Mediator

This is the most sensitive role, and is essentially the most sensitive aspect of what the old-structure Mod team handled. Mediators are meant to handle advanced conflict resolution between members, especially major incidents such as stalking, harassment, etc. While all leaders are expected to be aware of conflicts of interest, mediators in particular have to manage these very well, and are expected to recuse themselves in many more circumstances.

In addition to the training general leadership must have, Mediators must go through regular conflict management, restorative and transformative justice training, and improve their skills in these areas. This is to prevent harm as much as possible when handling such conflicts.

Mediators are responsible for facilitating formal conflict resolution processes between members, as well as handling such accusations against leaders. They are encouraged to handle these processes in group DMs, because of the expanded access general leadership has. Mediators are required to submit regular summaries and updates on the progress and/or resolution of any conflicts that they are mediating, at a level of detail that's comfortable to the involved parties.

Mediators also handle "interventions" with members - such as members that are constantly bumping up against the spirit of the rules or community, or to open a ticket to check in and intervene if somebody's behavior is concerning or regularly bringing down chat. They are not meant to be trained mental health professionals, and these check-ins should not be construed as a formal mental health crisis intervention, but rather a way to clarify the server boundaries, and point them to our resources for such things.

They also should be more involved in giving feedback and input on things that affect the interpersonal and "squishy" part of the userbase - such as Mental Health Crisis resources and policies.

Availability Requirement

Mediators must have the server set to open DMs, and must take care to make sure no one user is blocked by every Mediator, since DM access to them is important to initiate sensitive complaints. Mediators should tell each other when they block someone, just in case. That said, if every Mediator wants to block a user, this likely constitutes a conflict of interest on the part of the whole team in the event they need to mediate a conflict with said user - and is subject to the CoI policy, specifically the process for selecting alternate Mediators. Said Mediators are expected to graciously forward the complaint, despite their distaste for the user, and failure to do so will be considered an abuse of the position and subject to an accountability procedure.