Our community is in need of additional drupal.org site moderators (formerly "webmasters") to assist day-to-day site moderation tasks.
Over the past few years, the number of active site moderators in the Drupal.org site moderators queue https://www.drupal.org/project/issues/site_moderators?categories=All has decreased significantly. Recognizing that this isn't a sustainable situation, the current active site moderators have embarked on an effort to recruit new volunteers.
Responsibilities of a site moderator
Site moderators are primarily tasked with responding to issues in the Drupal.org site moderators issue queue and the ongoing on-boarding of new community members. These tasks include:
- Responding to issues in the Drupal.org site moderators issue queue.
- Reviewing posts flagged as spam, deleting spam, and blocking users who post spam on Drupal.org web sites.
- Confirming new Drupal.org users.
- Responding to reports of projects posted on Drupal.org that do not meet community norms.
- Other related tasks as described on the Moderation and maintenance documentation page https://www.drupal.org/drupalorg/docs/maintenance.
Process to become a site moderator
In order to become a site moderator, there are a few easy steps:
- Familiarize yourself with site moderator responsibilities via the project https://www.drupal.org/project/site_moderators and the Site Moderator role description. https://www.drupal.org/community/contributor-guide/role/drupalorg-site_moderators
- Announce your intent to start participating in the #drupalorg-site-moderators channel in the Drupal Slack workspace.
- Begin participating in site moderator issues https://www.drupal.org/project/issues/site_moderators?categories=All - it is recommended that at first you ask questions and propose solutions to issues in a way that current site moderators can provide useful feedback.
- Once you have participated in the site moderator issue queue enough that you feel that you have a good handle on its various processes, open a new issue in the queue asking for the Drupal.org "site administrator" role. It is highly recommended that you are active in the issue queue and Drupal Slack workspace channel, and have interacted with the other active site maintainers before applying for this elevated role.
Why donate your time to Drupal?
If you've made it this far, then the obvious question is "why should I become a Drupal.org site moderator?" Develop and exercise your people-skills while helping the Drupal community become a more sustainable, welcoming, friendly, and productive place. Regardless if you’re a developer, becoming a site moderator is a pretty straightforward way to build those skills.
In addition:
- You'll work with other site moderators around the globe, building up your Drupal community network.
- You'll have the opportunity to help nurture new community members in a meaningful way.
- You'll have the opportunity to earn contribution credits.
- Having the "site moderator" role is a position of leadership in our community. https://www.drupal.org/about/values-and-principles#choose-to-lead
- If you or your organization uses Drupal and is looking for a way to give back, this is a small thing that will have a big impact.
First step
Interested? If you have any questions, pop into the Drupal Slack workspace #drupalorg channel and ask away. When you're ready, start with steps 1 and 2 above and start your journey!
Thanks to Donna Bungard (dbungard https://www.drupal.org/u/dbungard), Darren Oh (https://www.drupal.org/u/darren-oh), Jordana Fung ( jordana https://www.drupal.org/u/jordana), and Mike Anello (ultimike https://www.drupal.org/u/ultimike) for assisting with this blog post.