someone from a show or report them if their actions directly warrant a removal, or the seller asks them to do so.
• not ban a user because the mod disagrees with what they are saying or their opinions.

We aim to create a social buying and selling experience for all types of communities; a moderators job is to keep these communities safe with their unbiased actions, based on our community guidelines.

Chat in a livestream is a large part of the overall experience for users. In chat, users interact with each other to build communities, meet like-minded people, and discuss items being sold. The primary responsibility for mods is to ensure that the chat meets the behavior and content standards set by the seller, by taking appropriate action against offending users and spam that detracts from conversations. 

Moderator Best Practices

• Treat everyone with respect and don’t hold biases
• Keep the chat engaged and discussions moving
• Answer as many user questions as possible 
• Avoid spamming and sending out repetitive messages
• Delete inappropriate messages
• Be firm and handle rude users appropriately 
• Issue a verbal warning first and do not ban users without a valid cause
• Ask for feedback from the seller and their community

Moderator Privileges

A seller can nominate you as a mod for specific livestreams. These mods can:

• Remove Users From Show: Removes the selected user from the current livestream. Removing a user from a specific show does not ban them from Whatnot, and they will be able to join other streams on the platform, and all future streams from the current seller. 
• View Muted Chat Messages: Some chats in a livestream can be muted either globally or by using a word in the seller's "Muted Words" list. While normal livestream attendees cannot see these muted chats, moderators can.

How to Add a Moderator

Sellers can add moderators before and during their stream. 

• When you are scheduling a live show, you are able to add moderators by selecting the "Moderators" section while scheduling the show.
  
• Then type in their username and select them from the list. This will add them to your approved moderators for this stream.
  
• To add someone as a moderator during your show, click on their username in chat. Select the option to "Allow to Moderate" and confirm.
  
• You are also able to remove moderator privileges from a current moderator by clicking their username in the chart and selecting the "Remove Moderator" option.