Communities belong to their members.

Every term must be earned

Moderators serve 90-day terms and can run again. Members decide who serves each time. If an election fails, the current team’s term still ends on schedule. Whoever starts a community is its caretaker until elected moderators take over. The first election can open after one week, once enough members qualify. Registration for the next regular election opens 90 days after the previous result.

A pseudonym is enough

Use a username and verify your email. You do not need to provide a phone number or proof of identity. To vote, your account must be at least 14 days old and you must have been a member of the community for at least seven days when nominations open. To run for moderator, your account must be at least 30 days old and your membership at least 14 days old by the scheduled start of voting.

A community’s first ordinary election has no minimum account age, so newer accounts can take part. The seven-day voter membership and 14-day candidate membership requirements still apply, along with email verification and account standing. Later elections use the usual account-age requirements, including after a failed election or a one-off test election.

Voter eligibility is set when nominations open. Joining later, or reaching the account-age and membership requirements for voting afterwards, doesn’t add you to that election. A site-wide suspension keeps you out; a temporary community ban doesn’t.

Political communities vote by side

Every community says whether it is political and, if so, whether it is left-wing, right-wing or independent. You choose a side the first time you vote, run or sign a recall in a political community, and can change it later, but only once every 90 days. Anyone can join, read and post in any community, whatever its side or yours. Only moderator elections, recalls and side votes depend on your side.

In a left-wing community, left-wing members vote and run for moderator; right-wing communities work the same way. Independent members choose one political community to vote in. Members who haven’t chosen a side yet are listed separately when nominations open, and choose their side in the same step as their first ballot, candidacy or recall signature; only that step adds them to the voter list. An independent who leaves their voting community still waits 90 days from their last choice before choosing another. Voter lists are fixed when nominations open, and switching sides ends your part in anything already open on your old side.

A community’s founder can correct its side during the first week. After that, the side changes only by a vote of its members: a moderator proposes the change, and the members who can vote there have seven days to decide. It passes with at least five ballots (or one in five of those members, if that’s more) and more yes than no. The new side applies to elections and recalls that open afterwards, and every step is recorded in the public mod log.

Restrictions expire. Appeals matter.

A community ban or mute needs a reason and ends within 30 days. It never renews on its own. You can appeal to a site admin who wasn’t involved; the moderator who made the call can’t decide the appeal. Community bans never take away your right to vote, run, sign a recall or appeal. Only site admins can suspend someone from the whole site.

What members can do between elections

The public mod log records moderation actions and election outcomes. Reporter identities and private team conversations are not shown. To challenge a moderator’s position, start a recall petition with a public reason. The moderator is told, can post one public reply, and can’t sign or vote. Signatures from at least 20% of eligible members, with a minimum of five, open a seven-day vote, but never sooner than 72 hours after the petition starts. A majority must vote to remove the moderator, with at least 20% turnout and five voters. Leaving the role while a recall is open counts like a removal: they can’t return that term. There’s no recall while an election is already deciding the seat, or when the term ends too soon for one to finish. Each member can start one recall per community every 90 days, and after an unsuccessful recall, members wait 30 days to start another against the same moderator.

An election has to earn its mandate

Candidates have seven days to put themselves forward, followed by seven days of voting. Rank the candidates you like with your first choice at the top. Your ballot stays private, and you can change it until voting closes. The results include a public breakdown of each counting round.

At least 20% of eligible members, and at least five voters, must take part. If too few people vote, the seats stay open and a replacement election follows. A community’s first election can open after its first week, once at least five members qualify to vote and at least one will meet the candidate membership requirement when voting opens. Candidates also need a post or comment in the community before nominations open, or previous moderator experience there.