Moderation
The four levers, in order of severity, and what each side is told about each of them.
1 min read
There are four things we can do, and one rule they share: the reason is always recorded, and for the two that a person feels, the person is told it.
1. Take down one thing
A profile or a job post can be hidden. It stops appearing in the directory, the job board, search and everywhere else, and its URL renders a calm state rather than disappearing.
The reason is internal and is not shown to the owner. A takedown is about one artifact, the person keeps using the product, and saying exactly which line tripped it mostly teaches somebody how to word it differently next time.
2. A warning
Delivered to the person's notification centre, in our own words, with what it is about. It is deliberately not something you can switch off in notification settings: a warning somebody can mute is a warning that did not happen.
3. Suspension
Read-only, not a lockout. Logging in still works, nothing is deleted, and the account can still read its own data. What stops is everything that reaches another person: the profile leaves the directory and every public page, jobs stop being listed, and messaging, applying, publishing and offering work are all refused.
A suspended account lands on a page that names the reason, and lists any earlier warnings. That departs from the takedown rule on purpose: a suspension ends the relationship, and being locked out with no stated reason leaves somebody with nothing but guesses.