Moderation is a funny old business.    Most people don’t really think about it on a day to day business, most people don’t need to, but violate a term of use you’ve never even thought about and you land yourself in trouble.  This Mashable article about just that got me thinking. 

Basic and generic moderation policies are in place on pretty much every website where you can air your voice and opinions, but how much do people generally know about them?  For the most part they are in place to ensure everyone can engage comfortably, openly and without fear of abuse, and for the most part are common sense and general courtesy.  However, every policy is different in its intricacies, depending on what the point of the conversation is, for example, some policies ban swearing altogether, but others allow it because of the nature of natural language.  Twitter’s decision not to be strict on hate speak is testament to how the small things can be different but so important to the way you are allowed to communicate.  Find out the moderation policy of your favoured sites so you don’t find yourself getting banned for a simple mistake or risk making the wrong kind of point.