DEV Community

DEV Trusted User Guide

DEV gives trusted users the ability to take certain privileged actions on the platform. For instance, they can help promote valuable posts, gently reduce the visibility of low-quality posts (spammy, overly promotional, or unhelpful), and quickly flag rule-breaking content to DEV Staff.

To sum up a few trusted user abilities, they can:

  • Use quick reactions to help moderate content
  • Seamlessly flag rule-breaking behavior to DEV staff
  • Rate the experience level of an article
  • Access the Mod Center

To become a trusted user or tag moderator, please email yo@dev.to!


How to Moderate Articles

We have two ways to moderate articles: the Mod Panel and the Mod Center. To access the Mod Panel, click the Mod Panel button (see image below) on any article page; to access the Mod Center, go to dev.to/mod.

Mod Panel button

Using the quick reactions to moderate content

Trusted users are able to make use of the thumbsup, thumbsdown, and “Flag to Admins” buttons. Here's how each reaction works:

  1. Thumbsup (👍): a quick way to "push content up" so that it's more likely to be seen on the site (i.e. articles with high-quality content that embody the values and spirit of the DEV community).
  2. Thumbsdown (👎): a quick way to "push content down" so that it's less likely to be seen on the site (e.g. articles that only have a teaser paragraph and send the reader to an external link for the rest).
  3. Flag to Admins (🤢): a quick way to flag content that violates the Code of Conduct or Terms so the DEV core team is notified and can take action.

mod-button-on-articles

Note: It is not possible to choose the "thumbsup" reaction together with either the "thumbsdown" or "Flag to Admins" reaction.

Examples of when to use 👎 vs. 🤢

Knowing when to use a “thumbsdown” vs. a “Flag to Admins” reaction can be confusing. The following guidelines should help.

Use 👎 for articles...

  • that are purely linking to external content (e.g. "read more here")
  • that are advertising a product or service in a distasteful way (e.g. stealthy or dishonest marketing tactics)
  • that are factually incorrect

Use 🤢 for articles…

  • that are clearly spam (completely off-topic, etc.)
  • that do not abide by our Code of Conduct (i.e. posts that are negative and exclusive)

Note: “Thumbsdown” and “Flag to Admins” reactions are distinct from one another, but using the “Flag to Admins” reaction on an article will essentially thumbsdown the post too, so there is no need to combine them.

Flagging a problematic account / person

If you notice a particularly harmful account and want to quickly flag all of this account’s content, then you can use the following methods.

From the ModPanel, click “Flag user”:

Flagging an account as abusive from mod panel example

You may also view the “Flag user” option by appending /mod to any of the account’s articles.

Flagging an account as abusive from mod example

Note: By clicking “Flag user”, you are in essence bulk reacting with the 🤢 on all of this user's posts. There's no need to vomit on each post by the user when flagging a user.


How to Moderate Comments

To moderate comments, click 'moderate' from the ellipses on the comment, or append /mod to the comment permalink.

comment-dropdown


How to Rate the Experience Level of a Post

Using the 1-5 scale (1: novice; 5: expert), rate what you believe a post's experience level to be. While this is somewhat subjective, just use your best judgment taking into account any bias you may have based on your own knowledge of the topic. This will help us bring more relevant posts to each individual's feed depending on their chosen experience level.

experience-level-buttons


Mod Center

To use all of the features described above in bulk, visit: dev.to/mod!

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