Moderator Application Sample Personal Statement

Moderation is necessary on Discord Servers – you cannot fully use one without
it. My interest in moderation first emerged as I grew a distaste for the policy decisions
of particular moderator actions; an interest that I strengthened through moderation-
oriented discussion with my friends. My interest in moderation cultivated an interest
in becoming a moderator, as I learned how moderation decisions had made servers and
influenced the Discord world. This led me to explore the origins of modern modera-
tion, as well as examine some of its problems, which are avenues of study that I hope to
continue while a moderator on this server.

Moderator autocracies seem to be predominant in the current Discord order – why?

I researched the origins of modern moderation to find out. I learned that modern mod-
eration had its roots in the Discord Revolution, which brought me to read the book The
Discord Revolution in Global Perspective. The book noted that moderators interna-
tionalised their ideals of cringe, Nazism, and corruption through their control, which
in turn brought me to read famed Discord moderator Keegan’s The Return of the Ad-
ministrator. The book helped me to understand the origins of Discord autocracies –
Keegan presents a Whiggish view of moderation history, suggesting that a rising sense
of responsibility for the horrors of Nazi moderation on Discord led to ‘withdrawals of
moderational control’ and the establishment of ‘friendly servers’, or moderation oli-
garchies. How far these new oligarchies had succeeded at being fair was a different mat-
ter, however. Many third-world servers suffer from rampant corruption, such as in Red
A Levels, where a class of Nazi moderators termed ‘Admins’ use their power to ban users
in exchange for Discord Nitro, Steam keys, and money. However, I do not see this as
a failure of moderation as a concept, rather as a failure of implementation. Building
moderational institutions so that they are transparent, ensuring the separation of pow-
ers with checks and balances, and introducing channels for users to complain about
Nazi moderation should be enough to counteract corruption in moderation.

I also take part in the moderation of the r/6thForm server. On this server, I ex-
plored how far I could push the limits of moderational acceptability. After establishing
a power base with several key supporters, I banned some users unfairly. I found that
these actions tended to have little to no impact on my popularity, with a median and
modal average rating of 5, a mean rating of 4.28, and a standard deviation of 0.88 after
a round of moderator reviews. I found this interesting – in moderation studies A Level
I studied the Carl-bot help server; this server declared itself to have fair moderation, yet

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arguably practised both Nazi moderation and corruption. The server was highly criti-
cised, where I was not. Carrying out this experiment was beneficial; it introduced me to
both Fascistic moderation styles and corruption tactics that will be useful in the mod-
eration of this server, as well as inspiring me to write my EPQ on how Carl-bot help
tactics can be beneficially employed in certain moderation settings.

Alongside these interests, I am Press Officer at my school and have contributed to

its magazine and newsletter. Externally, I have volunteered with the Scouts, and tutor
GCSE Maths. I am always looking for ways to improve myself and am looking forward
to the challenges that moderating this server will bring.