Moderators

What the base looks after

• The CB’s house norms, at the Community Center: BASE is the one mark on the channel that is checked, and only the base can take somebody else’s message off the air before its two weeks are up.
• Our covenant, which applies in every Stimpunks space, and is where our norms and how we repair harm live.
• The calls: the base moderates every room’s call and is the only one who can record a call or turn on transcription, and then only after saying so in the call.
• Reports: anybody can reach us privately, and our concern reporting policy says how a concern is handled.

The desk: the notice

One line along the top of the street’s front page, the Community Center, Home, the forums and the office’s dashboard, for everybody who opens them, signed on or not (since 23 October 2026). Put one up here, change it, or take it down; each page shows it the next time it is opened. There is one notice at a time, and a new one replaces the old: the Brass Tacks Board is where notices are kept.

Up to 280 characters on one line, the Markdown counted: **bold**, *italic* and links written [the words](https://the.address/), with no heading, list or quote. A link off the street says where it goes after it. At MAX GLITTER it sparkles, and a fanfare plays once when it arrives, with no sound, because nothing on the street sounds until somebody presses something; below MAX nothing on it moves. The pages are told the words and nothing else. The desk shows which moderator put it up or took it down last, and when, and nothing records who reads it.

Anybody can put the notice away, and their own browser keeps it away until a new notice goes up. Changing even a letter makes a new notice, which comes back for everybody who put the old one away, so fix a typo soon or leave it. Nothing tells us who put one away. The drawings here are previews: their Put it away hides only that drawing, and remembers nothing.

The notice opens for a moderator signed on as the base, and the server refuses everybody else whatever this page shows.

The desk: invites

Everybody joins the CB with an invite. The starter password was retired on 21 October 2026, and every username on the CB is claimed now, with a password of its own. Make an invite here and share its link: it opens the joining page with the code filled in, where somebody chooses a username and a password of their own, and an email address for recovery if they want one. The code works typed into that page too.

An invite can be for one person or for many, and runs out after a day, a week, a month, or never. One for a group, or for the join form on the Stimpunks Community page, is one with no limit; make a new one now and then, and delete the old. A note says what an invite is for, so the next moderator knows. Nothing records who joined with which invite: an invite counts how many times it has been used, and that is all. Deleting one stops it at once, and the usernames made with it stay. A new moderator needs one too (since 28 October 2026): they join, and then an administrator puts them on the list below.

The invites open for a moderator signed on as the base, and the server refuses everybody else whatever this page shows.

The desk: roles

Who is a moderator, and who also holds a role, is changed here by our administrators (since 21 October 2026). Being on the list makes somebody a moderator: to make somebody a moderator and nothing more, put them on the list with nothing else ticked. Moderator opens the moderation tools on the CB, this room and its desk, and the Moderators, Team Docs and Back Office Operations forum categories. Board opens the Board room and Executive Session, with their channels, calls and forum categories, and Tasks and the office; director the Directors’ room, the Board room, Tasks and the office; administrator every private room except Executive Session, and Tasks, the office and this list. Only a username somebody has joined with goes on the list: a new moderator joins with an invite first. A name on the list from before that nobody has claimed cannot be claimed with an invite: take it off, let them join, and give the roles back.

A few names are on the break-glass list, kept in the site’s settings rather than here, so nobody can be locked out of this desk: it shows them, and cannot change them. Board is given or taken only by somebody on the board or on the break-glass list, because Executive Session is the board without staff, and nobody can be left without an administrator. Each name keeps who changed it last and when, and nothing more. A change reaches every page within half a minute, and the person’s radio picks up their new pass by itself the next time it listens.

The roles open for an administrator, and the server refuses everybody else whatever this page shows.

The desk: channels

How many messages each channel keeps, and for how long, is set here by our administrators (since 25 October 2026): World, any room’s channel, every channel not set otherwise (the Slake’s places too), and direct messages, each on its own. Unless somebody sets it otherwise, a channel keeps its latest 100 messages, each for two weeks from when it was sent. The radio says what each channel keeps, under In this channel, so nobody has to take a page’s word for it.

A longer time reaches only messages sent after it is set, because everything else was said under the time it was sent under; a channel’s whole history is kept longer only when everybody who wrote in it has said yes, which is a change to the code rather than to this desk. A shorter time, or fewer messages, reaches everything at once: what no longer fits is deleted. Each channel set keeps who changed it last and when, and nothing more. A change reaches every radio within half a minute.

The channels open for an administrator, and the server refuses everybody else whatever this page shows.

The desk: the forums’ keeps

How long each category of the forums keeps a topic after its last post is set here by our administrators (since 28 October 2026), as the channels’ time is above: a week, three months, six months or for good. A category nobody has set keeps what it opened with, and a category inside another keeps what that one keeps. The Wiki, Team Docs and Grantmaking keep their pages for good, and Coping keeps a topic a week, so none of them is set here. Every category’s page says what it keeps, so nobody has to take this page’s word for it.

A longer keep reaches only what is posted after it is set: every post remembers how long its category kept topics when it was written, and a topic is never kept longer than the shortest of those, so a topic already there keeps the time it was started under. Keeping a whole category’s topics longer needs everybody who posted in it to say yes, which is a change to the code rather than to this desk. A shorter keep reaches every topic at once: a topic whose last post is older than it is deleted now, with everything in it, unless a moderator has pinned it. Each category set keeps who changed it last and when, and nothing more.

The forums’ keeps open for an administrator, and the server refuses everybody else whatever this page shows.

The desk: everybody

Every username on the CB, how many there are, and who is seen in a room now, so that we know what we could tell at a glance if we were all in one room together. Moderators asked for it for safeguarding, and it is Ryan’s call of 22 October 2026, which reverses the street’s old rule that there was no list of everybody. It is here and nowhere else: the street’s rule against counting people is about its public surfaces, and this is not one.

Seen means they pressed Be seen here, by the same rules as Who’s online on the radio: a room that keeps to itself is never named, and somebody seen only there is not shown as seen. So everybody else may be on the CB too, unseen; the list never says anybody is offline. A name opens their profile, the one anybody signed on can open from the channel; At the desk looks them up below. The list says nothing else about anybody: not when they joined, not their email address, not their roles beyond moderator, and nothing records who looked.

The list opens for a moderator signed on as the base, and the server refuses everybody else whatever this page shows.

The desk: usernames

Everybody on the CB has claimed their username, with a password of their own. When somebody has lost their password and their recovery code, and has no email address on their username or the reset code never came, a moderator can give them a way back in from here. Look up the one you were asked about by name, or from the list above. The desk never shows anybody’s email address.

Before a reset, make sure who you are talking to, on Stoat or in a call, the way you would before giving anybody a key. A reset code is good for a day, signs the username off everywhere, and is shown to you once: pass it on privately. Deleting a username deletes its password and its pets, and anybody can claim the name afterwards.

Kick, time out and ban (since 22 October 2026) each sign the username off every device at once. Kick is only that: they can sign straight back on with their own password. Time out keeps them off the CB for ten minutes, an hour, a day or a week, and ban until a moderator lifts it; while either holds, nothing that needs signing on works for them, reading included. Signing on, they are told a moderator timed them out and for how much longer, or banned them, and where to reach us; nobody else who tries the name learns anything. Nothing records who did it or why, only until when, so tell them why yourself if you can, and tell the other moderators. A ban holds the name, not the person: with another invite they could join under another name. Their messages stay until their two weeks are up, so take off any that need to go.

A profile card that breaks our covenant can be cleared on its own. Look the username up and clear its card: the card and its nameplate on Who’s online go, and the username, its password, pets, avatars, jobs and patches stay, so they can fill in a new one. Nothing tells them it was cleared, and nothing is kept about it, so tell them why yourself if you can.

The desk opens for a moderator signed on as the base, and the server refuses everybody else whatever this page shows.

Your own password. The moderators’ shared password signs nobody on and claims nothing now: every moderator knows it, so while it did, any of us could sign on as any other, or claim another’s name. If your username on the list is not claimed yet, an administrator takes it off, you join with an invite, and they put it back. The desk does not reset, delete, kick, time out or ban a moderator’s username, or clear its card, because a reset code would let one of us sign on as another, roles and all, so keep your recovery code, and give an email address for recovery if you like. If you lose both, Ryan or Helen can move you back.

The desk: calls for a moderator

Anybody signed on can call @moderator, on a channel or in a forum post, and it tells every moderator who switched on When somebody @mentions me. When somebody who is not a moderator calls, a note comes here as well, so a call made while none of us was listening is still waiting: who called, when, where, linked, and the words they called with, as they were then. Nothing comes from a room that keeps to itself, which tells nobody, and our own calls to each other leave no note.

Close a note once somebody has answered the call, and it is deleted; nothing says who closed it, and one nobody closes goes after thirty days. A note stays if its caller takes the message off or deletes their username, because it was said to us.

The calls open for a moderator signed on as the base, and the server refuses everybody else whatever this page shows.

The desk: reported messages

Direct messages on the CB are between two people with claimed usernames, and no moderator can read them. When one of them reports a message the other sent, a copy comes here: its words, its picture if it had one, who sent it and when, who reported it, and their note if they wrote one. A picture stays behind Show the picture until you press it. Nothing else about the conversation comes with it, and the person reported is not told.

Close a report once you have dealt with it, and it is deleted; one nobody closes goes after thirty days. A report stays even if either of them deletes their username. What happens next is our covenant’s and the desk’s above, which can look the username up: nothing here reaches into anybody’s messages, and the message itself goes from their conversation two weeks after it was sent, whatever happens to the report.

The reports open for a moderator signed on as the base, and the server refuses everybody else whatever this page shows.

Talking

Why the street’s own light

Because this is the room that looks after the street, and the street is what lights it. There is no lamp in here: the shopfronts’ colours come up through the window and lie on the ceiling side by side, none of them mixed into the next, which is how the street is meant to stay. The radio on the desk is off while nobody is using it. Nothing in the room moves, at any setting.